 First edition | |
| Author | Arthur R.G. Solmssen |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Gustav Klimt, Lady with Hat and Feather Boa, 1909 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical fiction, literary realism |
| Publisher | Little, Brown and Company (Boston) |
Publication date | 1980 |
| Media type | Print (hardback) & e-book |
| Pages | 374 pages |
| ISBN | 0316803693 |
| OCLC | 6554764 |
| 813/.54 | |
| LC Class | PS3569.O58 P7 |
A Princess in Berlin is a 1980 historical novel by Arthur R.G. Solmssen. [1]
Peter Ellis is a young American artist studying in Paris in 1922. His prominent Philadelphia family ends his funding to persuade him to return home to become a doctor, but after suffering shell shock as an ambulance driver during World War I Ellis is uninterested in a conventional career. He reunites with Christoph Keith, a former Luftstreitkräfte pilot whose life he saved during the Battle of Verdun in 1916. Now a banker, Keith suggests that Ellis move to Berlin, as due to hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic it has a very low cost of living for those with hard currency. Through Keith Ellis meets the Waldsteins (as fictionalized family of German banker Georg Solmssen), an influential, wealthy, and long-assimilated German Jewish banking family, and he and the beautiful and innocent Lili, the youngest Waldstein, fall in love.
While studying art with Fritz Falke (a fictionalized George Grosz), Ellis meets many important figures in the history of Germany between the world wars including Walter Rathenau, Max Liebermann, Bertolt Brecht, Hans von Seeckt, and Hermann Göring. He witnesses the economic chaos from hyperinflation, the country's debates regarding war reparations and the treaties of Versailles and Rapallo, and the street battles between Communists and Nationalists.
Ellis helps kidnap Keith's brother Kaspar to prevent him from helping other members of Marinebrigade Ehrhardt assassinate Rathenau, and many around Ellis believe that he is an American secret agent. He becomes wealthy from currency trading through Waldstein & Co. while the country suffers from the occupation of the Ruhr. After Adolf Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch Ellis is shot by Kaspar—who joined the SS —as he kills Keith and his wife, a Waldstein. While recovering, Ellis learns that because the economy has stabilized with the Rentenmark his investments are worthless, and he is being expelled from Germany because of the scandal over the murders. After her father refuses to let him marry Lili and take her away from the country's increasing anti-Semitism, Ellis returns to America alone.
A Princess in Berlin won the Athenaeum Literary Award in 1980. [2] Christopher Lehmann-Haupt of The New York Times wrote that "[i]f the purpose of historical fiction is to tell us what the facts, the figures and the history books do not, then ... A Princess in Berlin succeeds admirably"; however, "the effect of experiencing Weimar culture through Mr. Solmssen's looking glass is a little like seeing George Grosz's caricatures as rendered by Norman Rockwell." [3] Todd Walton, also for the Times, wrote that the promise of "a crisp, exciting opening chapter ... bogs down for lack of action ... Perhaps if there had been a little less history and a bit more depth of emotion". [4] Kirkus Reviews was more favorable, giving Princess a starred review and stating that "Solmssen makes virtuoso use of fragmented dialogue ... and of meticulously detailed political/economic tremors, all of it splendidly exposing a society in extremis. Impressive historical fiction". [5] Donna Bird of Green Man Review called it a "very enjoyable read". [6] Ethan Mordden described a scene in Princess as "stunning" and "a Threepenny Opera of the aristocracy". [7]
In economics, hyperinflation is a very high and typically accelerating inflation. It quickly erodes the real value of the local currency, as the prices of all goods increase. This causes people to minimize their holdings in that currency as they usually switch to more stable foreign currencies. When measured in stable foreign currencies, prices typically remain stable.
The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was a historical period of Germany from 9 November 1918 to 23 March 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclaimed itself, as the German Republic. The period's informal name is derived from the city of Weimar, which hosted the constituent assembly that established its government. In English, the republic was usually simply called "Germany", with "Weimar Republic" not commonly used until the 1930s.
Walther Rathenau was a German industrialist, writer and politician who served as foreign minister of Germany from February to June 1922.
George Grosz was a German artist known especially for his caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Objectivity groups during the Weimar Republic. He emigrated to the United States in 1933, and became a naturalized citizen in 1938. Abandoning the style and subject matter of his earlier work, he exhibited regularly and taught for many years at the Art Students League of New York. In 1959 he returned to Berlin, where he died shortly afterwards.
Gustav Ernst Stresemann was a German statesman who served as chancellor of Germany from August to November 1923, and as foreign minister from 1923 to 1929. His most notable achievement was the reconciliation between Germany and France, for which he and French Prime Minister Aristide Briand received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1926. During a period of political instability and fragile, short-lived governments, Stresemann was the most influential politician in most of the Weimar Republic's existence.
Berlin Alexanderplatz is a 1929 novel by Alfred Döblin. It is considered one of the most important and innovative works of the Weimar Republic. In a 2002 poll of 100 noted writers the book was named among the top 100 books of all time.
Groschen is the name for various coins, especially a silver coin used in parts of Europe such as France, some of the Italian states, England, various states of the Holy Roman Empire, among others. The word is borrowed from the late Latin description of a tornose, a grossus denarius Turnosus, in English the "thick denarius of Tours". Groschen was frequently abbreviated in old documents to gl, whereby the second letter was not an l, but an abbreviation symbol; later it was written as Gr or g.
Christopher Lehmann-Haupt was an American journalist, editor of the New York Times Book Review, critic, and novelist, based in New York City. He served as senior Daily Book Reviewer from 1969 to 1995.
Economic collapse, also called economic meltdown, is any of a broad range of bad economic conditions, ranging from a severe, prolonged depression with high bankruptcy rates and high unemployment, to a breakdown in normal commerce caused by hyperinflation, or even an economically caused sharp rise in the death rate and perhaps even a decline in population. Often economic collapse is accompanied by social chaos, civil unrest and a breakdown of law and order.
The Golden Twenties was a particular vibrant period in the history of Berlin. After the Greater Berlin Act, the city became the third largest municipality in the world and experienced its heyday as a major world city. It was known for its leadership roles in science, the humanities, art, music, film, architecture, higher education, government, diplomacy and industries.
The Golden Twenties also known as the Happy Twenties, was a five-year time period within the decade of the 1920s in Germany. The era began in 1924 after the end of the hyperinflation following on World War I and ended with the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
Friedrich Carl Georg Kaiser, called Georg Kaiser, was a German dramatist.
Ethan Mordden is an American author and musical theater researcher.
Henry Martyn Blossom, Jr. was an American writer, playwright, novelist, opera librettist, and lyricist. He first gained wide attention for his second novel, Checkers: A Hard Luck Story (1896), which was successfully adapted by Blossom into a 1903 Broadway play, Checkers. It was Blossom's first stage work and his first critical success in the theatre. The play in turn was adapted by others creatives into two silent films, one in 1913 and the other in 1919, and the play was the basis for the 1920 Broadway musical Honey Girl. Checkers was soon followed by Blossom's first critical success as a lyricist, the comic opera The Yankee Consul (1903), on which he collaborated with fellow Saint Louis resident and composer Alfred G. Robyn. This work was also adapted into a silent film in 1921. He later collaborated with Robyn again; writing the book and lyrics for their 1912 musical All for the Ladies.
Martin Oliver Grosz is an American jazz guitarist, banjoist, vocalist, and composer born in Berlin, Germany, the son of artist George Grosz. He performed with Bob Wilber and wrote arrangements for him. He has also worked with Kenny Davern, Dick Sudhalter, and Keith Ingham.
Rudolf E. A. Havenstein was a German lawyer and president of the Reichsbank during the hyperinflation of 1921–1923.
Hyperinflation affected the German Papiermark, the currency of the Weimar Republic, between 1921 and 1923, primarily in 1923. It caused considerable internal political instability in the country, the occupation of the Ruhr by France and Belgium, and misery for the general populace.
Arthur R.G. Solmssen was an American lawyer and novelist.
Joseph Koeth was a German military officer and politician. During World War I he served as head of the Kriegsrohstoffabteilung of the Prussian Ministry of War created by Walther Rathenau. After the German revolution of 1918, Koeth was in charge of economic demobilisation as a member of the first democratically elected government under Philipp Scheidemann. He again served briefly as a minister of the Weimar Republic under Gustav Stresemann in 1923.
Hellmut Otto Emil Lehman-Haupt was a German-American author, academic, bibliography expert, and rare books expert. After World War II, he worked with the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program, commonly known as the Monuments Men.
