At first glance, Steven Press’s new book seems to have moved him away from the global concerns of his first monograph Rogue Empires: Contracts and Conmen in Europe’s Scramble for Africa (2017) towards a more concentrated focus on German colonialism in South-West Africa. The great strength of this book, however, is that Press has again depicted imperialism as a transnational and transimperial affair. His study of Germany’s colonial diamond trade shows the connections not just between the colony and the metropole but how both were enmeshed within the broader strands of early twentieth-century globalization and colonial capitalism. In his account, Press explores the competitive nature of Germany’s relations with its rival, the South African diamond company De Beers and its globally dominant diamond syndicate in London which had long controlled diamond sales and prices worldwide. He also explains how and why ‘German’ diamonds from South-West Africa bypassed German intermediaries to be processed through Antwerp, before being sent to the United States for sale to newly engaged couples encouraged to buy these colonial gems as a commodity-symbol of their mutual affection. Focusing on an aspect of the economics of German colonialism that has escaped most historians’ attention, Press lays out the ways in which Germany’s colonial authorities, most notably the Colonial Secretary Bernhard Dernburg, opted for a cartel system centred on the German Colonial Corporation to compete with De Beers. This cartel effectively controlled the trade of diamonds from a legally created ‘Forbidden Zone’ which excluded all non-cartel members from diamond mining. Alongside this, the administrative Regie (which handled all sales and distribution) also excluded other players by certifying, pricing and controlling the quantity of all diamonds exported from the colony. This snug relationship between German capital and the state, Dernburg hoped, would allow Germany to create a ‘second De Beers’ (p. 81).

How did ordinary Germans perceive the turbulent years of the Weimar Republic? Did they describe them in terms of a crisis? How did they position themselves in the mass society of the 1920s and in the social-moral milieus that insulated different life-worlds against each other? How did differences in generation and gender frame their experiences, and to what extent did individuals long for the promises of a unified Volksgemeinschaft? These are pertinent and pressing issues for our understanding of the Weimar Republic, yet they are notoriously difficult to gauge from the usual range of primary sources. As Daniel Führer argues in his thoroughly researched, well-argued and highly readable book, answering them requires an analysis of diaries, as writing a diary offers both a space for self-reflection and an opportunity to inscribe oneself into wider social and political discourses. For the purposes of his study, Führer has chosen six diary...

In this deft and original study, Lorena de Vita has focussed on a key element of the global rivalry between East Germany and West Germany between 1949 and 1969: the Israelpolitik pursued by these two ‘artificially created’ Cold War states, each claiming to have overcome the Nazi past and to represent the entire German people. De Vita, who has done research on three continents in a myriad of languages and archives, has examined all the key published works, conducted significant oral interviews and produced a vibrant narrative complete with evocative illustrations. The introduction frames the book’s innovative focus: although only the Federal Republic established economic, military and (eventually) political relations with Israel, their Cold War competition for legitimacy thrust both countries into the maelstrom of Middle East politics and shaped their behaviour in the Arab–Israeli conflict. The book is divided into three chronological parts: ‘Critical choices, 1949–55’, provides new information...

Addressing the grand theme of European recovery after the Second World War, Ruin and Renewal focuses on the concept of ‘civilization’ in order to discuss not just the physical reconstruction, but also the cultural and mental renewal of the old continent after 1945. Inspired by Reinhart Koselleck’s quest for Begriffsgeschichte, the author investigates the shifting meanings of this protean notion, ranging from the effort to rebuild the tradition of Western Civilization after Nazi barbarism through its broadening with decolonization into an integrationist global view all the way to a populist defence of Christian traditions against a perceived assault by Islam. Paul Betts, a widely published Oxford historian of modern Germany, offers a synthesis of decades of his work, based on an immense breadth of reading in intellectual debates and scholarly literature. The author is strongest on familiar ground when dealing with British or German subjects, but also makes a...

In his autobiography, Das Exil im Exil, the German exile writer Hans Sahl suggests that the writers, intellectuals and artists who had fled Nazi Germany quickly found themselves outside of time, ‘for time was the new doctrine of inhumanity, of the end of reason, of compassion’ (p. 11). Sahl refers to rhetorical geniuses who are suddenly bewildered, an avant-garde rendered obsolete overnight. Unable to understand the new age, they either resort to introspection or turn to the past. Sahl’s portrayal would suggest that the exiles from Nazi Germany were woefully ill-equipped for ‘Zeitdiagnose’, the hybrid genre at the heart of sociology whose aim is to study contemporary societal phenomena with, as Jürgen Habermas puts it, the focusing energy of a burning glass. Zeitdiagnose im Exil. Zur Deutung des Nationalsozialismus nach 1933 offers a refreshing and persuasive corrective to Sahl’s generalization. It focuses, in particular, on ‘das Exil der kleinen...

Eduard Hamm is not one of those whose name immediately comes to mind in connection with the history of the Weimar Republic. Modest and unassuming by nature, Hamm did not seek the political limelight for its own sake and was content to serve the causes to which he was committed without drawing undue attention to himself. Yet no one was more dedicated or resolute in the defence of Weimar democracy than Hamm. Wolfgang Hardtwig’s biography of Hamm fills a gaping hole in the existing body of secondary literature on the political history of the Weimar Republic. In doing so, the author produces a remarkable work that serves as a model for that particular genre of historical literature. One should note, however, that the author is the grandson of the man about whom he is writing and that he grew up, as he candidly admits towards the end of the preface,...