Germany

Starred review from August 3, 2015
As with A History of the World in 100 Objects, MacGregor, director of the British Museum, here constructs a materialist history, spinning a collection of historical vignettes from objects both ordinary and extraordinary. MacGregor’s survey of German history moves erratically in its journey from the German
victory over
the Romans in
9 C.E. to the 21st century, but he maintains a theme
in the innate fragmentation of German identity—a fragmentation based as much on ideology as geography. Through artifacts as varied as a sausage, Gutenberg Bibles, and a porcelain rhinoceros, MacGregor illustrates how a composite German identity was forged and the country came to be. He argues that Germany alone among European countries is as obsessed with its future as with its past, repeatedly returning to the pull of memory and ambition among the German people; he notes the humiliations of Napoleon’s conquest that once unified Germany, as well as the Nazi atrocities that haunted the divided nation generations later. MacGregor addresses the great paradox of Germany’s rich humanist tradition and its fall into fascism and authoritarianism, which historians can gesture at but never resolve. His concise lessons in German history form a cogent and fluent account that gets as close to the core of German identity as any book by a non-German could.

August 1, 2015
The director of the British Museum tells the compelling story of a traumatized country through objects and places that represent the enduring strength and hope of the people.MacGregor (A History of the World in 100 Objects, 2011, etc.) examines the multifaceted makeup of what was formerly an enormously fragmented set of local narratives before an actual German identity emerged, most iconically with the Gutenberg Bible of the 1450s, which united the Germans in language and through which "Germany decisively affected the course of world history." The author sees German history framed around "four great traumas" on German soil, each seared in the national memory by certain profound artifacts (such as the Brandenburg Gate and the rebuilt Reichstag): the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648); the invasion of Rhineland and Western Germany by French Revolutionary forces in 1792; the defeat of the Prussian armies by Napoleon and his triumphal entry into Berlin in 1806; and the devastation by the Third Reich. Somewhat erratically, MacGregor moves forward and backward in the chronology. He looks deeply at the early history of the wildly far-flung Holy Roman Empire via cities that once resonated in the German cultural memory-e.g., Konigsberg and Prague, home of Kant and Kafka, respectively; and Strasbourg, notable for its stunning cathedral, which struck the visiting young Goethe as "what it meant to him to be German." Objects such as royal coins, metalwork, and "white-gold" porcelain from Dresden tell much of that story. MacGregor traces the evolution of German identity through depictions of woods in literature (Grimm Brothers) and in painting; the image of the oak and iron cross, both later appropriated by the Nazis; and the creation of the flag and national anthem out of the revolutionary fervor of 1848 that celebrated constitutional freedom. Most importantly, the author finds post-World War II Germany hyperattuned to the need for memorials to victims of terror and oppression-e.g., via the work of painter and printmaker Kathe Kollwitz. A comprehensive record jam-packed with visuals.

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Starred review from September 15, 2015

MacGregor (director, British Museum; A History of the World in 100 Objects) uses a series of illustrations to trace how German character has emerged from the nation's complex past. Germany has had no stable geographic configuration across time. Six maps show the changes from the sprawling Holy Roman Empire with its bewilderment of states to today's Germany, its constituent states serving as reminders of sovereignties now gone. Between lie the traumatic experiences of the Reformation and Thirty Years' War, Napoleon's invasions, and the vastly different empires of Otto von Bismarck and Adolf Hitler. MacGregor argues that German history differs from that of neighboring states in two crucial respects. The consolidation of German dominion came late, allowing dissent (Lutheranism) to grow in the absence of a power strong enough to shut it down and providing multiple centers of entrepreneurship in which innovation (e.g., the printing press) flourished. Secondly, Germany has defined itself by its attempt to acknowledge and grow beyond its past shames, not just the Third Reich but the Berlin Wall. VERDICT There is no better book to introduce readers to the complicated entity that is present-day Germany. Every illustration in this attractive, cogently argued book makes a point.--David Keymer, Modesto, CA

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