Curt Prufer, German Diplomat from the Kaiser to Hitler

Prufer, who died in 1959, served in the German foreign ministry from 1907 until 1945 in various Middle Eastern posts, then ended his career as ambassador to Brazil during World War II. McKale's biographical study adds significantly to the view that Germany's political and social elite supported Hitler not so much for opportunistic motives as out of conviction, and that such conviction was part of a tradition dating back to the Second Reich of Bismarck and Kaiser William II. The study argues that German policy in the Middle East, aimed at weakening Britain's influence and increasing its own, remained essentially unchanged for 40 years. Prufer's diaries illustrate above all how pervasive anti-Semitism was in Germany long before Hitler came to power. McKale is a history professor at Clemson University in South Carolina. Photos. (December 10)