In the Ruins of the Reich

First published in Britain in 1985, In the Ruins of the Reich is a classic account of Nazi Germany after her fall to the Allies in May 1945. Botting concentrates on the defining events that took place in the period between the collapse of the Third Reich and the foundation of the new Germanys to create the prevailing atmosphere of a most unusual and little-charted time in history. This was a period when four of the strongest industrial nations to emerge from World War Two attempted to work together to govern the once strong Germany, now prostate, impoverished and devastated by war and defeat. Telling the story of the dynamics between occupiers and occupied, the crimes perpetrated by both and the Imperial tendencies of the occupiers, Botting shows that the plan to bring democracy to Germany was far from flawless or straightforward. Timely republication of a classic book on a fascinating but often overlooked period in the history of the Second World War. Published to Coincide with the 60th Anniversary of the end of World War II. ‘Graphic and moving…the Germans paid a frightful price for their sins of conquest’ Desmond Albrow, Sunday Telegraph