Reichs & Republics | The German History Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

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Reichs & Republics | The German History Podcast

Katja Hoyer & Dr. Christopher Dillon

History

Frequency: 1 episode/7d. Total Eps: 33

Takes you beyond the familiar clichés to uncover the richness and diversity of the German past. 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

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Episode 33: ‘The Greatest of All Revolutions’. November 1918 and the Fall of the Kaiserreich

Episode 33

Tuesday, October 27, 2026 • Duration 57:20

In this episode, Katja and Chris explore the German Revolution of 1918–19, when a mass popular uprising swept away the Kaiser and every other German dynasty. Tracing its roots to the thwarted revolutions of 1848, they follow the upheaval through the munitions workers’ strikes of January 1918, the naval mutiny that autumn, the formation across Germany of workers’ and soldiers’ councils, and the extraordinary ascent of Friedrich Ebert, a socialist and former saddler, to head of state. They unpick the storied Ebert–Groener Pact and the bloody suppression of the January 1919 uprising in Berlin, culminating in the murders of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. Was this a half-hearted revolution, a revolution betrayed – or a democratic breakthrough judged much too harshly in hindsight? Links: https://www.academia.edu/81063033/Kiel_Uprising_Womens_activism_and_the_German_Revolution_November_1918 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

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Episode 32: The Curious Cult of St Oswald: Kings, Ravens and Mermaids with Sarah Bowden

Episode 32

Tuesday, October 20, 2026 • Duration 55:05

In this episode, Katja and Chris are joined by Sarah Bowden, Professor of German and Medieval Studies at King’s College London, to explore one of the strangest puzzles of medieval Europe: why hundreds of churches and chapels across southern Germany, Austria and the Alps are dedicated to Oswald, a 7th-century king of Northumbria. From Bede’s account of a Christian warrior king and his miraculously incorruptible right arm to the royal marriages that carried his cult into the Holy Roman Empire, they trace how Oswald travelled from northern England to Weingarten Abbey and beyond. Along the way, they uncover how German storytellers transformed him almost beyond recognition, adding a multilingual raven, a bridal quest, mermaids and a chaste marriage enforced by a cold bath. What can one saint’s many reinventions tell us about power, faith and culture in medieval Germany? Links: https://oswaldusrex.co.uk/ 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

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Episode 31: The Making of Baldur von Schirach and the Hitler Youth

Episode 31

Tuesday, October 13, 2026 • Duration 59:30

In this episode, Katja and Chris explore the life of Baldur von Schirach, leader of the Hitler Youth and one of the more unlikely figures in the Nazi elite. Born into a wealthy, cosmopolitan family with American roots, Schirach enjoyed the privilege and connections to pursue almost any career. Instead, he threw himself into the fledgling Nazi movement long before it had any prospect of power. From his antisemitic schooling in Weimar and starstruck first encounter with Hitler to his mobilisation of ultranationalist university students and his ambition to forge an entire generation of children in Nazism’s image, Katja and Chris explore Schirach’s rise within the Nazi movement. They trace how a sensitive young aristocrat became a convicted war criminal, culminating in his role in the deportation of Vienna’s Jews. They also examine how his grandson, the bestselling author Ferdinand von Schirach, has grappled with this troubling inheritance, and what his response reveals about Germany’s continuing struggle with the memory of Nazism. 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

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Episode 30: Augustus the Strong - Europe's Worst King? with Prof. Tim Blanning

Episode 30

Tuesday, October 6, 2026 • Duration 59:01

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. 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

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Episode 29: The Guillaume Affair: A Stasi Spy in the Chancellery

Episode 29

Tuesday, September 29, 2026 • Duration 55:28

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

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Episode 28: Wilhelm I with Jan Markert

Episode 28

Tuesday, September 22, 2026 • Duration 55:43

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

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Episode 27: The Hidden Germans of the White House

Episode 27

Tuesday, September 15, 2026 • Duration 49:56

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

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Episode 26: A Bureaucracy of Death: Nazi Germany's T4 Programme

Episode 26

Tuesday, September 8, 2026 • Duration 01:05:29

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

Episode 25: The Dark Legacy of Nietzsche’s Sister

Episode 25

Tuesday, September 1, 2026 • Duration 01:03:58

In this episode, Katja and Chris explore the extraordinary life of Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, the sister who became the architect of her brother Friedrich's public legacy. From a devout Protestant upbringing in Saxony and a doomed attempt to found a "racially pure" German colony in Paraguay, to her return as a penniless widow who transformed herself into the gatekeeper of Nietzsche's writings, they trace how she edited, curated and sometimes fabricated his work, most notoriously assembling "The Will to Power" from his scattered notes. They examine her growing nostalgia for the old imperial order, her early admiration for Mussolini, and her complicated relationship with Adolf Hitler, who visited her Weimar villa on every trip he made to the town as German chancellor until her death in 1935. 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

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Episode 24: From the Rhine to the Reich: German Jewish Life Before 1871

Episode 24

Tuesday, August 25, 2026 • Duration 53:35

In this episode, Katja and Chris trace the long and sometimes misunderstood history of Jews in German-speaking Europe, from Roman Cologne to the founding of the German Empire in 1871. They explore how Jewish communities settled along the Rhine under Frankish and medieval rulers, survived cycles of expulsion and violence including the Crusades and the Black Death pogroms, and gradually built livelihoods as traders, doctors, and financiers who were excluded from land ownership and the guild system. Along the way they examine the Reformation's impact on Jewish-Christian relations, the Enlightenment-era friendship between Moses Mendelssohn and Gotthold Lessing, and how the French Revolution and Napoleon's armies spread the idea of Jewish civic equality across the German lands. The episode also looks at the 19th-century process of emancipation, the amicable social relations between Jews and Christians recalled by memoirists of this period, and how the deep, centuries-old entanglement of Jewish and Christian life made the antisemitism of the Nazi era so emotionally devastating for German Jews. 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

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Reichs & Republics | The German History Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

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Reichs & Republics | The German History Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

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