Review - The Office and the Past

Review - The Office and the Past (2010)

Edit: As successful as it was, The Office and the Past most certainly will be translated into English and published for the English-speaking market. This review refers to the German edition, but for all intents and purposes any possible changes will be miniscule.

After wading through more than 700 pages of text for the review of this non-fiction blockbuster neither do I think it necessary to grace it with a big review nor do I have the energy left to do so. "The Office and the Past" is a hefty tome, some 880 pages in total with nearly 200 pages worth of annotations. Professional reviews of the publically funded multi-million Euro effort have gone from raving praise to crushing criticism (with the citicism apparently becoming the more crushing the longer one had time to study the book), and one can only hope that the sales can compensate for the taxpayer money spent on the four professors and apparently several dozen staff members contributing to "The Office". Well, as I said, I do not have the will to make this any longer than it has to, so here is what the official overview states about the book:

A historical myth crumbles

The myth that the Foreign Office was a haven of resistance between 1933 and 1945 is among the longest lasting about the Third Reich. What did members of the German Foreign Service really do after Hitler's rise to power? And what was their attitude to their past in the Federal Republic?

From the very first day, the Foreign Office was directly involved in the politics of the NS terror regime. It not only made sure that no one outside the country knew of the Third Reich "Jewish policy" but was also actively involved in all its phases. Everywhere in Europe, German diplomats paved the way for the "Final Solution"; they collaborated in the "registration" of the Jews and in their deportation. Opposition from within the Foreign Office came only from individual members of staff and remained the exception. After the end of World War II, no more than a few civil servants were held accountable for their activities; many of them could count on being reinstated and continued their careers. The shadow of the past hung over foreign policy decisions made by Federal Germany for decades.

Basing its conclusions on numerous files that even today are still under lock and key, the book puts an end to old legends and rectifies the historical perception of one of the most important functionary elites in the country.

But what the actual basic thesis of the book is can be summed up in one sentence:


There were Nazis in the Auswärtige Amt (State Department), before and after the war, and the department supported Nazi policies.

To which I have to say: Well, d'uh! What a surprise...NOT! Just to make this one absolutely clear: Millions of the taxpayer's money were spent to reiterate that:

• the department led by Hitler's darling Joachim von Ribbentrop supported Nazi policies;
• the department which sent a deputy secretary to the Wannsee Conference (planning of the Final Solution) indeed supported Nazi policies;
• the department whose subordinates helped coordinate the deportation of Jews and other "undesirables" throughout South-Eastern Europe did, indeed, support Nazi policies.

Which are all facts we knew without the book. And the charge that the "Auswärtige Amt" reinstated former Nazis after the creation of the Federal Republic in 1949 can also only come as a surprise to the completely ignorant. Of course it did reinstate these people! Diplomats do not grow on apple trees! Selecting and training them is a long and ardous process (there are more than a thousand applicants for each position in the diplomatic corps), and just as with the army or the administrative bureaucracies or the judiciary, there simply was no other choice than to go with the existing pool of personnel. That is no great new discovery, that is common knowledge! There are some new minor facets the book unearthes, but to be honest they alone do not warrant a € 35 purchase.

Final Verdict: 1/5. Unless you have money to spare and are too lazy to do some digging on Wikipedia, do not buy "The Office and the Past". The hype around it is unsubstantiated, and the price is astronomical. The only plus points I can attribute to the volume are that it is meticulously sourced and, in fact, well written, reading more like my preferred English essayist style rather than the overbearing academic German style.