Schadow's Meditations

Schadow's Meditations, volume 2 of the Berlin Book, is a parallel volume to Schade's Passage, not a sequel, though major characters appear in both books. Emil Schadow is a conservative history professor who survives the war after the Nazis ignominiously throw him out of the university. Looking back in his old age he writes about his life and times including his pre-1914 affair with the young, radical sculptor Helga Opladen that ends in bitter tragedy, his guilt about not resisting the Hitler dictatorship and his distanced relationship with his deceased wife and son. His memories of friends and colleagues are presented throughout, as well as commentaries on some of his opinions and actions by John Schade and the often mysterious William Makepeace, characters from Volume 1. The book is complemented by a diary kept by Helga covering her life from her days in the artist milieu of Paris up to her death in the revolutionary year 1919.