In this episode of Explaining History, Nick is joined by acclaimed author Anne Weber to discuss her new book Sanderling (Indigo Press, 2025) — a deeply personal and philosophical exploration of family, identity, and the shadow of Germany’s past.
Through the story of her great-grandfather Florens Christian Rang — a theologian, lawyer, and close friend of figures such as Walter Benjamin and Martin Buber — Weber examines four generations of her family to ask profound questions:
Weber and Nick discuss Rang’s life and writings, the moral tensions of Germany’s unification and imperial period, and how Weber’s narrative approach — blending travelogue, reflection, and history — reveals how the past extends into the present.
The conversation also turns outward: to Europe’s shared colonial legacies, the persistence of national myths, and the uneasy balance between remembrance and denial.
“It’s a little bit like discovering your father was a serial killer,” Weber says, describing the weight of Germany’s historical consciousness. Yet through her writing, she transforms that burden into a journey of understanding — and of reckoning.
📖 Sanderling is published by Indigo Press on 4 November 2025.
Find it in independent bookshops or directly from the publisher.
Also available from Indigo Press: Weber’s earlier book Epic Annette, the true story of a French resistance fighter and doctor who defied two wars and two empires.
🎧 Listen now for a moving discussion about history, identity, and the limits of inherited guilt.
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