Writing a good biography is a challenging task, since the biographer must be intimately familiar with the historical context that has shaped the subject's life. In the case of Kuno von Westarp, a politician who, more than any other, encapsulates the history of German conservatism in the first third of the twentieth century, this means being conversant with the multifaceted German politics of the late Empire, World War I, and the Weimar Republic. Westarp began his career as a Prussian Landrat in 1893 and served as a Prussian official for the next fifteen years before becoming a deputy in 1908, and then parliamentary faction leader in 1913, of the German Conservative Party (DKP). After a brief hiatus following World War I, he assumed leadership positions in the German National People's Party (DNVP), Weimar Germany's main conservative party. Daniela Gasteiger has risen to the challenge of placing Westarp's life in context by anchoring her biography in the complex German political landscape between the 1890s and 1945. Mining documents from over a half dozen German archives, as well as Westarp's own extensive writings and a multitude of secondary sources, Gasteiger is fully in command of both her biographical subject and the historical context in which he made his mark. Her book can thus also be gainfully read as a political history of conservative politics from the Empire to the end of Weimar.

Westarp frequently stood in opposition to the prevailing political currents of his time. Though a supporter of monarchist rule, he joined the rightist opposition to the imperial government. His career as a deputy began as conservatives increasingly opposed Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, whom Westarp considered unable to stem the tide of democratization. During the republic, Westrap refused to take an oath to the Weimar constitution (and was thus forced to relinquish his position as an upper-echelon Prussian official); after 1933, he was not politically in sync with the Nazi regime. As an aristocrat without landed property or monetary wealth, he turned to the study of jurisprudence, which promised a career as a high-ranking administrative official, an office befitting his social position. His career as a Berufspolitiker (professional politician) during the republic, atypical for a Prussian conservative, suited the assiduous, hardworking Westarp. One of the best parliamentary rhetoricians of his day, he avoided mixing social occasions with political business, was guarded in his informal interactions, and felt most comfortable in small circles, cultivating the image of a cool and distant conservative leader.

Westarp did not welcome the outbreak of war in 1914, fearing that Social Democrats might increase their political standing as a result of the conflict. During the war, his estrangement from Bethmann-Hollweg and the emperor deepened over the question of the Prussian franchise reform. Since conservative rule and military victory were, for Westarp, closely intertwined, he supported a victorious peace, considered negotiations to be a sign of weakness, and strongly advocated German dominance over Belgium, which he, as an inveterate foe of England, viewed as critical for the unfettered survival of the Reich. Ultimate victory over materially and numerically superior enemies would be attained, in Westarp's thinking, through a Verpreußung (Prussianization) of the nation: personal hardiness, national resilience, and single-minded dedication to the cause of victory.

In October 1918, once it became clear that victory was an elusive dream, Westarp lost control of the DKP and even went into temporary hiding for fear of being personally attacked. Discredited by his wartime policies, he was excluded from deliberations over the founding of the DNVP and assumed leadership over the remnants of the former DKP, which continued to exist as the Konservativer Hauptverein. The DNVP, which included white-collar unions, initially struck him as not sufficiently elitist, but, when its leaders reached out to the hardworking and able Westarp, he joined the party in 1920 as a Reichstag deputy, rose to the position of parliamentary faction leader in February 1925, and assumed the party chairmanship in 1926. Since he had given up his position in Berlin's administrative court in 1920, he had little alternative to immersing himself again in party politics, dependent as he was on his remuneration as a Reichstag deputy.

The mid-1920s were the most successful years for the DNVP, which received about 20 percent of the vote in both the May and December 1924 elections. In early 1925 and 1927, the party formed part of a “Bourgeois Bloc” government, with Westarp initially anchored in its right wing. During the Dawes Plan vote in 1924, with the DNVP parliamentary faction divided (forty-eight of its deputies endorsed the plan, contrary to expectations that the party would reject what was widely perceived on the political right as another Allied dictate), Westarp remained firmly on the side of fundamentalist opponents to the republic and voted for nonacceptance. Once the German Nationals formed part of the governing coalition, however, Westarp steadfastly (though vainly) tried to preserve the DNVP's participation, despite vehement opposition of its right wing to the Locarno Treaty and despite pressure to leave the coalition. In early 1927, Westarp even voted in favor of extending the Republikschutzgesetz, initially directed against the political right, with a clause targeting members of former ruling houses. His advocacy of the bill permanently estranged Westarp from the DNVP's right wing. In 1928, Alfred Hugenberg and his supporters, who fundamentally opposed the republic and rejected any form of compromise, compelled Westarp to relinquish the DNVP leadership, to which Hugenberg succeeded in October 1928, in the wake of electoral losses sustained in elections held the previous May. Following the DNVP's split over the “People's Rebellion against the Young Plan” in late 1929, Westarp also relinquished his leadership of the party's parliamentary faction. In 1930, he left the DNVP over disputes regarding Heinrich Brüning's policies; two years later, he renounced active politics altogether.

When Adolf Hitler became chancellor in January 1933, the sixty-eight-year old Westarp viewed the initial enthusiasm in his own camp with skepticism, just as he mistrusted the concerted attempt to create a symbiosis between National Socialism and the Prussian past. He was repelled by the revolutionary upheaval upon which the new regime laid so much stress in the spring of 1933, and he criticized its repudiation of the second Reich; its antibourgeois language reminded him of Marxist rhetoric. He was much less critical of Hitler's foreign policy and welcomed the violent renunciation of the Versailles Treaty and the expansionist aims of the regime. In 1945, weeks after the German surrender, he was interned by the Soviet military; although released after two weeks, he left the camp a broken man and died amid the ruins of Berlin at the end of July 1945.

Daniela Gasteiger's clearly written, well-structured, and readable book is the first full-length, comprehensive biography of Kuno von Westarp. An excellent collection of articles by Larry E. Jones and Wolfram Pyta, “Ich bin der letzte Preuße.” Der politische Lebensweg des konservativen Politikers Kuno Graf von Westarp, 1864-1946 (2006) that focused on important aspects of Westarp's political career prepared the groundwork. Gasteiger adds to the story by offering a nuanced analytical narrative, placing Westarp's political life in the wider context of the history of German conservatism. Her fine book has all the qualities necessary to stand the test of time. It is unlikely to be superseded anytime soon.