In most academic publications the subtitle is more revealing of their contents than the title, but this does not apply to the present book, for its scope is rather wider than the relations of the venerable German seminary known as the Campo Santo Teutonico, situated within the Vatican City and enjoying the privilege of extra-territoriality, with the Vatican during the era of National Socialism and the decade following the end of the Second World War. The substantial, generously illustrated volume concerns German scholars, diplomats, politicians and priests who lived in Rome, whether they went there to further their research and their careers or were forced to leave Germany for ethnic or political reasons. Michael Matheus’ introduction explains the origins of the volume in a conference held in 2013 to mark the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Roman Institute of the Görres-gesellschaft in the Campo Santo, and a chapter which informatively sets the scene follows (Christoph Dipper, ‘Flüchtlinge, Juden, Auslandsdeutsche: die Spannbreite des Exils im faschistischen Italien’). Many of the contributions concern the careers of individual scholars, almost all of whom remain well-known figures today (for instance, Günther Wassilowsky on Hubert Jedin, Ludwig Schmugge on Stephan Kuttner, Paolo Vian on the brothers Giovanni and Angelo Mercati, Sergio Pagano on Hermann Hoberg and Norbert Borengässer on the pupils of Franz Joseph Dölger). Dioclecio Redig de Campos, director general of the Vatican Museums, discussed by Arnold Nesselrath, is present because, although he was not German, he was brought up in Berlin. The essays on individuals vary considerably in their approach, ranging from personal appreciations or reminiscences (Paul Zanker on Hermine Speier, Klaus Schatz on Friedrich Kempf) to extremely detailed biographical accounts (Annette Vogt on Anneliese Maier, Dominik Burkard on Karl August Fink, the latter including an appendix with biographical notices of Fink's contemporaries). There is variety in tone too. Anselm Doering-Manteuffel and Karl-Joseph Hummel, who each provide a chapter concerning Ernst von Weizsäcker, German ambassador to the Holy See from 1943, are highly critical of him. They feel constrained to discuss Weizsäcker's condemnation at Nuremberg in 1947, although the issue at stake here did not directly concern his service as ambassador to the Vatican. On the other hand, Burkard's discussion of Fink's association with National Socialism has more the flavour of an apology. The hundred-page essay on Fink does not pin-point his political beliefs in order to suggest reasons why he held them, nor does it explain his antipathy to Pius xii. However, to say that the volume raises some questions which remain unresolved is not necessarily a criticism of its authors, for the relevant archives may remain inaccessible. This applies, for example, to Rudolf Morsey's essay on the former chairman of the Zentrumspartei, Ludwig Kaas, who was understood to be an influential adviser of Pius xii, something which Morsey is not at present able to substantiate.

Two essays which in a sense form the heart of the volume should be read in parallel, Johan Ickx and Stefan Heid on the Campo Santo during the Second World War, and Heid alone on the Roman Institute of the Görresgesellschaft in the years 1925–55. The first of these documents the humanitarian efforts of Mgr Hugh O'Flaherty and others which centred on the Campo Santo during the rectorship of Mgr Hermann Maria Stoeckle, while the second concerns an organisation which was housed in the Campo Santo but administratively distinct from it, and which was in an anomalous position following the National Socialist regime's dissolution of the Görresgesellschaft in 1941. In the two remaining essays in the collection, Michael Matheus narrates the process by which German research institutes were re-established in Rome after the war, and Gregor Wand provides an account of Weizsäcker's predecessor as ambassador to the Holy See, Diego von Bergen. One theme that emerges from this welcome volume is the ease with which scholarly networks often transcended boundaries of some significance: thus, the Prussian Historical Institute in Rome and its successor the German Historical Institute were organs of the German state dominated by Protestants, while the Campo Santo was a community of Roman Catholic scholars and priests, but men were able to move effortlessly between the two; Hubert Jedin, who features so prominently in this volume, was half-Jewish, while his associations and friendships were not entirely what one might expect from that description; and Anneliese Maier, a Protestant who converted to Catholicism in Italy in 1943, was an opponent of National Socialism, but her principal patron was Werner Hoppenstedt, a convinced Nazi.