Synopses & Reviews
The
Third Reich met its end in the spring of 1945 in an unparalleled wave of suicides. Hitler, Goebbels, Bormann, Himmler and later Goering all killed themselves. These deaths represent only the tip of an iceberg of a massive wave of suicides that also touched upon ordinary lives. As this suicide epidemic has no historical precedent or parallel, it can tell us much about the Third Reich's peculiar self-destructiveness and the depths of Nazi fanaticism.
Christian Goeschel looks at the suicides of both Nazis and ordinary people in Germany between 1918 and 1945, from the end of World War I until the end of World War II, including the mass suicides of German Jews during the Holocaust. He shows how suicides among different population groups, including supporters, opponents, and victims of the regime, responded to the social, cultural, economic and, political context of the time. He also analyses changes and continuities in individual and societal responses to suicide over time, especially with regard to the Weimar Republic and the post-1945 era.
Richly grounded in gripping and previously unpublished source material such as suicide notes and police investigations, the book offers a new perspective on the central social and political crises of the era, from revolution, economic collapse, and the rise of the Nazis, to Germany's total defeat in 1945.
Review
"A pioneering study." -- German Studies Review
Review
"A pioneering study." -- German Studies Review
"A unique analysis of how ordinary Germans responded to the political, social and economic crises of Nazism...A significant contribution to the sometimes contentious historiographical debates in modern German history." -- Association of Suicidology
"Opens up new perspectives on the history of National Socialism...[Goeschel's] analysis rests on an extensive collection of suicide notes and police reports that offer fascinating glimpses into the inner life of individuals caught up in the maelstrom of the Nazi's efforts to forge a new Volksgemeinschaft...[this] study, by using suicide notes "to bring the individual back into history," significantly enriches our picture of the history of the self
under National Socialism." -- American Historical Review
Review
"A pioneering study." -- German Studies Review
"A unique analysis of how ordinary Germans responded to the political, social and economic crises of Nazism...A significant contribution to the sometimes contentious historiographical debates in modern German history." -- Association of Suicidology
"Opens up new perspectives on the history of National Socialism...[Goeschel's] analysis rests on an extensive collection of suicide notes and police reports that offer fascinating glimpses into the inner life of individuals caught up in the maelstrom of the Nazi's efforts to forge a new Volksgemeinschaft...[this] study, by using suicide notes "to bring the individual back into history," significantly enriches our picture of the history of the self
under National Socialism." -- American Historical Review
Synopsis
The suicides of Hitler, Goebbels, Bormann, Himmler, and later Goering at the end of World War II were only the most prominent in a suicide epidemic that has no historical parallel and that can tell us much about the Third Reich's peculiar self-destructiveness and the depths of Nazi fanaticism.
Looking at the suicides of both Nazis and ordinary people in Germany from the end of World War I until the end of World War II, Christian Goeschel shows how suicides among different population groups, including supporters, opponents, and victims of the regime, responded to the social, cultural, economic, and political context of the time. Richly grounded in gripping and previously unpublished source material Suicide in Nazi Germany offers a new perspective on the central social and political crises of the era, from revolution, economic collapse, and the rise of the Nazis, to Germany's total defeat in 1945.
About the Author
Dr. Christian Goeschel is a post-doctoral research feloow at Birkbeck College, University of London, where he also teaches Modern European History. In 2006 he was awarded the Walter Laqueur Prize for his work on suicide in Nazi Germany.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. The Weimar Background
2. Suicide under the Swastika, 1933-1939
3. Suicides of German Jews, 1933-1945
4. War-time suicides, 1939-1944
5. Downfall
Conclusion