Vivid, moving stories leave us asking “What would I have done?”’ Professor David Reynolds, author of Island Stories

It was during the 1920s that Oberstdorf started to develop a substantial tourist trade as a holiday resort. Oberstdorf was in the main an observant Catholic village with a small Protestant church. In politics the village supported the centre-right Catholic Bavarian People’s Party. Oberstdorf was doing quite well in the 1930s and many of its were wealthy and they also had distinguished Jewish visitors. At the end of the war a list of the Nazis in the village was completed from various sorts. From an incomplete list it was found that there were 455 names on the list, roughly 10% of the village, which also happened to mirror the Nazis membership across Germany. We learn that many of the younger members of the Village when war came were members of the 98th or 99th Mountain Battalions part of the 1st Mountain Division, which was an elite division. It also committed war crimes in the later war in Greece. But also other members of the village were part of the suppression of partisans and Jews in Ukraine. One also supervised the killing of 700 Jews in Ukraine. Vivid, moving stories leave us asking "What would I have done?"' Professor David Reynolds, author of Island Stories Theodor Weissenberger, who was born blind, with his siblings in the garden of Villa Gschwender in OberstdorfThe book finishes with the collapse of the Third Reich in 1945 and Allied occupation along with the De-Nazification tribunals that very imperfectly attempted to punish the guilty. For the most part I found this an interesting read. The book is well-researched and delves into many aspects of life during the Third Reich, showing how the government pervaded every part of one’s daily activities. I liked that the chapters were organized thematically rather than chronologically, which made it easier to follow.

The village lies in a part of Bavaria in a region known as the Allgäu, long recognized for the beauty of its mountains and the toughness of its people. Oberstdorf is uniquely defined by its geographical position as the most southern village in Germany. Once there, the traveler has quite literally reached the end of the road, as only footpaths lead south across the mountains to Austria. Laying bare the tragedies, the compromises, the suffering and the disillusionment. Exemplary microhistory.’ Roger Moorehouse, author of First to FightHidden deep in the Bavarian mountains lies the picturesque village of Oberstdorf - a place where for hundreds of years people lived simple lives while history was made elsewhere. Hidden deep in the Bavarian mountains lies the picturesque village of Oberstdorf – a place where for hundreds of years people lived simple lives while history was made elsewhere. An utterly absorbing insight into the full spectrum of responses from ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.' The Times The rise of Nazi Germany through the prism of one small village in Bavaria. […] Astonishing’ Jane Garvey on Fortunately… with Fi and Jane

This is a wonderful micro-history of the Third Reich using the village as an exemplar of the ordinary German in those fateful years. It brings to life some of the difficulties for some and how easy it was for others to do nothing. Everybody made their decision which is clear and had to live with it. Shortly after 8 p.m., the faint sound of beating drums grew louder as a unit of paramilitary storm troopers marched into the marketplace, carrying torches and shouting out party slogans. The villagers had long since become accustomed to the presence of these noisy brownshirts on their streets, even if they did not necessarily approve. But if the trappings of the Nazi Party were not to everyone’s taste, Hitler’s message and style of leadership had caught the imagination of enough of the electorate to result in Oberstdorf casting more votes for the Nazis than for any other party. Hidden deep in the Bavarian mountains lies the picturesque village of Oberstdorf – a place where for hundreds of years people lived ordinary lives while history was made elsewhere. Yet even this remote idyll could not escape the brutal iron grip of the Nazi regime… From the author of the bestselling Travellers in the Third Reich comes A Village in the Third Reich, an extraordinarily intimate portrait of Germany under Hitler which shines a light on the lives of ordinary people. Nazi history began in the village in 1927 when a postman, Karl Weinlein transferred into the village from Nuremberg. Weinlein had a better NSDAP party membership number than Goebbels. A low party number conferred on Weinlein hallowed status within the Party. The villages were reluctant to join, but the Wall Street crash did offer fertile ground even in Oberstdorf.This non-fiction depicts the cultural, social and political changes over the 40 years in a village whose life focused around sheep breeding, some farming and tourist industry as Obersdorf became more and more popular in the covered period. Such a detailed analysis was possible due to vast archives preserved and to memoirs, letters and memories of those whose ancestors lived in the village before the WW2 and through it.

Those who actively supported National Socialism were forced to make adjustments. Anyone who stepped out of line or criticized the regime risked “protective custody” in the newly established camp for political prisoners at Dachau. As the months went by, some villagers found Nazi methods increasingly disturbing, but others, dismissing the more unpleasant rumors as foreign propaganda, remained committed to the regime.

Fascinating... You'll learn more about the psychological workings of Nazism by reading this superbly researched chronicle... than you will by reading a shelf of wider-canvas volumes on the rise of Nazism.'Daily Mail I enjoyed this book since it gives a panorama of those days, desciribing attitudes, hardships and tragedies which affected the small village. It is a well-researched book which offers a good insight into the period. And as we got to know the villagers better, it came as no surprise to learn that their response to these cataclysmic events was driven as much by practical everyday concerns, the instinct to safeguard their families—from threats both real and imagined—and personal loyalties and enmities as by the great political and social issues of the time. This is a tale of conflicting loyalties and desires, of shattered dreams - but one in which, ultimately, human resilience triumphs.