Trieglaff—a Rittergut and village in the part of Pomerania given to Poland in 1945—was home for four generations to the family of Rudolf von Thadden, professor emeritus of history at Göttingen University. The book begins with Adolf von Thadden's acquisition of Trieglaff by means of marriage to the daughter of the previous owner, who died at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813. It continues up to the post-1945 expulsion of Adolf von Thadden's great-grandson and his family, along with the rest of the village's population. The various family members were worthy representatives of their class and of a vanished society and place—more representative than exceptional, which is precisely why social historians may be interested in their story. In political terms, the nineteenth-century von Thaddens ranged from reactionary to broadly conservative. For example, the senior von Thadden was a leading figure in the Old Lutheran opposition to the Prussian Union of 1817, which produced the amalgamated Evangelical-United church. He and his son were also aligned with the most reactionary faction of Prussian Junkerdom, which opposed any diminution of their feudal privileges as estate-village owners, the granting of popular voting rights, as well as Prussia's absorption into a united Germany. This obviously put them at odds with Otto von Bismarck, who lived nearby in his early years and who makes a cameo appearance in von Thadden's account. One of the most interesting of the many contemporary documents that von Thadden cites is a letter of condolence Bismarck wrote to the family upon the death of one of its members—a warm and eloquent tribute that reveals an unexpected side of the Iron Chancellor's personality.

The fourth generation marked a break with the conventional East-Elbian Junker pattern, especially following the 1918 revolution. The author's father, Reinold, became a leader of the anti-Nazi Confessing Church in Pomerania and, after the war, served as cofounder and first head of the Protestant Kirchentag in West Germany; the latter represented an effort to assert greater lay influence over a church and clergy that had failed to give a very convincing account of themselves during the Nazi years. Even if the connection between opposition to the pragmatic Prussian Union and resistance to a pro-Nazi “German Christianity” may not be immediately apparent, von Thadden nevertheless suggests a degree of continuity over the generations when it came to his ancestors' consistent opposition to state domination of church affairs—hence the book's subtitle.

For many readers, the first person whom the von Thadden name will bring to mind is a different Adolf von Thadden, a cousin of the author who represented the Deutsche Reichspartei in the Bundestag and then cofounded and led the allegedly neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD) to several successes in state elections in the 1960s. He appears only in the margins of this account, however. The author devotes much more attention to his own Aunt Elisabeth, who was executed by the Nazi regime for “defeatism” in 1944. This execution had no connection to the attempted coup of July 20, although Thadden is unable to say exactly what his aunt had done to earn such a fate.

Von Thadden suggests that this book should be seen as more than just a family history: it is, he claims, also a history of the village of Trieglaff more generally, of church-state relations, and of those villagers who emigrated to the New World. The story of the von Thaddens takes place against the backdrop of Prussian and German history, including the secularization of society, the quasi-democratization of political life, the mechanization of agriculture, and the “flight from the land” in East Elbia. The papers of the von Thadden family provide a rich trove of material for a family history, but what the author was able to find from those who had emigrated to Wisconsin—including letters that emigrants sent “home” to Pomerania and interviews with present-day Trieglaffers in Wisconsin—provides only a sketchy picture of their experiences.

Trieglaff is essentially a family history, more a labor of love and familial piety than a critical historical analysis. The story that Thadden tells is nevertheless inherently interesting because it reflects much of Germany's turbulent modern history—though one may wonder how many other professional historians of Germany will also find this story appealing. Those interested in Pomerania, in the Junkers as a class, or in church-state relations will want to consult it, but those interested in some of the book's other themes—including general political history, socioeconomic conditions in East Elbia, the emigrant experience, and the post-1945 expulsions— are not likely to learn very much.