Meeting, April 22, 2021

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Jay Carr hosted our ZOOM meeting and then bugged off to take care of more pressing business,  leaving eight of us to hash over Erik Larson’s 2018 well-researched book on Berlin in the 1930’s “In the Garden of Beasts” (2011).    John Sturman led the discussion in his usual knowledgeable way and Kathleen Angelone, Sarona Burchard, John Hawn, Mark Hudson, Bill Briscoe, Susannah Windell, and Dave Young chipped in.

Sturman gave us an excellent overview of the book and the mood of Germany in the mid-1930’s.  Larson had a background in journalism and his diligent work appears to be based in fact.  At times it reads like a novel, but Larson maintains that the dialogues included can be backed up by letters and first person accounts.  The book was well-received.  Janet Maslin of the New York Times gave it a relatively favorable review (https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/books/in-the-garden-of-beasts-by-erik-larson-review.html).  Others quibbled that the fascinating character of Martha Dodd was not fully explored.  Martha was simultaneously bedding the head of the Gestapo (Rudolf Diels) and the NKVD liaison at the Russian embassy (Boris Vinogradov).  Hitler’s pianist, Ernst Hanfstaeng, arranged for her to have a meeting with Hitler, but the two of them did not hit it off.  Martha lived a long and complicated life.  Initially she was supportive of the Nazi’s but came to dislike them and eventually became a spy for the Russians.  After WWII, she married a wealthy American and became an ex-patriot rather than testify against other communists.  She died in Prague at the age of eighty, unwelcome in her native country.

Much was made of Ambassador Dodd’s conflicts with the “pretty good club”  (President Wilson’s characterization) consisting of the wealthy, ivy-league, amateurs running foreign relations.   Although well-educated, Dodd had the common touch and liked to work with the soil.  He was relatively poor and both unwilling and unable to put on the louche parties the diplomats expected.   Initially he took a wait and see attitude toward the Nazi’s but after 1934 became disgusted with them.  The “deep state” in the State Department wanted to get rid of him but he had FDR’s support and no one else really wanted the job.  He would have rather returned to his farm and his scholarly pursuits but his stubbornness kept him on the job for another two years.

The pace of the book is another problem.  So much happened in 1933 and 1934 that there was not much room left in the book to cover the rest of Dodd’s tour which ended in December, 1937 when he and his family returned to Chicago.  Dodd was ill and died three years later.  Martha’s later tumultuous years are crammed into a few pages.  

We discussed the significant isolationist sentiment in the U.S. during the 1930’s.  There were three Indiana Senators serving between Hitler’s election and the beginning of WWII.  Arthur Anderson (R-IN) 1925-1935, succeeded by Sherman Minton (D-IN) 1935-1941, and  Frederick Van Nuys, (D-IN) 1933 to 1944.  Minton was a toady to FDR and a strong backer of court packing which landed him on the Supreme Court.  Van Nuys was one of those conservative Indiana Democrats who often bucked the administration.  Wikipedia has this to say about him: “In 1943 a confidential analysis by Isaiah Berlin of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for the British Foreign Office stated of Van Nuys:  his voting record is a very mixed one; in 1939 he was one of the members of the committee which voted to postpone consideration of the Neutrality Act in June of that year; in October he voted for a revision but not for repeal. Like George and Gillette, he is one of the Senators whom the 1938 purge failed to eliminate, and his feeling towards the President is, therefore, somewhat cool. He voted for Lend-Lease in common with most Democrats, against reciprocal trade agreements, and occasionally votes with the Farm Bloc. A man of very uncertain views tinged with isolationism and liable, on the whole, to vote with the Conservatives.”

Then we were off on a tangent, talking about the impending Russian invasion of the Ukraine.  “In the Garden of Beasts” is full of flashing lights about what can go wrong in a culture.  There is always a thin line between civility and chaos.

This book was enjoyed by the book club which rated it 9.25 on the brilliantly designed ten point KV scale.    Jay Carr has chosen “Why Visit America,”  (2020) a collection of 13 short stories by Matthew Baker examining the current malaise that envelops our beloved country.  In the purple state of Texas the citizens of the town of Plainfield have seceded from the United States and renamed their town “America.  Please join us at 11 AM on Thursday, May 27, 2021 when we will ZOOM together again. [update 5/26/21]. The ZOOM link is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83484658962

Dave Young

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Summary – excerpted from WikiPedia

Larson recounts the career of the American Ambassador to Germany, William Dodd, particularly the years 1933 to 1937 when he and his family, including his daughter Martha, lived in Berlin. The Ambassador, who earned his Ph.D. in Leipzig 40 years earlier; and, at the time of his appointment, was head of the History Department at the University of Chicago initially hoped that Germany’s new Nazi government would grow more moderate, including in its persecution of the Jews. Martha, separated from her husband and in the process of divorce, became caught up in the glamor and excitement of Berlin’s social scene and had a series of liaisons, most of them sexual, including among them Gestapo head Rudolf Diels and Soviet attaché and secret agent Boris Vinogradov. She defended the regime to her skeptical friends. Within months of their arrival, the family became aware of the evils of Nazi rule. Dodd periodically protested against it. President Roosevelt was pleased with Dodd’s performance while most State Department officials, suspicious of his lack of background in their area of expertise, as well as his inability to finance embassy activities from his own wealth, found him undiplomatic and idiosyncratic. The title of the work is a loose translation of Tiergarten, a zoo and park in the center of Berlin.  The other historical figures who appear in Larson’s account include:

American officials

German officials

Journalists

Diplomats

Other Americans

Other Germans

Awards and honors

  • 2012 Chautauqua Prize, shortlist[3]
  • 2011 Christian Science Monitor 15 Best Nonfiction Books[4]

References:

  1. ^ Janet Maslin (May 19, 2011). “Perched in Berlin With Hitler Rising”. New York Times Book Review. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
  2. ^ Erik Larson, In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin, Crown Publishers, ISBN0307408841, 43, 66, 79-80
  3. ^ Staff writer (April 29, 2012). “The Sojourn Wins Inaugural Chautauqua Prize”. The Post-Journal. Archived from the original on May 12, 2012. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
  4. ^ “15 best nonfiction books of 2011: CSMonitor picks”. Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved February 24, 2013.

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