PETE Why I read German Things (in English)
PETE CAKEBREAD
I can’t speak or read German is the short answer. If that unmasks me immediately as a bit of a lightweight then that is my crown of thorns.
In sharing what has probably been one of my biggest enjoyments for over a decade I am hoping to learn a little more myself about why I spend so much time reading this stuff. Something I know is that the piss-taking started before the passion, somewhere between the two A-level years studying the European continent and completing Peter Watson’s 800-page The German Genius, which my mum gave me, in the year(s) after university.
The other half of my A-level history course was 19th century British history. Here we find two of the more superficial reasons why this all started for me. I have grown up in houses of intelligent and well-read people. Intellectual enquiry is generally rewarded with a two-hour shouting match in which some clever and far-too-well-thought-through ideas are pummelled relentlessly into my unprepared consciousness. But utter the name Churchill and hallowed calm descends on the house, perhaps a well-thumbed impression might be delivered or a recently learnt insight into the workings of the war cabinet during the dark days. In response it was nice to get some intellectual fresh air and focus on the other people from whence the Messerschmitts came.
This, for me, is where it starts to become interesting. The separation between British and European history of my A-levels is not even a helpful tool for simplification. It is a meaningless and nationalistic imprint from the cultural mind onto the study of history in what should be a clinical and forensic investigation of the reasons that things in the past happened. But as anyone who has ever seen, smelt, been taught by, bumped into at a church, lent over at the bar of an old pub or hit for six on a Hampshire wicket will be able to tell you, historians come with their very own prejudices. I’m told.
In studying Germany I wanted to go beyond the long-held narratives and clichés and to see if Germany’s past could teach me something about my own country and where it is headed. I am going to share a couple of blogs of interminable detail with gross misinterpretations over the next few weeks about the bits of Germany that fascinate me.
