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Father/land

Name: Father/land
Author: Frederick Kempe
ISBN: 9780399144974

by Frederick Kempe

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Overview

For decades as a foreign correspondent, first for Newsweek, and then for The Wall Street Journal, Frederick Kempe felt more comfortable writing about Poland, Israel, the Soviet Union, or Panama than the Germany from which he was only one generation removed. Germany was his father's land, his father's identity, not his. But then a reunified Germany emerged as Europe's dominant force, and it became very important to know: Was the nation ready? Could it escape the ghosts of the past? To find out, Kempe, traveled across the country, talking to students, teachers, pensioners, emigres, soldiers, professionals, Holocaust survivors, cutting-edge diplomats, rural pastors, "normal Germans," and the radical fringe. At the same time, he began to explore his own German roots, to seek out the family members and documents that would illuminate his own soul. The result, in Father/Land, is a work of observation, insight and commentary, a provocative book that will become required reading for anyone seeking to understand modern Germany. And it is something more. For in researching the past, Kempe discovered that the ghosts were not limited to others, that the contradictory threads of good and evil wove through his own family as well. After years of denying his Germanness, he would have to confront it at last.

About the Author, Frederick Kempe

Frederick Kempe is editor and associate publisher of The Wall Street Journal Europe and the founding editor of Central European Economic Review. He was a foreign correspondent for Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal and covered Germany off and on for more than 20 years. He has also covered such stories as the rise of Solidarity in Poland, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the war in Afghanistan, the American invasion of Panama and the collapse of Soviet communism. His published books include: Divorcing the Dictator: America's Bungled Affair with Noriega and Siberian Odyssey: A Voyage into the Russian Soul. He lives in Brussels.

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Editorials

Newsday

While Kempe does not sugar coat Germany's current problems - its dyspeptic tolerance of immigrants, its pervasive bureaucracy and pedantry, the viciousness of the neo-Nazis- he argues that young Germans are right to no longer feel guilt for the Holocaust, as long as they learn its lessons

Roger Cohen

...[I]t is gratifying to have Frederick Kempe's richly impressionistic Father/Land on hand to provide a sprightly guide to what he calls ''the new Germany"....[The] book [is] given urgency by Kempe's own agonizing struggle to deal with his past as the son of German immigrants....Kempe brings Germany to life; above all, he is able to render what it is to be a German.
— The New York Times Book Review

Kirkus Reviews

A joy to read, in fact, a book so good one doesn't want it to end. Kempe, editor and associate publisher of the Wall Street Journal Europe (Siberian Odyssey: A Voyage into the Russian Soul, 1992), has written an engrossing account of the new Germany of the 1990s while delving deeply into his own German-American history, a history in which he discovers some disturbing evidence that his family, like so many others in Germany, is tainted by its Nazi connections. The account that ensues includes fascinating portrayals of casual acquaintances and intimate friends Kempe has made through years of working as a foreign correspondent. It's through interviews with these associates that Kempe explores to what degree Germans are different today than before their historic reunification. Through that significant event, as well as the NATO dispatch of German soldiers to Bosnia and Germany's support for the euro, Kempe tries to answer questions of Germany's normality, and how Germans live on a daily basis with the burden of their Holocaust-laden history. He shows in detail how Jews have come back to Germany over the years. He also addresses how Turks, the largest minority in Germany, struggle with acceptance in a land of opportunity and promise that is at times also a land of bigotry and violence. The questions of Germany's role in the new Europe, as an economic powerhouse in the global economy, and as a bulwark of democracy, are deftly handled. For Kempe, the links to America are crucial to Germany's continuance on the road to normality. Kempe has written a piece of contemporary history as it should be written, in clear, engaging prose, and with judicious and sensible arguments. He has expertlyhandled the history of modern Germany, and given us insights into the German soul, including his own, that are crucial for an understanding of our modern world.