Iron Kingdom : The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947

BOOK: Iron Kingdom : The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947
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PENGUIN BOOKS

 

IRON KINGDOM

 

‘The story of Prussia is one that has been told many times, but seldom as intelligently, elegantly and interestingly as it is here… a monumental history’ Richard Overy,
Daily Telegraph

‘Outdistances the rest of the field, not only for the importance of its subject but for the verve and skill with which it is presented’ Michael Howard,
The Times Literary Supplement
Books of the Year

‘Lively, thoroughly engaging… Clark’s masterly and enthusiastic narrative takes in everything from the role of women in the Junker class to 1920s Berlin cabaret’
Sunday Times
Books of the Year

‘Clark’s comprehensive account superbly navigates clear paths through the complexities of Prussian history over more than three centuries… This ambitious volume, with its elegance and humour, will become a classic’
BBC History Magazine

‘An impressive piece of work. The prose is clear and graceful, the narrative sustained and engaging… he has mined a wonderful collection of anecdotes and personal portraits’
The Times Literary Supplement

‘Excellent… a well-informed and fair-minded historical investigation’
Guardian


Iron Kingdom
is not just good: it is everything a history book ought to be’
Sunday Telegraph

‘Excellent’
Literary Review

‘Masterful… triumphant… Written with growing verve and passion, it is the compelling story of why – of course – Prussia mattered so much more than any German state’
The Times Higher Education Supplement

‘Lively and thoughtful… an excellent account… yields valuable insights’
London Review of Books

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

Christopher Clark is Reader in Modern History at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. He is the author of
The Politics of Conversion: Missionary Protestantism and the Jews in Prussia, 1728–1941
(Oxford, 1995) and a biography of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

CHRISTOPHER CLARK

 
Iron Kingdom

The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947

 

PENGUIN BOOKS

PENGUIN BOOKS

 

Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London
WC2R 0RL
, England
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(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
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(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London
WC2R 0RL
, England

 

www.penguin.com

 

First published by Allen Lane 2006
Published in Penguin Books 2007
1

 

Copyright © Christopher Clark, 2006
All rights reserved

 

The moral right of the author has been asserted

 

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject
to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent,
re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s
prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in
which it is published and without a similar condition including this
condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

 

EISBN: 978–0–141–90402–3

 

For Nina

 
Contents
 

List of Illustrations

List of Maps

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1 The Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg

2 Devastation

3 An Extraordinary Light in Germany

4 Majesty

5 Protestants

6 Powers in the Land

7 Struggle for Mastery

8 Dare to Know!

9 Hubris and Nemesis: 1789–1806

10 The World the Bureaucrats Made

11 A Time of Iron

12 God’s March through History

13 Escalation

14 Splendour and Misery of the Prussian Revolution

15 Four Wars

16 Merged into Germany

17 Endings

Notes

Index

List of Illustrations
 

1
Lucas Cranach,
Elector Joachim II
,
c
. 1551

 

2
Richard Brend’amour,
Elector George William

 

3
Illustration from Philip Vincent,
The Lamentations of Germany
, 1638

 

4
Albert van der Eeckhout (attrib.),
Frederick William the Great Elector as Scipio
,
c
. 1660

 

5
A view of the city of Königsberg,
c
. 1690

 

6
Samuel Theodor Gericke (attrib.),
Frederick I, King in Prussia
, after 1701

 

7
Anon.,
Jacob Paul von Gundling
, 1729

 

8
Georg Lisiewski (attrib.),
The Tobacco Ministry
,
c
. 1737

 

9
Johann Christof Merk,
Grenadier James Kirkland
,
c
. 1714

 

10
Daniel Chodowiecki,
Crown Prince Frederick greets Katte through the window of his cell

 

11
The main façade of the Orphanage in Halle

 

12
Anon.,
King Frederick William I greets the Protestant exiles from the archbishopric of Salzburg
, 1732

 

13
Carved frieze from the epitaph of Mayor Thomas Matthias, St Gotthard’s church, Brandenburg, 1549/1576

 

14
Havelberg Cathedral

 

15
Daniel Chodowiecki,
Soldier’s wife begging
, 1764

 

16
E. Feltner, ‘The Junker’, 1906

 

17
Adolph Menzel,
Frederick the Great visits a factory
, 1856

 

18
Johann Gottlieb Glume,
Frederick the Great before the Seven Years War

 

19
Battle of Kunersdorf, 12 August 1759

 

20
Johann Heinrich Christoph Franke (after),
Frederick the Great
, orig. 1764

 

21
Daniel Chodowiecki,
Frederick the Great opens the sarcophagus of the Great Elector
, 1789

 

22
Johann Michael Siegfried Löwe (after Daniel Chodowiecki),
Moses Mendelssohn examined at Potsdam’s Berlin Gate
, 1792

 

23
Anon.,
Baron Karl vom und zum Stein

 

24
Christian Rauch,
Karl August
,
Prince von Hardenberg
, 1816

 

25
Le Beau (after Nadet),
Napoleon and Tsar Alexander meeting at Tilsit

 

26
Friederich Meyer (after Heinrich Anton Dähling),
The Royal Family in the palace gardens at Charlottenburg
,
c
. 1805

 

27
Johann Gottfried Schadow,
The princesses Luise and Frederike of Prussia
, 1795–7

 

28
Death mask of Queen Luise, 1810

 

29
Friedrich Bury,
Gerhard Johann von Scharnhorst
, before 1813

 

30
Luise Henry,
Wilhelm von Humboldt
, 1826

 

31
Anon.,
Major von Schill

 

32
Anon.,
Johann David Ludwig Count Yorck

 

33
Johann Lorenz Rugendas,
The Battle of Leipzig

 

34
The Iron Cross

 

35
The Order of Luise

 

36
Moritz Daniel Oppenheimer,
Return of the Jewish Volunteer from the Wars of Liberation to his family still living by the Old Custom
, 1833–34

 

37
Karl Sand on his way to Mannheim

 

38
George French Angas,
Old Lutheran settlement at Klemzig, South Australia
, 1845

 

39
Franz Kugler,
Hegel at the lectern
, 1828

 

40
Anon.,
Frederick William IV as a tipsy Puss-in-Boots, 1843

 

41
Anon.,
Hunger and Desperation
, 1844

BOOK: Iron Kingdom : The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947
12.63Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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