1933 [Hardcover]

Philip Metcalfe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1988

A glimpse into the rise of Nazi power through the diaries of five prominent people living in Berlin during the 1930's.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Using letters, diaries and memoirs, Metcalfe distills the personalities, viewpoints and day-to-day reactions of five alert and often directly involved witnesses to Hitler's consolidation of power. They are: U.S. ambassador to Germany, William Dodd and his high-spirited daughter Martha; Bella Fromm, a glamorous German society columnist who was Jewish and made no secret ot it; Ernst Hanfstaengl, Hitler's somewhat buffoonish foreign-press chief; and Rudolf Diels, the first head of the Gestapo. Events and trends related here include the Reichstag fire, the turning-loose of the Storm Troops, book-burnings and the outbreak of violent, organized anti-Semitism. The bloody Roehm purge of June 30, 1934, when Hitler liquidated the homosexual leadership of the SA, had a shock effect on each of the five witnesses on whom Metcalfe focuses. Their varied reactions form the climax to this exciting, historically important book by a first-time author. Particularly intriguing is the account of the Gestapo chief's "courting" of the American diplomatic circle (Martha Dodd found his "sinister beauty" fascinating), largely in hopes of protecting himself from his enemies. Photos. Paperback rights to Harper & Row.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Germany in the first year of Nazi rule is the setting for this evocation of a period of gathering terror. Unlike most of the recent spate of single-year books, this is not an account of public events. Rather it focuses on five people: U.S. Ambassador William Dodd; his daughter Martha; Jewish society reporter Bella Fromm; Putzie Hanfstaengl, chief of the foreign press; and Rudolf Diels, head of the Gestapo. Drawing on their own accounts, on newspaper reports, and on archival sources, Metcalfe conveys a vivid sense of a society going awry and of jarring incongruity between the normality of everyday life and the new stark violence. For general collections. Nancy C. Cridland, Indiana Univ. Libs., Bloomington
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 316 pages
• Publisher: Permanent Pr Pub Co; 2 edition (October 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 093296687X
• ISBN-13: 978-0932966872
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,677,438 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New respect for journalists, April 3, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: 1933: Personal Recollections of Hitler's Dramatic Rise to Power (Hardcover)

I had this book on my shelf for years before I got around to reading it, and I was amazed! Journalists have been under attack so much in recent years, but after reading this book you will see them in a new light. The foreign correspondents reporting from Berlin in 1933 during the rise of Hitler and facism put themselves in so much personal danger to get the story out. It's an interesting and frightening story.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Berlin in the early Hitler years, October 31, 2000

By 

thom dieben (the Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 1933 (Hardcover)

Recently I read this non-fiction book for the second time. "1933" by Metcalfe gives a vivid picture of the Berlin in 1933 by describing the lifes of various persons playing their role in the changing society of the German capital in one of the decisive years in German history. Metcalfe's information comes from memoirs, published and unpublished official documents and archives. The main players are the new American ambassador, Dodd and his daughter Martha who arrive in Berlin right before Adolf Hitler and his national-socialists take over. Also the arrogant Harvard-educated German Putzi Hanfstaengel, who plays an ever dimishing role in the Nazi regime, the policeman Rudolf Diels and the Jewish society columnist Bella Fromm have their chapters. Metcalfe is able to evoke this year of turmoil in interesting detail. It is not only the picture of the horror to come but also the comical aspect of the intense events in the German capital. "1933" is a book for people intrigued by the question how it was possible that a whole country chose to go the way it did. It is of course very much the American point of view which is described but that makes it maybe even a more interesting one...

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard to Know What's Evil, February 21, 2011

By 

Strange Attractor - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 1933 (Hardcover)

The lesson of Nazi Germany is that people like us and societies like ours can do terrible things. Metcalfe's 1933 follows five individuals through Hitler's first year in power. I had not heard of any of them before reading the book. Of the five, Harvard graduate, Putzie Hanfstaengl, seems most familiar and unattractive to me. He was rich, shallow, incurious, and to the end of his days refused to take responsibility for his actions. Rudolf Diels, the first Gestapo head with his dueling scar, initially seemed an obvious villain. However, his insistence on protocol and legality was ultimately heroic and he left Germany fearing for his own safety.

The individuals did not know the future and the book does not refer to the events of 1934-1945. Without those following events the book would not be so important, but Metcalfe does not refer to them explicitly. He tells the story in its time and finishes the book noting William L. Shirer's arrival without comment. It effectively invokes the subsequent history that I learned by reading Shirer's "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich"