Banned in Berlin

Gary Stark has written a sophisticated and richly informative study of German censorship. The volume is not only a great introduction to the media and cultural production of Imperial Germany, but also a thoughtful primer on the general significance of censorship. Of course, Stark's subject is specifically German censorship, but his arguments contribute more broadly to debates about the politics and culture of the Empire. Although Stark never mentions the older thesis of a special German path to modernity (Sonderweg), he rejects the position implicitly, arguing instead that German cultural production was a vital and dynamic enterprise, and that the German state was one based on the rule of law (p. 3). Censorship was not simply imposed by the state or by dominant élites. Rather, it reflected the tensions generated by competing political and social groups and their disparate interests in politics, religion, and morality (p. xxv). Indeed, at points the state chose not to censor at all or did so only in response to pressure from conservative interest groups

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