Walther Rathenau: His Life And Work

by Harry Graf Kessler

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Genres: Germany, Biography, History

404 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1930

About the author

Harry Clément Ulrich Kessler (23 May 1868 – 30 November 1937) was an Anglo-German count, diplomat, writer, and patron of modern art. His diaries "Berlin in Lights" published in 1971 revealed anecdotes and details of the artistic and theatrical life in Europe, mostly in Germany, from the collapse of Germany at the end of World War I until his death in Lyon in 1937.

Reviews

[Kenneth · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

This is an astounding work of biography. It is about one of the most interesting characters in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Germany by perhaps the most cultured man Germany produced in that time. Rathenau was born to the successful businessman who founded AEG, the German equivalent of General Electric. Still, he was industrious, studied hard in school, and took the Rathenau enterprise in new directions and created some of his own companies on the back of some of his own innovations. He was very introspective, and developed a deep personal philosophy as well as a complex framework for trying to come to terms with the massive upheavals of the period in which he lived. He published books about his thinking and this made him somewhat famous, for good and ill. The ideas don't really resonate in our contemporary era, but Kessler deployed his considerable erudition, literary talent, and sympathy for the subject to make them comprehensible to the reader and to humanize the man through their exposition. Rathenau also felt he owed a duty to humanity, specifically through service to the state in the war, and to the survival and recovery of Germany afterwards. His keen insights into how the would could and should be organized and his deep understanding of the nature of his opponents and interlocutors during the collapse of the Hohenzollern monarchy and the rise of the Weimar Republic as well as the tragedy of the Versailles Conference considerably softened the blow. He is, more or less, singlehandedly responsible for preventing the Allies from recruiting the Soviet Union into a scheme to increase the burden on Germany and for the rapprochement between those Germany and the Soviets in the Rappallo Accords. Naturally, as a Jew and as a man committed to facing the reality of the situation in which the Republic found itself, he was the enemy of the fanatical fantasists on the right and a cabal of, literally, teenage boys contrived to murder him in his open car in broad daylight. His murder shocked Germany and, for a time, unified the country against the Right. It was not to last, as we all know. The book closes with a letter his mother wrote to the mother of her son's assassin, offering her sympathy for a fellow mother and offering her forgiveness for her son should he repent.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not an easy book to read, at least the first half was not. I agreed with very little of Rathenau's thoughts on government and the running of industries but I enjoyed reading about the German view of things after the first world war. It is amazing that so little is written about him in the so many other books I have read about this period of history in Germany. Of course the author was a friend and believer so the book may be a bit biased. I am not sure if I agree about his thoughts on the SOUL of man which were covered in the first half of the book as I did not understand them.