Christopher Clark - Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947

PENGUIN BOOKS

IRON KINGDOM

The story of Prussia is one that has been told many times, but seldom as intelligently, elegantly and interestingly as it is here a monumental history Richard Overy, Daily Telegraph

Outdistances the rest of the field, not only for the importance of its subject but for the verve and skill with which it is presented Michael Howard, The Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year

Lively, thoroughly engaging Clarks masterly and enthusiastic narrative takes in everything from the role of women in the Junker class to 1920s Berlin cabaret Sunday Times Books of the Year

Clarks comprehensive account superbly navigates clear paths through the complexities of Prussian history over more than three centuries This ambitious volume, with its elegance and humour, will become a classic BBC History Magazine

An impressive piece of work. The prose is clear and graceful, the narrative sustained and engaging he has mined a wonderful collection of anecdotes and personal portraits The Times Literary Supplement

Excellent a well-informed and fair-minded historical investigation Guardian

Iron Kingdom is not just good: it is everything a history book ought to be Sunday Telegraph

Excellent Literary Review

Masterful triumphant Written with growing verve and passion, it is the compelling story of why of course Prussia mattered so much more than any German state The Times Higher Education Supplement

Lively and thoughtful an excellent account yields valuable insights London Review of Books

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Christopher Clark is Reader in Modern History at St Catharines College, Cambridge. He is the author of The Politics of Conversion: Missionary Protestantism and the Jews in Prussia, 17281941 (Oxford, 1995) and a biography of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

CHRISTOPHER CLARK

The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 16001947

PENGUIN BOOKS

PENGUIN BOOKS

Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland
(a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand
(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

www.penguin.com

First published by Allen Lane 2006
Published in Penguin Books 2007
1

Copyright Christopher Clark, 2006
All rights reserved

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject
to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent,
re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers
prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in
which it is published and without a similar condition including this
condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

EISBN: 9780141904023

For Nina

Lucas Cranach, Elector Joachim II, c . 1551

Richard Brendamour, Elector George William

Illustration from Philip Vincent, The Lamentations of Germany, 1638

Albert van der Eeckhout (attrib.), Frederick William the Great Elector as Scipio, c . 1660

A view of the city of Knigsberg, c . 1690

Samuel Theodor Gericke (attrib.), Frederick I, King in Prussia, after 1701

Anon., Jacob Paul von Gundling, 1729

Georg Lisiewski (attrib.), The Tobacco Ministry, c . 1737

Johann Christof Merk, Grenadier James Kirkland, c . 1714

Daniel Chodowiecki, Crown Prince Frederick greets Katte through the window of his cell

The main faade of the Orphanage in Halle

Anon., King Frederick William I greets the Protestant exiles from the archbishopric of Salzburg, 1732

Carved frieze from the epitaph of Mayor Thomas Matthias, St Gotthards church, Brandenburg, 1549/1576

Havelberg Cathedral

Daniel Chodowiecki, Soldiers wife begging, 1764

E. Feltner, The Junker, 1906

Adolph Menzel, Frederick the Great visits a factory, 1856

Johann Gottlieb Glume, Frederick the Great before the Seven Years War

Battle of Kunersdorf, 12 August 1759

Johann Heinrich Christoph Franke (after), Frederick the Great, orig. 1764

Daniel Chodowiecki, Frederick the Great opens the sarcophagus of the Great Elector, 1789

Johann Michael Siegfried Lwe (after Daniel Chodowiecki), Moses Mendelssohn examined at Potsdams Berlin Gate, 1792

Anon., Baron Karl vom und zum Stein

Christian Rauch, Karl August, Prince von Hardenberg, 1816

Le Beau (after Nadet), Napoleon and Tsar Alexander meeting at Tilsit

Friederich Meyer (after Heinrich Anton Dhling), The Royal Family in the palace gardens at Charlottenburg, c. 1805

Johann Gottfried Schadow, The princesses Luise and Frederike of Prussia, 17957

Death mask of Queen Luise, 1810

Friedrich Bury, Gerhard Johann von Scharnhorst, before 1813

Luise Henry, Wilhelm von Humboldt, 1826

Anon., Major von Schill

Anon., Johann David Ludwig Count Yorck

Johann Lorenz Rugendas, The Battle of Leipzig

The Iron Cross

The Order of Luise

Moritz Daniel Oppenheimer, Return of the Jewish Volunteer from the Wars of Liberation to his family still living by the Old Custom, 183334

Karl Sand on his way to Mannheim

George French Angas, Old Lutheran settlement at Klemzig, South Australia, 1845

Franz Kugler, Hegel at the lectern, 1828

Anon., Frederick William IV as a tipsy Puss-in-Boots, 1843

Anon., Hunger and Desperation, 1844

Anon., From the club life of Berlin in 1848

F. G. Nordmann, The Barricade on the Krone and Friedrichstrasse, 1848, as seen by an eyewitness

Anon., Frederick William IV receives a delegation from the Frankfurt Parliament, 1849

Anon., Otto von Bismarck at the age of thirty-two, 1847

Anon., Prussian troops storm the Danish entrenchments at Dppel, 18April 1864

Anon., (after Anton von Werner), King William I of Prussia is proclaimed German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors, 1871

The Avenue of Victory, Berlin

Anon., Advertisement for Odol mouthwash

Ludwig Stutz, Anti-clerical cartoon, 1900

Wilhelm Friedrich Georg Pape, Kaiser William II with his family in the grounds of Sans Souci, 1891

Olaf Gulbransson, Imperial Manoeuvres, 1909

Bruno Paul, Buy War Bonds!, 1917

George Grosz, Cheers Noske, 1919

Max Liebermann, Otto Braun, 1932

The Day of Potsdam

Excavation of the Hindenburg Stone, 1935