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224 pages, Paperback
Published March 12, 2026
About the author
Sebastian Haffner
57 books177 followersSebastian Haffner (the pseudonym for Raimund Pretzel) was a German journalist and author whose focus was the history of the German Reich (1871-1945). His books dealt with the origins and course of the First World War, the failure of the Weimar Republic and the subsequent rise and fall of Nazi Germany under Hitler.
In 1938 he emigrated from Nazi Germany with his Jewish fiancée to London, hardly able to speak English but becoming rapidly proficient in the language. He adopted the pseudonym Sebastian Haffner so that his family back in Germany would not be endangered by his writing.
Haffner wrote for the London Sunday newspaper, The Observer, and then became its editor-in-chief. In 1954, he became its German correspondent in Berlin, a position which he kept until the building of the Berlin Wall.
He wrote for the German newspaper, Die Welt, until 1962, and then until 1975 was a columnist for the Stern magazine. Haffner was a frequent guest on the television show Internationaler Frühschoppen and had his own television program on the German channel, Sender Freies Berlin.
In 1938 he emigrated from Nazi Germany with his Jewish fiancée to London, hardly able to speak English but becoming rapidly proficient in the language. He adopted the pseudonym Sebastian Haffner so that his family back in Germany would not be endangered by his writing.
Haffner wrote for the London Sunday newspaper, The Observer, and then became its editor-in-chief. In 1954, he became its German correspondent in Berlin, a position which he kept until the building of the Berlin Wall.
He wrote for the German newspaper, Die Welt, until 1962, and then until 1975 was a columnist for the Stern magazine. Haffner was a frequent guest on the television show Internationaler Frühschoppen and had his own television program on the German channel, Sender Freies Berlin.
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March 19, 2026
A charming and wistful account of the last few hours in Paris of a young couple, the fiercely independent and elusive Teddy and the narrator Raimund Pretzel. The pair met in Berlin, where Raimund is now a junior judge, while Teddy has chosen to study in Paris, where in fact she intends to settle permanently. Without being flirtatious, Teddy enjoys the company of a variety of men who are more or less in love with her, and plunges Raimund into feverish but silent fits of jealousy. If Raimund remains silent, it's partly because he has exquisite manners, but largely because deep down he knows that neither the good-looking Franz nor the dependable businessman Andrews are the issue. The issue is that Teddy has no intention of returning to Germany, and symbolically refuses to let him buy her a student card to the American Institute. Their last hours together, like the rest of Raimund's holiday, are spent avoiding serious conversations and instead carousing with acquaintances and finally catching up on the double with sights like the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower. They also spend a lot of times in restaurants, where Raimund is forever begging Teddy to eat something. By today's standards, Teddy displays every sign of being anorexic, but of the reasons behind her refusal to touch food the young lovers don't talk either. The delicacy of this novella lies in Haffner's way of hinting at the reasons why the bitter-sweet moments enjoyed by this couple in Paris are, given the historical context, likely to be the last of their doomed romance.
Displaying 1 of 1 review