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 J�nger, 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...

Remarque is just classic..

Manfred Gregor - realy good indeed

What about Hans Helmuth Kirst ?

yes, that was his name.

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

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?

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

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

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.

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?

I read Im Westen Nichts Neues (All quiet on the west front) for my german class about 20 years ago. It was pretty hard to understand in german, so I had to read it in swedish just to be able to do the book report. I must say that I liked it though. Itwas good enough for me to look for other books by Remarque. I found "A Time to Love and a Time to Die", which I also enjoyed, in swedish though.

Another german author that I like is Michael Ende. There are probably mor, but I can't remember their names right now.

Nichts  neues  im Westen  is  a  classic.And  i  think  the  first  War  critic(not  the  critic of the  ww1)

Herman Hesse Steppenwolf