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Paul Grossman
Author of the Willi Kraus Thrillers
Historical Series Set During the Nazi Rise to Power
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Author Paul Grossman
Above: Author Paul Grossman


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Willi Kraus Thrillers
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Series Hero Inspired by Remarkable Historical Figure
Paul Grossman is best known for the Willi Kraus Thrillers, a historical series that begins in the last days of the Weimar Republic (Germany).

In an interview in Publishers Weekly, Grossman describes how he created the character Willi Kraus:
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I wanted to write a novel set during the final days of the Weimar Republic, using the political drama of the Nazi rise to power as a backdrop. In researching the subject, I came across the remarkable figure of Bernhard Weiss, who was one of Berlin’s top cops at the time. He was the first Jew ever to have risen to the top echelons of German law enforcement. It sparked the idea of creating a Jewish detective working during those tumultuous last months of democracy.*
Grossman was attracted to the Weimar Republic in the first place because it saw such an extraordinary flourishing of the arts in such a short period of time:
In painting, literature, film, architecture, design, theater, music, Berlin was on the absolute cutting edge of modernity. Few places ever experience that intense and short-lived a renaissance. And it ended virtually overnight. Many people think Hitler seized power through force. Actually, he was handed it. He only consolidated and made it absolute through force.*
Grossman is a long-time teacher of writing and literature at the City University of New York.

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*"A Jewish Cop at the End of Weimar: PW Talks with Paul Grossman," by Lenny Picker, 12/09/11,  http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/interviews/article/49804-a-jewish-cop-at-the-end-of-weimar-pw-talks-with-paul-grossman.html