“Faust’s Metropolis: A History of Berlin”, by Alexandra Richie

1168 pages, Carroll & Graf Publishers, ISBN-13: 978-0786706815

Before reviewing this book I have a statement for the previous owner: you filthy, inhuman, grotesque reprobate. I bought this book for a mere $5 from 2^nd & Charles, and I still feel I overpaid because of all of the damage you’d done to it: to underline as often and haphazardly as you did is to defile a fine book; but to dog-ear the hell out of it to the point of disfiguring it is to desecrate knowledge itself. Your disrespect and disregard for this book makes you worse than the offal found at the bottom of the worst toilet in Calcutta.

Okay, with that out of my system…

Faust’s Metropolis: A History of Berlin by Alexandra Richie is that rare thing: a monumental history on a huge subject that is also accessible to a mass audience. “Crude” was how Goethe described the city of Berlin in 1778, while Stendhal wondered why anyone would construct a city in such a desolate place, but even worse was when it was named the capital of the new nation in 1871 and other Germans grumbled that Berlin was too Prussian, too militaristic, too Protestant and, perhaps most damning of all, too new. Lacking the shine of Paris or the glory of Rome, Berlin nonetheless has been at the center of European history no less than its more alluring cousins, although more often than not for less glamorous reasons. Although remembered more for Bismarck and Hitler (the ghosts of whom still hover over the city), Berlin was also the home of the Enlightenment in Germany and for a creative art scene in the 19^th and early 20^th Centuries, until such pursuits were stamped out by National Socialism. This is an engrossing read, history on a sweeping scale, but while reading I couldn’t help but come to the conclusion that this book is not so much a history of the city of Berlin as a history of Germany from a Berliner’s (or Berlinerin’s) perspective – not that this is a bad thing as any history of Berlin needs must be a history of Germany, as well.

Richie, a fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, is a descendent of the von Moltke family, which has been a major protagonist in Germany’s and the city’s history. Critical to understanding Berlin is the municipality’s conception of itself as the City of German Destiny, a conception that has perhaps done more damage to the metropolis than any foreign occupying army. Equally critical for modern Berlin has been the way German unification was achieved, through “blood and iron” in Bismarck’s memorable phrase, rather than through any nobler, less violent ideals. All-too-appropriate epigraphs from Faust by Goethe open each chapter, and Richie dwells at length on the many, trials, tribulations and triumphs of this city throughout its long and contested history: it’s founding in 1163 by Albert the Bear; it’s destruction during the Thirty Years’ War (and the reason so many early documents were destroyed); its creation as the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701; its first-time (but not last) as the focus of world attention during the Seven Years’ War; the spiraling and out-of-control expansion during the 18^th Century’s Industrial Revolution; its newfound role as the capital of Imperial Germany in 1871; its eruption during the fall of the Empire in 1918; its role as the capital of the (sadly) failed Weimar Republic; the focus if German Expressionism, architecture, cinema, theater; the capital of the demonic Third Reich; its flattening during the second World War; its symbol as the frontline between Western Democracy and Eastern Tyranny with the building of the Berlin Wall; its symbol as the rebirth of Europe with the falling of the wall…but all this is merely part of a sweeping canvas that succinctly covers several centuries of changing politics, economics and social conditions, from absolutism to romanticism; from nationalism to socialism and, tragically, National Socialism. Richie weaves a colorful tapestry and, in the process, adroitly separates fact from fiction, myth from history.

Richie’s overall theme that Berlin has been the engine that has driven Germany for the past several centuries is, I believe, well substantiated. The story of a backwater town in the small Electorate of Brandenburg emerging suddenly in the 19^th Century as the center of the German universe is extremely well documented. From the perspective of the serious German history student this book is a good summary and the footnotes lead to worthy sources. From the reader’s perspective it is a book that you have trouble putting down. I even found myself looking forward to returning home from work each night to begin reading the next chapter, each one better than the one before. I was also gratified that Richie, a Canadian by birth who has lived can Europe for several decades now, was not a bleeding heart moral equivocator: she describes the eveils of Nazism, but also the evils of Communism, as well, and isn’t afraid to call out the hypocrisies and shortcomings of those on the left all over the world who made their peace with this monstrous system. Historians should take note: THIS is the way to reach a mass audience.

“The Habsburgs: Embodying Empire”, by Andrew Wheatcroft

446 pages, Viking, ISBN-13: 978-0670854905

The Habsburgs: Embodying Empire by Andrew Wheatcroft covers almost 1000 years – from the year 1020 to 1995 – in less than 300 pages, which feels like an accomplishment in and of itself. But what makes this book distinct from the many, many other books about the Habsburgs is Wheatcroft’s approach: he writes about “the Habsburgs as an entity, considering ‘the dynasty’ in much the same shorthand way that we do ‘the Church’” – that is to say, he looks at images and documents to consider how the Habsburgs viewed themselves and presented themselves to the world. A great example is the portrait of Maximilian I in which, Wheatcroft notes, “nothing…is what it seems”, as the painting features family members who were dead, who had not met, or who lived in different countries. But “the subject is dynasty, with Maximilian at the head of the Domus Austriae, with his posterity”. By examining portraits like this, Wheatcroft reveals the ways the Habsburgs constructed their own image and iconography. Consequently the book is a glorious mishmash of art history and cultural anthropology, but in the form of an accessible historical narrative; its history the way you want it to be written, informative yet entertaining, with lots of interesting details and whacked-out characters. Not that the Habsburgs need help with this: can we talk about Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, who proclaimed himself “Emperor of Mexico” at the urging of Napoleon III? His last words, in 1867, mind you, were “¡Viva México! ¡Viva la Independencia Nacional!” just before he was shot by a Mexican firing squad. Weird, right?

I am sure there are many more thorough looks at the (very long) history of the Habsburgs as rulers in Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, whole swaths of Germany and huge chunks of the world outside of Europe, besides…but for me this book is a great way to start because it chooses to look at the great big glorious picture, the concept of “The Habsburgs” over the details of their dynasty. To me, at least, it was fantastic. I’ll leave you with this quote from the first chapter of the book describing the Battle of Sempach, fought on July 9^th 1386, between Duke Leopold III of Austria and the Old Swiss Confederacy, as an example of the word-pictures painted therein: “In battle those crests would form a rainbow menagerie, of eagles, boars, lions, bulls, bears, hawks, falcons, and eagles, and other more fanciful beasts, like griffins, unicorns, and basilisks. All would come jerkily to life, like some gigantic puppet-play, standing out above the pall of dust kicked up by the hooves of the rider’s horses”. Good stuff, right? (oh, by the way: the battle was a decisive Swiss victory in which Leopold and countless Austrian nobles died and which subsequently led to the loosely allied Swiss Confederation to form a more unified nation and is regarded now as a turning point in the growth of Switzerland). Andrew Wheatcroft’s The Habsburgs: Embodying Empire follows that “rainbow menagerie” through the centuries as it develops into the tightly controlled imagery of the longest ruling dynasty in Europe.

“Chronicle of the Russian Tsars: The Reign-By-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial Russia”, by David Warnes

224 pages, Thames & Hudson, ISBN-13: 978-0500050934

There are several of these “Chronicle” books about, and I own a bunch of them; thus, Chronicle of the Russian Tsars: The Reign-By-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial Russia by David Warnes is one that follows the format of all the others: basic thumbnail sketches of all of the imperial monarchs of Russia, with all sorts of pictures and paintings and a grab-bag format of tidbits that should come in handy if you ever find yourself on Jeopardy! You’ll read all about the beginning of Rus as a very small land area which, over the centuries, grew into the country we are familiar with today, even with all of the changes of the past decade or two. I thoroughly enjoyed this balanced account of the Czars (I prefer the old spelling), but I wish there could have been more treatment of those that preceded the Romanovs, but it’s probably ‘cause 19^th Century sources are more plentiful than 15^th Century and before.

Be careful, however, as the editor of this volume must have been having an “off” day. In one diagram somebody’s wife is also indicated as that same somebody’s daughter; this is just plain laziness as they evidently neglected to review the diagram and delete the offending 5mm line segment. In another a factoid box summarizing Nicholas II, his father is listed as Alexander II when, in fact, his father was quite obviously Alexander III. Also, the book steered uncomfortably clear of some of the unsolved mysteries of the throne, e.g., by reducing the eighteen-day rule of Czar Konstantin (November 27^th to December 14^th, 1825) to but a single, unstressed sentence. In overall quality, this book compares favorably to the other members of the series: indeed, it is often superior. But, in its striving for balance, it omits some important coverage. More deserves to be said about Ivan IV, “the Terrible” (actuality, Ivan “the Formidable” is the more proper translation of his title Grozny) and Peter I, “the Great”, because these czars made outstanding contributions that shaped the character of Russia, and not only because they were on the throne for 30+ years. The Czars’ role in Russian history cannot be compared to the role of any other succession of leaders in the history of any other nations, for they were the heart and soul of the empire they so tenderly loved with such religious conviction (not to mention “the divine right of kings”); without exaggeration, the Czars WERE Russia.