I read the beginning through the First World War part as research for my next book. Somary was an Austrian, from Vienna, who was in Berlin before the war. I was looking for a memoir of someone who lived in Switzerland during the First World war, but Somary lived in Zurich later. He was a banker. Interesting perspective about events leading up to the war and American entry into the war. He was another Jeremiah. A Hapsburg wrote the introduction.