In God's Hands: A Noblewoman's Struggle for Survival in War and Revolution, Commentary By Her Daughter Gisela V. S. M. Ives

von zur Muehlen, Ellen

ISBN 10: 1886057370 / ISBN 13: 9781886057371

Published by Warren Publishing, Inc, U.S.A., 2007

About this Item

This is a fine, as new hardcover first edition copy, in a fine mylar protected DJ, tan spine. Inscribed by Gisela. Seller Inventory # 076140

Bibliographic Details

Title: In God's Hands: A Noblewoman's Struggle for ...

Publisher: Warren Publishing, Inc, U.S.A.

Publication Date: 2007

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: As New

Dust Jacket Condition: As New

Signed: Inscribed by Author(s)

Edition: First Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

Against the backdrop of Hummelshof, the author’s family estate in today’s Estonia, the author describes how a large, working estate was managed and the grand but formal lifestyle that was typical of that time and place. But intertwined in her description of elegant country house festivities, she also writes of her childhood at Hummelshof in an atmosphere of strict, Prussian discipline maintained by her mother’s cold, imperial attitude toward the children. Suffering thus from a feeling of rejection and loneliness, the author develops a love of nature and a deep spirituality-""her voices""-which sustain her on many occasions during later years of war and deprivation. The remainder of her memoir is a saga of extraordinary times World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and World War II during which she repeatedly finds her and her family’s survival in jeopardy, and culminating in the murder of her then former husband and much of his family by the Soviets. Finally, it is in their flight from the Soviets that she leads her elderly parents and young daughter through the burning ruins of Berlin in the last days of Nazi Germany.

About the Author:

Ellen von Samson-Himmelstjema von zur Muehlen was born at Hummelshof, her family estate in north Livonia, then one of the Baltic provinces of Tsarist Russia and part of today's Estonia. Her family belonged to the Baltic German nobility, many of whom were descendants of the Teutonic Knights and Livonian Knights who in medieval times brought Christianity to the region. Through the centuries the Baltic German landed aristocracy was the dominant force in the religious, cultural, and economic development of the Baltic provinces, particularly in Estonia and Latvia. In the process they accumulated considerable wealth and vast landholdings, which they were able to retain largely intact until the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917.