Trieglaff

Balancing Church and Politics in a Pomeranian World, 1807-1948

Rudolf von Thadden

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780857459275
• eBook ISBN: 9780857459282
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Histoire
• Subtopic: Histoire du 20ème siècle

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.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Illustrations
• Preface to the English Edition
• Translator's Remarks
• Genealogical Diagram of the von Thadden Family
• Map of Pommern
• Map of Trieglaff
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 — The Founding Generation: Preservation of Feudal Structures?
• Chapter 2 — Bismarck's Generation: Prussia Becomes Germany
• Chapter 3 — Generations in Transition: Feelers toward the Liberals
• Chapter 4 — The Wilhelminian Generation: Modernization within Traditions
• Chapter 5 — The Generation of the World Wars, 1912–1922: Paths at the Close of the Old Era
• Chapter 6 — The Generation of the World Wars, 1923–1945: Into the Abyss
• Chapter 7 — The Last German Generation: Loss and Remembrance
• Epilogue — History Reconciled: Trieglaffers Old and New
• Appendix A — Timeline and Modes of Transportation from Pomerania to Wisconsin
• Appendix B — Reestablishing Bonds Between the United States and Trieglaff
• Glossary of Terms — The Church in Germany
• Bibliography
• Index of Persons
• Index of Places