Style Defeats Substantive Portrait of German World War II Resistance Leader, Scholar:

Few modern heroes are as enigmatic as the leaders of the German resistance during World War II. Suspect in their loyalty to the cause of freedom because of their perceived collaboration with the Nazis, many resistance leaders remain to this day shadowy figures.

Typical of the more questionable characters on the stage of the German resistance was Rhodes Scholar Adam von Trott zu Solz. Because of his vehement loyalty to Germany, many of Trott's English friends suspected him of being a Nazi.

In an attempt to present Trott as a man worthy of the same admiration as his fellow resistance leaders, Giles MacDonogh has written a well-researched biography of this member of the lower nobility. MacDonogh succeeds in painting a convincing picture of Trott as a victim of misunderstandings and Anglo prejudice. Unfortunately, only those thoroughly interested in the history of World War II will have the stomach to read the entire work. It is informative, but is marred by tortured prose and lack of direction.

Good biographies and histories should capture the life and times of their subjects with the compelling voice of fiction. Although details about the origins of Trott's Hessian family (Hermann von Trott "became steward to a Hessian prince in 1253") may add something to our understanding of Trott's view of himself as a German, MacDonogh has trouble relating them to Trott's place in history. And if they add no compelling understanding of Trott, why provide the reader with such details?

The first chapters of the book focus dryly and abstractly upon events leading to Trott's birth in 1909 and his early years of schooling. He won a Rhodes in 1931, in part through the influence of his uncle, who had himself been a Rhodes Scholar.

As Trott grows to maturity and begins studying political philosophy, particularly that of Hegel, MacDonogh continues to snow us with seemingly irrelevant details. For example, MacDonogh mentions at one point that Trott fell in love with a German woman in the United States. But we learn none of the details of their affair, and she is never mentioned again.

Trott loses his religious faith and drifts into leftist political circles. He votes Socialist in the 1930 elections. In short, MacDonogh tells us much about the trivial details of Trott's life, but fails to link them together in a coherent portrait of a human being.

A Good German: Adam von Trott zu Solz

by Giles MacDonogh

The Overlook Press

$25.00

In his Oxford years, Trott sowed the seeds for friends' future misunderstandings of his character. MacDonogh points out that because Trott became so much of "an honorary Englishman" in his years at Oxford, his friends had trouble understanding his return to Germany in 1933 to work against the Nazi regime.

At Oxford, Trott made several influential friends, including intellectual historian Isaiah Berlin, David Astor, son of Lady Astor, and several Labour Members of Parliament. Unfortunately, in these and other friendships which Trott made later in the 1930s, he showed a lack of foresight which limited his influence in England during Churchill's administration.

Trott decided at first to pursue a legal career, and his work in German courts was another source of misgivings among his friends. During his time in a provincial court in 1934, the Manchester Guardian published a series of articles detailing the persecution of Jews in Trott's native Hessen. Trott wrote an angry letter to the Guardian, denying that the courts were anti-Jewish. Although his assertions proceeded from a sincere attempt to explain that not all Germans were anti-Semitic, many in England interpreted the letter as a sign of sympathy for the Nazis' aims.

Trott's later efforts against the regime were interpreted by the American and British governments in light of this and other blunders. When Trott journeyed to England in June of 1939 and at the beginning of the war to the United States, many of his former friends thought he had become a Nazi. Trott, unfortunately, was too guarded in his explanations of the German underground to dispel such fears.

The second half of the biography, which details Trott's movement into the resistance, provides a much more compelling picture than the first half of the book. MacDonogh's eye for detail, which obscures Trott's pre-war life, helps to illuminate the inner workings of the Kreisau resistance circle, which planned out a blueprint for post-war Germany.

MacDonogh convincingly argues that the Kreisau plot against Hitler could have succeeded if the Allies had lent more support to the resistance. Instead, when approached through secret channels, both the English and American governments ignored Trott's pleas for help.

The attempt at a coup was thus a failure. In July of 1944, a few days after the attempt on Hitler's life, most of the leaders of the resistance were arrested. Trott went to his execution on August 26. A month before, he had told a friend that the English must bear some guilt for the failure of the plot against Hitler.

MacDonogh deserves thanks for clarifying Trott's part in the resistance. Unfortunately, only the most stout of heart will be able to put up with MacDonogh's tortured prose long enough to understand the complex life of this German hero.