In 1930 Germany was a liberal democracy.  Just four years later democracy was dead, Germany’s leader is a dictator and its government is in the hands of murderers.  This series tells the story of how this happened. Leading historians and experts get inside the heads of some of the key players, whose political plotting, miscalculations and personal ambitions helped to destroy democracy and deliver control to Hitler.  Then there are those who were prepared to make a stand in order to try to stop the Nazis.

With the intensity of a political thriller, the series sets out the plots and intrigues at the heart of the government, which transformed the Nazis from a fringe political group to the most powerful party in the Reichstag.  It outlines the power struggles between prominent Nazis, which transformed Germany into a brutal police state that exercised state sponsored detainment and murder, allowing Hitler to go from being Chancellor to all powerful Führer of the Third Reich.   Powerful drama and stark use of archive brings an immediacy to this gripping and resonant story.

The rise of the Nazis is a lesson for all of us who want to preserve democracy today.