Time and Power: Visions of History in German Politics, from the Thirty Years' War to the Third Reich

by Christopher Clark

From the author of the national bestseller The Sleepwalkers

How four leaders' understanding of time informed their use of state power

This groundbreaking book presents new perspectives on how the exercise of power is shaped by different notions of time. Acclaimed historian Christopher Clark draws on four key figures from German history--Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg-Prussia, Frederick the Great, Otto von Bismarck, and Adolf Hitler--to look at history through a temporal lens and ask how historical actors and their regimes embody unique conceptions of time.

Inspired by the insights of Reinhart Koselleck and Fran�ois Hartog, two pioneers of the "temporal turn" in historiography, Clark shows how Friedrich Wilhelm rejected the notion of continuity with the past, believing instead that a sovereign must liberate the state from the entanglements of tradition to choose freely among different possible futures. He demonstrates how Frederick II abandoned this paradigm for a neoclassical vision of history in which sovereign and state transcend time altogether, and how Bismarck believed that the statesman's duty was to preserve the timeless permanence of the state amid the torrent of historical change. Clark describes how Hitler did not seek to revolutionize history like Stalin and Mussolini, but instead sought to evade history altogether, emphasizing timeless racial archetypes and a prophetically foretold future.

Elegantly written and boldly innovative, Time and Power takes readers from the Thirty Years' War to the fall of the Third Reich, revealing the connection between political power and the distinct temporalities of the leaders who wield it.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Germany, Politics, European History

312 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 12, 2018

About the author

Sir Christopher Munro Clark FBA is an Australian historian living in the United Kingdom and Germany. He is the twenty-second Regius Professor of History at the University of Cambridge. In 2015, he was knighted for his services to Anglo-German relations.

Reviews

[Clara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es war ein historisches Fachbuch, was natürlich auch immer bedeutet, dass man manche Sätze zweimal lesen muss um sie wirklich zu verstehen.
Auch jetzt kann ich nicht behaupten, jedes Detail verstanden zu haben, was in dem Buch vermittelt wurde. Was ich aber verstanden habe, hat mir neue Einblicke in den Umgang mit Geschichte und Zeit vermittelt, auf eine angenehme und interessante Art.
Christopher Clark kann echt gut schreiben und ich mochte es, wenn er aktuelle Bezüge beschrieben hat. Das Buch ist sehr empfehlenswert, aber nur etwas für Menschen, die sich auch gerne schwerere Lektüre antun wollen und nicht nur hinter einer spannenden Story her sind.

[James (JD) Dittes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Time and Power has an interesting take on history. Rather than being merely a look at Fredrick William (the Great Elector), Frederick the Great, Bismarck, and Hitler, it is more of an exploration of the way these rulers looked at history.

This is a very erudite book, one that a non-academic like me found to be a worthwhile challenge. Considering all that Clark has written about German history--and I enjoyed his history of Prussia very much--I'm pleased that he found a new angle on things.

His conclusions boil down to these:

The Great Elector (Frederick William), who came to power during the 30 Years War and resolved to strengthen Prussia in its aftermath, used history to feature his actions and successes to strengthen his position with landowners--and to justify the taxes that would raise one of Europe's greatest armies.

Frederick the Great wrote history, connecting his rule and his ideas with those of the distant past and setting his kingdom at the forefront of the Enlightenment.

Bismarck saw history as justifications for intervention: first in the aftermath of the 1848 revolution, and later as he jumped at opportunities to unify Germany through war and negotiation. He was the right man at the right time because of his appreciation of history.

And finally, the Nazis, who saw themselves as creators of a new history. I had never seen them called millenarians before I read Clark, but the description is apt. They saw the past as something to overcome, and fantasized about a 1000-year future where all their racist, nationalist fantasies would come true.

Time and Power is not a book I would recommend for casual Germanphiles, but it is a fascinating look at four key players in Germany's past, and how their views of history shaped their actions and ambitions.

[Jost · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lag vielleicht daran dass ichs auf ner Zugfahrt gelesen habe, aber ich kann den Details preußischer Politikgeschichte nichts abgewinnen. Das letzte Kapitel war spannend.

[Jakob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intellektuelles Meisterwerk!

[Isabel 🌈📚✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

a very difficult read

[Taylor Shiroff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Proof that Clark can indeed write spectacular works of history without pushing the page count into the thousands. This book is no introduction to German (or, more specifically, Prussian) history, but I nonetheless found it highly readable despite my far greater familiar with the history of Eastern Europe than Germany. This book was also my first foray into “temporal studies” in history—that is, history that particularly studies the use, understanding, and interpretation of time, history, and (by extension) the future. Here again, I found Clark’s book highly intelligible despite having little experience with this approach to history—indeed, it has encouraged me to add more similar works to my reading list.

Clark focuses on how four different renditions of the German (or Prussian) state viewed history; how they used (or abused) history to accomplish their own ends; and how these varying perspectives towards history shaped visions of the future and of politics in turn. This is spread out over the course of four chapters, one per each person/period, in which Clark expounds on historical thinking of Frederick William of Brandenburg-Prussia (aka “the Great Elector”), King Frederick II “the Great” of Prussia, the great Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck, and the National Socialists (with a focus on Hitler). Unlike his more popular works, here Clark offers scarce narrative history, instead focusing on the “visions of history” of these four figures (and company).

Among the most interesting takeaways, one only made clear once completing the book, is that the progression of thinking about history has not followed a linear or “progressive” path toward modernity. The Great Elector’s use of history in justifying his progressive seizure of power from the Prussian nobility feels, to me at least, considerably more “modern” than Frederick the Great’s “steady state” perspective. Bismarck’s “history-maker”-driven political strategy once again feels modern, yet the Nazi’s abuse, redefinition, and semi-abandonment of history seems as modern as it does pre-modern, or even “non-modern”. Though they were (usually) very well aware of their antecedents’ philosophies of history, successive generations of thinkers were not necessarily leaning or building on the thinking of preceding generations.

This book also has much to offer in terms of helping us understand the current political (especially geopolitical) moment. As Clark cogently argues in the book’s conclusion, the vision of history offered by Frederick William, the Great Elector and his court—the focus of the first chapter—has almost uncomfortably familiar echoes in Emmanuel Macron’s call to action to rejuvenate European Project. Like the Great Elector, Macron appears to see himself and his contemporaries presented with a number of possible futures to choose from; like the Great Elector, Macron has urged his peers to accept a greater centralization of sovereignty to adapt to shocks to the “status quo” emanating from, for example, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

A minor complaint, but this book (especially chapter one) would have benefited from the simple insertion of a map—I found it a bit puzzling to spend over two hundred pages solely focused on one specific region without having a map for reference. Additionally, I can’t help but feel like this book could’ve benefited from a better editor. Though much shorter than his other works, this book has many of the same tendencies as Clark’s more voluminous works: oversized sentences, page-length paragraphs, and the infrequent yet distracting side tangents that need not have made the final draft. At the same time, I feel that more could have been said and/or clarified at times. I found this especially the case in chapter four, on the Nazis, where Clark bounced between a few related ideas without ultimately tying the whole thing neatly together. And although I am not one for bloated conclusions, I also feel as if more should have been said in this book’s. Ending the book in 1945 naturally raises more questions about what came next, questions Clark only briefly addresses. And, as mentioned above, although Clark’s application of the book’s ideas to the present day is fascinating, it also feels underexplored—Clark rightly notes in the introduction how he connects the ideas in this book to the “taking our country back” and “MAGA” slogans of Brexit and Trumpism, but comes a bit short of quite doing so in the conclusion.

All in all, worth the read for those interested in the role that the “visions of history” of these four statesmen played in driving German history in the modern era.

[Legens · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title made me think that this was Clark capitalizing on his fame by putting out a popular account for the general reader... turns out that this is the most theory-heavy of his books which I've read (Iron Kingdom, William II, and, of course, the masterful Sleepwalkers). I found it not always as stringent as a comparative analysis - it felt more like four loosely connected case studies, but worked well as such.

Short summary:
The Great Elector... laid the administrative foundations of the Prussian state, and, with that and his understanding of history and his place in it laid the foundations of traditional Prussian-German state-centered historiography.

Frederick the Great... removed himself from the conflictuous, proto-dialectical idea of history embodied by the Great Elector, and instead embraced an idea of stasis in which the philosopher-king and his nobles live in harmony.

Bismarck... envisioned history as a storm of opposing forces (particularly the state, which he embraced, and social movements, which could be used) that could be skilfully manipulated - like a chess player would do with his pieces or a captain with the wind and waves. Of course, in Bismarck's view (and that of his contemporaries), he was the craftiest chess player or captain of his age.

Finally, the Nazis... thought they would overcome history by realizing the racially predetermined fate of the German people - thus conflating both the long-gone past with the eternal future.

I found the first three parts more interesting than the fourth one, but that may be just because the Nazis' idea of historicity was so intellectually undercomplex.

[Recai Bookreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these kind of books of history, concentrating its ambitions in a more specific part of the past in much greater detail and understanding. The arguments can be right or wrong and it doesn't matter because if the narrative is good enough, that would simply anchor a benchmark in your mind which will be useful during your further readings. This is how you learn history, not via reading grand books titled History of the World, although many times they also can be enjoyable reads.

Also this was such a gem for me: while I was hanging out in Berlin for a visit, alone, visiting bookstores during an ugly day, hoping to find something interesting in English, preferably on history of Germany, I bought this book (choices were really limited), totally unaware that I had already enjoyed on youtube couple of writer's speeches on WWI previously. Such a prize for someone preferring random bookstore checks to a beer in a pub (that came only later)!

I'm usually sceptic on non-standard interpretations on subjects I know next to nothing by people 100 times more erudite than me (and Clark proves to be one) due to the fear of cherry picking by the author. But I believe Clark has accomplished to convey an almost academic discussion to the ordinary ready elegantly and as long as you know that this may be just an interpretation, it proves to be a good anchor for your further readings.

[Michael Samerdyke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very different from the other two books I have read from Christopher Clark: The Sleepwalkers and Iron Kingdom.

"Time and Power" deals with how different historical figures thought about history and tried to shape how others thought of history. While Sleepwalkers and Iron Kingdom were aimed at (the informed) general reader, "Time and Power" feels more like a historian talking to other historians.

Once one gets past the introduction, which lays down the ground rules for the discussion, the four chapters of the book prove very interesting. Clark shows how the Great Elector used history as a weapon against the Estates of his realm; how Frederick the Great largely ignored the recent history of Prussia to project a Ne0-Classical image; Bismarck saw history as a dynamic struggle to be mastered by a skilled individual (himself); and the Nazis saw history as unnecessary, as racial identity shaped everything.

The ideas raised here were very interesting and gave me much to think about. Not a book for everyone, but if you are familiar with German history, you will find something appealing here.

[Jeffrey Bentley-Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christopher Clark
The author shows how people's orientation to time (viz. to the past, present or future) impacts strongly on attitudes to current issues of the day.
Effective leaders make good use of this fact. An example is the way feudal aristocracy focused on the past, tradition etc., to the exclusion of changes the present and future might bring. This reinforces to the peasants that for them the past defines the present and future.
Christopher Clark uses this 'model' to good effect in his work. However, it is something that can be applied in a wide number of situations.

[Tim Cech · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ein Buch mit einer sehr interessante These, die eine ungewöhnliche, persönliche Dimension der Zeitlichkeit untersucht. Ich liebe solche provokante Thesen, da sich an ihnen abzuarbeiten meist die beste Erkenntnis bringt, allerdings führt so ein Vorgehen dazu, dass die These des Buches auch recht leicht angreifbar ist, wie der Author auch selber antizipiert. Insbesondere die Ausführung über die Zeitlichkeit des 3. Reiches fand ich interessant aber im Ergebnis wenig überzeugend, da sie aus sehr Heterogenität Quellen konstruiert wurde. In Gänze also ein tolles populärwissenschaftliches Buch für alle, die neu über den Zusammenhang zwischen Zeit und Macht nachdenken und damit eine nützliche analytische Kategorie gewinnen wollen.

[Wyatt Browdy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book from a great historian but Clark relies too heavily on Koselleck as opposed to other historians of historicity and temporality. The effect of too much Koselleck is an exclusion of the radical tradition, basically in its entirety, which is a major historiographical gap.

This is a broader criticism of the “temporal turn” in history, which I generally welcome. There is a rich history of radical thinkers dealing with—some could even say leading, after Heidegger—the problematic of time and history. He calls Vanessa Ogle’s book magisterial and then ignores all of her theoretical influences. No mention of E.P. Thompson, Moishe Postone, Marx’s theory of time, much less Walter Benjamin

[Stanley Xue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Literally explores the relationship between those in power and how they thought about time - as demonstrated through 4 case studies (the Great Elector, Frederick II, Bismarck, and the Nazis). Very analytical and academic-like in its exploration. Haven't come across a history book like this before.

[Debbie Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting look at the concept of time and the relationship between time and power. How do we connect the past to the future? How do we deal with historical memory? Historicity is not a matter of a wrong and right way to look at history. It is an understanding of cultural relevance.

[Joseph Jupille · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and sensible on an interesting (to me) topic.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but sometimes heavy to listen to

[Poppy · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting way to think about historical figures and temporality. elite history but love the way Clarke writes

[Mathias · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is discussing the conception of time by different ruling bodies of the german history. It is mostly dealing with rather abstract and academic discussion topics. Overall I liked the book, but it is not amazing. Its something thats interesting to read and interesting to think about, but its not a great book.

[Daniel Holland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of weird. Preferred the section on Friedrich Wilhelm to the modern sections.

[José Angel · Rating 5 out of 5]

El libro muestra en un solo hilo narrativo, dos de las obsesiones más prominentes de las élites alemanas a través de los últimos siglos: el concepto de Estado y el de Tiempo.  Concretamente son cuatro instantáneas de Alemania: la centralización del poder en el rey de Prusia (Federico Guillermo), el apogeo intelectual y despótico de  Federico II, la formación del Estado alemán moderno unificado con Bismarck y finalmente la negación de la historia en pos de la definición racial por parte de H!-tler. Lo interesante es como la auto-percepción del pasado (la historia) da forma a la toma de decisiones que afectan el futuro (que a su vez será reinterpretado por los tiempos venideros). Y Alemania es un gran caso de estudio dada su violenta historia y su incesante renacer de los tropiezos en su definición como Estado hegemónico.