Through the lens of five generations of Thaddens, this book tells the history of Trieglaff, the village and family estate located in what is now western Poland, from Napoleon's occupation in 1807 to the Red Army's invasion in 1945 and until the departure of the last Thaddens in 1948. At the center of this history of Trieglaff society, economy, politics, and culture is the von Thadden family, notably, Adolph Ferdinand von Thadden, the head of the pietistic revival in Pomerania, and Reinold von Thadden-Trieglaff, the founder of the German Protestant Kirchentag. It intertwines family history with the political history of Germany through its description of Otto von Bismarck's close associations with Trieglaff in the 19th century and its deliberation of the execution of Elisabeth von Thadden, arising out of her resistance to the Nazis, in the 20th century. The source material is richly supplemented by family records kept by "Trieglaffers" in America and from correspondence between Pomerania and America. The book examines the lives of individuals as well as socio-economic and cultural structures, depicting the dynamic changes that the village experienced throughout some 150 years of German and European history; it might be called world history in microcosm. As juxtaposition of formal history and remembered history, it is a serious scholarly source as well as an engaging read.

Rudolf von Thadden is Professor Emeritus of History at Gottingen University, co-founder and honorary president of the Foundation for German-French Cooperation at Genshagen near Berlin, and is still active in his field.

This is a series of reflective essays which pose fundamental and deceptively simple questions about Prussia, which for over fifty years has ceased to exist as a political entity but which continues to exert a strong and unusual influence upon German history and contemporary affairs. Professor von Thadden succeeds in demolishing many of the legends which have surrounded Prussia but pays tribute to the unique role it has played in ushering Germany into the modern world. After dealing with comparatively straightforward questions about periodisation and geographical location, Professor von Thadden proceeds to examine Prussia"s social structure, its political character, its relations with Germany, its church and finally, its relations with Europe. Based on a series of radio talks in 1979, the book was originally published as Fragen an Preussen in 1981.

A. Epochen der preussischen Geschichte seit 1871 I. Preussen im deutschen Kaiserreich, 1871-1918 Fuhrungsmacht des Reiches und Aufgehen im Reich; II. Preussen von 1918 bis 1947 -Weimarer Republik, Nationalsozialistische Diktatur, Aufloesung 1947 B. Grosse Themen der preussischen Geschichte I. Das preussische Militarwesen; II. Die Geschichte der Kirchen und Konfessionen; III. Die Epoche der rus-sisch-preussischen Beziehung