Hoyer Holiday Reads
Six German history titles to read this summer
One summer, many years ago, I found myself sitting in a café in the medieval Old Town of Rhodes, Greece. “This is the life,” I thought. Ancient walls, cobbled lanes and grumpy old men serving the local Souma drink in ice-cold glasses. It was as if time had forgotten the place for a few centuries. What more does life have to offer a young historian? I settled down in my shady spot, got a book out of my bag and began to read.
When the taverna host returned after a while to ask if I wanted another drink, he stopped in his tracks as he caught a glimpse of the book I was holding. He frowned and gave me a look. “Nice holiday reading?” he asked, pointing at the cover, which proclaimed the title in big, bold, capital letters: “HITLER”.
What could I say? “Nice” wasn’t quite the word I would have chosen since parts of the book were harrowing and infuriating for obvious reasons. But was it good holiday reading? Absolutely. Despite its 1,000 pages, the abridged (!), single-volume paperback of Ian Kershaw's Hitler biography proved to be a page-turner. I learnt a lot and found myself utterly absorbed by the granular detail.
I have learnt from this experience, however, and now often take off the dust jackets of books before I take them on tour. Sometimes, I get them on Kindle or Audible. That wasn’t an option with the Kerhshaw paperback, but it was with books I recently read, with titles like “Hitler in Weimar” or “Das Konzentrationslager Buchenwald”. Otherwise, travelling with a boldly-titled book is like travelling with an adorable dog or a small child: random strangers feel they have a perfectly legitimate reason to talk to you.
I fully appreciate that German history may not be the first thing that springs to mind when you consider your holiday read this summer, but since you are here, I presume that you have a stronger than average interest in the genre. So let me try to persuade you with some suggestions.
The following are all fairly recent, and in one case, brand-new releases. Each matches the criteria for a Hoyer Holiday Read:
– well-written
– well-researched
– well-argued
– at least vaguely related to German history
The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad, by Simon Parkin, is a gripping historical narrative published by Hodder & Stoughton on 14 Nov 2024. It recounts how Soviet botanists risked their lives to protect the world's first seed bank during the 900-day siege of Leningrad. The other prize judges of the Orwell Prize for Political writing and I were so impressed by this that we shortlisted it.
The Hiroshima Men: The Quest to Build the Atomic Bomb, and the Fateful Decision to Use It, by Iain MacGregor, published by Scribner on July 8, 2025, offers a character-driven narrative of the key figures—scientists, military leaders, survivors, and journalists—whose interconnected actions culminated in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Don’t worry, there is plenty of German history in this. Iain wrote a guest piece for me here if you fancy a taster.
The Prosecutor: One Man’s Battle to Bring Nazis to Justice, by Jack Fairweather, was published by Penguin Random House on February 25, 2025, and details the extraordinary efforts of Nazi‑Jewish prosecutor Fritz Bauer as he challenged Germans to confront Holocaust-era crimes. I interviewed Jack for the ZEITGEIST podcast, which you can listen to here and anywhere you get your podcasts.
38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England and a Nazi in Patagonia, by Philippe Sands, was published by Orion Publishing on 3 April 2025 and weaves together two intertwined stories — one exploring the landmark legal battle to extradite Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in London, and the other following SS officer Walther Rauff’s secret life in Chileian Patagonia — to expose enduring issues of justice and impunity. As ever, Sands makes this a deeply personal read.
Generation GDR: Truth, Freedom and One Man’s Last Journey, by Peter Wensierski (translated by Jamie Bulloch), isn’t out yet and I’m currently writing a review of it so can’t say too much other than that you should earmark it (not literally of course) if you have any interest in East Germany. It’s a deeply disturbing, granular historical reconstruction of the tragic story of Mathias Domaschk, who died in a Stasi prison in April 1981. It’s published by Quercus Publishing on 14 August 2025.
Fiction Bonus Entry. This one is a bit older, but if you haven’t read it yet, I can highly recommend it as a gripping, fictional what-if. Fatherland, by Robert Harris, was first published by Hutchinson in 1992. Set in an alternate‑history 1964 where Nazi Germany won the Second World War, it follows a Berlin detective as he investigates a high‑ranking Nazi’s death, only to uncover a chilling conspiracy.
I hope you’ll pick up and enjoy some or all of these this summer. You may even decide to be braver than me and leave the dust jackets on.
I can certainly echo your recommendation of "Fatherland." The history given of how this alternate future came about is certainly plausible - a minor tweak here and there to history, and the outcome is 180 degrees different. And the detective story is excellent. Don't want to give away anything to those who have yet to read it, other than to say I read it twice, and even knowing the outcome the second time around, it was a damn good read.
I had a similar experience last week when a coworker asked me what book I was taking to read on my lunch break. Her face went blank when I showed it to her—one on US Civil War dead and handling that challenge logistically, culturally, and spiritually in the mid-1860s (This Republic of Suffering, by Drew Gilpin Faust, 2009). It too is a page turner! Thanks for your summer recommendations.