Hitler Adolf - Go-betweens for Hitler

Queen Victoria:

This clever and enlightening biography of Queen Victoria is a gripping read. With humour and psychological expertise Karina Urbach portrayssupported by a multitude of documentsan impressive portrait of this woman.

Christopher Clark, University of Cambridge

This short and readable biography of Queen Victoria is a remarkable achievement. First and foremost, it is a masterpiece of a biographical miniature, not in terms of its scholarliness, insight or intellectual powerall of which are by no means in short supply given its proportions. Rather, it manages to be readable, clear, interesting, witty and brief, and yet also important. The failure of academic historians to consider Queen Victoria seriously has meant she has been enigmatic to date. A triumph of Karina Urbachs book is that, by its end, if anything, Victoria has become more seriously and urgently so.

John Davis, Sehepunkte

A little masterpiece

Andreas Rose, Historische Zeitschrift

Bismarcks Favourite Englishman:

Karina Urbach has managed to bring together an impressive amount of new evidence She gives us a balanced, carefully researched and gracefully written account of personalities and policies.

James J. Sheehan, Times Literary Supplement

Karina Urbach has a light touch and a sharp eye. She provides vivid portraits of William I, Berlin in the 1870s and the great Bismarck, with whom Russell had a close relationship. Here is a work which is a sheer delight to read.

Jonathan Steinberg, University of Pennsylvania, and author of Bismarck: A Life

Many of us have been go-betweens at one time or another in our lives. We may have conveyed messages between siblings, parents, or friends after a misunderstanding or argument. But go-betweens not only exist on a personal level, they are also employed in high politics, well hidden from the public eye. Right now they may be working where official channels have become stuck.

Go-betweens are not an invention of the twenty-first century, they have existed for a long time. Those in power who have launched go-between missions over the last century have done so regardless of the form of government. But a common thread existed when it came to choosing the ideal person for such missions: up to 1945 they were mainly members of the aristocracy from every corner of Europe. Only after the Second World War were these people replaced by international businessmen, secret servicemen, and journalists.

In the American television series House of Cards, the Vice-President snarls at a congressional inquiry: When a back channel becomes public, it defeats its purpose. It has been my purpose for the last five years to highlight the role of the back channel in the first half of the twentieth century. This book uses new sources found in thirty archives in the United States, Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic.

It has been a pleasure writing this story because it gave me a chance to meet real life go-betweens. Following James Watsons advice avoid boring people, I have been spoilt with wonderful friends and colleagues. This is a, probably, incomplete list of them: Denys Blakeway, Gerry Bradshaw, Christopher Clark, Matthew Cotton, Shawn Donnelley, Andreas Fahrmeir, Otto Feldbauer, Lothar Gall, Ulrike Grunewald, Stefan Halper, Klaus Hildebrand, Paul Hoser, Eva Klesse, Jeremy Noakes, Klaus Roser, Jonathan Steinberg, the Stolzenbergs, Natascha Stber, Miles Taylor, the Unholzers, Adele Warner.

The Austrian novelist Thomas Bernhard coined the idea of Lebensmensch. I have had three such people in my life: my mother Wera Frydtberg (2008), who was not just a great actress but also the most enchanting person I have ever met; my son Timothy, and my husband Jonathan Haslam, who have made me so happy.

London, June 2015