A Scandal in Königsberg

by Christopher Clark

A Times Best Book of the Year 2025

A remarkable micro-history from the author of The Sleepwalkers and Revolutionary Spring

'It takes a confident historian to write a short book… the story is distilled to its powerful essence; he knows precisely what’s important… This small book is many things, but for me what shines brightest is a tale of two renegade preachers who understood women and love' - Gerard de Groot, The Times
Now part of the Russian Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, the former Prussian and German port of Königsberg has always been a somewhat sleepy place, doomed to be famous for having once been the residence of Immanuel Kant. But in the late 1830s, just for a short while, it became famous for all the wrong reasons.

Christopher Clark’s brilliant new book is the result of many years of fascination with this strange case. Sensational accusations were bandied about, implying that beneath the town’s somnolent surface there were dark erotic currents and wrenching betrayals of trust. For the Prussian authorities this was just the sort of moral collapse they feared most. In the aftermath of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, which had unsettled a generation, every lapse could be seen as the harbinger of new storms.

A Scandal in Königsberg beautifully brings to life a time and a place that we would now situate in the tranquil ‘Biedermeier’ years between the seismic upheavals of the 1810s and 1840s. But there is a timeless quality to this small vortex of turbulence, in which spiritual hunger, vanity, professional rivalry, sexual incontinence, naivety and sheer human waywardness threatened to tear a city apart.

Genres: History, Germany

177 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 4, 2025

Reviews

[Ruben · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 - Christopher Clark is best known for 'Sleepwalkers', a 900 page account of how Europe went to war in 1914. It has been lingering unread in my Audible library for years...

This one is much shorter and the history it describes much smaller: 200 years ago in the Province of East Prussia two priests were accused of forming a religious sect and engaging in sexual impropriety with their followers. A real media storm developed (surprisingly, some German newspapers at the time were worse than News of the World) and the priests' careers and reputations were destroyed - cancel culture avant la lettre.

During this period the State was doubling down on religious activities outside the official Church doctrine. But it was also the time of the Enlightenment and increasingly clear that a literal interpretation of the Bible was untenable - Christians were looking for ways to interpret scripture in line with scientific discoveries and an improved understanding of the world. This is at least what the priests attempted, but some disgruntled and jealous former community members accused them of the aforementioned crimes.

Interesting to learn something about a topic, place and time I know very little about. 3,5 stars because it also felt like a bit of a hobby project and the publisher let him have it.

[Mathijs Loo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zeer verfrissend om eens geen uit de kluiten gewassen studie van Chris Clark te lezen. Waarschijnlijk gaat dit boek een voetnoot in zijn carrière worden, maar Clark weet een boeiende geschiedenis neer te zetten van een rechtzaak tegen een christelijke sekte in het Königsberg van 1835.

[Johannes · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5

Let's start by the beginning by acknowledging I didn't like it, I'm simply giving it a 2 starts review for it is a book, a very well researched one I might add, by Christopher Clark which in itself is a mark of quality if there was ever one. Clark is a very detailed-oriented, able storyteller of pretty much unknown subjects, especially those of the defunct kingdom of Prussia. And here perhaps I should give some context, on his amazing "Iron Kingdom" Clark devotes a whole chapter of his book to the religious issues on Prussia in between Lutherans and Catholics, and why this was such a big issue for the kingdom. It is amazing he got to manage so much information into a cohesive narration but it also explains why Penguin chose to use such a small font on its printing as to fit it all. I'm sure there was much back and forth in between his editor trying to rein him in without much success so... back to "A Scandal in Königsberg". It's amazing this book was published in the first place given how uninteresting and arid the subject is, I struggled to keep interest through most of it, again, not Clark's fault, it is just ever so boring, and I love history, especially Prussian one. There is little written over Königsberg, the real Prussia, the area that named the kingdom and allowed its creation on the first place but perhaps the topic wasn't the best.

The book has over 300 pages and almost 80 are his notes, so perhaps that says a lot about it. I'm sad I didn't enjoy it but alas, it is a fact nonetheless.

[Bookish Tokyo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember being fascinated as a child by the splinter of Russian territory that sticks into the side of Europe. A place on the map that draws the eye and makes one curious about its history and geography. Although initially I had hoped for a straightforward history of the territory, what I got instead was something completely different, but also incredibly interesting. 
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Clark paints well the rather ugly city and province of Konigsberg, the city just recovering from Napoleon was yearning for profound experiences away from the prevailing dry rationalism on offer in the city churches and universities. People were looking for something more. In comes two harmless eccentric preachers inspired by the self-made preacher Schonherr who believed it was two primordial eggs, one of light and the other water that created the earth. The former being ostensibly male and the latter female. They were bound in a union and through this theory one could explain everything.
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The two preachers were personable, friendly and imbued themselves into high society. Especially popular with high society women who were desperate to understand the chaotic world in which they live. Ultimately this disturbed the establishment. Rumours began to form of wild sex parties, debauched behavior and kinky sex. Accusations reflected in many ways the proclivities of the accusers themselves. All this of course was false, but it didn’t stop the subsequent trial or the gossip of wild sex orgies.
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A fascinating read. Lightly handled but still gives a good impression of both Koenigsberg and the scandal, which now seems all slightly ridiculous. A huge thank you to penguin and netgalley for the advanced copy. It’s out now in all good bookshops!

[W.S. Luk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though the scandals surrounding religious thinkers in 19th-century Königsberg seem like an obscure subject, Clark's short book bears out his point in the introduction that "resemblances to present-day persons and situations, though not intended, cannot be ruled out". This comparison hinges on how the bizarre theologies of thinkers like Johann Ebel flourished out of a blend of Christian mysticism and the philosophical/scientific currents of their time (Clark engages interestingly with how developments from the writings of Kant to the birth of the steam engine may have influenced these idiosyncratic belief systems), and the way in which the nascent news media and public sphere were mobilised to condemn them.

There's an intriguing point where Clark notes that the hysteria around Ebel's ideas emphasised claims that he and his disciples were sexually predatory and posed threats to young women, only for Clark's research to highlight that no records exist of women criticising Ebel's conduct, only aristocratic men professing to defend their honour. Highlighting the theological and social complexities beneath the sensationalism of this case, A SCANDAL IN KÖNIGSBERG is a fascinating study of a little-known historical controversy, even if Clark's prose is not always persuasive: the book opens with a dense and occasionally aimless profile of Königsberg's history, and Clark's fictitious vignettes of conversations between and about figures of this era are integrated awkwardly in a somewhat halfhearted effort (two such vignettes are featured) to bring novelistic flavour to the book.

[Anne O'Connell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christopher Clark’s writing is clear and engaging throughout his lengthy books Revolutionary Spring (try the audiobook – Clark gives a riveting performance) and The Sleepwalkers. In A Scandal in Königsberg he’s as unstuffy as ever but on a smaller scale. Even on this more limited canvas he gives the reader plenty of background to understand the context in which clergyman Johann Ebel was accused of leading a sect that followed the teachings of an oddball theosopher and ‘encouraged his followers to engage in gross sexual impropriety’. His friend pastor Heinrich Diestel became embroiled in the scandal when he tried sticking up for Ebel.
Clark treats us to a story where pigheadedness and arrogance combine in personal attacks under the guise of clerical propriety. It’s both fine scholarship and entertainingly gossipy. And it has a playful ending of an imagined conversation between a writer and a philosopher reminiscing about the time of the scandal. I recommend A Scandal in Königsberg if you’d like a glimpse of how badly some ostensibly respectable people behaved in the far corner of East Prussia in the 1830s.
Thanks to Penguin Press for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley.

[Leon Spence · Rating 5 out of 5]

A simply outstanding book by a world renowned historian.

A Scandal in Konigsberg focuses on a relatively minor religious scandal and subsequent trial in 1830s Prussia. The author accepts early on that there are not as many sources available to him as he would like to draw definitive conclusions in the matter and this only makes the questions that the book raises more compelling.

The events described touch on organised religion and theosophy, the power of charisma in influencing others, gender roles and sex and sexuality, the role of the media and the power of fake news (as well as a touch of class identification thrown in for good measure). Each of these themes remain pertinent today and the outcome of the events seem oddly contemporary.

Clark has written a short history book that is also a morality tale. I'm sure that it will demand reading more than once and every time invite the reader to draw different conclusions.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christopher Clark is a respected historian, best known for his work, 'The Sleepwalkers,' about the beginning of World War I. This is a much slimmer work, based around a scandal in the Baltic port city of Konigsberg, which apparently has long interested Clark.

It involves two preachers, Johann Ebel and Heinrich Diestel and allegations of sexual impropriety. Clark is very clever here in making modern links between disquiet over a sect founded by Johann Heinrich Schonherr (not a very successful sect to be fair), rumours, disquiet and concern about the popularity of Ebel in particular and the way these attacks destroyed reputations.

It is a salutory tale in these days of conspiracy theories, fake news, social media outrage and populism. One which is well worth reading.

[Kees Paalvast · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never judge a book by its title. You'll be disappointed if you think this will be a story of Rasputin-like proportions.
In fact it is a small history about two preachers who had friends in high places of 1830 Königsberg. It is not as interesting as the title suggests (nor the jubilant review in my newspaper), unless you like to split hairs on theological and theosophical questions.
Unfortunately a lot of the archives about this case are destroyed after WWII, which is pitiful for the details of the story.
And one thing's for sure: also Protestant history has its witch hunts and their own form of Inquisition.
The closing chapter is the best one, where the author discloses the homophobic extent of the history.

[Luísa Bokor · Rating 5 out of 5]

wirklich interessant & lustig