Born in 1851, Adolf von Harnack was a prolific theologian who helped draft a section of the Weimar Constitution after the First World War. He scandalized the fusty, dusty factions of the church with his provocative teachings. Nothing was taboo, he insisted; every word in the Bible should be subject to scrutiny. Uncle Adolf (as Arvid called him) lived in Grunewald, a suburb of Berlin dense with birch trees and prosperous families, in a three-story house on Kunz-Buntschuhstrasse that was large enough to accommodate a wife and seven children.
