"The Age of Extremes" is a non-fiction book that combines historical reportage with a criminological analysis of the serial murders that rocked the Weimar Republic. The author, Błażej Kotowicz, presents the fates of such figures as Fritz Haarmann ("The Butcher of Hanover"), Karl Denke ("The Cannibal of Ziębice"), Peter Kürten ("The Vampire of Düsseldorf") and Carl Großmann ("The Butcher of Berlin"), placing their activities in the broader social and political context of interwar Germany. The book analyzes how state instability, the disintegration of moral values, inflation, wartime traumas and the growth of the media contributed to the social resonance of these crimes. Kotovich doesn't just focus on the murderers themselves - he also examines public reactions, the growing fascination with violence, and the way the sensational trials echoed in the German press. Based on archival sources, scholarly research and press accounts of the time, the author creates a picture of a society standing on the edge - a society in which crime becomes a symptom of a deeper decline. "The Age of Extremes" is a story about people, time and a system that not only failed to stop evil, but sometimes unwittingly fed it

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