In the 1930s, Carl Goerdeler, the mayor of Leipzig and, as prices commissioner, a cabinet-level official, engaged in active opposition against the persecution of the Jews in Germany and in Eastern Europe. He did this openly until 1938 and then secretly in contact with the British Foreign Office. Having failed to change Hitler's policy against the Jews, Goerdeler joined forces with military and civil conspirators against the regime. He was hanged for 'treason' on 2 February 1945. This book describes the actions of Carl Goerdeler, the German resistance leader who consistently engaged in efforts to protect the Jews against persecution. Using new evidence and thus far under-researched documents, including a memorandum written by Goerdeler at the end of 1941 with a proposal for the status of the Jews in the world, the book fundamentally changes our understanding of Goerdeler's plan and presents a new view of the German resistance to Hitler.

Life is an enduring mystery. Yet, science tells us that living beings are merely sophisticated structures of lifeless molecules. If this view is correct, where do the seemingly purposeful motions of cells and organisms originate? In Life's Ratchet , physicist Peter M. Hoffmann locates the answer to this age-old question at the nanoscale.Below the calm, ordered exterior of a living organism lies microscopic chaos, or what Hoffmann calls the molecular storm,specialized molecules immersed in a whirlwind of colliding water molecules. Our cells are filled with molecular machines, which, like tiny ratchets, transform random motion into ordered activity, and create the purpose" that is the hallmark of life. Tiny electrical motors turn electrical voltage into motion, nanoscale factories custom-build other molecular machines, and mechanical machines twist, untwist, separate and package strands of DNA. The cell is like a city,an unfathomable, complex collection of molecular workers working together to create something greater than themselves.Life, Hoffman argues, emerges from the random motions of atoms filtered through these sophisticated structures of our evolved machinery. We are agglomerations of interacting nanoscale machines more amazing than anything in science fiction. Rather than relying on some mysterious life force" to drive them,as people believed for centuries,life's ratchets harness instead the second law of thermodynamics and the disorder of the molecular storm.Grounded in Hoffmann's own cutting-edge research, Life's Ratchet reveals the incredible findings of modern nanotechnology to tell the story of how the noisy world of atoms gives rise to life itself.

In a world increasingly plagued by pollution, where limited availability of fossil fuels creates international tensions, and where global disaster from proliferating technology lurks on the horizon, the search for alternative synthetic fuels is no longer an idle scientist's dream-it is necessity. Hydrogen-with its vast and ready availability from water, its nearly universal utility, and its inherently benign characteristics-is one of several attractive synthetic fuels being considered for a "post-fossil-fuel" world, and it may well be the miracle fuel of the future. It is of special interest because, technically at least, it is so easily produced and because it produces simple water vapor in the combustion process rather than loading an already burdened environment with more hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide and monoxide, sulfur, particulate matter, and even more exotic pollutants. Journalist Peter Hoffmann describes worldwide scientific work toward a future hydrogen economy, looking at the auspicious prospects of this potential fuel, at its applicability to powering everything from automobiles to airplanes, and at the principles and technologies involved in making hydrogen a viable energy alternative. He examines how-and how soon-nature's simplest element may become available as an energy carrier, as well as the economic conditions that will accompany its introduction and the social impact of "clean" hydrogen energy. The picture he paints of the fuel future is a welcome alternative to the now-common prognostications of impending doom.

A re-examination of the George Circle in the cultural and political contexts of Wilhelmine, Weimar, and Nazi Germany. Stefan George (1868-1933) was one of the most important figures in modern German culture. His poetry, in its originality and impact, has been ranked with that of Goethe and Hoelderlin. Yet George's reach extended beyond the sphereof literature. In the early 1900s, he gathered around himself a circle of disciples who subscribed to his vision of comprehensive cultural-spiritual renewal and sought to turn it into reality. The ideas of the George Circle profoundly affected Germany's educated middle class, especially in the aftermath of the First World War, when their critique of bourgeois liberalism, materialism, and scholarship (Wissenschaft) as well as their call for new formsof leadership (Herrschaft) and a new Reich found wider resonance. The essays collected in the present volume critically re-examine these ideas, their contexts, and their influence. They provide new perspectives on the intersection of culture and politics in the works of the George Circle, not least its ambivalent relationship to National Socialism. Contributors: Adam Bisno, Richard Faber, Rudiger Goerner, Peter Hoffmann, Thomas Karlauf, Melissa S. Lane, Robert E. Lerner, David Midgley, Robert E. Norton, Ray Ockenden, Ute Oelmann, Martin A. Ruehl, Bertram Schefold. Melissa S. Lane is Professor of Politics at Princeton University. Martin A. Ruehl is Lecturerin German Thought and Fellow of Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge.

In the 1930s, Carl Goerdeler, the mayor of Leipzig and, as prices commissioner, a cabinet-level official, engaged in active opposition against the persecution of the Jews in Germany and in Eastern Europe. He did this openly until 1938 and then secretly in contact with the British Foreign Office. Having failed to change Hitler's policy against the Jews, Goerdeler joined forces with military and civil conspirators against the regime. He was hanged for treason on 2 February 1945. This book describes the actions of Carl Goerdeler, the German resistance leader who consistently engaged in efforts to protect the Jews against persecution. Using new evidence and thus far under-researched documents, including a memorandum written by Goerdeler at the end of 1941 with a proposal for the status of the Jews in the world, the book fundamentally changes our understanding of Goerdeler's plan and presents a new view of the German resistance to Hitler.

Fascination with the evil of the Nazi regime has not diminished in the decades since Hitler assumed power in Germany, but the story of internal resistance to Nazism has not been as fully realized as have the innumerable tales of horror. In this compact book Peter Hoffmann examines the growing recognition by some Germans in the 1930s of the malign nature of the Nazi regime, the ways in which these people became involved in the resistance, and the views of those who staked their lives in the struggle against tyranny and murder.

The earliest postwar accounts of the resistance by survivors and witnesses were followed by a variety of investigations and evaluations. Peter Hoffrnann here presents a complete reconstruction of this baffling and intriguing story. After several decades of study of the German resistance to Nazism, he has unlocked the secrets of its inner history. Hoffmann recounts the methods of Hitler's rise to power in the tumultuous days of January and February 1933, the consolidation of his power as a result of the Rohm Massacre in 1934, and his growing criminality as evidenced by the rape of Czechoslovakia and the pogrom of 1938. The author describes the several attempts in 1938 and during the war years to dislodge Hitler from within; the desperation of the luckless opponents over the carnage of war and the mass murders that threatened to engulf them; and finally, the attempt to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944. Throughout, he probes the motives of the resisters. Some, for example, found it difficult to justify assassination, even for the purpose of bringing an end to mass killing. Hoffmann examines and discounts the accusation that the principal motive of those whoresisted was to preserve their class privileges. The resisters, he concludes, acted not so much in the hope of personal gain as from a moral obligation to challenge the evils they saw before them.

Aleksandr Nikolaevic Radiscev, geboren 1749, erhielt seine juristische Ausbildung an der Leipziger Universitat. Er gehoert zu den bedeutenden Schriftstellern Russlands in der zweiten Halfte des 18. Jahrhunderts. Seine von der europaischen Aufklarung beeinflussten radikalen Anschauungen werden nicht in Frage gestellt, trotzdem wird sein Werk, besonders "Die Reise von Petersburg nach Moskau", unterschiedlich interpretiert - entweder wird er als konsequenter Revolutionar oder als Vorlaufer des russischen Liberalismus charakterisiert. Dieses Buch will diese Einseitigkeit uberwinden und sein Werk in den Kontext der Aufklarung des 18. Jahrhunderts einordnen. Das bedeutet, die verschiedenen Komponenten im Werk Radiscev als gleichwertig anzusehen.

"Dearly beloved Child of my Heart, we are probably standing at the end of our beautiful and rich life together. Because tomorrow the People's Court intends to sit in judgment on me and others. I hear that we have been expelled from the army. They can take the uniform from us, but not the spirit in which we acted."--Peter Yorck von Wartenburg, in a letter to his wife.
Marion Yorck von Wartenburg was involved in the Nazi resistance group known as the Kreisau Circle, whose cofounder was her husband, Peter. The Kreisau Circle participated in the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944. Peter's cousin Claus Stauffen-berg and other members of the military resistance carried out the attempt. When they failed, hundreds of people were arrested, tried, and executed, including Peter. Marion and other members of the conspirators' families were also arrested and spent months jailed under miserable conditions. In this memoir Marion recreates the terrifying reality of her life as the wife of a resistance fighter and at the same time conveys the depth of the bond that existed between her and her husband.

"I am immortal!" exulted Hitler in the wake of the failed assassination plot of July 20, 1944. As Peter Hoffmann shows in this startling book, that bombing was only the best known of more than thirty attempts on Hitler's life, the first coming as early as 1921, when he was the leader of the German worker's party. Using extensive archival material, Hoffmann details these assassination plots and outlines the fanatically complex security measures that developed to keep Hitler safe. He analyzes Hitler's SS escort and the other security groups responsible for his life--there were so many of them that they often counteracted one another--together with their arrangements for his transportation, public appearances, residences, and wartime headquarters. Providing remarkable new information about the workings of those devoted to defending and destroying him, this book is an invaluable contribution to the history of the Third Reich.

How the use of nonpolluting, zero-emission hydrogen as fuel could be the cornerstone of a new energy economy. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. An invisible, tasteless, colorless gas, it can be converted to nonpolluting, zero-emission, renewable energy. When burned in an internal combustion engine, hydrogen produces mostly harmless water vapor. It performs even better in fuel cells, which can be 2.5 times as efficient as internal-combustion engines. Zero-emission hydrogen does not contribute to CO2-caused global warming. Abundant and renewable, it is unlikely to be subject to geopolitical pressures or scarcity concerns. In this new edition of his pioneering book Tomorrow's Energy, Peter Hoffmann makes the case for hydrogen as the cornerstone of a new energy economy. Hoffmann covers the major aspects of hydrogen production, storage, transportation, fuel use, and safety. He explains that hydrogen is not an energy source but a carrier, like electricity, and introduces the concept of "hydricity," the essential interchangeability of electricity and hydrogen. He brings the hydrogen story up to date, reporting on the latest developments, including new hydrogen and fuel-cell cars from GM, Daimler, BMW, Honda, and Toyota. He describes recent political controversies, including Obama administration Energy Secretary (and Nobel laureate in Physics) Steven Chu's inexplicable dismissal of hydrogen-which puts him at odds with major automakers, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and others. Our current energy system is a complex infrastructure, and phasing in hydrogen will take effort and money. But if we consider the real costs of fossil fuels-pollution and its effects, international tensions over gas and oil supplies, and climate change-we would be wise to promote its development.