As a community of Friends, our purpose is to support the ministry of Coventry Cathedral in relation to its building, music and reconciliation ministry. In order to highlight these themes and provide an opportunity for friends and guests to gather, we will be sponsoring a series of conversations across these three areas. 

Each conversation will involve a recognised expert and will involve a presentation followed by a facilitated conversation with the audience.

We are delighted and honoured the Katja Hoyer, a German-British historian has agreed to join us on this occasion. She is a Visiting Research Fellow at King's College London and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Katja is the bestselling author of several books on German history, most recently Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe. Her previous book Beyond the Wall: East Germany 1949-1990 was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize and shortlisted for PEN's Hessell-Tiltman Prize. She was born in Germany and calls the UK home. 

Taking her theme from her latest book Katja will explore the remarkable story of Weimar, the German town that became both the birthplace of the Weimar Republic and a symbol of the rise of Nazism. Through the lives of its residents between 1919 and 1939, she reveals how democracy, culture and dictatorship collided in one extraordinary place, offering a compelling portrait of a society teetering on the edge of catastrophe. Drawing on the lessons of Weimar's past, she will also reflect on what this history can teach us today about the fragility of democracy, political polarisation and the choices societies face in times of crisis.