Europa in der frühen Neuzeit. Festschrift für Günter Mühlpfordt zum 75. Geburtstag by E. Donnert (review)

Abstract

I44 SEER, 8o, I, 2002 have been the son of Ivan IV, or a protege'of anti-Godunov boyarsraised to become a pretender. The tale is told crisply,and Dunning makesgood use of vividand sometimesjudgmental adjectives('despicable','amazing','horrible', 'brilliant') which illuminate and 'beef up' (another Dunning favourite, of troop reinforcements) the narrative. This is a formidable and convincing presentation, even if on occasion Dunning's put-downs of his scholarly predecessors are not clearly explained. Its combative stance and appeal to theory invite further elaboration and analysis;but it is likely to remain the standardEnglish-languageworkfor some time to come. School ofSlavonic andEastEuropean Studies ROGER BARTLETT University College London Donnert, E. (ed.).Europa inderfriihen Jeuzeit.Festschriftfiir Giinter Mihlpfordt zum 75. Geburtstag: Band i. Vormoderne. Bohlau Verlag, Koin-Weimar, I997. 6I 2 pp. Tabula gratulatoria;Band 2. Frfihmoderne. Bohlau Verlag, KoinWeimar , I997. 663 pp.; Band 3. Aufbruch zurModerne. Bohlau Verlag, Koln-Weimar, I997. 80i pp.; Band 4. Deutsche Aufkldrung. BohlauVerlag, Koln-Weimar, I997. 754 pp. Listof contents,vols I-4; Band5.Aufklarung inEuropa. Bohlau Verlag,Koln-Weimar, I999. 882 pp. Listof authors. GUNTER MUHLPFORDT is one of the most distinguishedscholarsof the group which gathered around the historian of Eastern Europe, Eduard Winter, in the postwar GDR and produced notable researches into the European Enlightenment and German-Russian relations. Winter, a former priest and foreignerwho never gave up his Austriancitizenship, was able to maintain a relatively independent stance within East German scholarship. His students and assistants were not always so fortunate. Muhlpfordt became Winter's assistantat the University of Halle in 1947 and, when Wintermoved to Berlin in I95I, continuedhisteaching atHalle, builtup the University'snew Institute of EastEuropean History, of which he became director,and gained a chairin I954. During the 'thaw'of the mid-I95os he extended his teaching, starteda new academicjournal,Jfahrbuchfir Geschichte Ost-undMitteleuropas, and worked actively together with West German historians.However from the beginning Muhlpfordt'spolitical conformity and reliabilityhad been questioned by the government, and in I958 he was denounced by WalterUlbricht himself. His refusal to accept criticism and self-criticism led in I962 to the loss of his universitypostsand toBerufsandDruckverbot (banon teachingandpublishing), which lasted more than twenty years. He managed to survive as a private scholaruntil in I983 he was finallygiven a minor post in the BerlinAcademny of Sciences. Throughout this period he continued as best he could his researchesinto his chosen periodsof the Reformationand the Enlightenment, and contributed significantly to East German source studies and to the discoveries of personal links between scholars and radicals in Central and Eastern Europe which made a valuable contribution to knowledge of early modern Europe. He was then a natural choice to co-lead the firstEast-West German seminar after the Wende, in Wolfenbuttel in I990. This monster Festschrift, for Muhlpfordt's75th birthdayin I996, and edited by his erstwhile REVIEWS I45 assistant,ErichDonnert, is a celebrationof a life'sscholarlyendeavour under harshcircumstances,and an attemptto compensate forthe wrongsdone to its subject under the GDR regime. Besides Donnert's introduction, it includes severalarticleson 'theMuhlpfordtcase' and EastEuropeanhistoriographyin the GDR. But the great majority of contributions- 226 in all, by scholars from almost a score of countries- is devoted to Muhlpfordt'sown loves, the Reformation and the Enlightenment. As might be expected, the level, nature and focus of the individualpieces vary greatly,from small items of personalia ('Count Soden is delighted to discoverGeorg Forster')to such disquisitionsas 'Aspectsof the lines of intellectualdevelopment of the LutheranReformation up to classicalGerman philosophy' or 'Islamicarchitectureon the Volga and in the Crimea'. This reviewerfound the numerouspieces on Freemasonryand on personal contacts between Russia and Germany particularlyinteresting, but this is a fruitful lucky dip for all early modernists: its contents are too numerous to be discussedin any detail here. The series should be completed by a finalvolume containing a generalindex and bibliographyof the worksof the honorand. When it comes, it will round off a remarkable and welldeservedtributeto Muhlpfordt'spolitical and scholarlycareer. School ofSlavonic andEastEuropean Studies KARIN FRIEDRICH University College London Cross, Anthony G. PetertheGreat Through BritishEyes.Perceptions andRepresentationsoftheTsarSinceI698 . CambridgeUniversityPress,Cambridge, 2000. xii + I72 pp. Illustrations.Notes. Index. ?35.??. FOLLOWING the flurryof interest arousedby the recent tercentenaryof Peter the Great's Grand Embassy, many readers will be aware that...