The Axmann Conspiracy
The Nazi Plan for a Fourth Reich and How the U.S. Army Defeated It
“The Axmann Conspiracy is well-documented history but reads like a thriller.”
Dean Koontz
#1 New York Times Bestselling Author
The Axmann Conspiracy
The Axmann Conspiracy tells the true story of Hitler Youth leader Artur Axmann and how he became a focus of Allied counterintelligence after the fall of Nazi Germany. Based on declassified files, the book follows the murky world of postwar Berlin, where Nazi fugitives, Soviet and American spies, and former collaborators operated in the shadows of Year Zero Europe.
A trusted member of Hitler’s inner circle, Artur Axmann, the head of the Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend), witnessed the Führer commit suicide in his Berlin bunker, but he would not let the Reich die with its leader. He led a group of Nazis, including Martin Bormann, intent on escaping the encircling Red Army. Evading capture during the Battle of Berlin, and with access to remnants of the regime’s wealth, Axmann had enough adult followers to reestablish the Nazi party in the very heart of Allied-occupied Germany.
U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps officer Jack Hunter was the perfect undercover operative. Fluent in German, he posed as a black marketeer to root out Nazi sympathizers and saboteurs after the war, and along with other CIC agents uncovered the extent of Axmann’s conspiracy. It threatened to bring the Nazis back into power, and the task fell to Hunter and his team to stop it.
The Axmann Conspiracy is the previously untold true story of the Nazi threat that continued in the wake of World War II, the espionage that defeated it, and two fascinating men whose lives forever altered the course of post-war Germany.
Reviews & Praise
“The Axmann Conspiracy is well-documented history but reads like a thriller. In our troubled age, when anti-semitism is on the rise, this account of a would-be Fourth Reich and the men who foiled it is as timely as it is chilling and engrossing.”
Dean Koontz
#1 New York Times Bestselling Author
“Scott Selby’s account, of the soulless Nazi fanatics who slithered about the ruins of Germany seeking not survival but resurgence and restoration, unfolds as if in real time, vivid and chilling.”
Hugh Ambrose
New York Times Bestselling Author of The Pacific
“The Axmann Conspiracy is a true story, known to few and never before told in such extraordinary detail. The Nazi plot to resurrect a Fourth Reich from the ashes of Berlin has all the elements of a great spy thriller, a tale of insanity beyond insanity, Hitler beyond Hitler. Highly recommended.”
Douglas Preston & Mario Spezi
New York Times Bestselling Authors of The Monster of Florence
“An entertaining account of a last-gasp Nazi effort…readers will enjoy Scott Selby’s account of a hitherto-obscure Nazi plot and the energetic counterintelligence that foiled it.”
Kirkus Review
“The book is well paced; the story is colorful, and the author conveys the havoc of occupied Germany immediately after World War II. Scott Selby does his utmost to deliver a cracking yarn.”
Library Journal
“In The Axmann Conspiracy, Scott Andrew Selby explores a little-known chapter in the history of World War II, showing just how close the world came to a guerilla war that could have extended the fighting for years with unknown consequences. Exhaustively researched, parts of The Axmann Conspiracy read like something out of a LeCarre spy novel, but in this case, everything is based on carefully examined documents and well-marshaled facts. Anyone who thinks he knows how World War II ended should pick up this book: it will change his mind. Strongly recommended.”
Jim DeFelice
#1 New York Times Bestselling Coauthor of American Sniper
“The Axmann Conspiracy tells a fascinating true story of insurgent Nazism with characters and twists as engrossing as any espionage novel. With clarity and attention to detail, Scott Selby infuses this dramatic narrative of post WWII plots and counterplots with insights that not only bring this singular period and people out of the shadows, but also provoke the reader to reflect on the ways some of its complex patterns of warfare, retribution, and justice resonate into the present.”
Matthew Pearl
New York Times Bestselling Author of The Dante Club
“How many novelists have imagined some diabolical villain who seeks the resurrection of the Nazis? None do justice to the heart-thumping true story of Axmann and his aim to do just that. Impressively researched, Scott Selby recounts this history with zeal and narrative verve.”
Neal Bascomb
New York Times Bestselling Author of Hunting Eichmann
“The Axmann Conspiracy is a gripping tale that keeps the reader jumping from one page to the next. With the deft hand of a skilled researcher, Scott Selby brings to life one of the lost stories of World War II. A must read for any student of World War II history, or anyone who loves a good story.”
Gregory A. Freeman
New York Times Bestselling Author of The Forgotten 500