THE KINGS DEPART: The Tragedy of Germany, Versailles and the German Revolution

by Richard M. Watt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1968

Two books really: the story of the Paris Peace Conference at the end of the First World War, and an account of German struggles to survive internal upheaval as violent as war. Watts, whose first book Dare Call It Treason dealt with the French army mutiny of 1917, here focuses more on the struggles of German statesmen to hold together a government in the face of post-war extremist revolutions both on the left (the Spartacus Party, the Bolsheviks) and the right (the Frikorps, finally, the Nazis). The failure of the Kapp Putsch, which was attempted by the marauding private armies, the Frikorps, led to their song: ""Why should we cry when a Putsch goes wrong?/ There's another one coming before very long."" Watt is best when he tells of the men who did cry--Prince Max of Baden who presided as chancellor over the fall of the German Empire, Kurt Eisner who wanted a separate peace for Bavaria, and Friedrich Eberts who became president when the republic was proclaimed and whose middle-of-the-road government ultimately fell to the right. In a long afterword, Watt returns to the Allied statesmen and their failure at Versailles, offering the widely accepted view that the treaty led to gratuitous suffering in Germany. But his cumbersome book fails to demonstrate this relationship (though obviously he has tried): in fact, it suggests a schism--as when the Allied conquerors argue among themselves over the Fourteen Points quite unaware that the Germans are struggling mightily to maintain a government capable of signing any treaty. A rambling book which will interest a good many of Shirer's and Tuchman's readers despite its faults.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1968

Categories: NONFICTION