Iron Kingdom : The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947
Read Iron Kingdom : The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 Online
Authors: Christopher Clark
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
The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947
PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
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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
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