The Effingers by Gabriele Tergit review – a vivid portrait of Berlin before the Nazis

In the annals of German literature, some voices resonate across decades, their brilliance only truly appreciated with the passage of time. Such is the case with Gabriele Tergit, a German Jewish author whose profound insights into early 20th-century Berlin are now reaching a wider international audience. Her monumental novel, *The Effingers*, a sprawling family saga, has been critically rediscovered in Germany and is now available in an excellent English translation by Sophie Duvernoy, offering a vital window into a lost world.

Gabriele Tergit: A Luminary of Weimar Berlin

Born Elise Hirschmann in 1894, Gabriele Tergit adopted her distinctive pen name for a career that would make her one of the shining lights of interwar Berlin's flourishing journalistic scene. The Weimar Republic, despite its political and economic turbulence, was a crucible of cultural innovation, and Tergit was at its heart. She reported with a keen, observant eye on the vibrant, often tumultuous life of the city, capturing its spirit and its undercurrents. Her marriage into one of Berlin's most prominent Jewish families further embedded her in the city's elite, offering a unique vantage point on the social dynamics she would later so masterfully chronicle.

Tergit's literary prowess was undeniable. Her debut novel in 1931, which garnered significant attention, announced her as a formidable literary phenomenon. Yet, this promising trajectory was brutally interrupted by the rise of Nazism. As a Jewish intellectual and a clear-eyed observer of society, Tergit quickly found herself on an enemies list. The chilling reality of the Nazi regime forced her to flee, embarking on a harrowing journey that took her first to Czechoslovakia, then to Palestine, and finally to London in 1938, where she would live until her death in 1982. This exile marked a profound rupture; she never again called Berlin home, a city she had loved, critiqued, and immortalized in her work.

Her return visit to Berlin in 1948, a city scarred by war and reduced to ruins, was a poignant and disorienting experience. The post-war German literary world, often conservative and grappling with its own painful reckoning, found little space for her nuanced perspective, nor a receptive audience for *The Effingers*, her newly completed magnum opus. A version was printed in 1951, but it received little acclaim, fading into relative obscurity. It is only in recent years that a critical rediscovery in Germany has rightfully established Tergit as one of the country’s major authors, finally giving her the recognition she deserved decades ago.

The Effingers: A Berlin Saga Unveiled

*The Effingers: A Berlin Saga* is more than just a novel; it is a panoramic social history, a meticulously crafted tapestry woven from the lives of four generations of the extended Effinger family. These Jewish industrialists, ensconced in Berlin high society, navigate the seismic shifts of German history from the Bismarck-loving 1870s through to the ominous rise of fascism in the 1930s. The narrative centers on Paul Effinger, an ambitious and ascetic figure enamored with mass production, who arrives in Berlin determined to forge his fortune in industry. His marriage into the elite Oppner-Goldschmidt family, mirrored by his brother Karl's similar union, symbolizes the era's aspirations and the intricate web of connections that defined Berlin's upper echelons.

The novel vividly portrays what many considered a golden age for assimilated Jewish life in Berlin. During this period, Jewish communities thrived, contributing immensely to Germany's cultural, scientific, and economic landscape. They were not merely tolerated but were integral to the fabric of modern German society, often embracing German culture while maintaining their Jewish identity. This era, however, was not without its complexities, as Tergit masterfully demonstrates.

Berlin in Flux: A City Transformed

The city of Berlin itself emerges as a central character in *The Effingers*, undergoing profound transformations throughout the decades the novel spans. From the late 19th century into the early 20th, Berlin experienced explosive growth, its population swelling from just under one million in 1871 to over four million by 1925. This rapid urbanization brought with it a flurry of technological advances – the expansion of railway networks, the advent of electricity, the rise of department stores, and the burgeoning of new industries – all of which reshaped daily life and the urban landscape. Tergit's narrative captures this dynamic energy, detailing how these innovations both propelled society forward and exacerbated existing inequalities.

Amidst this progress, stark disparities persisted. While some families, like the Effingers, ascended to immense wealth and influence, vast segments of the population grappled with poverty and challenging living conditions. The city was a paradox: a hub of progressivism and liberal thought, yet also a cauldron of social tension and political unrest. Tergit subtly highlights these contradictions, showing how bursts of intellectual and social advancement often coexisted with deep-seated prejudices and structural injustices. The interwar era, in particular, brought with it a heightened sense of political and economic instability, culminating in the devastating impact of surging antisemitism that would eventually tear apart the world the Effingers knew.

Tergit's Unique Narrative Lens

Tergit's authorial voice is distinctive and powerful, born from her journalistic roots. She narrates with a sober, precise, and dialogue-driven style, constructing her novel from short, reporterly chapters that subtly vary in tempo and shift between multiple perspectives and registers. Her presence as an author is not felt through overt explication or reflective commentary, but rather through her deliberate choices: what she chooses to show, when she reveals it, and how she frames it. This "showing, not telling" approach imbues the narrative with an authentic, immediate quality, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions about the complex realities presented.

Crucially, no single point of view transcends the others. Even the admirably liberal and progress-minded ideals held by certain characters are frequently undercut by sharp "jump-cuts" that expose the harsh realities faced by women and the poor, who were often excluded from such optimism. For instance, while a character might wax poetic about a new era of freedom, the subsequent scene might starkly depict a woman's limited agency or a family's struggle for survival, providing a powerful counterpoint. This narrative technique prevents any simplistic interpretation of historical events, forcing the reader to confront the multifaceted nature of progress and privilege.

Beyond the Ballroom: A Social and Intellectual Tapestry

*The Effingers* is celebrated for its wonderfully vivid social portrait of pre-Nazi Berlin. Its party scenes, in particular, are filled with meticulous descriptions of fashion, delectable food, opulent interior decor, and the intricate web of gossip that defined high society. These details are not mere window dressing; they serve to immerse the reader in the sensory world of the era, revealing the cultural values and social rituals that shaped the lives of the Effingers and their peers. From the rustle of silk gowns to the clinking of champagne glasses, Tergit paints a rich, sensory picture that brings a bygone era to life.

Yet, the novel is equally an intellectual portrait. Tergit's characters are thinkers, readers, and arguer, engaging in lively debates that reflect the intellectual ferment of the period. They grapple with the major philosophical, political, and social currents of their time, from the tenets of Protestant morality and the utopian visions of industrialism to the complexities of liberal cosmopolitanism and various interpretations of Jewish identity. The novel delves into the nascent movements of women's liberation, the rising tide of nationalism, and the promises and pitfalls of socialism. These diverse ideologies often inhabit the text in surprising combinations, reflecting the dynamic and sometimes contradictory intellectual landscape of early 20th-century Germany.

Tergit masterfully employs the multigenerational novel form not primarily to explore intricate family dynamics, but rather to trace the profound shifts between consecutive epochs. Her characters frequently articulate a sense of living through the "dawning of a new age," a sentiment that captures the relentless pace of change and the often-disorienting feeling of modernity. By following the Effingers through these transformations, Tergit illustrates how societal values, political landscapes, and individual aspirations evolve, creating a rich historical panorama.

Confronting the Inevitable: The Rise of Fascism

When fascism arrives in *The Effingers*, it does so with a sudden, disorienting force, mirroring the abruptness with which it seized control in real life. However, Tergit is careful to show that this cataclysmic shift is not an isolated event, but rather continuous with older tendencies and ideas that had long simmered beneath the surface of German society. She rejects the simplistic notion of Nazism as a fairytale triumph of pure evil over pure good. Instead, she casts it through the often incoherent mixture of desires, ideas, and material conditions that motivated individuals and groups to join the fascist enterprise. This nuanced perspective is a testament to her journalistic eye for detail and her refusal to reduce complex historical phenomena to easy explanations.

Tergit's preference for concrete detail over abstract generalization is key to this approach. Details, she understood, resist grand, overarching explanations. By presenting the granular realities of life, the everyday choices, and the subtle shifts in social attitudes, she reveals how a society can incrementally slide towards catastrophe. This makes *The Effingers* not just a historical novel, but a profound psychological and sociological study of how authoritarianism can take root, offering timeless lessons for understanding similar societal transformations.

A Claim on Berlin: Jewish Identity and German Belonging

Perhaps one of the most powerful statements Tergit makes through *The Effingers* is her assertion of Jewish belonging in Berlin. In a letter to a publisher in 1949, she famously clarified that her novel was "not the novel of Jewish fate, but rather a Berlin novel in which very many people are Jewish." This distinction is crucial. It rejects outright the sort of fatalism that insists on the inherent misery, or even impossibility, of Jewish life in Germany. Tergit refuses to see the destruction of Jewish Berlin as inevitable; instead, she portrays a vibrant, integrated community that was a fundamental part of the city's identity.

Furthermore, Tergit’s novel seems to express skepticism towards Zionist nationalism as a sole form of redemption. This is powerfully articulated through characters like Uncle Waldemar, who delivers a heartfelt speech in defense of assimilated Jewish identity against all forms of ethnic nationalism. He accuses the nascent Zionist movement of using "every argument of this dreadful new time for its own purposes," highlighting the complex debates within Jewish communities of the era regarding identity, belonging, and the future. Tergit herself traveled to Palestine in 1933, much like Paul's daughter Lotte in the novel. There, she found herself out of step with many Zionist emigrants, feeling they bore more intellectual kinship to German "blood-and-soil" thinkers than to families like hers. As she later wrote, "They saw anyone travelling to Palestine with a sorrowful heart as a traitor," underscoring her belief that Jewish life could and should thrive within Germany.

While *The Effingers* undeniably narrates a family's tragedy, Tergit steadfastly refuses to let that tragedy define them or the broader narrative of Jewish life in Berlin. Her work is a testament to resilience, a celebration of a rich cultural heritage, and a powerful literary claim on a city that, despite its darkest chapters, was profoundly shaped by its Jewish citizens.

A Timely Rediscovery

The English publication of *The Effingers: A Berlin Saga* by Gabriele Tergit, translated by Sophie Duvernoy (Pushkin, £20), is more than just a literary event; it is a vital act of historical reclamation. In an era where the complexities of history are often flattened into simplistic narratives, Tergit's nuanced, deeply human portrayal of a pivotal period offers invaluable lessons. Her work reminds us that history is forged by individuals, by their desires, their ideas, and their material conditions, and that even in the face of unspeakable tragedy, the human spirit's capacity for life, love, and belonging endures. This is a novel that speaks across generations, inviting readers to engage with a rich, vibrant past and to reflect on its enduring echoes in our present.