Five Germanys I Have Known

by Fritz Stern

Book Overview

The "German question" haunts the modern world: How could so civilized a nation be responsible for the greatest horror in Western history? In this unusual fusion of personal memoir and history, the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374155402
• ISBN13: 9780374155407
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 546 Pages
• Weight: 2.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 6.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

There are no simple answers

A liberal American historian, German by birth, from an eminent, converted Jewish family, writes a memoir and history book about his relationship with his birth country, respectively with the 5 permutations that occured during his life time. He is in his 80s now, so he experienced personally Weimar, the 3rd Reich, the Bundesrepublik, the DDR, and re-united Germany. Probably he will not be around to see a next version, the whole looks reasonably stable right now. Stern begins with a chapter about the one Germany that he missed due to belated birth: the Kaiserreich, which one might call the 2nd Reich, if one wanted to follow the arithmetic appproach of the monsters who ran the 3rd. He tells not just the story of his family in Silesian Breslau, but also the story of Jews in Germany in the 19th and early 20th century, and of the German version of anti-semitism. Like the aside that the German army could not have a Dreyfus scandal, as no Dreyfus could have been an officer in Germany at that time. Essential reading for anyone who tries to understand what happened. (Not that I find what happened understandable in a basic way. How can one.)Stern defines as one of the goals of his book to explore 'how the universal potential for evil became an actuality in Germany'. He thinks it was neither accidental nor inevitable. Has he answered his questions? Possibly not finally. He identifies cultural pessimism as one underlying tendency among Germans, which fostered and enabled the rise of violent nationalism: anti-modernism, anti-liberalism, anti-Westernism, anti-semitism. He also worries that these or similar attitudes are still virulent and cause danger still. Not so much in Germany though. Apart from this heavy question he also gives us plenty of interesting episodes. Like: Fritz Haber, the nobel laureate and in a way Germany's version of a WWI Oppenheimer, the pioneer of the gas war, was Stern's godfather, his Uncle Fritz. Welcome for me: a clear word for Nietzsche and against his vulgarizers who put him in the wrong camp. Surprising for me: he dislikes Hannah Arendt, to some extent because of her relation with Heidegger, the villain. (I would have expected this to go the the other way, that Heidegger could derive some degree of redemption from this relationship.) In the introduction he gives a smart little picture about the self and history: in the 70s he visited Breslau/Wroclaw, his formerly German home town, that he had had to leave as a refugee from the Nazis, and which had become Polish due to the consequences of WWII. He finds a Polish intellectual living in his grandmother's former house. The man has spent time in a concentration camp. Stern has lost relatives in Auschwitz, nearby. He is content about the way things developed with the city and the house, and finds no sympathy for the Germans who were 'ethnically cleansed' out of Silesia. Which is entirely understandable and summarizes the whole issue in a nutshell, although not comfortably.

The history of modern Germany through the eyes of a person

whose family lived through it. Actually this remarkable book is more like a biography of the Stern family which is quite fascinating. Stern uses his personal experiences, and those of his family, friends, and colleagues, to provide a unique perspective on Germany history during those turbulent times. A very interesting read and one that speaks well for humanity, forgiveness, and self-assessment as well as analysis of the political and historical events in Germany.

Part history, part autobiography, awesome and engrossing

Fritz Stern is an impressive writer. This book takes one from 19th century Germany to about 2002, mostly in the context of his own family history. I had a particular interest in the book, because Stern comes from Breslau (now Wroclaw in Poland). I've spent time there and have many relatives living in and around that city. In addition, a family friend escaped the Nazis out of Breslau in much the way Stern's family did. Anyone who is interested in German history should read this book, especially as a starting point. Stern gives many explanations and insights into events that are not commonly known and gives the reader plenty to think about. I have one of his other books, Gold and Iron, that I now can't wait to read. One criticism I had was the chapter on German Themes in Foreign Lands. I can understand the author's wanting to put the lessons of 20th century in a global context, but to me this material seemed like a diversion, with too tenuous a connection to German history. If I want to study China, India, Argentina or other countries, I'd read a book exclusively on that subject. I thought the book started to drag at this point. Otherwise, anyone interested in German history from a German/Jewish/American perspective shouldn't miss this.

A Unique View of German History

Fritz Stern, emeritus professor of European history at Columbia, has produced quite a distinctive book on German history: it is at once an autobiography as well as an examination of Germany during its five most recent identities: Wilhelmine; Weimar; Third Reich; Divided Germany; and finally unified Germany. This dual focus serves Stern rather well--since he was born in 1926, forced to flee Silesia (now part of Poland) for the United States in 1936, and has had extensive involvement with Germany and things German since at least the early 1950's, his personal perspective and activities are quite valuable. Particularly his discussion of the German Democratic Republic (aka East Germany) is full of insights, as is the book's discussion of the Federal Republic (West Germany) and the reunification process. I found it helpful to have a copy of Stern's "Dreams and Delusions: The Drama of German History", a collection of his essays, handy for reference. At over 500 pages, this is a long book, which has a large cast of characters (such as Haber, Kohl, Schmidt, and a whole slew of academics, diplomats, journalists, and others) about whom Stern offers some perceptive insights. To be sure, Stern on Stern sometimes resembles one of those Christmas letters, but after all it is his life he is recounting. An unusual way to learn a good deal about Germany from one who has sought over the last 50 years or so to explain it to the rest of us.

The historian as celebrity

Occasionally an historian becomes famous -- usually posthumously. There are Thucydides, Herodotus, Edward Gibbon, a couple of American historians ending recently perhaps with Arthur Schlesinger. But for the most part historians are archival and campus moles who influence people in small and indirect ways. Here a Columbia historian, Fritz Stern, because of his trans-atlantic life, his brilliant insight into the mind and heart of the Germans who forced his emigration in the Third Reich, his ability to connect sympathetically with many people of influence and enlightenment --here is a man who is an historian and truly an intellectual celebrity. He has lived through a flight from the Nazis, campus upheaval over the Vietnam War, the reunification of a Germany unable to define itself or its history, and the probable end of American hegemony in the world. He has taken all this in and written about it with brilliance and insight. He is the model of an historian of European and world history on the American scene. Just compare this book to the self-serving, arrogant and self-righteous autobiography published a few years ago by another American historian transplanted from Europe, Richard Pipes. Both are accomplished historians and very able in their fields, but Pipes is not the man you would go to in a personal or professional crisis. Stern would be a real mentor, something rare on American or European campuses. This is the book for those interested in Germany, in academia, and in America's role in the world. It is also well written and elegant.