Stefan Zweig observed of this period that ‘history had never produced a madhouse of such gigantic proportions’. While Sebastian Haffner wrote during his period of English exile that ‘Nobody in the world has lived through anything that compares to the ‘German 1923’ experience’.

Drawing on a wide range of source material, Volker Ullrich provides an account of the year in which the nation more than teeters on the brink, a year that bears a merciless resemblance to our times. After his highly acclaimed Hitler biography and his bestseller, ‘Eight Days in May’, this renowned journalist and historian now presents a detailed overview of the year when everything fell apart, the chronicle of a year of extremes in every respect.

In 1923 Germany plunges into a seemingly endless abyss. French and Belgian troops march into its industrial area, the Ruhrgebiet. Hyperinflation is reaching levels that leave swathes of society suffering and in despair. While the world of entertainment booms, German political life is nothing more than a state of emergency. Separatist movements threaten the very existence of the Reich, extremists on both left and right call for attacks on the Republic, while in Munich a man still to make his mark in the world prepares to attempt a coup: his name? Adolf Hitler.