This is an epic novel that spans four generations of a few branches of two Jewish families in Germany, intertwined by blood and marriage. The story begins in 1883 and continues to the tragic end of World Dar II. The Effinger pater familias is a watchmaker in Kragsheim in Bavaria. He marries his daughters off in the nearby countryside, but his sons leave to seek their fortunes on the road, in London, and in Berlin. Two marry sisters and into a family of wealthy Berlin bankers, the Oppners, while setting up a manufacturing factory on the outskirts of the city, starting with screws and eventually producing cars, as the years go by. While two of the brothers from Berlin, Ludwig and Emmanuel work at a private bank, the third, Waldemar is a practicing lawyer, barred from a professorship because of his faith. A liberal, he has lost his religion, except culturally. “Instead of religion, we now have the laws of nature, which promise ever-greater happiness. Science is our religion. What you call eternal life, we call the permanence of matter…. Fear of God, and the belief that the sins of the fathers will be visited upon the third and fourth generations, breed false morality, rather than an honest consideration of right and wrong. True morality can only come from true freedom.”
Emmanuel’s son, Theodor, like many of his generation and class, was a dilettante and aesthete, who preferred to gaze at art than be tutored at the family bank. “Theodor, who was seventeen and an apprentice at his father's firm, was in the process of tying his tie. He found their home life deeply distasteful. He was disgusted by these businessmen, their silly pastimes, their childish games, their idle tinkling on the piano, their dreadful hypocrisy in a time in which the struggle for existence was paramount, and the evolution of the species was the great philosophical topic of the era.”
Waldemar, urged on by his more liberal colleagues, is tempted to convert for his career, but quickly dismisses the notion. “I could imagine accepting baptism because I take the view that Christianity represents the evolution of the ancient religion of the Prophets into a milder, gentler ethics, centuries later. But the moment baptism confers material benefits, these considerations become irrelevant. It is morally repugnant that an act that should spring from one's deepest personal conviction can lead to professional advancement. They've put a premium on men who lack principles.”
The two Effinger sons, married into the Opener banking clan, could not be more different in disposition. “Karl probably wasn't saving a penny. Paul considered this a moral failing. Karl and Annette frivolously ignored the Effingers' age-old principle of saving money. The Effingers had always prayed, worked, and saved as much as possible for old age, hard times, and their children. But these people no longer believed in hard times. Paul felt this whole business went against everything his ancestors had taught him.” Theodor, now stuck in a loveless marriage but still consumed with art, reconsiders his life’s path, as well. “Here we are, the tired children of this fading century. We try to be good sons to our strong fathers, to lead their factories and banks and affairs of state. I'm only a subject, but even the man on the throne, the Kaiser, twirls his mustache, raises his baton, and thunders at the world, yet he secretly listens to refined, decadent counts who compose sweet songs. Hasn't a bohemian succeeded the bourgeois queen in England? I wanted to be healthy, productive, good, and strong. But what has that led to? All our efforts are futile; we've done the wrong thing. I will need to wear a mask—perhaps many. "We all must act; those who know it are wise." I will be good to Beatrice, that stupid, frigid child, and keep up appearances, buy paintings and be a good subject to the Kaiser.”
As nationalism, fascism, and socialism are on the rise worldwide, the true classical liberal is having hard time making it in the world. Nonetheless, Waldemar stays true to his beliefs and tries to caution the youth of his family. He cautions his grand-nephew, Erwin, “For half a century, we believed in Darwinism, that man is a product of his environment, in human progress. The world is now taking a disastrous turn toward pessimism. It now believes in the completely opaque concept of race, which is common currency among Pan-Slavists and Nietzschean blond beasts alike. It believes in the inevitable impoverishment of the masses through capitalist greed. We believed that fundamental ethical concepts were not up for discussion. But people have abandoned the desire for truth—they value self-interest and power instead. The will to power has led man beyond good and evil. Every worldview now considers itself infallible. And Zionism doesn't resist this new evil, and instead uses every argument of this dreadful new time for its own purposes. It's fighting on a false front. From the point of view of blood and extreme nationalism, antisemitism is justified.”
Waldemar gives words of wisdom to his grand-niece, Marianne, a socialist, as well, “Intellectuals are always unwanted. They must work to make themselves heard. But if you prefer to live in an ivory tower rather than be a speaker, a teacher, or a revolutionary, don't be surprised when the fools or the masses come to tear it down without knowing what they should build instead…. Socialism is only a better form of bureaucracy. It began as a religion, but now it's turned into social welfare. People can get excited about religion, but welfare? It's just collecting coupons, nothing more. Religion has moved on to communism.”
By 1933, Marianne has given up the socialist cause in the face of Hitler, turning, instead, to Zionism. Waldemar again cautions, while reminding her of her true Jewish and German heritage, “Where is our enthusiasm for equality, the same equality our ancestors upheld in ancient times, despite their hardship? We may be powerless, but we carry the knowledge of the injustice we have endured throughout history. This knowledge has ennobled our people for centuries and given it the unparalleled power of passive resistance. We are optimists. 'And God saw all he had made, and behold, it was good.' The secret to our immortality lies in our optimism and our commitment to peace. But across the world, optimistic, liberal ideas are dying. A mystical blood brotherhood is now considered more significant than the air you've breathed for thousands of years or the language you've spoken for centuries. The peaceful coexistence of people who are not all alike is considered intolerable. The facts are plain: The rule of law is gone. The man with better party connections is the man who is right. And what follows? Everyone who doesn't belong to the party is exterminated, and we're thrust back into the Stone Age…. Your grandfather fought on the barricades for the rights of the powerless in 1848, and I, my child, have devoted my life to the rights of individuals and peoples. I have never believed in a personal God, but I believe that the ethics of the prophets, indeed, of all world religions, are more important than ever today. A lie must be called a lie. That is the difference between those who worship power and those who believe in justice, between those who justify the persecution of other people with slogans, and those who fight for the laws of Sinai, no matter their people or nation. This is not the difference between today and tomorrow; this is eternal. It's the difference between Yahweh and Amalek.”
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