Wars, crises, catastrophes - the years between 1914 and 1945 appear to some contemporaries like a second Thirty Years' War. They represent the "German chapter" in the history of the West and the most horrific chapter in the history of humanity. Heinrich August Winkler masterfully depicts the most dramatic decades of the 20th century - from the outbreak of World War I to Germany's capitulation in May 1945 and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki three months later. No other country broke so radically with the normative project of the West as Germany did in 1933. At the same time, the transfer of power to Hitler made the country the strongest source of unrest in the entire world. The liberal forces of Europe ultimately survived the world war unleashed by the Third Reich only with the help of the USA and the British Dominions. Why.