#243 Iron Kingdom (2007)

Author: Christopher Clark
Title: Iron Kingdom – The Rise and Downfall of Prussia (1600-1947)
Genre: History
Year: 2007
Pages: 700
Origin: read on the Kindle
Nod Rating: 4 nods out of 5

 

Christopher Clark’s Iron Kingdom was one of those books that the Worm had been eyeing up for years. Always calling him on the bookshelves in various shops, it was forever picked up and toyed with, but the time needed could never be justified. Fast-forward to the summer of 2013 (O yes, the Worm is really that far behind in his book reviews): time was finally found.

But why waste such time on a history of the odd, disbanded state of Prussia? Well, for those exact reasons: that it was odd, and that it was disbanded. The Worm was curious to find out how it developed from a back-water insignificant land to become a major player on the European scene, providing the backbone to the German rise in the first half of the twentieth century. Few other countries have experienced such a sharp rise from nothing; the Worm needed answers.

Clark takes the reader on a journey, chiefly centred on the Hohenzollern family dynasty and their ability to collect titles and pieces of land in order to expand – in an absent minded way – a country of some importance. We are treated to personality analyses of the likes of the Great Elector and, of course, Frederick the Great. Clark is wonderful in weaving together a family story: of their arguments, values, and yet more arguments. The (almost) forgotten ones are also considered, with Clark adding a degree of humanity and an element of humour when needed. Consider the case of Frederick William I: ‘All in all: he was great in small things and small in great things.’  Furthermore, the careers and ideas of various administrators and politicians are examined (such as Stein and Hardenberg), whilst space is fittingly provided for the pivotal role of Bismarck – the Iron Chancellor – in shaping the German nation.

The military might of Prussia and its great victories and humiliating defeats are recounted. Previous historians have focused on Prussia’s thirst for glory, as if they were history’s Klingons. Friedrich von Schrotter once remarked that ‘Prussia was not a country with an army, but an army with a country.’ Clark is keen to continue this idea of a ‘metaphorical resonance of iron’, connecting the image of the Iron Cross with Prussian flags and military heroism. Such militarism has been attacked by many academics, with many joining the dots of Frederick the Great to the later Nazi leaders. The Second World War painted Prussia as a toxic brand; the British war-time minister Bevin once commented that just doing away with Hitler and Co. would not be enough to ensure a post-war peace: ‘It was Prussian militarism, with its terrible philosophy, that had to be got rid of from Europe from all time.’

Thankfully, Clark offers a fresh perspective on the inevitability thesis of war. He attempts to do away with the idea – trumpeted by A.J.P. Taylor, among others – that there was a clear connection from Frederick the Great to Bismarck and onwards to Hitler. One of the author’s central arguments is how Prussia was not the road to the destiny of German nationhood, nor that Prussia was the reason for Germany’s calamity, its obsessions with militarism, and pursuit of world wars. Rather that the nation-building reached in the late nineteenth century was the ‘undoing’ of Prussia and all that it had achieved in its history.

Interestingly, Clark attempts to define “Prussian-ness”. He states that it had ‘a curiously abstract and fragmented sense of identity’, with no shared sense of history, of language, or values. He adds:

‘The core and essence of Prussian tradition was an absence of tradition. How this desiccated, abstract polity acquired flesh and bones, how it evolved from a block-printed list of princely titles into something coherent and alive, and how it learned to win the voluntary allegiance of its subjects – these questions are at the centre of this book’.

Unfortunately, the book does suffer in areas. Much of Prussia’s social history is ignored, with Clark conforming to the old familiar route of dealing with a nation’s leaders. More frustratingly was the clear issue of pacing. For example, there is a heavy focus on 1813 and a build towards the climatic Battle of Waterloo, only for the big event to be glossed over in a couple of pages. Furthermore, the need to explore the Prussian state to its hideous endpoint in Hitler’s Germany appears forced and – again – rushed. Far better, perhaps, to have left the book in 1918 with the Kaiser’s demise and the end of the Hohenzollern link.

All in all, the Worm was thankful for finding the time to read Iron Kingdom. A fitting title for an iron-clad read based on an enigmatic and dazzling state that once flickered bright before being snuffed out into darkness.

Buy it here