Book of the month 2003

© Picador

Critics have praised it as "the most significant book of the year" and the reading public has already ensured its bestseller status. The "Story" concerns, on the one hand, Haffner's life story between 1907 and 1939, the years between his birth and his exile, and on the other hand Germany's "history" as experienced, questioned, analysed by and interpreted from the perspective of the author while he is growing up during the First World War and its aftermath.

His story is a revelation of outstanding significance on three levels:

1. 1. It was discovered among the estate of this well-known, well-respected and highly honoured historian and journalist, whose work was always based on thorough research and which is always a joy to read.
2. 2. The writing of this story is dated early 1939; in other words Haffner recorded his own experiences and reflections immediately following his emigration (to Britain), without knowing the course of the political developments which was to follow, yet able to predict it intuitively and accurately. It is unique in that it describes history not with today's hindsight. Instead, it is a fresh and cautionary account brilliantly written just a few months before the outbreak of the Second World War.
3. 3. It is a personal story, but at the same time a story representative of most Germans, in that it deals with how the educated average German grappled with his or her rapidly changing surroundings. Haffner was one of those many citizens who perceived the politics of the Thirties in Germany as a threat to their existence, yet had to look on helplessly.

Astonished, irritated Haffner accurately tells of the beginnings of the fall of Germany, which the majority of its people were soon to celebrate as its grandiose rise. He also describes the decline of his home town Berlin, the cosmopolitan metropolis, the glamorous centre of the "Golden Twenties", where fear and terror, brutality and ignorance began to take a hold.

He describes his story as a form of duel between two unequal opponents: one an overwhelmingly powerful, domineering and ruthless state, the other a small anonymous and unknown private individual. The latter is unprepared for the duel and initially tries to retreat into his private sphere; however, without success. Haffner writes,

The obnoxiousness of this 'national revolution' seeped into every crack, occupied private as well as public spaces, spread itself everywhere and resulted, via cowardice, opportunism and panic, in a 'nervous breakdown of millions' and eventually in a people prepared to do anything, who today [1939] are the 'nightmare of the world'.

How did this become possible?

In his endeavours to find explanations for his own experiences and for the incongruities in everyday life Haffner, who at that time was an upcoming judicial trainee at the Berlin Court of Appeal, provides brilliant analyses of the events of the time. It is his belief that what counts is the personal behaviour of each individual, because only the sum of the individuals makes up the "mass of the people" without whom no politician can exist or act. For him national socialist thinking already took root during the First World War, not, however, because of the experiences on the war front but through the experience of schoolboys - who regarded the war as a kind of thrilling game to provide a break in the boredom of everyday life. That generation is now (1939) grown up. Anybody who wants to understand history must peer into the livingroom and ask, what did the everyday life of a family look like?

It became obvious that a whole generation in Germany did not know what to do when suddenly presented with the freedom of a private life. People were used to having the whole meaning of their lives - their deep emotional needs, love and hate, joy and sorrow - as well as all sensations and thrills delivered, free gratis, so to speak, by the public realm ....

The delivery arrived; but it was packaged by those who thought up mass hysteria, mass rallies and a new world order, and who eliminated anybody who did not fit into their concept with brutal methods. And how did the people respond? Confused, frightened, but also enthusiastic. Eventually even those who at first had doubts were swayed:

One started to participate - initially out of fear. However, once one had started to take part, one didn't want to do it out of fear - that would have been unfair and contemptible. Hence the matching ideology was supplied later. That is the basic emotional configuration of the victory of the national socialist revolution.

What was Haffner's intention with his story which he kept hidden away in his desk all his life? The answer might possibly be found at the start of his book:

I have no objections if, after reading them, one forgets all the adventures and vicissitudes which I am telling. But I would be very satisfied if the moral meaning which I am withholding will not be forgotten.

The enthusiasm with which his posthumous work has been received makes one hope that we understand his "message" today.

SD

Bibliografic Details
German	Englisch Translation
Hardcover: Haffner, Sebastian: Geschichte eines Deutschen : die Erinnerungen 1914-1933. Saur, München, 2003 ISBN 3-598-80033-9 EUR 19,90	Hardcover: Haffner, Sebastian: Defying Hitler : A memoir. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 2002 ISBN 0297607626 EUR 22,80
Paperback: Haffner, Sebastian: Geschichte eines Deutschen : die Erinnerungen 1914-1933. DTV, München, 2002 ISBN 3-423-30848-6 EUR 9,90	Paperback: Haffner, Sebastian: Defying Hitler : A memoir. Picador, London, 2003 ISBN 0-312-42113-3 EUR 12,95
Audio-CD: Haffner, Sebastian: Geschichte eines Deutschen : die Erinnerungen 1914-1933. DHV, München, 2001 ISBN 3-89584-897-2 EUR 24,95	Audio-CD: Haffner, Sebastian: Defying Hitler : A memoir. Blackstone Audiobooks, Oregon, 2003 ISBN 0786191414 EUR 56,50