RUDOLF COPER. Failure of a Revolution: Germany in 1918-1919. Pp. xi, 294. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1955. $5.00
| Author | Helmut Kuhn |
| Published date | 01 March 1956 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271625630400170 |
| Date | 01 March 1956 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
186
WESTERN
CONTINENTAL
EUROPE
EWAN
BUTLER.
City
Divided:
Berlin
1955.
Pp.
187.
New
York:
Frederick
A.
Praeger,
1955.
$3.95.
Since
World
War
II,
and
more
particu-
larly
since
the
split
of
Germany,
Berlin
has
become
a
focal
point
in
world
history.
The
Berlin
blockade
and
airlift,
the
June
Re-
volts,
and
the
Berlin
Four-Power
Confer-
ence
in
1954
have
repeatedly
thrust
Berlin
to
the
forefront
of
the
cold
war
and
have
made
it
a
barometer
for
measuring
the
ten-
sion
between
East
and
West.
And
even
when
the
city
is
not
rocked
by
some
dra-
matic
crisis
it
continues
to
command
the
attention
and
concern
of
the
Western
pow-
ers
because
of
its
prime
importance
as
bul-
wark
of
the
free
world
and
as
a
window
through
the
Iron
Curtain.
It
is
indeed
this
latter
function,
made
possible
by
the
four-power
status
of
the
city,
situated
100
miles
inside
Communist
East
Germany,
that
gives
Berlin
its
continuous
significance.
It
is
not
surprising,
therefore,
that
a
num-
ber
of
books
have
already
been
written
about
postwar
Berlin,
both
by
former
American
officials
like
Brigadier
General
Frank
Howley
or
Lowell
Bennett,
and
by
journalists
like
Curt
Riess.
The
present
work
is
also
by
a
journalist,
a
competent
British
observer,
who
attempts
to
read
the
life-pulse
of
this
anomalous
metropolis.
In
some
eighteen
brief,
breezy
chapters
the
author
sketches
the
historical
background,
the
life
and
activities
of
the
burghers,
and
some
of
the
unique
features
and
institu-
tions
of
this
besieged
fortress.
He
obvi-
ously
knows
the
city
well,
has
explored
some
of
the
main
thoroughfares,
theaters,
and
stores,
hotels,
cafes,
and
night
clubs,
both
in
East
and
West
Berlin.
He
is
suc-
cessful
in
conveying
the
atmosphere
of
the
city,
the
scene
of
relentless
and
militant
political,
economic,
and
cultural
warfare
between
two
worlds.
It
is
also,
as
he
points
out,
the
scene
of
spies,
smugglers,
and
kid-
napers.
But
Berlin
is
much
more
than
all
this.
It
is
essentially
the
mental
and
po-
litical
health
of
the
Berliners,
quite
in
con-
trast
to
the
more
complacent
and
conserva-
tive
West
Germans,
that
give
this
city
its
unique
and
admirable
quality.
Berlin
is,
as
it
were,
the
gadfly
of
the
German
body
politic.
It
is
a
pity
that
one
misses
in
this
book
certain
characteristic
features
that
make
Berlin
what
it
is.
There
is
lacking,
for
example,
a
sufficient
emphasis
of
the
refugee
problem
which
at
certain
times
threatened
to
turn
the
whole
city
into
one
vast
refugee
camp.
A
description
of
the
city’s
refugee
processing
center
and
one
of
its
many
camps
would
have
been
a
reward-
ing
contribution.
One
misses
any
discus-
sion
of
such
typical
anti-Communist
or-
ganizations
as
the
Free
Jurists,
the
Fight-
ing
League
against
Inhumanity,
and
similar
groups.
One
would
like
to
see
a
discussion
of
the
functions
and
activities
of
the
Allied
occupation
agencies
which
play a
very
pon-
siderable
role
in
a
city
that
is
technically
still
occupied
territory.
And
although
the
book’s
title
is
Berlin
1955,
the
historical
discussion
would
have
justified,
nay,
re-
quired
a
portrayal
of
the
leader
who
more
than
any
other
man
embodied
the
spirit
of
postwar
Berlin:
the
late
Ernst
Reuter.
Un-
fortunately
the
account
is
marred
by
a
few
factual
errors
and
mistakes
in
spelling.
On
the
whole,
one
is
thankful
that
a
keen
ob-
server
and
a
warm
friend
of Berlin
has
told
again
the
story
of
this
fighting
outpost,
but
one
wishes
at
the
same
time
that
before
long
a
historian
will
produce
a
serious,
bal-
anced,
and
reliable
work
on
this
important
subject.
CARL
G.
ANTHON
American
University
of
Beirut
RUDOLF
COPER.
Failure
of
a
Revolution:
Germany
in
1918-1919.
Pp.
xi,
294.
Cambridge,
England:
Cambridge
Univer-
sity
Press,
1955.
$5.00.
The
author,
a
journalist
and
a
native
of
Germany,
retells
the
often-told
story
of
the
revolution
which
followed
Germany’s
mili-
tary
collapse
in
1918.
He
terms
the
revo-
lution
a
failure
because,
in
his
opinion,
it
set
up
a
democracy
with
no
&dquo;democratic
social
and
economic
substance
to
support
it&dquo;-a
rather
sweeping
indictment
of
the
Weimar
Republic.
In
view
of
this
diag-
nosis
the
writer
understandably
deplores
the
failure.
But
does
he
realize
that
the
only
conceivable
success
of
the
revolution
of
1918,
and
certainly
the
one
anticipated
by
its
leaders,
Rosa
Luxemburg
and
Karl
Liebknecht,
would
have
been
the
victory
of
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