Lecture
Katja Hoyer and Helen Fry
Tuesday 29.09.2026
Katja Hoyer and Helen Fry
Weimar on the Edge of Catastrophe
Tuesday 29.09.2026
How to watch
This lecture starts on 29 September at 7:00pm (UK).
Summary
Helen Fry in conversation with bestselling historian Katja Hoyer about her latest research and book on Weimar, a town and its people that dreamt of a better world and woke up to tyranny. Covering the period 1919–1939, these are the stories of the men and women who lived through the new republic and Hitler’s regime.
Katja Hoyer
Katja Hoyer is a German-British historian. She is a Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. She is the author of the international bestsellers Beyond the Wall: East Germany 1949-1990 and Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire. Her latest book is Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe. Katja is a columnist for Berliner Zeitung and a regular contributor to British and American news outlets such as the BBC, Bloomberg, The Telegraph and The Guardian. She co-hosts the German history podcast Reichs & Republics and publishes a biweekly Substack newsletter called ZEITGEIST.
Her latest book is available here: Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe
Helen Fry
Helen Fry has authored and edited over 25 books covering the social history of the Second World War, including British Intelligence and the secret war, espionage, and spies, as well as MI9 escape and evasion. She is the foremost authority on the “secret listeners” who worked at special eavesdropping sites operated by British Intelligence during WWII. Helen is the official biographer of MI6 spymaster, Colonel Thomas Joseph Kendrick. She has also extensively written about the 10,000 Germans who fought for Britain during WWII. Helen has appeared in a number of documentaries and has provided advisory services for TV and drama. She also appears regularly in media interviews and podcasts. Helen is an ambassador for the National Centre for Military Intelligence (NCMI) and serves as a trustee of both the Friends of the Intelligence Corps Museum and the Medmenham Collection. She works in London.