The German Genius cover art

The German Genius

Europe's Third Renaissance, the Second Scientific Revolution and the Twentieth Century

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The German Genius

By: Peter Watson
Narrated by: Richard Attlee
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

 From the end of the Baroque age and the death of Bach in 1750 to the rise of Hitler in 1933, Germany was transformed from a poor relation among western nations into a dominant intellectual and cultural force more influential than France, Britain, Italy, Holland, and the United States. In the early decades of the 20th century, German artists, writers, philosophers, scientists, and engineers were leading their freshly-unified country to new and undreamed of heights, and by 1933, they had won more Nobel prizes than anyone else and more than the British and Americans combined. But this genius was cut down in its prime with the rise and subsequent fall of Adolf Hitler and his fascist Third Reich-a legacy of evil that has overshadowed the nation's contributions ever since.

Yet how did the Germans achieve their pre-eminence beginning in the mid-18th century? In this fascinating cultural history, Peter Watson goes back through time to explore the origins of the German genius, how it flourished and shaped our lives, and, most importantly, to reveal how it continues to shape our world. As he convincingly demonstarates, while we may hold other European cultures in higher esteem, it was German thinking-from Bach to Nietzsche to Freud-that actually shaped modern America and Britain in ways that resonate today.©2010 Peter Watson (P)2022 Simon & Schuster, UK Civilization Emigration & Immigration Europe Germany Social Sciences World Middle Ages Socialism

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Historiography for Beginners cover art
The Thirty Years War cover art
Plato of Athens cover art
Parfit cover art
The Burgundians cover art
The Soviet Century cover art
A Macat Analysis of Friedrich Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morality cover art
A Brief History of Western Philosophy cover art
The Secular Enlightenment cover art
Thinking About History cover art
Modern Occultism cover art
The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution cover art
The Eagle and the Lion cover art
Remaking the World cover art
Discovering a Genius cover art
The History of Political Thought cover art
All stars
Most relevant
Well read and appealing book. Makes you step back to look at Germany as the great country it is and not only focusing on the Nazi period, it is much, much more.

A great overview of German culture and its effects

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Simmers with philosophical and historical insights, providing an entirely new perspective to Germany. Peter Watson's book compellingly reveals Germany's history of genius extends beyond the 'Long Night' of 1933-45, and that it's academic excellence is alive and well in the 21st century. Wunderbar!

Brilliantly conceived

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Essential reading for Gemanaphobes and Germanaphiles alike, or indeed the modern age. What other culture has produced such dominate figures as Marx, Frued, Einstein and yes, sadly, Adolf Hitler?
Sometimes contentious and provoking, rarely dull, and provides much food for thought.

Essential Reading

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Utterly brilliant! A must read on one too many levels. Relish every word, you wont regret it!

Enriching read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
My mother is German, and I am fully aware of the difficulties German people have in understanding and reconciling the event of the Second World War to modern German culture. There was a tremendous cultural loss in the 30s as a result of the rise of the German nationalist socialist party. It seems to me that modernism and Germany’s participation in it did not have the benefit of its own intellectuals to adapt its culture to modernism as a result of the exodus that occurred. In a very real sense, Germans can value the history in this book that wonderfully illustrates the tremendous influence of German thinkers and culture on the modern world as a whole. The ideas and social issues set out in this book are relevant to Germany today, in my opinion.

Relevance to a German person

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.