Germania: In Wayward Pursuit of the Germans and Their History

Written by Simon Winder

Narrated by James Cameron Stewart

Sitting on a bench at a communal table in a restaurant in Regensburg, his plate loaded with disturbing amounts of bratwurst and sauerkraut made golden by candlelight shining through a massive glass of beer, Simon Winder was happily swinging his legs when a couple from Rottweil politely but awkwardly asked: "So: why are you here?"

This book is an attempt to answer that question. Why spend time wandering around a country that remains a sort of dead zone for many foreigners, surrounded as it is by a force field of historical, linguistic, climatic, and gastronomic barriers? Winder's book is propelled by a wish to reclaim the brilliant, chaotic, endlessly varied German civilization that the Nazis buried and ruined, and that, since 1945, so many Germans have worked to rebuild.

Germania is a very funny book on serious topics-how we are misled by history, how we twist history, and how sometimes it is best to know no history at all. It is a book full of curiosities: odd food, castles, mad princes, fairy tales, and horse-mating videos. It is about the limits of language, the meaning of culture, and the pleasure of townscape.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: May 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781541484252

Simon Winder

Simon Winder is the author of the highly praised The Man Who Saved Britain and a trilogy of books about the history of Europe: Germania, Danubia and Lotharingia. He works in publishing and lives in Wandsworth Town.

Reviews for Germania

[pdcread · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Germany. The industrial and economic behemoth of the modern Europe. But it hasn’t always been that way. In this book Winder takes us way back into Germanys past, as far as the Romans even, before bringing up to the relatively modern age. The Germany of this age was a frontier of the Roman empire, similar to the far north of England; over the line were the barbarians. There is still architecture from those days too, that has survived countless wars and skirmishes.

Until relatively recently, 1871 in fact, Germany was a patchwork of princedoms, mini states and bigger empires, some really tiny too. Sometimes they all got along, but frequently they didn’t. As he travels around the country he reveals snippets of history about the places he visits. There are tales of battles, disputes, religious leaders whose remains were displayed in gibbets around the town (the gibbets are still there too), of aristocrat princes and barons and the castles and cathedrals that they built.

He does avoid recent World War 2 history, partly because the history that the Germans prefer is prior to that too, and also that they are countless other books on that conflict. He does brush gently against it, looking at the events that lead to Hitler and the Nazis seizing power in the 1930’s.

I was quite looking forward to this one, as I had enjoyed reading another of his called Danubia. That book was interesting, and also witty and fairly often really funny. Sadly this one didn’t seem to have that lighter humour that it really needed to lift it. IT is stuffed full of fact and anecdotes, and come across as being fairly well researched. Worth reading if you have a fascination with Germany, but may not be for everyone. 2.5 stars

[trishrobertsmiller · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love this book. Beautifully written, smart, fun.

[dettingmeijer · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Essays about the identity of the Germans starting with Tacitus (Germania) and stopping with remarks of today but avoiding the Nazi-period although it is looming in the background at least in half of the chapters. Amusing with sometimes great insights from one who considers himself an outsider.

[nbmars · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed Simon Winder’s book Danubia enough to seek out his earlier combination travelogue/history, Germania - a "personal response," as he calls it, to German history.Writing “German” history prior to 1871 presents a daunting task because before that date there was no country known as “Germany.” The land we think of as Germany was composed of numerous principalities, dukedoms, bishoprics, and independent city-states that popped in and out of existence owing to the vagaries of hereditary suzerainty and noble marriages. Winder notes that successive historical maps of the country resemble nothing so much as "an explosion in a jigsaw factory." He does not undertake to present a chronological narrative; rather, he travels around the countryside and regales the reader with stories relevant to the place he is visiting, although the history still manages to be presented in roughly chronological order.Winder is not one to make heroes of long-gone historical characters. Of Charlemagne he writes:"As usual with such leaders, historians – who are generally rather introverted and mild individuals – tend to wish Charlemagne to be at heart keen on jewels, saints’ relics and spreading literacy, whereas an argument might be made for his core competence being the efficient piling-up of immense numbers of dead Saxons.”Rather, the “heroes” of Winder’s story are the Free Imperial Cities such as Strasburg , Nuremberg, and the Hanseatic League that endured the middle ages as independent entities fostering trade and cosmopolitan values. Winder breaks off his history in 1933 with the rise of the Nazis, avoiding not only the nastiest period in German history, but also its remarkable economic recovery after World War II. But he does manage to get in a few jabs at modern Germany, as with his exploration of what it means to “be” German, spoofing the Nazi’s efforts to create a pure Aryan race. After a short summary of the shifts of various unrelated tribes over the territory for about a thousand years, he says, “In practice Germany is a chaotic ethnic lost-property office, and the last place to be looking for ‘pure blood.’” Indeed, he sees German reverence for their deep past as having a corrosive and disastrous effect:"There can be few stronger arguments for the damage that can be done by paying too much attention to history than how Germany has understood and taught its ancient past, however aesthetically pleasurable it can be in operas."Winder livens up his sweep of German history with a tourist’s eye for the unique and noteworthy in his travels, describing the Christmas markets, the Ratskellers (with their massive glasses for serving beer), the ubiquitous castles, dense forests, flower-bedecked windows on half-timbered houses, marzipan in a variety of shapes (including, in one Lübeck shop, models of the Brandenburg Gate, the Eiffel Tower, and the Houses of Parliament) and “endless sausages.” He quips, “There is always a pig and a potato just around the next corner…..”Evaluation: Germania, like Danubia, is a quirky book that could hardly be classified as serious history, although it contains a lot of factual information on an important topic. ("Germany," the author writes, "is a place without which European culture makes no sense.”) Perhaps “travelogue with historical background” might be a more apt description. The writing is sprightly and entertaining, and the book presents an often delightful and decidedly unique guide to the region. (JAB)

[catherinecl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

If you would like to know more about German history than just the events of the Second World War, then I recommend this laugh out loud history of the Germans. Simon Winder has organised his view of Germany history using his travels around Germany and its neighbours to develop themes such as a Germanic cultural obsession with the Middle Ages, the horrors of the Black Death and the Thirty Years War and the role of Free Imperial Cities. Those readers who have a more extensive knowledge of Central European history than me can have fun disagreeing with his vividly expressed opinions and amusing asides. Here is one example from p150, 'One very odd aspect to many European countries, not often noticed, is that, if you start in their top north-wests they are generally unattractive, gloomy, harsh places - but if you travel south-east life gets better. This is drastically true in Scandinavia, but more curiously it works for Spain, Italy, France and Greece.'If you, like me, reside in the fair city of Sheffield (the greenest city in Britain), you too can borrow this excellent book from the public library.

[annbury_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A wayward book indeed, which starts out seeming like an eccentric (and very British) travelogue but ends up as an often perceptive overview of German history. He starts at the beginning, with the Germania described by Tacitus, and ends in 1933 -- because, it seems,,he could not bear to go further. Some of the book verges on cutsey see-how-quaint the pre-Prussian statelets were, but some is perceptive history and powerful writing (the section on the 30 Years War is hard to forget). He doesn't answer The Question about German history -- who can -- but does look behind it, around it, beside it, and through it. Well worth reading, and I would guess very helpful as a travelling companion.

[steve38 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

German history made interestingA really good anecdotal and idiosyncratic history of Germany. Simon Winder doesn't let his lack of expertise or German get in the way. His love of Germany overcomes everything. He glories in the Ruritanian past of today's European superpower. As well as history he provides a wonderful travelogue with lots of ' I must go there, see that' moments scattered throughout the book. And he is a master of digression if not quite on the scale of Tristram Shandy. He shows a little lack of imagination by using a traditional chronological approach to telling the historical tale but he doesn't fail to engage the reader on what could be (is) a long, difficult and complicated story.Read less

[nemoman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I lived on the Mosel in Germany for three years. During that time I wondered at all the history that surrounded me - castles, schlosses, cathedrals, walled cities, and even Roman ruins (e.g., Trier). I could never get a cohesive handle on German history because it seemed so compartmentalized and fractionated. Simon embraces the fact that Germany, until at least the twentieth century, in fact did not have a cohesive history. He presents an extremely readable history of Germany from Roman times to WWII. The narrative is chronological and he tells the story through his own personal travels to small towns and cities throughout Germany and Austria. His writing is humorous, be it poking fun at the ugly art, failed architecture, mundane cuisine, ponderous music, and innumerable, dysfunctional and incompetent minor nobility who ruled hundreds of small, disjunctive, and unimportant principalities.

[dudara_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Germania is, surprisingly, a history of Germany. The thing is though, it's not told from a stuffy, rigorous perspective but instead is told in an easy and humorous manner by the author. It is at times irreverent and long-winded, but it is always entertaining and illuminating.Winder is a man obsessed with all things German. Ever since a childhood holiday in Germany, he has been fascinated by this country that sits at the heart of Europe, but which yet took so long to solidify into a coherent sovereign state. Winder mixes descriptions of favourite locations around Germany with a very liberal dose of history, and a unique perspective on the Germans. The book stops just shy of WWII as the author clearly does not feel comfortable with this dark period in German history. However, the book stretches back in time to the Romans, thus covering a significant period of time.The book is peppered with laugh out loud comments and observations, but when finished reading, I realised that I had also absorbed a large amount of factual knowledge. If only all historical writing was this captivating.