Prussia : The Perversion of an Idea

by Giles MacDonogh, Gile MacDonogh

A history of Prussia from the creation of the German Empire in 1871. The book examines aspects of Prussian life, from the Hohenzollern monarchy to sexuality, from the arts to the importance of the army, and weighing up the evidence for the common perception of Prussia as a scapegoat for Nazism.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Germany

496 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1995

About the author

Giles MacDonogh (born 1955) is a British writer, historian and translator.

MacDonogh has worked as a journalist, most notably for the Financial Times (1988–2003), where he covered food, drink and a variety of other subjects. He has also contributed to most of the other important British newspapers, and is a regular contributor to the Times . As an historian, MacDonogh concentrates on central Europe, principally Germany.

He was educated at the City of London School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he read modern history. He later carried out historical research at the École pratique des hautes études in Paris.

MacDonogh is the author of fourteen books, chiefly about German history; he has also written about gastronomy and wine. In 1988 he won a Glenfiddich Special Award for his first book, A Palate in Revolution (Robin Clark) and was shortlisted for the André Simon Award. His books have been translated into French, Italian, Bulgarian, German, Chinese, Slovakian, Spanish, Russian and Polish.
Reviewing 1938: Hitler’s Gamble in Spectator Magazine , Graham Stewart said: "Giles MacDonogh has repeatedly shown himself to be in the front rank of British scholars of German history. The depth of his human understanding, the judiciousness of his pickings from source material and the quality of his writing make this book at once gripping and grave."

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

'They gave us Kant and Herder, Frederick the Great and Kaiser Bill; they gave us red Gothic castles and dreary country estates; they gave us Berlin and the Junkers, and when they disappeared, their name became part of the English language. But although Prussian (adj: synonym for spartan) can be found in the dictionary, the Prussian state itself no longer exists.

'It is this odd fact about Prussia that makes it so intriguing. Here was a fully-fledged nation, right in the centre of Europe, with its own monarchy, nobility, bureaucracy, army and national identity, which vanished forever. Giles MacDonogh has clearly fallen for the romance of it, and he prefaces this beautifully written history with a description: ‘I went for a walk in East Berlin to look at the still pitted and partly ruinous buildings on either side of the Unter den Linden…’ Anyone who has ever visited the deserted Prussian villages in northern Poland or stood in the ruined shell of an East German manor house will understand what MacDonogh was doing on the Unter den Linden in June 1989. Lovers of ghosts, haunted houses, and faded portraits on crumbling walls will always be fascinated by Prussia, and will certainly enjoy this book as well.' Anne Applebaum in The Literary Review

A brilliant but possibly flawed book. Deserves to be read.

[Lain · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weird book. Mix of history, biography, ethnografy and sociology with large amounts of gossip mixed in. The premise of the book is to rehabilitate Prussia by demonstrating the disconnection between prussianism and nazism. I call the book weird because it lacks a coherent narrative, it continually goes off to describe tangentially related subjects in length without any clear thread to connect the pieces.

The book starts with some very basic sketches of prussian history, touching quickly upon the Teutonic Knights, and giving some space Brandenburg, Prussia and Frederick the Great and his policies. There's little indeed about Napoleonic Prussia, the destruction of the HRE and the growth of nationalism. Bismarck and ww1 is almost completely glossed over, especially Bismarck. There's no discussion here of Bismarcks' motivations, his rise in politics or his policies, or in what way these might be linked to prussianism and later nazism. Instead we are treated to an exessively long narration about Wilhelm II and his court, mostly consisting of gossip about his frivilousness, down to the level of describing the "outrage" felt by personage X at what sort of clothes Göring was wearing when he visited. Contrasting the frugality of Frederick the Great to the wasteful splendour of Wilhelm II seems a poor analysis of the break of prussian tradition leading into nazism.

In many ways it felt like the author wanted to recycle or make use of left-over material from his previous books. Usually this consists of paragraphs built around snippets from the diary of some non-entity. The wife of a local landowner had two butlers, and one of them was blind! Perhaps it was an attempt to make the book more readable, but there are many such "biographies" about various characters, that contribute nothing to the greater analysis whatsoever. In the end are many disparate threads which branch off in their own directions. The end does not feature any attempt at bringing these threads together, or analysing developments from the 1700's into the 1900's. Instead we get a list of which cities were bombed or shelled to pieces and some stories of soviet rapes to wrap it all up. The reader is left to form their own conclusion, mine is that the book is badly in need of an editor.

[Mick Maye · Rating 4 out of 5]

History of Prussia until its demise after WW2

[Markus Zachary Xavier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent alternative history of Prussia