The only thing Professor of History, William Dodd really wanted to do was complete his magnum opus entitled, "The Rise and Fall of the Old South." But fate intervened when Dodd was chosen by President Franklin Roosevelt to be Ambassador to Germany in the spring of 1933.
Accompanied by his wild, beautiful and literary aspiring daughter, Martha, son Bill Jr. and wife, Mattie, the Dodds sail to Germany with high hopes yet wear rose colored glasses. For the elder Dodd, who had been a student years back at the University of Leipzig, those days recalled for him the old Germany, the Weimar Republic when free thinking people could express their ideas, and celebrate many cultures.
On the surface, Berlin 1933 looks and feels the same to Dodd. Yet small tremors begin to appear: Hitler's rise to Chancellor, the creation of the SA Stormtroopers, hints of blame and dismay against the Jewish population. In fact, early in his tenure, Ambassador Dodd was in agreement with the regimes newfound ideologies.
And slowly things begin to unravel. Dodd is viewed by many as a pedantic historian who lectures about the lessons from history. But his words fall on deaf ears. His pedantic style and quiet staid approach is at first taken as small minded and then downright ineffective.
It's clear throughout the book that Dodd is ill-fit for the position. Only at the end of the book is it evident that Dodd became a prophet of doom---a Cassandra like figure who tried to warn "isolationists" that Hitler would indeed bring the world into war---again.
Martha, Dodd's daughter features predominantly in the book. After having a brief affair with the head of the Gestapo, Rudolph Diels, she embarks on a long-term affair with Russian embassy correspondent, Boris Winogradov, someone she truly falls in love with. Martha, the consummate opportunist becomes involved with artistic and literary members of Berlin's avante-garde. She herself is an aspiring writer and will later on write a memoir and novel of her experiences.
Like a mosaic, Erik Larsen takes the reader through a day by day and at times hour by hour sojourn into the Berlin of 1933-34. The writing,"novelistic history" really transports the reader to a Berlin undergoing small but deadly changes. These small pieces add up to a terrifying portrayal of a country who will become beholden to a newly created dictator named Adolf Hitler.
Here also is the colorful cast of characters including Hermann Goring, Goebbles, Himmler and the rise of the SS. One of the inciting incidents leading to the rise of the Nazis is the June 30, 1934 mass killing of hundreds of dissenters and the infamous Ernst Rohm, head of the dreaded SA. The inner feuds between the SA Brown shirts and the Gestapo SS cause Hitler to renounce the SA as he chooses the SS, led now by Himmler.
This is a riveting, well-written and well- researched novel. Highly recommended.
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Popular Highlights in this book
“At a time when hundreds of men have been put to death without trial or any sort of evidence of guilt, and when the population literally trembles with fear, animals have rights guaranteed them which men and women cannot think of expecting.”Highlighted by 2,330 Kindle readers- In the end, Dodd proved to be exactly what Roosevelt had wanted, a lone beacon of American freedom and hope in a land of gathering darkness.Highlighted by 2,123 Kindle readers
- Tiergarten, Berlin’s equivalent of Central Park. The name, in literal translation, meant “animal garden” or “garden of the beasts,” which harked back to its deeper past, when it was a hunting preserve for royalty.Highlighted by 1,907 Kindle readers
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Customer reviews
Nazi Germany - a Terrifying Garden of Beasts
Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2016
Erik brings to life not only the real-life characters (with Ambassador William Dodd and his wild and adventurous daughter, Martha, captivating the reader), but also the precarious times in which they lived.The transition of a browbeaten Germany morphing into a noxious Nazi regime had to be one of the most eerie and ominous times in human history, especially for outsiders given access to Hitler’s inner circle, or at least to those perceptive enough to see through Hitler’s false facade, like William Dodd.A truly great read that sizzles with the flare of a great novelist’s acetylene torch pen, yet sears much deeper into one's mind knowing this was not fiction, but rather factual history. Erik is a master storyteller/historian, one that has inspired and aided my own literary endeavors. Bravo!
Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2016
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Top reviews from other countries
G. Robinson
First hand account of the rise of Nazism
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 26, 2020
Ralph Blumenau
Nazi Germany, through the eyes of the American ambassador and of his daughter
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 30, 2021
Claire
Brilliant, disturbing and original
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 5, 2015
R Helen
Very interesting and worth a read!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 22, 2012
