Sebastian Haffner’s biography reflects the course of history: Haffner was a subject of Emperor Wilhelm II, a citizen of the Weimar Republic, an exile of the Nazi regime, a British subject, and a citizen of the Federal Republic as of 1972. After achieving his law doctorate, he refused to serve the Nazi dictatorship. He thus turned to journalism, first writing non-political cultural pieces. In 1938, he emigrated with his Jewish fiancée to London, where as a German expert he became an important journalist, writing for papers like The Observer. With his first book publication in 1940, the author, whose name was really Raimund Pretzel, chose the pseudonym with which he became famous in order to protect his relatives in Nazi Germany. In 1954, he returned to his hometown Berlin as a reporter and became one of the most important journalists and molders of public opinion. He was the first to explain Germany to the Germans: with works like The Meaning of Hitler and Failure of a Revolution: Germany, 1918–19.