War Comes to Aachen

This book narrates the tumultuous era of total war through the fate of Aachen—Imperial Germany’s seat of power for 600 years, site of Charlemagne’s coronation as Holy Roman Emperor, and a place with greater geopolitical significance for Adolf Hitler in 1944 than Stalingrad in 1943.

This was a stark contrast with the events of the Great War: in 1918, the Imperial German Army had abandoned Aachen in ...