Joachim Fest

German historian, journalist and author Joachim Fest (born 1926) is a very influential and efficacious middle-class intellectual. His first book, Das Gesicht des Dritten Reichs (The face of the Third Reich) was published in 1962. His widely-read works about the protagonists of the National Socialist Regime – Hitler (1973), and Speer (1999) – have significantly contributed to the present-day image of the Third Reich.

Fest examines the leading elite of the Third Reich “like a natural scientist would a rare reptile under a microscope” (Fest about Fest), and he has the ability to detachedly recount what he observes. Fest describes his role in the compilation of the memoirs of Albert Speer, which became a best-seller, as that of an “interrogating lector”. He strives to fathom out the persons who irrevocably destroyed our positive image of humanity: “Hitler is and was an anthropological possibility that will always exist”.

Fest was born in Berlin in 1926; from 1963 he was chief editor of the NDR radio station, and from 1973 to 1993 editor of the FAZ newspaper. His numerous publications include a biography of Horst Janssen, and his work Begegnungen. Über nahe und ferne Fremde (Encounters. About close and distant foreignness). Among the most notable of his works are Der Untergang. Hitler und das Ende des Dritten Reiches (The downfall. Hitler and the end of the Third Reich), also known through its filmic adaptation by Bernd Eichinger, and, recently, Die unbeantwortbaren Fragen. Notizen über Gespräche mit Albert Speer zwischen Ende 1966 und 1981 (Unanswered questions. Notes about talks with Albert Speer between the end of 1966 and 1981).

Jan Roß (born 1965) studied classic philology, philosophy and rhetoric; from 1991 to 1996 he was editor of the feuilleton of the FAZ newspaper; today he is editor of the ZEIT at the Berlin main office of the magazine. His recent publications include Die neuen Staatsfeinde, Johannes Paul II. (The new public enemies, John Paul II) and Was für eine Welt wollen wir? Richard von Weizsäcker im Gespräch mit Jan Roß. (What kind of world do we want? Richard von Weizsäcker talking to Jan Roß).