From the balls and masquerades of the court to the half-naked children of the peasants; from hunting and winter sports to details of authorship and publishing; from law to sanitation, this 1935 book plunges the reader into life in Germany two hundred years ago. The author links everyday life and current traditions with some of the outstanding features in the literature and thought of the age, thus providing a full picture of the political, economic and social background to the intellectual and artistic achievements of the period. In the process he has brought out some of the enduring processes of German life.