Germania: A Personal History of Germans Ancient and Modern

I was surprised to see how polarised views are on this wonderful book. I suspect a lot of the criticism could be avoided if readers' expectations are set right: this book is a travelogue (in the Bryson style) fused with a cultural and political history of Germany. If you're looking for only one or the other, you will be disappointed. But if you just want to find out about Germany, and are ready to accept a few idiosyncrasies of style along the way, you'll love this book.This is what I appreciated: years of German study at school and university were focussed exclusively on language and literature. This book - being all history, geography, culture - frankly doubled my knowledge of the place at a stroke.The book is full of enjoyable and sometimes exquisite humour - providing a valuable pressure valve from the sheer bloodiness of Central European history. The spread of German history is (beneath the light heartedness) impressive, and so is the geographical range. The maps at the front work particularly well.Towards the end, the book reaches a moving crescendo, as Winder describes Germany's descent into World War madness. It was a conflagration of so many wonderful things (architecture, culture, arcane mechanisms of governance, and people) - and this book captures the pain of loss. A crucial perspective for an English readership more used to celebrating Germany's defeat in those wars.The book stops at exactly the right point (1933) - everyone knows what happens next.Here's the one major criticism - the author is often in such a rush to provide commentary and eclectic observations about important events, that he skips the basics. He assumes the reader already knows as much as he does, and it can be like tuning into an internal (albeit amusing) monologue. So there's never really a coherent account of the Holy Roman Empire (how did it come about? why did it end?), or Luther's religious thinking. That said, the 30 Years War is brilliantly handled, as is the 1st World War and much else.All in all the book is a fantastic counterpoint to the Germany = Prussian militarism assumption. Germany emerges from this in exactly opposite colours to the English perception of her: colourful, eccentric, dynastic, diverse, militarily incompetent, vulnerable. For that alone, it's worth reading.

Like some other reviewers I struggled to get past Simon Winder's inability, or unwillingness, to speak German. I am of course familiar with this peculiarly British trait, but it staggers me that anyone can love a country, spend so much time in it, and even write a book on it without taking the trouble to learn the language. Worse, he passes it off as an amusing character foible.However, once I got past my irritation at that point, which he labours embarrassingly at the start, I soon got into the book. I found his style engaging and amusing, though on occasion he doesn't realise that he's sailing over the top and adding flourishes that draw attention to himself, rather than illuminating the subject.It is the story that Winder tells that matters; the story of Germany's place in Europe and how it came to be the country that it is. Winder is successful in making sense of the big historical picture, a picture that we in Britain struggle to see, conditioned as we are by our experiences in the 20th century. It is easy to forget, or even be entirely unaware, that Germany was seen as one of the good guys by Britain up till the end of the 19th century. It was at different times a passive victim and a vital ally in the perennial wars against the real European villain, France. Even as late as the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 Britain was instinctively more favourably disposed towards Prussia.With the interesting partial exception of Frederick the Great's Prussia Germany was one of the more civilised, intellectually lively and unthreatening parts of Europe from the middle of the 17th century until German unification.Winder is skillful and successful in conveying this very accurate, but alternative (to British eyes) version of Germany. There is so much to admire about Germany, and the dreadful 20th century doesn't diminish earlier German achievements, which we are still able to enjoy long after the Nazis.It is also worth mentioning the complicated relationship between the Holy Roman Empire and the rest of the German peoples, which took many centuries to settle down into Austria-Hungary and the endless variety of more or less independent German states that eventually united to form Germany. This is a recurring theme of the book, and Winder never forgets that "Germany" has always been much more than the current Federal Republic.Winder does allow personal idiosyncrasies to distract the reader. His lack of enthusiasm for mountains, and his dismissal of the Baltic coast suggest that he is more comfortable with English landscapes. His judgement may be suspect in that respect, but that is his problem rather than ours! Of far greater significance is his comment that when the Red Army "killed, raped and looted" its way though Germany at the end of the Second World War it was "a vast act of retribution, which it is impossible not to see as nearly legitimate". The Wehrmacht behaved worse in the Soviet Union, but that doesn't alter the fact that the Red Army's depredations were criminal. "Nearly legitimate" is going too far and it jarred.To be fair, the irritations are small parts of the book and I very much enjoyed the vast majority of the 440 pages. The book gave me enough pleasure and insight to justify a 5 star review, but the foibles and failings keep it down to 4. I still recommend it strongly, however.

All of these adjectives and many more, in the most positive sense, apply to this book. As usual I was more drawn towards Germania by the negative reviews than by the positive ones, because in the negative ones I always find exactly what I want to know about the book. Very often if a books manages to sufficiently take the piss out of quite a few fuddy-duddies, it is a worth while read. So it is with this book. Not a straight up-and-down history book, it offers a very personal view on Germany, with all its good and bad (i.e. very dark) sides, abounding in very insightful and original observations from all kinds of unexpected angles, often outrageously funny, sometimes harshly straightforward and bluntly honest, but always exuding a true affection for the country. (Why do so many people fail to notice this, I wonder?) Winder combines a great love of unusual and not too oft-heard words (bring your dictionary and learn something! I did)) with composing extraordinarily long and complex sentences, which offers a delightful challenge to the intellect on several levels, which is what great writing is all about. I was truly sorry to have finished the book and I wish Mr Winder would get a move on with his next book (about the Habsburg Empire).

Very interesting, wittily written, many personal comments about German and Austrian history. Not too many details but informative oversights.

The book changes character as we are guided through time. For most of German history, the content and tone are jocular, often verging on banality. Yet, as we approach the late 1800s, Simon Winder becomes thought-provoking, interesting, informative and worthwhile.If you want to learn about German history from the beginning, you better turn to something like the good, old Cambridge history of Germany. Indeed, you may need it to understand a lot of what is in the book under review.Nor should you expect to be inspired by German achievements. To this end you better read Peter Watson, The German Genius (2010, a title oddly missing in the long bibliography) or John Kampfner’s new and realistic, Germans Do it Better (2020).The book is intended as an entertaining account of episodes from the history of Germany (defined here as the present-day Federal Republic, Austria, Bohemia, Alsace, Pomerania, Silesia, East Prussia and other assorted bits). Winder, who claims to know and love the country, is often inspired by museum pieces. Well, the first twenty pages struck me as funny. But after fifty pages, I found it tiresome. After one hundred pages, the ceaseless, chatty sequence of factoids, misunderstandings and distortions annoyed me. The author kept writing mainly about what he dislikes. One has to look much longer and harder to find places (such as Bamberg) or people (such as Alexander von Humboldt) that he likes or admires. His standard of comparison certainly is not England or the British, which he seems to dislike even more.The author tells us that the 19th century obsession with perfecting the Middle Ages, completing the towers of Gothic cathedrals for example, is an irritating German characteristic. Doesn’t he know what Violet Leduc did to the Gothic architecture of France? What about St. Pancras Station or the Westminster Parliament? He calls Ottonic Emperors “Slav killers” And colonisers. Doesn’t he know that Polish and Bohemian boyars came to the Imperial court for help against rivals, to seek the hand of German princesses and permission to hire Saxon or Franconian immigrants? Just go to Cracow’s Rynek Underground Museum and see how the low thatched huts of the local Slavs were replaced by stone houses, paved streets, sewerage and numerous new and higher cultural goods, when Germans were invited to the city.It has become standard fare to ridicule the multitude of petty principalities, fiefdoms, bishoprics and free cities within the loose framework of the Holy Roman Empire and to point to it as a source of national weakness. Winder cannot resist joining the choir to extract some mirth, criticism and feeble jokes. But the construct, especially through the many free imperial cities such as Nuremberg, encouraged competition and creativity, compared to jurisdictions centred on capitals such as London or. Paris. As we amble through the book, he eventually agrees.Interspersing the account every few pages from the early Middle Age onward with some trite reference to the Nazis may have satisfied the writer. After a while, it annoys the reader, 75 years after the ‘Thousand Year Reich”, which lasted no more than inglorious twelve years. Yet, I am glad that I did’t delete Germania from my Kindle after having waded through the first 250 pages. The tone becomes more serious, the content more relevant to understanding the real history. For example, we learn how integrated many Jews were in the outburst of scientific, technical and cultural creativity of the Bismarck era, and how many earned bravery awards in the Great War. Or how gracelessly the nobility vanished with the unmourned Kaiser.Maybe, a serious student of Germany should start reading from about page 350....

When I first started reading, I was afraid this would be a British supercilious review of a difficult subject. But it was clear that Simon Winder loves exploring German history, and he approaches it with an open mind, a child's wonderment, and an admirable sense of humor. The fact that I laughed so much should not imply that the book is simplistic: he grapples with making sense of historical fact, and in the process offers some nice perspectives.

J'ai seulement lu les dix premières pages ,et je peux déjà dire que l'auteur ne va pas par quatre chemains : il vous emmène à Marburg ( dans le centre du pays ) voir la chasse de Ste Elisabeth .La brave dame s'est durant sa courte vie inlassablement engagée pour les pauvres et miséreux autour de son château et a été canonisée peu de temps après sa mort .Sa tombe est devenue depuis un lieu de pélerinage ,jusqu'à nos jours. Mais , ensuite ,l'auteur vous glisse que la cathédrale a été batie par les Chevaliers Teutons et qu' on y voit aussi le monument funéraire du maréchal Hindenburg ,amené là depuis la Prusse orientale , vers la fin de la deuxième guerre mondiale .Par les chavaliers teutons d'alors, la Wehrmacht .Sous-entendu : voilà un monument du nationalisme allemand .J'ai visité Marburg et son église il y une trentaine d'années , armé du guide Michelin Vert de l'époque . Et effectivement il y avait le monument Hindenburg . Mais au fond de l'église , à gauche en entrant .Peu ou pas éclairé .Je suis sur que sans le guide , je ne l'aurais pas vu . Ce qui est par contre bien visible , c'est que la Sainte faisait l'objet d'une dévotion populaire plus que locale .Ce n'est pas à un pays qui a Lourdes et Lisieux qu'il faut expliquer ce que c'est la dévotion populaire .Conclusion : si c'est pour visiter le grand voisin , il vaut mieux emmener le Guide Vert .

Funny and entertaining,but also a great introduction to German literature for the reader who may be interested in delving more deeply into German culture. I was however put off by the numerous references to Nazism and the frequent, in fact boringly frequent linking of customs, towns, in fact most things German to Nazism.