Fritz Stern A new book by Fritz Stern A GERMANY WE HAVE NOT KNOWN „Five Germanies I have known” is the book that has shaken numerous stereotypes about the so-called“German Question”. Fritz Stern(80), professor emeritus at the Columbia University and one of the leading world historians, particularly of German history of the 19th and 20th centuries, has written an autobiography of his own family in which one can definitely recognise five important stages undergone by Germany – from the Weimar Republic to the present day. And not only for the purpose of recognising, but also in order to decipher what had preceded them and how they could be possible at all. Using valuable and rare historical material, such as the letters written by his parents to Albert Einstein, Fritz Haber and other influential intellectuals of that era, Stern never misses the opportunity to build a very poignant picture of the fortunes and misfortunes of his own family, the drama experienced by the Germans from the end of World War I to the rise to power of the Nazis. Stern successfully complements the story that was told by Sebastian Hafner ∗ about how Hitler happened to Germany and how National-socialism was pushed through the main gates as the idea of salvation for the fallen big power. In Stern’s book, five significant stages of German history marked a human life that was an exceptionally rich and experienced life, the life that can be lived only by the bravest and by those who do not hesitate when faced with hardship. Stern emigrated from Germany in 1938, right on time, one may say, to escape pogroms that were looming over his Jewish family. He lived through four of the five stages he writes about and his book could, therefore, be viewed as the testimony of The Last Mohican who belonged to a generation that slowly, yet inevitably, passes away biologically. The book was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux(August 22, 2006) ∗ Napisao sjajnu knjigu„Ispovijest jednog Nijemca“ Foreign Policy Review-godina 3, broj 3 203