About this ebook
“One of the most brilliant things of any length written about Churchill.” — The Times Literary Supplement
“Fast-moving and perceptive.” — The (London) Times
“A wonderful portrait of Churchill.” — Die Zeit
“A ravishing biography.” — Der Spiegel
“[A] fascinating psychological study of Britain’s greatest war leader... a pleasure to put on your bookshelf” — Tribune
“His Meaning of Hitler published in 1978 remains a masterpiece of historiography. His Churchill biography gives the first indication of his great talent for brief, wonderfully graphic insights.” — Süddeutsche Zeitung
“Of all [Haffner’s] books, this is the one that stays in my memory.” — Marcel Reich-Ranicki
“[Haffner] was an ‘admirer of great men’ and among all the biographies of Winston Churchill his brief sketch of the man who ‘risked Britain in order to defeat Hitler’ is a model of historically empathetic veneration.” — Joachim Fest
“Astute, short, analytical, like all Haffner’s work. Cuts away anything that is not bare essential, what remains stays with you for a lifetime.” — J. AB Sennef, Quora
“What distinguishes this brilliant biography is its partisanship. It does not list facts in order and evaluate them. Every sentence is witness to the fact that the biographer loves this man with all his failings.” — Wolfgang Franssen, Belletristik Couch
“A jewel. Haffner lived through the decisive years in Britain and gives a convincing description the fragile atmosphere in which Churchill fought his battles.” — Tarzan von Aquin
“[Haffner was] one of the great historians and journalists of the last century.” —Andrew Roberts
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About the author
Sebastian Haffner was born in 1907 as Raimund Pretzel the last of four children. His father was headmaster of a Berlin school and a noted liberal school reformer. Pretzel studied law and received his doctorate in 1934. Although he was not Jewish he abandoned his planned career as a lawyer in public service when the Nazis came to power. Instead he worked as a non-political journalist.
In 1938 he and his pregnant fiancée, who was of Jewish descent and for that reason had been dismissed from her post as university librarian, managed to emigrate to the UK, where they were married. There he started to write a memoir about his youth in Weimar Germany and the rise of the Nazis. The book (Defying Hitler) was abandoned at the outbreak of war and replaced by another (Germany: Jekyll and Hyde) offering an analysis of Germany for the benefit of the allies. This book, published under the pseudonym Sebastian Haffner which he used for the rest of his life, procured his release from internment in the summer of 1940. In 1942 he became a journalist at the Observer and quickly made a reputation as a political thinker.
Haffner returned to Germany in 1954, initially as a correspondent for the Observer. There he became an important commentator on current affairs and a well-known television personality. In the 1960s he started writing historical books, mostly about 20th century German history, including The Ailing Empire: Germany from Bismarck to Hitler. His most important and successful book, The Meaning of Hitler, appeared in 1978. He retired in 1991 and died in 1999 aged 91.
“Sebastian Haffner, a superb German writer and journalist” — Imre Kertész, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature
