Stephan Malinowski

Jefferson Chase

A highly detailed and scrupulously researched book... Malinowksi’s work is a near-masterpiece, relating a story not synthesised in this way before, and about which any number of self-serving myths exist... (he) presents a devastating case why, with regards to their conduct during the Third Reich, the Hohenzollerns were the authors of their own misfortune

A deeply researched and very readable book... It should be compulsory reading for everyone interested in the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich. Its impact on contemporary politics should be no less significant, because this book is not just about history... Malinowski's book is a testimony not only to his fine scholarship and literary gifts, but also to his courage and persistence

Brilliant… at its heart is a detailed investigation of the actions of the former ruling family between 1918 and the consolidation of Nazi power in the 1930s. In places, it reads like a historical novel… [in this] deeply researched and well-written book, Malinowski makes a convincing case that the Hohenzollern family played an important role in the destruction of democracy in Germany, and remained supportive of the regime well into the Second World War…. There is every reason to believe that Malinowski’s fine book has settled the question of Hohenzollern compensation once and for all

As Stephan Malinowski shows… there can be no doubt that the Hohenzollerns broadly ‘collaborated’ with the Nazi regime

The Hohenzollerns and the Nazis is a deeply informative book... meticulously researched, brilliantly written and passionately argued [which] vividly illustrates the indispensable role of history

The Hohenzollerns and the Nazis offers a clear-eyed assessment of aristocratic self-interest leading up to and during the Nazi era... Malinowski writes with verve and colour, bringing the period to life... A dense and enormously rich account for anyone keen to read deeply into German and Nazi history

A lucid, considered and impeccably researched book delivers the definitive account of the Hohenzollerns during the Weimar and Nazi years, and of the controversy the family have stirred up in the past decade

This work is substantial in every sense of the word and one that historians will find most fascinating... a thoroughly researched book

A groundbreaking book... Malinowski tells a large audience how members of the monarchical family became Hitler's stirrup holders

“compelling… their later attempts to depict themselves as the last hope of principled resistance is… ‘a final flickering of their impressive talent for creating self-serving legends’. Anyone reading this important book will agree

With his great book The Hohenzollerns and the Nazis, Stephan Malinowski has achieved a masterpiece of historical enlightenment

Stephan Malinowski's brilliant book strikes a balance between the forensic analysis of individual behaviour and a new understanding of how the toxic political culture of a defeated monarchy helped to disrupt democracy in Germany

A History of Collaboration

The disappearance of the Hohenzollern family from the history of Germany in November 1918 as the Kaiser fled into Dutch exile is one of the most startling, rapid instances of a once all-powerful royal family becoming almost overnight irrelevant and marginal. Except this is not exactly what happened. 
 
Stephan Malinowski’s German bestseller is an extraordinary work of recovery. It suited both the Weimar Republic and then the Third Reich to view the Hohenzollerns with contempt, and yet the royal family’s hatred of the former and approval of the latter were for millions of Germans a significant factor in their own view of their country and its government. 
 
With forensic and often shocking detail, Malinowski shows that, far from being ridiculous, marginal figures the Hohenzollerns lay at the heart of Germany’s ongoing nightmare. Despite formally losing power, the members of the royal family remained prominent, catastrophically allowing many other conservative Germans to stay distanced from the new republic and to eventually betray conservative traditions and values. Battered from both left and right, the Republic collapsed in 1933 in part because conservative forces, fearful of both Communism and Fascism, had abandoned their own principles just as much as the leading members of former royal family had, who were themselves beguiled by and fooled by Hitler. 
 
This is an important and shocking book, as well as a devastating picture of an inadequate and trivial royal family painfully underequipped to fulfil its role.

Stephan Malinowski

Praise for The Hohenzollerns and the Nazis

A highly detailed and scrupulously researched book... Malinowksi’s work is a near-masterpiece, relating a story not synthesised in this way before, and about which any number of self-serving myt ...

A deeply researched and very readable book... It should be compulsory reading for everyone interested in the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich. Its impact on contemporary politics should be no ...

Brilliant… at its heart is a detailed investigation of the actions of the former ruling family between 1918 and the consolidation of Nazi power in the 1930s. In places, it reads like a historical novel ...

A highly detailed and scrupulously researched book... Malinowksi’s work is a near-masterpiece, relating a story not synthesised in this way before, and about which any number of self-serving myt ...

A deeply researched and very readable book... It should be compulsory reading for everyone interested in the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich. Its impact on contemporary politics should be no ...

Brilliant… at its heart is a detailed investigation of the actions of the former ruling family between 1918 and the consolidation of Nazi power in the 1930s. In places, it reads like a historical novel ...

A highly detailed and scrupulously researched book... Malinowksi’s work is a near-masterpiece, relating a story not synthesised in this way before, and about which any number of self-serving myt ...

A deeply researched and very readable book... It should be compulsory reading for everyone interested in the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich. Its impact on contemporary politics should be no ...

Brilliant… at its heart is a detailed investigation of the actions of the former ruling family between 1918 and the consolidation of Nazi power in the 1930s. In places, it reads like a historical novel ...

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter