Joachim C. Fest was born in Berlin in 1926. After the Second World War, in which he served and was taken prisoner, he joined the radio station RIAS-Berlin, where he became the head of the Department of Contemporary History. In 1961 he became the Editor-in-Chief of TV for Norddeutscher Rundfunk. He is the author of 'The Face of the Third Reich' (Penguin, 1963) and 'Plotting Hitler's Death' (1996).

Part 1 An aimless life: background and departure; the shattered dream; the granite foundation; the flight to Munich; redemption by war; interpolation 1 - the great dread. Part 2 The road to politics: a part of the German future; local triumphs; challenging the powers that be; the Putsch. Part 3 The long wait: the vision; crises and resistances; deployment for battle. Part 4 The time of struggle: from provincial to national politics; the landslide; at the gates of power; at the goal; interpolation 2 -German catastrophe or German consistency?. Part 5 Seizure of power: legal revolution; on the way to the Fuhrer state; the Rohm affair. Part 6 The years of preparation: the age of "faits accomplis"; view of an unperson; the "greatest German in history"; unleashing the war; interpolation 3 - the wrong war. Part 7 Victors and vanquished: the Generalissimo; the Third World War; lost reality. Part 8 Catastrophe: oppositions; Gotterdammerung; conclusion - the dead end.