Apart from Through German Eyes

[Twiglet]

Can anyone recommend any books (either fact, or fiction) that tells of the German's view/side of the War?

Thanks

[squirrel]

Jack Sheldon's The German Army on The Somme and The German Army at Passchendaele.

Storm of steel Ernst Junger.

[truthergw]

There were many contemporary German accounts of the war. " The Advance from Mons", Walter Bloem. " With the German Guns", Sulzbach. A novel, written after the war, which is being discussed on forum at the moment, " Education before Verdun", Arnold Zweig. Bloem's account is especially interesting as it can be read in conjunction with " Mons, Retreat to Victory" by John Terraine, which is a British view of the same action.

[George Armstrong Custer]

Between them, Ernst Junger and Ludwig Renn (the nom de plume of Arnold Friedrich Vieth von Golssenau) wrote the finest quartet of German memoirs, all appearing around a decade or so after the Armistice. Junger's already cited Storm of Steel appeared in 1929, followed in 1930 by the more reflective Copse 125. Renn's War appeared in 1928, with the follow-up After War coming in 1930. Both Junger and Renn had been frontline soldiers, but whereas Junger was a political reactionary who - particularly in Storm of Steel - had exulted in the combat experience, Renn was by war's end a convinced Communist. The latter is reflected by Renn - who was actually an officer of aristocratic lineage - choosing to write his account in the persona of a private; his second book, After War giving an interesting insight into the post-war anarchy of political street-fighting between rival reactionary Freikorps and Communist units of disbanded soldiers. Between them these four books by two very different authors give a good appreciation of the German combat experience and the differing post-war political perceptions which were shaped by that experience.

ciao,

GAC

[Twiglet]

Many, many thanks all for taking the time out and letting me know this information. Absolutely brilliant.

[stevem49]

Jack Sheldon's The German Army on The Somme and The German Army at Passchendaele.

I have just read Jack's books and they are well worth looking at.

stevem (is the cheque in the post Jack )

[Paul Hederer]

Can anyone recommend any books (either fact, or fiction) that tells of the German's view/side of the War?

Thanks

In German or English?

Paul

[Halder]

The list is almost endless if, and it's a big if, you read German. Diaries, novels, first-hand accounts, Feldpost, regimental histories by the truckload.

English pickings are, sadly, pretty rare, and most English-speaking historians fall back on simply quoting Ludendorff and Hindenburg, perhaps a bit of Junger, Remarque. Sulzbach's diary is excellent. Bloem is very well written. My personal favourite of the English translations is Rudolf Binding's A Fatalist At War (long out of print, sadly). The collection of letters by Witkop written by German students who fell in the conflict is well worth investing in. Otherwise, pal Jack's Somme and Passchendaele books are an absolute must.

WW2 German accounts in English are much more numerous yet historians often still fall back on the same old accounts.

[Paul Hederer]

The list is almost endless if, and it's a big if, you read German. Diaries, novels, first-hand accounts, Feldpost, regimental histories by the truckload.

English pickings are, sadly, pretty rare, and most English-speaking historians fall back on simply quoting Ludendorff and Hindenburg, perhaps a bit of Junger, Remarque. Sulzbach's diary is excellent. Bloem is very well written. My personal favourite of the English translations is Rudolf Binding's A Fatalist At War (long out of print, sadly). The collection of letters by Witkop written by German students who fell in the conflict is well worth investing in. Otherwise, pal Jack's Somme and Passchendaele books are an absolute must.

WW2 German accounts in English are much more numerous yet historians often still fall back on the same old accounts.

To Halder's mentions I would add "Fritz: The World War I Memoir of a German Lieutenant," by Fritz Nagel. I bit off the norm, as he served in an anti-aircraft unit, but interesting, and well written.

Wilhelm Hermanns' "The Holocaust," is also very good, if much darker. Hermanns served in 1915-1916, and was captured at Verdun.

If you can read German you would very likely be able to spend the rest of your days reading various accounts of the war. It's not unsual to see small booklets, such as, "At the head of my company," written by officers during wartime in the used bookstores here.

As with accounts on all sides the quality varies quite a lot. Even in the official accounts, and regimental histories it's hit and miss. On the literary side of the house you have Remarque, Juneger, Renn, Zweig, Bloem and others I am sure I'm missing.

I'm currently making my way thorugh the books of Arnold Zweig, and I have not been dissapointed. He writes more about people, though his details make it plain he served. His book on Verdun, "Education before Verdun," is packed with small details of the Verdun battlefield that I found fascinating.

German Werth's book on Verdun is perhaps unique in that Werth had the opportunity to interview many surviving German veterans of the battle. He taped these interviews, but the tapes seem to have gone missing after his death (?)

It depends on what you want, and as with English accounts you can have the philosophical, "What was it all for?" account, or a standard war account.

I agree with Halder's comment on English accounts--sadly most rely on the same tried and true Ludendorff and Hindenburg sources, though there has been some bright spots in recent years. There are even many accounts of the fighting on the Eastern Front in German, but sadly these have never been translated, and probably never will see the light of the English-speaking day, as it were.

Paul

[Halder]

To Halder's mentions I would add "Fritz: The World War I Memoir of a German Lieutenant," by Fritz Nagel. I bit off the norm, as he served in an anti-aircraft unit, but interesting, and well written.

Wilhelm Hermanns' "The Holocaust," is also very good, if much darker. Hermanns served in 1915-1916, and was captured at Verdun.

If you can read German you would very likely be able to spend the rest of your days reading various accounts of the war. It's not unsual to see small booklets, such as, "At the head of my company," written by officers during wartime in the used bookstores here.

As with accounts on all sides the quality varies quite a lot. Even in the official accounts, and regimental histories it's hit and miss. On the literary side of the house you have Remarque, Juneger, Renn, Zweig, Bloem and others I am sure I'm missing.

I'm currently making my way thorugh the books of Arnold Zweig, and I have not been dissapointed. He writes more about people, though his details make it plain he served. His book on Verdun, "Education before Verdun," is packed with small details of the Verdun battlefield that I found fascinating.

German Werth's book on Verdun is perhaps unique in that Werth had the opportunity to interview many surviving German veterans of the battle. He taped these interviews, but the tapes seem to have gone missing after his death (?)

It depends on what you want, and as with English accounts you can have the philosophical, "What was it all for?" account, or a standard war account.

I agree with Halder's comment on English accounts--sadly most rely on the same tried and true Ludendorff and Hindenburg sources, though there has been some bright spots in recent years. There are even many accounts of the fighting on the Eastern Front in German, but sadly these have never been translated, and probably never will see the light of the English-speaking day, as it were.

Paul

Forgot about Fritz Nagel's book. Excellent, if you can find a copy (there are a few in the US, non in the UK :-( )

Another one I can recommend is Forward March by an officer named Ernst Rosenhainer, published about 15 years ago. He served on both fronts.

Paul, I'd be interested to know more about the Eastern Front books; I'm still toying with a book about Tannenberg one day. I have a few books (including a pretty good account in the official book of the Tannenberg Denkmal) but very little first hand.

[truthergw]

I thought I might mention that The British Official Histories have quite a bit of information from the German Archival material. Usually in the form of footnotes, some of which are sizeable. These volumes will be available through the public library. If you read German then there are German branches to Amazon and second hand ABE. both use de as a suffix. ABE.DE is a goldmine for the little pamphlets that Paul mentions. The contemporary stuff is printed in Fraktur. Perhaps because of that, it is amazingly cheap. For 50 Euros, you can paralyze the postie.

[David Filsell]

To add to the debate - there are at least 120 German novels and personal accounts of the Great War which have been translated and published in the UK, US or both. That figure excludes accounts by senior officers. They cover air, land and sea -there are at least five accounts by submariners for instance. Of all the accounts by infantrymen perhaps the best "forgotten" account is Loretto by Max Heinz who fought throughout the war rising from the ranks to company commander. It was published in the US and copies are available from time to time on abebooks - and on balance you get better prices and more choice from US book dealers - book runs were often far larger - and they deliver more quickly that the Brits. Pillbox 17 by Carl Broger is another worthwhile book. In short there is far more available than Junger and Renn and Junger is a definite odity I think. I have been collecting and researching translations for about four years for a prospective commentary/bibliography and just keep adding more titles.