Best of
German-Literature

2008

Destined to Live: One Woman's War, Life, Loves Remembered


Sabina Wolanski - 2008
    In her diary, along with innocent adolescent longings, she recorded what happened next: the humiliations and terrors, the murder of her beloved family and the startling story of her own survival. Leaving Europe after the war, Sabina forged a new life in Australia, juggling a thriving design business, her family, and an unorthodox love life. But as time wore on, she began asking herself why had she survived when so many died? And what kind of justice fitted such crimes? In May 2005, when Germany opened its controversial Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, in Berlin, Sabina was chosen to speak as the voice of the six million dead. In her speech she noted that although the Holocaust had taken everything she valued, it had also taught her that hatred and discrimination are doomed to fail. Her ability to survive, to love, and to live well, has been her greatest triumph. 'I couldn't put down this engaging, honest story of love, loss and survival.' Diane Armstrong, bestselling author of THE VOYAGER OF THEIR LIFE 'important and wonderfully written' Australian Literary Review

Franz Kafka: The Office Writings


Franz Kafka - 2008
    Franz Kafka (1883-1924) is commonly recognized as the greatest German prose writer of the twentieth century. It is less well known that he had an established legal career. Kafka's briefs reveal him to be a canny bureaucrat, sharp litigator, and innovative thinker on the social, political, and legal issues of his time. His official preoccupations inspired many of the themes and strategies of the novels and stories he wrote at night.These documents include articles on workmen's compensation and workplace safety; appeals for the founding of a psychiatric hospital for shell-shocked veterans; and letters arguing relentlessly for a salary adequate to his merit. In adjudicating disputes, promoting legislative programs, and investigating workplace sites, Kafka's writings teem with details about the bureaucracy and technology of his day, such as spa elevators in Marienbad, the challenge of the automobile, and the perils of excavating in quarries while drunk. Beautifully translated, with valuable commentary by two of the world's leading Kafka scholars and one of America's most eminent civil rights lawyers, the documents cast rich light on the man and the writer and offer new insights to lovers of Kafka's novels and stories.

RAF Evaders: The Comprehensive Story of Thousands of Escapers and Their Escape Lines, Western Europe, 1940-1945


Oliver Clutton-Brock - 2008
    The first one to assist the evaders and escapers ("E & E" as the Americans called them) was the PAT line, along the Mediterranean coast to Perpignan and down the Spanish border; named after a naval officer Pat O'Leary, from 1942 it became the PAO line.Next was the Comet line, from Brussels to the Pyrenees. Thousands of brave people were to be involved for whom, if caught, the penalty was death. Theirs is a stirring and awe-inspiring story. Respected historian Oliver Clutton-Brock has researched in depth this secret world of evasion, uncovering some treachery and many hitherto unpublished details, operations and photos.It is a tremendous reference work, written in his own colorful style with numerous anecdotes, which fills a gap of knowledge formerly unavailable to historians, professional or amateur. Packed the information, key figure biographies and listings--2, 094 evaders identified--this is a valuable testimony to the courage of all those involved.

Desperation: Surviving Hitler's Intention


Lydia Rychner-Reich - 2008
    This gripping account, which begins in the late '30s, depicts a bourgeois German family's descent from financial and social success to agonizing struggle for survival in Bergen-Belsen's camps. As the madness of Hitler's reign progressed, Rychner-Reich and her loving, hardworking family were driven to progressively more desperate measures. The family suffered constraints on their livelihoods and their movements, eventually abandoning their possessions in the flight to Poland. The author paints a clear picture of the Nazi regime's psychological warfare-the Jews and other targeted groups were constantly adapting their movements or dressing to conform to the latest arbitrary regulation, never knowing what to expect. However, the true horror wasn't the random enforcement of questionable rules, but the utter brutality of what Rychner-Reich terms the "Nazibeasts" or "Nazibrutes." The descriptions of shocking violence are painful merely to read, to say nothing of what the author witnessed firsthand. The psychological strain that survivors must withstand becomes more painfully evident as Rychner-Reich's story continues. Aside from two older brothers who emigrated to Argentina before the war, the author lost every member of her immediate family to the Nazis. The memoir is generally chronological, but occasionally jumps back and forth in time-this doesn't affect the story, instead serving almost to convey the confusion and miasma of the time. The only saving grace for readers is that Rychner-Reich survived to marry, have a family and join her voice with those of other survivors. Though 70 years have passed since the systematic, inhuman events in this compelling autobiography, it remains incredibly painful to read.-Kirkus Discoveries

Working-Class Politics in the German Revolution: Richard Müller, the Revolutionary Shop Stewards and the Origins of the Council Movement


Ralf Hoffrogge - 2008
    As the operator and unionist who represented Berlin’s metalworkers, he was main organiser of the ‘Revolutionary Stewards,’ a clandestine network that organised a series of mass strikes between 1916 and 1918. With strong support in the factories, the Revolutionary Stewards were the driving force of the Revolution. By telling Müller's story, this study gives a very different account of the revolutionary birth of the Weimar Republic. Using new archival sources and abandoning the traditional focus on the history of political parties, Ralf Hoffrogge zooms in on working class politics on the shop floor and its contribution to social change.First published in German by Karl Dietz Verlag as Richard Müller - Der Mann hinter der Novemberrevolution, Berlin, 2008, this English edition was completely revised for the English speaking audience and contains new sources and recent literature

Raving Language: Selected Poems 1946–2006


Friederike Mayröcker - 2008
    The poems are true to the legacies of romanticism and surrealism and exhibit the poet’s ability to push the limits of convention to reveal a deeper structure of existence, ranging from elation to abyss.