Hitler's First Hundred Days

When Germans Embraced the Third Reich

By: Peter Fritzsche

Narrated by: Jim Seybert

This “elegant and sobering” (The New York Times) history reveals how Germany’s fractured republic gave way to the Third Reich, from the breakthrough of the Nazi party to the rise of Hitler

Amid the ravages of economic depression, Germans in the early 1930s were pulled to political extremes both left and right. Then, in the spring of 1933, Germany turned itself inside out, from a deeply divided republic into a one-party dictatorship. In Hitler's First Hundred Days, award-winning historian Peter Fritzsche offers a probing account of the pivotal moments when the majority of Germans seemed, all at once, to join the Nazis to construct the Third Reich. Fritzsche examines the events of the period—the elections and mass arrests, the bonfires and gunfire, the patriotic rallies and anti-Jewish boycotts—to understand both the terrifying power the National Socialists exerted over ordinary Germans and the powerful appeal of the new era they promised.

Hitler's First Hundred Days is the chilling story of the beginning of the end, when one hundred days inaugurated a new thousand-year Reich.

Critic reviews

"Elegant and sobering"—New York Times

"Masterly... While Hitler's First Hundred Days is laden with lessons for contemporary political observers (letalone students of any era of modern political history), Fritzsche is not a prisoner of the moment. He has instead made a substantial contribution to the historical scholarship on Nazi Germany." —New Criterion

"[A] dramatic retelling...with tremendous verve....Fritzsche's skill is in finding a wide enough cast of Germans to give a sense not just of the faithful, but of the skeptics, the disbelieving and the defeated....it is [Fritzche's] capacity for turning the lens back onto the viewer that makes his work so profound and so convincing."—New York Times

"In the first 100 days of Adolf Hitler's appointment as chancellor in 1933, Germany transformed from a troubled democracy to a country that put into practice extreme repression and limitations on personal freedom...Everyone concerned about the rise of nationalism, the impact of extreme partisanship, and preserving democracy should read this insightful book."—Library Journal, starred review

"Hitler had little trouble destroying German democracy, and this fine history describes how he did it.... A painful but expert historical account."—Kirkus

"Skillfully interweaving anecdotal accounts with big-picture analysis, Fritzsche deepens readers' understanding of how Hitler consolidated power. This is a worthy look at a moment too often hurried through in histories of the period."—Publishers Weekly

"Not all 100 days are the same. This riveting and troubling portrait of political and social depredation by a master historian of the Third Reich underscores liberal democratic frailty in the face of fierce determined attack. As such, it implicitly offers readers a clarion call to take incipient and assertive authoritarianism seriously lest they create an ugly new normal."—Ira Katznelson, author of Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time

"Hitler's First Hundred Days is gripping from the first lines. With elegance and deep knowledge, Peter Fritzsche tells the story of how Hitler and the Nazis consolidated their hold on power in the spring of 1933. Fritzsche knows this ground like few others, and his eye for the telling detail makes this book surprising at every turn, even as he shows how the story is chillingly relevant to our times."—Benjamin Hett, author of The Death of Democracy: Hitler's Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic

Interesting but at times tedious.

A very interesting subject and well Written.. But it seemed excessively. Long. Multiple examples of points And General wordiness.

Whoa! This Is Too Tense To Be A Horror Novel!

Get ready for nightmares. Yeah, Jim Sebert fractures German pronunciation. Fuggedaboudit!

Here's what happened and to a degree why. Which are the Two Great Questions that twist the terror dial way over 100%. Can it happen here? Are Nazi storm troopers and SS the natural sequence to the collapse of democratic governance? Looking at the streets of 2020 America as I write this, I'm wondering: Will those thugs come to my home next? Similar cretins routinely invaded everywhere with impunity in Germany's 1930s. And first off, they neutered the police!

Steven King's mastery of dread is his ability to get into his readers' dreams. He seeps beneath the sills of the thickest doors we build to keep him out of our minds. Fritzsche, to his credits never makes comparisons between 1931 Berlin and say this moment's Washington, London, Paris, or Rome... and yet... This book's a natural compliment to the evening TV news in each of those cities.

Peter Fritzsche answers those Two Great Questions about the collapse of democratic republicanism in Germany. It's up to the reader to answer the two greater questions above.

Which, very much like Steven King, cranks at our terror dials - but the problem with Fritzsche is that - this important book ain't fiction.

this terrified me.

that this was written in 2020 not under our current 2025 conditions is terrifying. parallels in this book would be obvious to a blind man. not just in the power grab of the Nazi, but the infighting of the resistance that allow the Nazi to achieve power. the easily-led general citizens. and the general indifference and willingness to go along with the herd

An incredible book

This not only gives the facts behind the history, but the thoughts and emotions of the people. Very insightful

Very Inconsistent Audio

There is something wrong with the audio on this book. It's like it was recorded with many different mics and then randomly cut together. It's quite annoying and takes away from the actual book itself.