Science at 12

Prof. Dr. Christina Strunck

The climbers

German middle class under Hitler: a family history

A self-made man from the provinces has big plans for the "Third Reich". The family owns a cement factory and a winery. The family business soon becomes involved in the construction of the Westwall and sets up a camp for forced laborers on the company premises, while the winery supplies the guards at Sachsenhausen concentration camp with Rhine-Hessian wine: Business deals that are only possible thanks to close personal connections and rope teams, locally and right up to the Nazi leadership. In this system, the patriarch's five children each become perpetrators and victims in their own way.

Christina Strunck is the great-granddaughter of the company founder. She investigates a growing unease, searches the archives for evidence of what has long been suppressed - and finds what she is looking for. It turns out that the conflicts of the time are concentrated in this village of 2,500 people in Rheinhessen as if under a burning glass. Christina Strunck not only tells the story of her family, but also the micro-history of a community. At the same time, her case study sheds light on a topic that is still underexposed: the role of the German middle class in the "Third Reich".
(Rowohlt)