Philipp Felsch is Professor of Cultural History at Humboldt University, Berlin.
Impassioned and full of detail, this is a fascinating snapshot of the period. Publisher's Weekly Felsch's stance (well captured by his English translator, Tony Crawford) is that of a wry but sympathetic participant-observer. You end the book uncertain as to whether you should marvel at the grandiose pointlessness of it all, or celebrate a movement that put pure thought, accessed by careful reading and refined through intense discussions with comrades, at the very centre of life. Sheila Fitzpatrick, Australian Book Review