An impossible objective

Although I knew little about the subject, I found myself enthralled by Professor Richard Evans' talk on Germany losing the Second World War.

Over the hour, Professor Evans detailed Hitler's plans for the world, including the transformation of Berlin into the "World Capital", and the complete domination of Europe and the East. He explained that it was all too evident that Germany's aims were overreaching; the very fact that its plans were limitless ensured that they would never be fulfilled. At the same time this one country was facing insurmountable odds from the combined forces of the British Empire, America and Russia. This led to a fascinating dissection of how it was near impossible for the Germans to have won.

The talk was intelligent, concise and - speaking as someone who doesn'tt know a great deal about the details of this particular aspect of the War- utterly absorbing.


Edward Spence

Why Germany lost

Richard Evans, author of the Third Reich trilogy, begins his talk on World War II in front of a completely packed-out lecture hall. Right from the off, the room is silent with everyone entirely attentive, laughing at every joke and paying attention to every word. We look too, as the lecture accompanied by pictures from the period.

Evans splits the loss into different reasons including the economy. Germany found it impossible to keep up with the production of the British Empire, the USSR and the USA.

As well as this, Evans claims that the aims of Germany were so large they could never be achieved. Hitler was said never to be rational and this came across throughout the talk. As Richard finished there was a large round of applause from the interested crowd.

I'd been looking forward to Richard Evans' talk and I appreciated his raconteur style. It reminded me why I loved history back in my A-Level days.

Grant Cole