Dreams and Delusions: The Drama of German History [Paperback]

Fritz Stern (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 10, 1999

This highly praised collection of essays by eminent historian Fritz Stern ponders the monumental promise and catastrophe of twentieth-century German history.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this collection of lectures and articles, Stern assays continuities and contradictions of modern German history, raising anew the question of why so many Germans were seduced by National Socialism. In a piece titled "The Burden of Success" he argues that until the advent of Hitler the story of German Jewry was one of triumph"partial, embattled, vilified, but triumph nevertheless." In "Germany and the United States: Visions of a Declining Virtue," he discusses what he calls the return of the repressed, the reemergence of "a whole complex of guilt, shame, and forbidden longing." Other essays deal with Albert Einstein's antipathy to Germany, the life of German scientist Fritz Haber, and Ernst Reuter, democratic socialist of the Weimar Republic. In the final section, Stern reviews American scholarship in the field of German history. Stern is the author of Iron and Gold: Bismark, Bleichroder and the Building of the German Empire.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

An exceptionally rich and incisive collection on the German experience by a preeminent authority on modern Germany. Stern's essays include biographical analyses of Einstein and Fritz Haber, an examination of the Jews in German society, and an eloquent piece on the "temptation" of National Socialism. Also included are pieces on German-American relations in the postwar era, etc. Stern was born in Germany some years prior to Hitler's rule, and his essays possess a special yet balanced perspective. His reflections on the development of the German psyche are invaluable and should be read by anyone interested in the tragedy of the Nazis. Recommended for all academic libraries. Joseph W. Constance, Jr., Boston Coll. Lib.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 364 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (June 10, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300076223
• ISBN-13: 978-0300076226
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,355,369 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Emigrants and Returners: Einstein, Haber, Reuter. And was AH an atheist?, June 24, 2008

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H. Schneider "Hamlet" (Pandistan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dreams and Delusions: The Drama of German History (Paperback)

Reflections on German history of the 20th century, from Kaiser Wilhelm to the years immediately preceding the re-unification, by a liberal Columbia historian with the background of a Jewish German refugee.
For me the core of the book, apart from the essay on the temptations of nazi-ism for normal people, is the trio of bio essays on 3 emigrants, only one of whom returned and made his name 'at home'.
Einstein is well known as a non-conformist, a pacifist, a complex genius with his own political mind. He was a double emigrant, literally, insofar as he had already left Germany for Switzerland as a very young man, because he found life and schooling there unbearable. What lured him back after some years was the appeal of the great science center of Berlin. He got there just in time for WW1. He was never comfortable outside his inner circle of science friends. He left later and he never came back.
Fritz Haber is nowadays not so well known outside science and chemical industry. He was the prototype of the assimilated Jew who made a deal with power and became the German Oppenheimer of WW1. Ironically and tragically, the Nazis didn't give a damn for his merits for the fatherland, forced him out of his leading position in the science world and into exile, where he died within a year after the Machtergreifung, while in Switzerland in transit from the UK to Palestine.
Reuter was a different kind of man: a prodigal son from a well to do bourgeois family, he became a socialist, later a social democrat, had to emigrate, spent his exile in Turkey, and came back to become a leader of the SPD after the war. His main claim for fame is his role in the Berlin Air Bridge, while he was Berlin Mayor. He was the mentor of Willy Brandt, another returner from exile, he in Norway and Sweden. (Since Brandt is my main hero in the post war Germany, Reuter collected plenty of merit points there.)
The essay on why 33 happened has a few interesting paras on Hitler's religion. This is interesting because during last year's debates over Dawkins/Hitchens/Harris, some claimed that Hitler was a proof of the evil of atheism. Well, I think he hardly was, though he surely was not a good Austrian Catholic, as he should have been, and for sure on the bottom line his work was un-Christian, but was he an atheist? Absolutely and emphatically: no!
Stern later was awarded one of Germany's highest literary prizes for his books on German history, the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels, sort of the Nobel Peace Prize for writers. Well earned.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant, original book, January 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dreams and Delusions: The Drama of German History (Paperback)

Stern has a uniquely personal grasp of the rise of the Nazis -- he himself was a refugee -- yet his insight and his presentation is grounded in work of a brilliant and original historian. Stern cites extensively from Eintstein , Fritz Haber, and other prominent intellectuals of the time. He has a deep love and sympathy for Germany. The ramifications of his book go far beyond the time and country that is his subject. I have rarely read a better book, on any subject.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a brilliant, original work of history., January 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dreams and Delusions: National Socialism in the Drama of the German Past (Paperback)

Stern is almost unique in his grasp of European and German history, from Rilke to Rommell. He is one of the best historians I have ever read, on any subject