Synopses & Reviews
These essays by nine distinguished historians deal with prominent personalities in German history over the last two centuries; and they are dominated by two themes. First, they trace the growth and flowering of German culture in areas like print and architecture and painting and how this transformed relationships and procedures in everyday life. Second, they follow the rise of a political consciousness on the part of the Germans, and the consequences this consciousness had for nationalism in the 19th and 20th centuries. In throwing light on the art of Schinkel and Liebermann, on the undertakings of Lichtwark, on the policies of Bismarck, and on the ordeals of Rathenau and Hitler and Beck and Faulhaber and Brandt, these nine essays offer a salutary guidepost to a past that is as rich as it is terrifying.
Review
The book connects such unlikely characters as Schinkel, Bismarck, and Kennedy by integrating the twin themes of culture and politics. It's a good read and delivers on its promise.Herbert F. Ziegler, Professor of History University of Hawaii at Manoa
Synopsis
Studies the roots of German culture and German nationalism.
About the Author
DAVID WETZEL works in Administration at the University of California, Berkeley.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Aesthetic Theory and Architectural Practice: Schinkel's Museum in Berlin by James J. Sheehan
The Cost of Culture: On Liebermann, Lichtwark, and Others by Peter Gay
Bismarck, South Germany, and the Problem of 1870 by David Wetzel
The Old Prussian and the People's William: Some Centennial Reflections on Otto von Bismarck and William E. Gladstone by Francis L. Loewenheim
Walther Rathenau and the Vision of Modernity by Fritz Stern
Hitler's Impact on History by Henry Ashby Turner, Jr.
Moral Choice and Officialdom: General Ludwig Beck in the Year of Munich by Ernest R. May
Cardinal Faulhaber and the Third Reich by Theodore S. Hamerow
The Making of ein Berliner: Kennedy, Brandt, and the Origins of Detente by Diethelm Prowe
Selected Bibliography
Index