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A review by jdintr
La casa sul lago by Thomas Harding
4.0
The fact that this is a book about Germany--and not merely Harding's family's remarkable history--earns it an extra star.
Harding's great-grandfather was a prosperous Berlin doctor, an honored hero of World War I who built a thriving medical practice on the Kaiserallee, one of the busiest areas of the city. He was also a Jew. In 1927 he leased land along the lake, Groß Glieneke, from a local landholder and built a small summer house. For ten years it was a family retreat. Then history intervened.
Harding's family--including his newly married grandmother, were booted out of Germany--but the house stayed, first reverting to the landlord, a right-wing member of the Stahlhelm, a militia that was eventually absorbed into the National Socialists. The Nazis confiscated the land, then passed it on to Will Meisel, a venal music industry exec who thought nothing of buying up Jewish businesses at bargain-basement prices.
The most interesting chapters deal with East Germany. The Berlin Wall cut off the house from the lake, and its residents during that time lived in the middle of one of the world's greatest conflicts, having to pass through a strict security zone just to get back and forth to their houses. This part climaxes with the fall of the wall in 1989.
Harding has written a book that Germanphiles will enjoy. He has made the case that the 'house by the lake' is a monument of German history--and the book traces his efforts to keep the house from being razed by the city of Potsdam, instead lobying to turn it into a Denkmal or historic monument.
Harding's great-grandfather was a prosperous Berlin doctor, an honored hero of World War I who built a thriving medical practice on the Kaiserallee, one of the busiest areas of the city. He was also a Jew. In 1927 he leased land along the lake, Groß Glieneke, from a local landholder and built a small summer house. For ten years it was a family retreat. Then history intervened.
Harding's family--including his newly married grandmother, were booted out of Germany--but the house stayed, first reverting to the landlord, a right-wing member of the Stahlhelm, a militia that was eventually absorbed into the National Socialists. The Nazis confiscated the land, then passed it on to Will Meisel, a venal music industry exec who thought nothing of buying up Jewish businesses at bargain-basement prices.
The most interesting chapters deal with East Germany. The Berlin Wall cut off the house from the lake, and its residents during that time lived in the middle of one of the world's greatest conflicts, having to pass through a strict security zone just to get back and forth to their houses. This part climaxes with the fall of the wall in 1989.
Harding has written a book that Germanphiles will enjoy. He has made the case that the 'house by the lake' is a monument of German history--and the book traces his efforts to keep the house from being razed by the city of Potsdam, instead lobying to turn it into a Denkmal or historic monument.