Summer of Freedom

This colorful post–World War II history brings to life a crucial yet understudied period, through the eyes of both major figures and ordinary people.

It was a summer like no one had ever experienced: in the four months from May to September 1945, the old world collapsed, and a new one opened up. The heinous Third Reich was over, ushering in an era of freedom, but also fresh conflicts.

With a gripping historical panorama, Oliver Hilmes offers insight into this unprecedented summer, from the perspectives of the victors and the vanquished, victims and perpetrators, celebrities and unknowns. The “Big Three”—Harry S. Truman, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin—determine the course of history at the Potsdam Conference. German housewife Else Tietze fears for her son’s safety. US soldier Klaus Mann tracks down Nazi criminals. And in Berlin Billy Wilder plans a comedy about life in the ruins. Cafés and restaurants reopen their doors, and Red Army soldier Vasily Petrowitsch is begged for bread by German children.

Through a series of scenes that lead from Berlin to Tokyo, from Munich to Paris, from Bayreuth to Moscow, Hilmes captures the unique atmosphere of this time of extremes: the great happiness and hope of the liberated; the misery, grief, and fear of the defeated; and the uncertainty that comes with freedom.Praise for Berlin 1936:

“[Berlin 1936’s] publication earlier this year felt like a gift. Historian Oliver Hilmes has created an almost miniaturist narrative of the most controversial Olympics ever staged…Jefferson Chase’s excellent translation gives us taut prose that adds to the sense of unease.” —The Guardian, Best Books of the Year

“Memorable…Hilmes’s deceptively jaunty, even comic tone echoes that of the Games themselves.” —Financial Times, Best Books of the YearOliver Hilmes, born in 1971, studied history, politics, and psychology in Paris, Marburg, and Potsdam, and holds a doctorate in twentieth-century history. His best-selling work includes Malevolent Muse: The Life of Alma Mahler and Cosima Wagner: The Lady of Bayreuth. Most recently he has published Franz Liszt: Musician, Celebrity, Superstar, Ludwig II.: Der unzeitgemäße König, and Berlin 1936: Fascism, Fear, and Triumph Set Against Hitler's Olympic Games (Other Press, 2018).

Jefferson Chase is a writer and journalist based in Berlin. He has translated more than a dozen German texts into English, among them works by Thomas Mann, Wolfgang Schivelbusch, and Götz Aly.