Weekly roundup, Dec 10th

Dear Reader,

The great British historian AJP Taylor said that German history only knows extremes. Writing at the end of the Second World War, he said that Germans are extreme both in their passivity and in their brutality.

While history since then has proven Taylor wrong, there are times when that old radicalism bubbles up to the surface. So it was this week when police raided over a hundred properties and detained two dozen people they say were part of a sinister plot to storm the Reichstag and overthrown the republican system.

The plot was as barmy as it was disconcerting. While reporting on it this week, I was torn between wondering whether the film of the plot would be a slap stick comedy or a thriller.

On the one hand the conspirators seemingly seriously believed that the German public would accept having an obscure aristocrat imposed upon them as king. But they were also supported by former army officers and had access to weapons.

Here is my piece for members (paywall) on a busy week…