Five Germanys I Have Known

[Jim O]

From The Christian Science Monitor, August 29, 2006

Within a week of Fritz Stern's arrival in New York in 1938, the 12-year-old was banging out letters on his battered typewriter to friends and relatives left behind in Nazi Germany and elsewhere in Europe. The steady correspondence - and carbon copies he saved - marked the early signs of a historian in the making. And what a historian.

From the day he taught his first Western Civilization course at Columbia University 60 years ago, Stern has sought to understand and explain Germany's tortured past. Stemming from his personal experience as a Jewish émigré during the Third Reich, he evolved into what he calls an "engaged observer" of history, becoming an adviser and friend to West German, other European, and US politicians and diplomats, and a prize-winning author and lecturer.

Now, Stern's experience and scholarship come together in Five Germanys I Have Known. Part memoir, part history, the book follows Stern and Germany on a path of personal and political reconciliation: from the world of his Christian-convert forebears - a line of doctors - in imperial and then Weimar Germany, through Hitler's Germany, the two postwar Germanys, and finally, united Germany...

Full review here

[Klaus]

Sounds like a terrible good read. I hope it will soon be avaliable in Europe.

[Lancer44]

I would like to read it too.

Once I read memoirs of elderly person, half German, half Czech, speaking Polish, German, Czech and Ukrainian.
All his life he lived in Lamberg in Galizia. He never moved, but during his life he changed his citizenship five times...
What a history!

Cheers,

Lancer44

[Jim O]

Originally Posted by Klaus

Sounds like a terrible good read. I hope it will soon be avaliable in Europe.

See Amazon.de: Five Germanys I Have Known: Amazon.de: Günstige Preise bei Elektronik & Foto, DVD, Musik, Bücher, Games, Spielwaren & mehr: Fritz Stern

Originally Posted by Lancer44

I would like to read it too.

Once I read memoirs of elderly person, half German, half Czech, speaking Polish, German, Czech and Ukrainian.
All his life he lived in Lamberg in Galizia. He never moved, but during his life he changed his citizenship five times...
What a history!

Good that he spoke all those languages! Seriously, that was not all that uncommon in central and Eastern Europe. Someone from Vilnius might have had a similar experience (Russian until 1918, Polish until 1939, Soviet 19th September 1939-10th October 1939, Lithuanian until 1940, Soviet until 1990, Lithuanian again 1990-present), and that's if you don't count it as Lithuanian from 1918-1920 (or "Central Lithuania" until 1922). Interesting history in that region as a result of the break up of three empires in the 20th century.

I also would like to read this book.

[Klaus]

Thanks for the link, Jim. I ordered it right away. A little expensive though.