Blood and Iron

In the turbulent history of modern Germany the name of Moltke has stood for military power and also enduring moral strength. In the Franco-Prussian War and then World Wars I and II, in each a Moltke was a key figure, culminating in the arrest and execution for conspiracy by the Gestapo of Count Helmuth James von Moltke, the great-great-nephew of Field Marshal von Moltke, who had defeated the Austrians, then besieged and conquered Paris in 1871, and made Germany the dominant power in Europe. The Field Marshal’s nephew, Helmuth Johannes Ludwig von Moltke, was Chief of Staff of the German armies in 1914. With his armies on the Maine only twenty miles from Paris, he suffered a nervous breakdown and was removed from command. And Helmuth James, working for Admiral Wilhelm Canaris in German intelligence and leader of the underground resistance to Hitler, was arrested by the Gestapo and tried and executed for treason in the last months of the war. At every major crisis in more than a century of German history the von Moltke family has played a critical role. The history of the family is thus a way of perceiving and assessing the history of modem Germany. For the Germany of the von Moltkes was also the Germany of Bismarck and Hitler, Wagner and Strauss, Nietzsche, Mann, and Brecht. Friedrich’s vivid and knowledgeable style makes this an absorbing historical chronicle full of characters and events on a broad canvas along with personal histories, anecdotes, and gossip within and without the corndors of power.