The Man Who Invented the Third Reich

Lauryssen's remarkable biography of the key figure in the formation of the political ideals behind the Third Reich, charts the progress of a political activist as his theories became reality, and the repercussions that led to his suicide. Arthur Moeller van der Bruck's seminal work Das Dritte Reich, was Hitler's main inspiration, and it was the authoritarian state hypothesised by Moeller which Hitler implemented, taking his recommendations of violent dynamism to achieve increasingly his own aims. Moeller was able to predict the atrocities to come and racked with guilt this recognition of the monster he had created led to his suicide. Lauryssen explores the political and artistic whirlpools of Weimar Germany in Moeller's time and using personal interviews with contempories such as Kafka, Munch and Dietrich gives exceptional insight into both Moeller's life and this fascinating period of political change.