Reichs & Republics | The German History Podcast

In this week's episode, Katja and Chris are joined by Professor Tim Blanning to discuss Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. Famous for his strength, mistresses and lavish parties, Augustus has been called one of Europe's worst monarchs. They explore how he won and lost the Polish crown, his failures in the Great Northern War, and his triumph as the patron who transformed Dresden. So was he really such a bad king?

Books
Augustus the Strong: A Study in Artistic Greatness and Political Fiasco
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Augustus-Strong-Artistic-Greatness-Political/dp/0241705142

The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648-1815

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pursuit-Glory-Europe-1648-1815/dp/014016667X/

Frederick the Great: King of Prussia
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Frederick-Great-Prussia-Tim-Blanning/dp/0141039191/

Join us as we untangle this complex story, dispelling the popular myths and misapprehensions about a national history that still shapes the world we live in.

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Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot!

Host: Katja Hoyer & Dr Christopher Dillon
https://battleguide.co.uk/reichs-republics#host

To comment and ask questions, please join our community: https://reichs-and-republics.com/supporters

Support via Paypal: http://battleguide.co.uk/rr-paypal
Merchandise and Shop: https://reichs-and-republics.com/collections/all

Our WW1 Podcast: https://listen.not-so-quiet.com/
Our WW2 Podcast: https://listen.both-sides-of-the-wire.com
Untitled History Podcast: http://listen.untitled-history.com/
Battle Guide YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BattleGuideVT

If you want to keep your finger on the pulse of what the team at Battle Guide have been getting up to, why not sign up to our monthly newsletter: https://battleguide.co.uk/newsletter

Katjas socials
X (Twitter): https://x.com/hoyer_kat
Substack: Zeitgeist https://www.katjahoyer.uk/
General Enquiries: republics@battleguide.co.uk

Credits:
- Host: Katja Hoyer and Dr Christopher Dillon
- Production: Linus Klaßen
- Editing: Jessa Sargento
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In this episode, Katja and Chris explore the Guillaume Affair, one of the Cold War's most dramatic spy scandals. Günter Guillaume was an East German Stasi officer who spent nearly two decades climbing the ranks of the SPD to become Chancellor Willy Brandt's personal aide. They ask how he got there, what West German intelligence knew, and why his arrest in 1974 brought down one of West Germany's most charismatic chancellors.

Join us as we untangle this complex story, dispelling the popular myths and misapprehensions about a national history that still shapes the world we live in.

Do you like our podcast?
Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot!

Host: Katja Hoyer & Dr Christopher Dillon
https://battleguide.co.uk/reichs-republics#host

To comment and ask questions, please join our community: https://reichs-and-republics.com/supporters

Support via Paypal: http://battleguide.co.uk/rr-paypal
Merchandise and Shop: https://reichs-and-republics.com/collections/all

Our WW1 Podcast: https://listen.not-so-quiet.com/
Our WW2 Podcast: https://listen.both-sides-of-the-wire.com
Untitled History Podcast: http://listen.untitled-history.com/
Battle Guide YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BattleGuideVT

If you want to keep your finger on the pulse of what the team at Battle Guide have been getting up to, why not sign up to our monthly newsletter: https://battleguide.co.uk/newsletter

Katjas socials
X (Twitter): https://x.com/hoyer_kat
Substack: Zeitgeist https://www.katjahoyer.uk/
General Enquiries: republics@battleguide.co.uk

Credits:
- Host: Katja Hoyer and Dr Christopher Dillon
- Production: Linus Klaßen
- Editing: Jessa Sargento
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Katja and Chris are joined by historian Dr. Jan Markert to look past the myth of Wilhelm I as a passive "soldier on the throne" and uncover the shrewd, hands-on monarch who shaped Germany's path to unification. They trace his Napoleonic-era childhood, his doomed teenage romance, his brutal role in crushing the 1848 revolution, and the real story behind his appointment of Bismarck, one that overturns the popular image of Bismarck as the mastermind and Wilhelm as his pawn. Along the way, they explore his troubled marriage, his fraught relationships with his son and grandson, and why Wilhelm's legacy still deserves a serious reckoning.

Do you like our podcast?
Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot!

Host: Katja Hoyer & Dr Christopher Dillon
https://battleguide.co.uk/reichs-republics#host

To comment and ask questions, please join our community: https://reichs-and-republics.com/supporters

Support via Paypal: http://battleguide.co.uk/rr-paypal
Merchandise and Shop: https://reichs-and-republics.com/collections/all

Our WW1 Podcast: https://listen.not-so-quiet.com/
Our WW2 Podcast: https://listen.both-sides-of-the-wire.com
Untitled History Podcast: http://listen.untitled-history.com/
Battle Guide YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BattleGuideVT

If you want to keep your finger on the pulse of what the team at Battle Guide have been getting up to, why not sign up to our monthly newsletter: https://battleguide.co.uk/newsletter

Katjas socials
X (Twitter): https://x.com/hoyer_kat
Substack: Zeitgeist https://www.katjahoyer.uk/
General Enquiries: republics@battleguide.co.uk

Credits:
- Host: Katja Hoyer and Dr Christopher Dillon
- Production: Linus Klaßen
- Editing: Jessa Sargento
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Katja and Chris explore the hidden history of German America in the White House. From Friedrich Trump's secretive teenage flight from Kallstadt in 1885 to the presidencies of Dwight Eisenhower, Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon and Donald Trump, they trace how the largest immigrant group in American history became so thoroughly assimilated that its influence all but disappeared from public view. The episode also uncovers Donald Trump's decades-long insistence that his family was Swedish rather than German, and asks why a community of 44 million Americans produced so few leaders ever remembered as German American.

Do you like our podcast?
Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot!

Host: Katja Hoyer & Dr Christopher Dillon
https://battleguide.co.uk/reichs-republics#host

To comment and ask questions, please join our community: https://reichs-and-republics.com/supporters

Support via Paypal: http://battleguide.co.uk/rr-paypal
Merchandise and Shop: https://reichs-and-republics.com/collections/all

Our WW1 Podcast: https://listen.not-so-quiet.com/
Our WW2 Podcast: https://listen.both-sides-of-the-wire.com
Untitled History Podcast: http://listen.untitled-history.com/
Battle Guide YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BattleGuideVT

If you want to keep your finger on the pulse of what the team at Battle Guide have been getting up to, why not sign up to our monthly newsletter: https://battleguide.co.uk/newsletter

Katjas socials
X (Twitter): https://x.com/hoyer_kat
Substack: Zeitgeist https://www.katjahoyer.uk/
General Enquiries: republics@battleguide.co.uk

Credits:
- Host: Katja Hoyer and Dr Christopher Dillon
- Production: Linus Klaßen
- Editing: Jessa Sargento
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Katja and Chris examine the origins and implementation of Aktion T4, the Nazi regime’s systematic programme of mass murder targeting disabled people. They trace the intellectual and political foundations of the programme, from nineteenth-century eugenic thought and Weimar-era anxieties about demographic decline to the 1933 Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring and, ultimately, the establishment of a coordinated system of mass killing by gas, which anticipated methods later employed during the Holocaust.

The episode considers the roles played by doctors, nurses, administrators, and other state officials in implementing the programme, exploring how professional expertise and bureaucratic structures facilitated mass murder. It also examines the question of public knowledge, considering what ordinary Germans knew about the killings, how information circulated, and the extent to which popular opposition contributed to the programme’s pausing in 1941. During a second, more discreet phase of T4 from 1942 onwards, however, a further 120,000 victims were murdered. Katja and Chris discuss the slow engagement in post-war West Germany with the crimes of T4 and its belated recognition in memory culture.

Links
- Henry Friedlander - The Origins of Nazi Genocide
https://uncpress.org/9780807846759/the-origins-of-nazi-genocide/
- T4 Registration Form (1939/1940) https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/nazi-germany-1933-1945/t4-registration-form-1939-1940
- One More Thing project
https://www.findingivy.org/

Do you like our podcast?
Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot!

Host: Katja Hoyer & Dr Christopher Dillon
https://battleguide.co.uk/reichs-republics#host

To comment and ask questions, please join our community: https://reichs-and-republics.com/supporters

Support via Paypal: http://battleguide.co.uk/rr-paypal
Merchandise and Shop: https://reichs-and-republics.com/collections/all

Our WW1 Podcast: https://listen.not-so-quiet.com/
Our WW2 Podcast: https://listen.both-sides-of-the-wire.com
Untitled History Podcast: http://listen.untitled-history.com/
Battle Guide YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BattleGuideVT

If you want to keep your finger on the pulse of what the team at Battle Guide have been getting up to, why not sign up to our monthly newsletter: https://battleguide.co.uk/newsletter

Katjas socials
X (Twitter): https://x.com/hoyer_kat
Substack: Zeitgeist https://www.katjahoyer.uk/
General Enquiries: republics@battleguide.co.uk

Credits:
- Host: Katja Hoyer and Dr Christopher Dillon
- Production: Linus Klaßen
- Editing: Jessa Sargento
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices