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German literature

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Sirdar Bahadur

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  Quote Temujin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: German literature
    Posted: 22-Aug-2004 at 20:40

well, I noticed I read a lot of books by Germans, though not classic ones. I will tell you some of them I liked:

first and most important for me was all quiet on the western front by Erich maria Remarque...I must say it shocked me a lot (together with 1984 by geroge orwell). I read it 8 times (though not recently, but within the first 2-3 years after first reading it in school) and I could write an whole article about it, I guess most of you know what's it all about. it did influence me quite a lot.
there were two movies made about it...most like the old B-W move, but I didn't liked the end, but the new one wasn't that good either...

I'm intending reading te book(s)? by Ernst Jnger, I heard he wrote even more brutal about WW1, but he also got some nationalistic tones to it..I had hesitations but after reading some excerpts and gettign only positive recommendations, i'll read it someday... 

another book I got recomended was the bridge (forgot the author, but I can look it up). it's in WW2 and it's abot the last year of the war, 5 kids have to defend a startegically unimportant  bridge against the advancing Americans in bavaria... it's based on the real experience of the author who was one of them. the basic plot is about the children of ww2 that were armed and brainwashed to defend the falling empire in a useless effort to stop the allied advance...

the two books above are probably only interesting if you're a) young and b) male ....and living in Germany...


in school we read a lot about WW2, I hoestly have to say that most were crap, but one book was very outstanding, this was Jacob the Liar (I'm not sure if it's written by a German at all....). it's about a (jewish)ghetto in a Polish town during the war. the plot is simple, life in the Ghetto is hell, and everyone is aware that he could die anyday. one day Jacob (one of the prisoners) coincidently hears about the advancing Russians from the radio in the German occupation-office. he told everyone about it but he pretended to have hidden a radio himself, because the other would regard him as a traitor when he would have told them that he heard it from the German office (he was there because he was caught while being on the street after darkness). after a while he invented things that he "heard" on his radio and suddenly all people got happy and started to gain new hope, but of course there was also the real world...

this is really an awesome book. there are two movies made about it, one with Robin Williams...while it is good it is not absolutely true to the story and the ending is all messed up. the movie made in the people's republic is cheaper, but almost 100% true to the story and thus really worth the watch. when I read the end, and the girl said the famous sentence in the train, it made me cry like a baby...

mmh, that's all remarkable I've read so far from German authors...



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  Quote TJK Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27-Aug-2004 at 16:57

Remarque is just classic..

another book I got recomended was the bridge (forgot the author, but I can look it up)

Manfred Gregor - realy good indeed

What about Hans Helmuth Kirst ?



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  Quote Temujin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27-Aug-2004 at 20:05
Originally posted by TJK

Manfred Gregor - realy good indeed

yes, that was his name.

What about Hans Helmuth Kirst ?

mmh, never heard of him...what did he wrote? what's it about?

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  Quote vagabond Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28-Aug-2004 at 00:49

Am more familiar with earlier German stuff.  Thomas Mann, Hesse, Goethe, Schiller.  I love Bertolt Brecht. I find Kafka tough going - maybe I don't like to think that much..

Remarque is always good.  Jurek Becker's Jakob the Liar was great, brilliant writing.  Am looking forward to reading "The Bridge" (Gregor).

Any other recommendations?

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  Quote TJK Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28-Aug-2004 at 09:44

never heard of him...what did he wrote? what's it about?

Officers Factory, 08/15, The Night of the Generals..and many more - all about the WWII from german soldier prespective. 

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  Quote cattus Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28-Aug-2004 at 09:47
which theater of the war is it set in?
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  Quote TJK Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28-Aug-2004 at 09:59
Well, this are novels concentrate on view of ordinary soldiers towards nazis..IIRC the second volume of 08/15 is about Eastern Front  
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  Quote Temujin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28-Aug-2004 at 19:38
I looked it up, they seem old and are all unavailable at the moment...
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  Quote Master of Puppets Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01-Sep-2004 at 07:30
I read AQOTWF too, some time ago, though. I remember liking it.
I also read Goethe's Werther, which was good, although the protagonist was a bit whiny. Haven't read it as intensively as I should have, though. I also once read a modern version of the story, but can't really remember it.
At the moment I'm re-reading Kafka's Der Prozess, which is a great book, although I find it very difficult to really understand it, as I pointed out in the What are you reading? topic.
Wherever I turn, there is Death.
The Epic of Gilgamesh; Tablet XI, line 245
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  Quote TJK Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Sep-2004 at 13:36

Originally posted by Temujin

I looked it up, they seem old and are all unavailable at the moment...

 

Hey Temujin, I don't know German language but check this link:

http://www.ciao.de/08_15_Trilogie_Kirst_Hans_Helmut__513401 

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  Quote Temujin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Sep-2004 at 15:05

ah indeed, it's available at buch24.de  I always checked at amazon.de and they don't have it....

and only 8,95 , that's cheap, I'm going to get it when  finished the recent book.

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  Quote Cywr Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02-Sep-2004 at 15:25
I've got a copy of Faust that i havn't got round to reading yet. Its in a nice, old fashioned binded book too. One day.......
Arrrgh!!"
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  Quote Abyssmal Fiend Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13-Sep-2004 at 12:35
Hehe, "Inside the Third Reich" by Albert Speer... Best German book ever, besides "My Struggle". Then again, I just like the Nazi era for some reason, don't know why...

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  Quote Temujin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16-Sep-2004 at 20:04
excuse me, Mein Kampf is the worst sick garbage ever been published!
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  Quote Mosquito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27-Sep-2004 at 16:14

What about Paul Carell? (real name Paul Karl Schmidt).

Actually he was not a novelist but kind of historian and his book are more a history works. I like his "Unternehmen Barbarrosa" (Operation Barbarossa).

Its interesting for me because it is written from the german perspective and during the war the author was working for Ribbentrop. Anyone tried it?

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  Quote Abyssmal Fiend Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22-Oct-2004 at 18:13
Perfume by Peter (?) Suesker, who I think was born in Munich. Good book, but a little strange at times. O.o

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  Quote Tobodai Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22-Oct-2004 at 21:31
lol, the only German book I have ever read is All Quiet on teh Western Front and Clausiwtz's On War, aot fo war literature...i wonder why
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  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23-Oct-2004 at 10:59
Why didn't I notice this thread earlier?
Anyway, I've read amongst others Im Westen nichts Neues, Draussen vor den Tur and Deutschland ein Wintermrchen. I've read a short story from Kafka as well, but I've forgotten the name.
I liked most of the German literature I read. It was much better than the Dutch literature I read.
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  Quote Master of Puppets Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-Oct-2004 at 05:19
Maybe Die Verwandlung? That's Kafka's most famous short story.
Wherever I turn, there is Death.
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  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-Oct-2004 at 06:20
no. I remember, it was das Urteil.
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