Hitler: Volume II
  • Published: 6 February 2020
  • ISBN: 9781448190836
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 848
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Hitler: Volume II

Downfall 1939-45

Formats & editions
Paperback
13 Apr 2021
EBook
6 Feb 2020
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The long-awaited second volume of Volker Ullrich’s acclaimed biography of the Führer, taking us through the war years – from the early triumphs of the Blitzkrieg to Hitler’s suicide in his Berlin bunker

'Meticulous... Probably the most disturbing portrait of Hitler I have ever read' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times

By the summer of 1939 Hitler was at the zenith of his power. Yet despite initial triumphs in the early stages of war, the Führer's fortunes would turn dramatically as the conflict raged on. Realising that victory was lost, and with Soviet troops closing in on his Berlin bunker, Hitler committed suicide in April 1945; one week later, Nazi Germany surrendered. His murderous ambitions had not only annihilated his own country, but had cost the lives of millions across Europe.
In the final volume of this landmark biography, Volker Ullrich argues that the very qualities - and the defects - that accounted for Hitler's popularity and rise to power were what brought about his ruin. A keen strategist and meticulous military commander, he was also a deeply insecure gambler who could be shaken by the smallest setback, and was quick to blame subordinates for his own disastrous mistakes.


Drawing on a wealth of new sources and scholarship, this is the definitive portrait of the man who dragged the world into chaos.
  • Published: 6 February 2020
  • ISBN: 9781448190836
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 848
Categories:
Share…

About the author

Volker Ullrich

Volker Ullrich is a historian and journalist whose previous books include biographies of Bismarck and Napoleon, as well as a major study of Imperial Germany, The Nervous Superpower 1871—1918. From 1990 to 2009, Ullrich was the editor of the ‘Political Book’ review section of the influential weekly newspaper, Die Zeit. On publication in Germany in 2013, Hitler: Ascent 1889—1939 became a top ten bestseller.

Also by Volker Ullrich

Eight Days in May
Hitler: Volume I
See all

Praise for Hitler: Volume II

Smoothly written and splendidly translated, Ullrich’s book gives us a Hitler we have not seen before, at once cold-blooded and idealistic, chillingly narcissistic and cloyingly sentimental. And precisely because he seems so much like the rest of us, it is probably the most disturbing portrait of Hitler I have ever read

Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times

Ullrich is a fine writer

David Aaronovitch, The Times

The reader who plunges in is rewarded with insight, understanding, fine judgements and read-me narrative drive... [This] biography of Hitler makes essential reading, especially one as deeply researched, beautifully written and finely judged as this one

Tony Rennell, Daily Mail, *Book of the Week*

Ullrich’s work is much more than just a biography. It is a work of synthesis, certainly, but a thorough and thoroughly readable one nonetheless, which stands muster alongside Hitler’s most significant earlier biographers: Bullock, Toland, Fest and Kershaw. Elegantly written, engaging and insightful, it is a new standard work on its subject

Roger Moorhouse, BBC History

A fine and meticulous historian with a true command of archives and secondary sources… Ullrich has his own angle, and that is to recover the personality of the man… this is one of the most impressive Hitler biographies…you will find it compelling

Anthony Cummins, Daily Telegraph

Excellent

Richard Overy, Times Literary Supplement

Ullrich's account stands out for its brilliant psychological portrait of Hitler

Jane Shilling, Daily Mail

A compelling portrait

Daily Telegraph