In Europe

struggle associated with that. Still, that empire survived the First World War, the victors allowed it to go on existing, it survived the Second World War, and today that unity is recognised by virtually all Germans.
    ‘The whole process took place in the space of only two or three generations, during the lifetimes of my grandfather, my father and I. So yes, I feel a part of it, just as I feel an affinity with those who live in what was once the DDR. I often think my generation, the generation which lived through and survived the Third Reich, we are probably the ones who understand best what the people in the DDR went through. We understand how a simple individual has to keep himself going under an authoritarian regime like that. I can understand them much better than my children's generation. They've never known anything but freedom.
    ‘Once again, you can't judge people outside the context of the age in which they live. Someone in my mother's family, for example, was deeply involved in the plot against Hitler on 20 July, 1944. He was arrested and hanged. But still, in the late 1920s that same man had been such a wild-eyed Nazi that my father refused to allow him to enter our home. We found out much too late that he had changed from a fanatical supporter to a vehement opponent. And I myself, if I hadn't had my background at home, I wonder whether I would not have become a Nazi too, in 1933, during the so-called ‘national rebirth’. All I can do is hope that, like that distant cousin of mine, I would have had the courage later to turn actively against that regime. But there weren't many like him.
    ‘Within our family, there was much disagreement about the Nazis. I can still remember one Christmas Eve when we children were sent out of the room because my uncles – who were all rather temperamental –had started a very loud argument about one of them having joined the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, the NSDAP.
    ‘My father and my uncle, Eitel Fritz, the second son, who never had children, were absolutely anti-Nazi. The crown prince, my uncle Wilhelm, believed at first that the Nazis could perhaps help him to retrieve the crown, which was utter nonsense. Later on he became a fell opponent as well.
    ‘My uncle August, though, he was a real Nazi. He even became
Gruppenführer
in the stormtroopers, the SA. Strangely enough, he was the kind of man from whom you would never expect something like that. A real aesthete, most of his friends were Jewish artists. But he, of all people, climbed onto the bandwagon and never had the courage to hop off again. Whether he was that staunch in the war, I'm not sure. But it doesn't matter. In those days a great many simple people danced to his pipes and trusted him: oh, one of the kaiser's sons is a member as well. That is what you can blame him for most. A person in his position must be able to think ahead, more than most. But of course that's easy to say now.
    ‘My grandfather was very critical of the Nazis. One evening after dinner in 1934, I remember him reading a newspaper report to us about the murder of Dolfuss, and how upset he was by that. The gangster mentality it showed, just like the killings of SA leader Röhm and his men, he despised that.
    ‘Yes, of course, on the other hand there was that congratulatory telegram he sent to Hitler on 17 June, 1940, for his victory over France. “What a turn of events, led by the hand of God!” I've always wondered whether my grandfather wrote that himself, or whether it was his private advisor, General Dommes. He knew there were all kinds of problems between the kaiser and the Nazis. Perhaps he hoped in that way to improve relations with Berlin.
    ‘But let me be frank: my grandfather was certainly enthusiastic about the successes of the
Wehrmacht
, in which he knew a great many people. In his own eyes he always remained a bit of an army man. There was also a certain amount of national pride, a feeling many Germans had at the time, even if they were not at all fond of National Socialism.
    ‘But that feeling passed soon enough. Just after I returned from theFrench campaign, in summer 1940, I spent a weekend with him at Doorn. He ranted against Hitler, against his strategy. The struggle for England was more or less over by that time, Churchill had refused all ceasefire proposals, and there were signs that Hitler was going to move against Russia. My grandfather saw the catastrophe coming: Germany would inevitably be