Best of
Germany

2005

Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1906-1945: Martyr, Thinker, Man of Resistance


Ferdinand Schlingensiepen - 2005
    His influence is so widespread that even 60 years after his execution by the Nazis, Bonhoeffer's life and work are still the subject of fresh and lively discussion. As a pastor and theologian, Bonhoeffer decided to resist the Nazis in Germany, but his resistance was not solely theological. He played a key leadership role in the Confessing Church, a major source of Christian opposition to Hitler and his anti-Semitism and was principal of the secret seminary at Finkenwalde in Pomerania.It was here that he developed his theological visions of radical discipleship and communal life. In 1938, he joined the Wehrmacht's "Abwehr", the German Military Intelligence Office, in order to seek international support for the plot against Hitler. Following his inner calling and conscience meant that Bonhoeffer was continually forced to make decisions that separated him from his family, friends, and colleagues, and which ultimately led to his martyrdom in Flossenbürg concentration camp, less than a month before the Second World War came to an end. His letters and papers from prison movingly express the development of some of the most provocative and fascinating ideas of 20th century theology.Sixty years after Bonhoeffer's death and forty years after the publication of Eberhard Bethge's ground breaking biography, Ferdinand Schlingensiepen offers a definitive new book on Bonhoeffer, for a new generation of readers. Schlingensiepen takes into account documents that have only been made accessible during the last few years - such as the letters between Bonhoeffer and his fiancée Maria von Wedemeyer. Schlingensiepen's careful narrative brings to life the historical events, as well as displaying the theological development of one of the most creative thinkers of the 20th century, who was to become one of its most tragic martyrs.

Evening in the Palace of Reason


James R. Gaines - 2005
    Their fleeting encounter in 1747 signals a unique moment in history where belief collided with the cold certainty of reason. Set at the tipping point between the ancient and modern world, Evening in the Palace of Reason captures the tumult of the eighteenth century, the legacy of the Reformation, and the birth of the Enlightenment in this extraordinary tale of two men.

The German Way of War: From the Thirty Years' War to the Third Reich


Robert M. Citino - 2005
    Robert Citino takes us on a dramatic march through Prussian and German military history to show how that primal theme played out time and time again. Citino focuses on operational warfare to demonstrate continuity in German military campaigns from the time of Elector Frederick Wilhelm and his great sleigh-drive against the Swedes to the age of Adolf Hitler and the blitzkrieg to the gates of Moscow. Along the way, he underscores the role played by the Prussian army in elevating a small, vulnerable state to the ranks of the European powers, describes how nineteenth-century victories over Austria and France made the German army the most respected in Europe, and reviews the lessons learned from the trenches of World War I.

Eichmann and the Holocaust


Hannah Arendt - 2005
    Inspired by the trial of a bureaucrat who helped cause the Holocaust, this radical work on the banality of evil stunned the world with its exploration of a regime's moral blindness and one man's insistence that he be absolved all guilt because he was 'only following orders'.

The Seed Woman


Petra Durst-Benning - 2005
    Enchanted by the glorious wildflowers and thriving harvests stretching as far as the eye can see, Hannah feels less like an outsider with each passing hour, until she meets Seraphine, an ethereally beautiful dreamer engaged to be married to Helmut, the father of Hannah’s unborn child.Desperate to win back Helmut’s affections, Hannah gets to work and quickly discovers a passion for the seed trade, and with every change of season comes a change of heart. Can Hannah and Seraphine put aside their differences to find a way to work together, or will Hannah and her child be forced to leave this place she has come to love?

Rick Steves' Germany and Austria


Rick Steves - 2005
    Completely revised and updated, Rick Steves’ Germany and Austria 2007 includes:• Opinionated coverage of both famous and lesser-known sights• Friendly places to eat and sleep• Suggested day plans• Walking tours and trip itineraries• Clear instructions for smooth travel anywhere by car, train, or footAmerica’s #1 authority on travel to Europe, Rick’s time-tested recommendations for safe and enjoyable travel in Europe have been used by millions of Americans in search of their own unique European travel experience.

The Myth of Hitler's Pope: Pope Pius XII and His Secret War Against Nazi Germany


David G. Dalin - 2005
    Dalin provides a ringing defense of the wartime pontiff, arguing that Holocaust-era Jews justly regarded Pius as their protector, not their tormentor.

Hitler's Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare State


Götz Aly - 2005
    Buoyed by millions of packages soldiers sent from the front, Germans also benefited from the systematic plunder of Jewish possessions. Any qualms were swept away by waves of tax breaks and government handouts.Hitler's Beneficiaries has been hailed as "startling" by Richard Evans, and as "fascinating and important" by Christopher Browning. Above all, as Omer Bartov testifies, this remarkable book "irreversibly transforms our understanding of the Third Reich."

1001 Nights: Illustrated Fairy Tales from One Thousand and One Nights


Robert Klanten - 2005
    Presents a collection of tales, including "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp," "Sinbad the Seaman," "The Third Kalandar's Tale," and "The Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince."Contents (via Worldcat):Alladin and the wonderful lamp --The sweep and the noble lady --The tale of the three apples --The man who stole the dish of gold wherein the dog ate --Sindbad the seaman --The first voyage of Sindbad the seaman --The second voyage of Sindbad the seaman --The third voyage of Sindbad the seaman --The fourth voyage of Sindbad the seaman --The fifth voyage of Sindbad the seaman --The sixth voyage of Sindbad the seaman --The seventh voyage of Sindbad the seaman --The third Kalandar's tale --The angel of death with the proud and the devout man --The tale of the ensorcelled prince --The city of many-columned iram.

Nazi Empire-Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine


Wendy Lower - 2005
    Ukraine, the jewel in the Nazi empire, would become a German colony administered by Heinrich Himmler's SS and police, Hermann Goring's economic plunderers, and a host of other satraps. Focusing on the Zhytomyr region and weaving together official German wartime records, diaries, memoirs, and personal interviews, Wendy Lower provides the most complete assessment available of German colonization and the Holocaust in Ukraine.Midlevel managers, Lower demonstrates, played major roles in mass murder, and locals willingly participated in violence and theft. Lower puts names and faces to local perpetrators, bystanders, beneficiaries, as well as resisters. She argues that Nazi actions in the region evolved from imperial arrogance and ambition; hatred of Jews, Slavs, and Communists; careerism and pragmatism; greed and fear. In her analysis of the murderous implementation of Nazi race and population policy in Zhytomyr, Lower shifts scholarly attention from Germany itself to the eastern outposts of the Reich, where the regime truly revealed its core beliefs, aims, and practices.On 16 July 1941, Adolf Hitler convened top Nazi leaders at his headquarters in East Prussia to dictate how they would rule the newly occupied eastern territories. Ukraine, the jewel in the Nazi empire, would become a German colony administered by Heinrich Himmler's SS and police, Hermann Goring's economic plunderers, and a host of other satraps. Focusing on the Zhytomyr region and weaving together official German wartime records, diaries, memoirs, and personal interviews, Wendy Lower provides the most complete assessment available of German colonization and the Holocaust in Ukraine. In her analysis of the murderous implementation of Nazi race and population policy in Zhytomyr, Lower shifts scholarly attention from Germany itself to the eastern outposts of the Reich, where the regime truly revealed its core beliefs, aims, and practices.

Berlin Then and Now


Nick Gay - 2005
    Only with the 1989 destruction of the Wall and the subsequent Unification Treaty did Berlin begin to regain its cosmopolitan standing as one of the world’s great cities. Experience the tumultuous events of the city’s modern history through archival and contemporary photography that offers a rare glimpse of Berlin’s fascinating metamorphosis.

A New History of German Literature


David E. Wellbery - 2005
    German culture has been central to Europe, and it has contributed the transforming spirit of Lutheran religion, the technology of printing as a medium of democracy, the soulfulness of Romantic philosophy, the structure of higher education, and the tradition of liberal socialism to the essential character of modern American life.In this book leading scholars and critics capture the spirit of this culture in some 200 original essays on events in German literary history. Rather than offering a single continuous narrative, the entries focus on a particular literary work, an event in the life of an author, a historical moment, a piece of music, a technological invention, even a theatrical or cinematic premiere. Together they give the reader a surprisingly unified sense of what it is that has allowed Meister Eckhart, Hildegard of Bingen, Luther, Kant, Goethe, Beethoven, Benjamin, Wittgenstein, Jelinek, and Sebald to provoke and enchant their readers. From the earliest magical charms and mythical sagas to the brilliance and desolation of 20th-century fiction, poetry, and film, this illuminating reference book invites readers to experience the full range of German literary culture and to investigate for themselves its disparate and unifying themes.Contributors include: Amy M. Hollywood on medieval women mystics, Jan-Dirk Muller on Gutenberg, Marion Aptroot on the Yiddish Renaissance, Emery Snyder on the Baroque novel, J. B. Schneewind on Natural Law, Maria Tatar on the Grimm brothers, Arthur Danto on Hegel, Reinhold Brinkmann on Schubert, Anthony Grafton on Burckhardt, Stanley Corngold on Freud, Andreas Huyssen on Rilke, Greil Marcus on Dada, Eric Rentschler on Nazi cinema, Elisabeth Young-Bruehl on Hannah Arendt, Gordon A. Craig on Gunter Grass, Edward Dimendberg on Holocaust memorials.

Witnesses of War: Children's Lives Under the Nazis


Nicholas Stargardt - 2005
    In this groundbreaking study–based on a wide range of new sources–Nicholas Stargardt details what happened to children of all nationalities and religions living under the Nazi regime. Their stories open a world we have never seen before. As the Nazis overran Europe, children were saved or damned according to their race. Drawing on an untouched wealth of original material–school assignments; juvenile diaries; letters; and even accounts of children’s games–Nicholas Stargardt breaks stereotypes of victimhood and trauma to give us the gripping individual stories of the generation Hitler made.

Music in the Holocaust: Confronting Life in the Nazi Ghettos and Camps


Shirli Gilbert - 2005
    She documents a wide scope of musical activities, ranging from orchestras and chamber groups to choirs, theatres, communal sing-songs, and cabarets, in some of the most important internment centres in Nazi-occupied Europe, including Auschwitz and the Warsaw and Vilna ghettos. Gilbert is also concerned with exploring the ways in which music--particularly the many songs that were preserved--contribute to our broader understanding of the Holocaust and the experiences of its victims. Music in the Holocaust is, at its core, a social history, taking as its focus the lives of individuals and communities imprisoned under Nazism. Music opens a unique window on to the internal world of those communities, offering insight into how they understood, interpreted, and responded to their experiences at the time.

A Frequency Dictionary of German: Core Vocabulary for Learners


Randall L. Jones - 2005
    Based on a 4.2 million-word corpus which is evenly divided between spoken, fiction and non-fiction texts, the dictionary provides a detailed frequency-based list plus alphabetical and part of speech indexes.All entries in the rank frequency list feature the English equivalent, a sample sentence plus an indication of major register variation. The dictionary also contains twenty-one thematically organized lists of frequently used words on a variety of topics as well as eleven special vocabulary lists.A Frequency Dictionary of German aims to enable students of all levels to maximize their study of German vocabulary in an efficient and engaging way.

Not Forgotten


Neil Oliver - 2005
    They stand as landmarks to a defining period in British history - and yet one which is in danger of slipping away from popular memory. Accompanying the major "Channel Four" series, "Not Forgotten" is a revealing look at the untold stories that lie behind these lists of names - stories of the impact of World War One on British society, the echoes of which can still be felt today. More than a conflict overseas, it was the catalyst for an extraordinary period of rapid and radical change to the social, cultural and political fabric of the nation. Social restrictions on women were revolutionised, from jobs and the vote to new freedoms in dress, behaviour and sexuality. The class system was thrown into disarray, both at home and on the front lines; roles were reversed in family life for a large part of the population, through bereavement, evacuation and children put to work in munitions factories. And as the state took drastic measures to cope with this turmoil, so the foundations were laid for the society in which we live today.

German Strategy and the Path to Verdun: Erich von Falkenhayn and the Development of Attrition, 1870-1916


Robert T. Foley - 2005
    This book offers a new perspective on one of the twentieth century's bloodiest battles by examining the development of German military ideas from the end of the Franco-German War in 1871 to the First World War. Its use of recently released German sources held in the Soviet Union since the Second World War sheds new light on German ideas about attrition before and during the First World War.

Sex After Fascism: Memory and Morality in Twentieth-Century Germany


Dagmar Herzog - 2005
    What exactly were Nazism's sexual politics? Were they repressive for everyone, or were some individuals and groups given sexual license while others were persecuted, tormented, and killed? How do we make sense of the evolution of postwar interpretations of Nazism's sexual politics? What do we make of the fact that scholars from the 1960s to the present have routinely asserted that the Third Reich was sex-hostile?In response to these and other questions, Sex after Fascism fundamentally reconceives central topics in twentieth-century German history. Among other things, it changes the way we understand the immense popular appeal of the Nazi regime and the nature of antisemitism, the role of Christianity in the consolidation of postfascist conservatism in the West, the countercultural rebellions of the 1960s-1970s, as well as the negotiations between government and citizenry under East German communism. Beginning with a new interpretation of the Third Reich's sexual politics and ending with the revisions of Germany's past facilitated by communism's collapse, Sex after Fascism examines the intimately intertwined histories of capitalism and communism, pleasure and state policies, religious renewal and secularizing trends.A history of sexual attitudes and practices in twentieth-century Germany, investigating such issues as contraception, pornography, and theories of sexual orientation, Sex after Fascism also demonstrates how Germans made sexuality a key site for managing the memory and legacies of Nazism and the Holocaust.

The Longest Battle: September 1944-February 1945: From Aachen to the Roer and Across


Harry Yeide - 2005
    Three months after the landing at Normandy, the Allies were finally within reach of the enemy on his home turf. Among the troops there was even talk of getting home for Christmas. What followed, though, was one of the most grueling campaigns of the war—the nearly six-month-long battle fully recounted for the first time in this powerful work. Combining stirring narrative and meticulous historical detail, The Longest Battle provides a complete and compelling account of what happened after the first breach of the Third Reich by Allied ground combat forces: of the troops’ terrible struggle across the Siegfried Line, Hitler’s vaunted West Wall, through the benighted Hurtgen Forest, and across the Roer. The strategic decisions and setbacks, the incremental advances, and catastrophic losses that marked this still-controversial but critically important battle unfold in all their historical, military, and human significance in Harry Yeide’s book—finally filling a gap in our understanding of World War II.

The Cruise of the Sea Eagle: The Amazing True Story of Imperial Germany's Gentleman Pirate


Blaine Lee Pardoe - 2005
    The adventures of Count Felix von Luckner’s three-masted sailing vessel that raided the high seas during the first ironclad sea war.

Holbein and England


Susan Foister - 2005
    This book is the first to explore the full range of the artist’s English body of work as well as the relation of this work to the visual and material culture of Tudor England. Providing a detailed account of the paintings, drawings, and woodcuts that Holbein produced in England, the book demonstrates convincingly that that country was not as remote from a common European culture as is often assumed. Rather, it was an unmistakable part of that culture.Susan Foister discusses not only Holbein's well-known portraits but also his decorative paintings and murals, now lost, his designs for goldsmiths, and the works that can be associated with the English Reformation. In addition, she considers Holbein's religious and secular images, his techniques and practices, his status as an official court painter, and a variety of other intriguing topics.

The War Aims and Strategies of Adolf Hitler


Oscar Pinkus - 2005
    He failed to invade England; he neglected his air force; he engaged enemies on multiple fronts. Viewed in terms of Germany's struggle against the West, these and other actions made little sense. In truth, however, the war against Western powers had little to do with Hitler's grand plan: to conquer Russia and lands to the east of Germany, eradicate or enslave their populations, and create a vast Teutonic empire. In light of this goal, Hitler's actions were consistent throughout. In line with his dictum of All or Nothing, once Hitler failed to defeat Russia in December 1941, he conducted the rest of the war with the sole purpose of inflicting maximum bloodshed and desolation, including upon Germany itself. Weakened, sensing defeat, he knew he was a drowning man--and he was determined to take friend and foe alike down with him. This evaluation of Hitler's objectives in World War II expands upon a theory gaining prominence among historians: Hitler's true motive was a crusade against the East, and he had little interest in waging war with England, much less the United States. It examines the different nature of the war on the Eastern and Western fronts; the disparate treatment afforded the two groups of POWs and civilians; and Hitler's scorched-earth policy, adopted after his primary objective proved beyond his grasp. In poignant, painful detail, it recreates the Russians' devastating four-year struggle against Germany, which went much further towards ensuring its defeat than any of the comparatively belated Western efforts.

Bach in Berlin: Nation and Culture in Mendelssohn's Revival of the St. Matthew Passion


Celia Applegate - 2005
    Matthew Passion is universally acknowledged to be one of the world's supreme musical masterpieces, yet in the years after Bach's death it was forgotten by all but a small number of his pupils and admirers. The public rediscovered it in 1829, when Felix Mendelssohn conducted the work before a glittering audience of Berlin artists and intellectuals, Prussian royals, and civic notables. The concert soon became the stuff of legend, sparking a revival of interest in and performance of Bach that has continued to this day.Mendelssohn's performance gave rise to the notion that recovering and performing Bach's music was somehow national work. In 1865 Wagner would claim that Bach embodied the history of the German spirit's inmost life. That the man most responsible for the revival of a masterwork of German Protestant culture was himself a converted Jew struck contemporaries as less remarkable than it does us today--a statement that embraces both the great achievements and the disasters of 150 years of German history.In this book, Celia Applegate asks why this particular performance crystallized the hitherto inchoate notion that music was central to Germans' collective identity. She begins with a wonderfully readable reconstruction of the performance itself and then moves back in time to pull apart the various cultural strands that would come together that afternoon in the Singakademie. The author investigates the role played by intellectuals, journalists, and amateur musicians (she is one herself) in developing the notion that Germans were the people of music. Applegate assesses the impact on music's cultural place of the renewal of German Protestantism, historicism, the mania for collecting and restoring, and romanticism. In her conclusion, she looks at the subsequent careers of her protagonists and the lasting reverberations of the 1829 performance itself.

Jewish Daily Life in Germany, 1618-1945


Marion A. Kaplan - 2005
    German society shunned Jews in the eighteenth century and opened unevenly to them in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, only to turn murderous in the Nazi era. By examining the everyday lives of ordinary Jews, this book portrays the drama of German-Jewish history -- the gradual ascent of Jews from impoverished outcasts to comfortable bourgeois citizens and then their dramatic descent into genocidal torment during the Nazi years. Building on social, economic, religious, and political history, it focuses on the qualitative aspects of ordinary life -- emotions, subjective impressions, and quotidian perceptions. How did ordinary Jews and their families make sense of their world? How did they construe changes brought about by industrialization? How did they make decisions to enter new professions or stick with the old, juggle traditional mores with contemporary ways? The Jewish adoption of secular, modern European culture and the struggle for legal equality exacted profound costs, both material and psychological. Even in the heady years of progress, a basic insecurity informed German-Jewish life. Jewish successes existed alongside an antisemitism that persisted as a frightful leitmotif throughout German-Jewish history. And yet the history that emerges from these pages belies simplistic interpretations that German antisemitism followed a straight path from Luther to Hitler. Neither Germans nor Jews can be typecast in their roles vis � vis one another. Non-Jews were not uniformly antisemitic but exhibited a wide range of attitudes towards Jews. Jewish daily life thus provides another vantage point from which to study the social life of Germany. Focusing on both internal Jewish life -- family, religion, culture and Jewish community -- and the external world of German culture and society provides a uniquely well-rounded portrait of a world defined by the shifting sands of inclusion and exclusion.

A Traveler At Forty


Theodore Dreiser - 2005
    It differs enormously from the customary travel books: it is not a mere description of places and people, but a revelation of their impingement upon an exceptional and almost eccentric personality." - H. L. Mencken "For everywhere [Dreiser] goes he watches people with a terrible curiosity about them that never rests until he has their secrets." - Sinclair Lewis The most productive period of Theodore Dreiser writing life began with the five months he spent in Europe between 1911 and 1912. A Traveler at Forty is the detailed account of his travels during that time, including the exploration of his ancestral roots in Germany. This is the text of the popular original edition as it was published in 1913. THEODORE DREISER (1871-1945) was a pre-eminent American novelist of the first half of the twentieth century. He believed that the experiences of working-class people striving for economic, emotional, and spiritual fulfillment were viable subjects for serious fiction, and for this reason he is regarded as an anatomist of the "American Dream."

Charlemagne: Empire and Society


Joanna Story - 2005
    The contributors have taken a number of original approaches to the subject, from the fields of archaeology and numismatics to thoroughly-researched essays on key historical texts. The essays are embedded in the scholarship of recent decades but also offer insights into new areas and new approaches for research. A full bibliography of works in English as well as key reading in European languages is provided, making the volume essential reading for experienced scholars as well as students new to the history of the early middle ages.

The Heimat Abroad: The Boundaries of Germanness


K. Molly O'Donnell - 2005
    Communities of German speakers, scattered around the globe, have long believed they could recreate their Heimat (homeland) wherever they moved, and that their enclaves could remain truly German. Furthermore, the history of Germany is inextricably tied to Germans outside the homeland who formed new communities that often retained their Germanness. Emigrants, including political, economic, and religious exiles such as Jewish Germans, fostered a nostalgia for home, which, along with longstanding mutual ties of family, trade, and culture, bound them to Germany.The Heimat Abroad is the first book to examine the problem of Germany's long and complex relationship to ethnic Germans outside its national borders. Beyond defining who is German and what makes them so, the book reconceives German identity and history in global terms and challenges the nation state and its borders as the sole basis of German nationalism.Krista O'Donnell is Associate Professor of History, William Paterson University.Nancy Reagin is Professor of History, Pace University.Renete Bridenthal is Emerita Professor of History, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.

In Action With the Sas: A Soldiers Odyssey from Dunkirk to Berlin


Roy Close - 2005
    

The Big Yellow Book of German Verbs


Paul Listen - 2005
    Features 555 conjugated verbs; extensive examples illustrating basic meanings for the top 50 verbs; verb exercises; coverage of the aspects of the language's verbs; and, more.

The British Empire was a Force for Good: An Intelligence Squared Debate


Niall Ferguson - 2005
    Richard Drayton, Cambridge University lecturer in Imperial and extra-European History; Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Senior Researcher at the Foreign Policy Centre; and David Washbrook, Reader in Modern South Asian History at Oxford University, spoke against the motion.The debate, held on June 1, 2004, was chaired by Richard Lindley, a veteran television reporter and presenter who has worked for both BBC and ITV current affairs, as well as for the news, at ITN.Intelligence Squared is London's leading forum for live debate, holding regular debates on the crucial issues of the day and inviting the leading intellectual and political lights on the given subject to participate in them. The format of the debates is modeled on the one employed at the Oxford and Cambridge university Unions: a challenging, sharply defined motion; a team of speakers to propose the motion and a like number to oppose it; and a moderator to keep the speakers and the audience in order and force everyone to stick to the issues. After the main speeches and before summation, contributions are asked from the floor: audience participation is a key feature of the occasion, providing a rare opportunity for the public to voice their opinions and to challenge those of the speakers. A vote is taken before the debate begins and then again at the end so as to give a measure, often a very dramatic one, of the extent to which the audience has been swayed by the oratory and arguments of the speakers in the course of the evening.

The Coming to America Cookbook: Delicious Recipes and Fascinating Stories from America's Many Cultures


Joan D'Amico - 2005
    This scrumptious survey of a wide variety of cuisine--Mexican, Irish, Chinese, Moroccan, Turkish, Ethiopian, Nigerian, and many more--blends together an appetizing mix of kid-friendly recipes and fun food facts throughout each chapter. Kids will have a great time learning about each culture's distinctive foods and traditions while they cook up easy and yummy recipes, including: NAAN, a bread made with yogurt, which is a staple of Indian cooking SAVORY SHRIMP OVER RICE, a recipe from Northern Italy passed down through generations BRATWURST WITH SAUERKRAUT, a favorite dish of Wisconsin, where many Germans settles in the nineteenth century BANANA STRAWBERRY BATIDOS, icy Cuban drinks that are as common as cola in cities with many Cuban residents, such as Miami DUTCH WINDMILL COOKIES, which are traditionally made in the Netherlands at Christmas time THE COMING TO AMERICA COOKBOOK also includes information on cooking tools and skills, with important rules for kitchen safety and cleaning up.

1000 Masterpieces of European Painting: From 1300 to 1850


Christiane Stukenbrock - 2005
    Over 1000 pictures invite the reader to discover the major works of Western painting tradition from the 13th into the 19th century. Broader themes are explored in greater depth in 20 brief essays, ranging from painting techniques and the history of art sales to general art theory and classical painting analysis.

Children of World War II: The Hidden Enemy Legacy


Kjersti Ericsson - 2005
    What is their fate? This book unearths the history of the thousands of forgotten children of World War II, including its prelude and aftermath during the Spanish Civil War and the Allied occupation of Germany. It looks at liaisons between German soldiers and civilian women in the occupied territories and the Nazi Lebensborn program of racial hygiene. It also considers the children of African-American soldiers and German women. The authors discuss the policies adopted towards these children by the Nazi authorities as well as postwar national governments. Personal testimonies from the children themselves reveal the continued pain and shame of being children of the enemy. Case studies are taken from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Denmark and Spain.

Paper War


Randall L. Bytwerk - 2005
    It is graphic design's most sinister manifestation made to change perceptions, destory morale, and help takes lives. Paper War offers a rare opportunity to understand the dynamics of propaganda. A timeless tale of the flexible and immediate use of information in one battle, on a single day-Cassino, Italy, May 11, 1944. Through leaflets that he collected that day, a British solider who was serving as a liaison officer in the Indian army recounts the Nazi's skilful but ultimately unsucessful campaign to win the battle through showering the enemy with paper, as well as bombs. The images in the propaganda pieces from that day are varied, vivid, and arresting; particularly when considering the logistics of design, production and delivery in the heat of battle. The solider tells the compelling story of how the Nazis misidentified the Allied troops, firing a total of 14 different leaflets in a succession of four languages; English, Polish, Urdu and Hindi, Very different messages accompanied by very different graphics were used to appeal to - and terrify - each intended audience, and they are all reproduced here at full size, with complete translations. Appealing to anyone interested in military history, communication arts & design, and propaganda. The book contains an introduction by Randall Bytwerk, an acknowledged expert and author on the propaganda of Nazi Germany.

In the House of the Hangman: The Agonies of German Defeat, 1943-1949


Jeffrey K. Olick - 2005
    Political leaders and intellectuals on both sides of the conflict debated whether support for National Socialism tainted Germany's entire population and thus discredited the nation's history and culture. The tremendous challenge that Allied officials and German thinkers faced as the war closed, then, was how to limn a postwar German identity that accounted for National Socialism without irrevocably damning the idea and character of Germany as a whole. In  the House of the Hangman chronicles this delicate process, exploring key debates about the Nazi past and German future during the later years of World War II and its aftermath. What did British and American leaders think had given rise to National Socialism, and how did these beliefs shape their intentions for occupation? What rhetorical and symbolic tools did Germans develop for handling the insidious legacy of Nazism? Considering these and other questions, Jeffrey K. Olick explores the processes of accommodation and rejection that Allied plans for a new German state inspired among the German intelligentsia. He also examines heated struggles over the value of Germany's institutional and political heritage. Along the way, he demonstrates how the moral and political vocabulary for coming to terms with National Socialism in Germany has been of enduring significance—as a crucible not only of German identity but also of contemporary thinking about memory and social justice more generally. Given the current war in Iraq, the issues contested during Germany's abjection and reinvention—how to treat a defeated enemy, how to place episodes within wider historical trajectories, how to distinguish varieties of victimhood—are as urgent today as they were sixty years ago, and In the House of the Hangman offers readers an invaluable historical perspective on these critical questions.

Twenty-Five Days: The Rescue of the BEF from Dunkirk 10 May - 3 June 1940


John Masefield - 2005
    British historian Jon Cooksey explains why Churchill's government suppressed this account of the May-June

Desperate Measures: The Last-Ditch Weapons of the Nazi Volkssturm


W. Darrin Weaver - 2005
    The six million old men and boys of the Volkssturm were initially equipped with shotguns, drillings, hunting rifles, military training rifles and handguns scrounged from the German populace. These few arms were bolstered by foreign rifles and carbines captured during Germany's early wartime advances, and many collectors and historians may be surprised to learn that the rifle issued in the greatest numbers-the "true Volksgewehr"-was the Italian Carcano, some numbers of which were converted to fire the powerful German 7.92x57mm rifle cartridge!In addition, seven types of Volksgewehre were specifically designed for manufacture by German industry during the last months of the war. All are covered in detail, and the book includes many previously unpublished photographs of original Volkssturm weapons, including prototypes and rare presentation examples.Other Volkssturm weapons included the anti-tank Panzerfaust ("tank fist"), a single-shot, rocket-propelled shaped-charge device capable of defeating any Allied tank then in existence, and numerous "clones" of the British Sten machine carbine, which were hastily manufactured by a considerable number of German firms (a memorandum speaks of "30 subcontractors and 14 assembly points"). Programs were also begun to develop special Volkspistolen, made largely from stamped sheet metal.In summing up, the author notes that even if the Volkssturm had been fully trained, well equipped and armed with the best weapons in the world-which they decidedly were not-they could have done no more than delay the inevitable, which in many cases, documented here, they actually did.

The Bismarck Myth: Weimar Germany and the Legacy of the Iron Chancellor


Robert Gerwarth - 2005
    The archetype of charismatic leadership, the Iron Chancellor maintained his pre-eminent position in the pantheon of Germany's political iconography for much of the twentieth century. insightful analysis of the Bismarck myth's profound impact on Germany's political culture. In particular, it investigates the ways in which that myth was used to undermine parliamentary democracy in Germany after the Great War, paving the way for its replacement by authoritarian rule under an allegedly 'Bismarckian' charismatic leader, Adolf Hitler. Weimar Republic, the Bismarck myth was never contested. The nationalists' ideologically charged interpretation of Bismarck as the father of the German nation-state and model for future political decision-making clashed with rivalling - and thoroughly critical - democratic and communist perceptions of the Iron Chancellor. The quarrel over Bismarck's legacy demonstrates how the clash of ideologies, particularly between 1918 universal interpretation of the German past. sheds new light on the Weimar Republic's struggle for survival and the reasons for its failure.

What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder, and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany


Eric A. Johnson - 2005
    Combining the expertise of Eric A. Johnson, an American historian, and Karl-Heinz Reuband, a German sociologist, What We Knew is the most startling oral history yet of everyday life in theThird Reich.

Bodies: Sex, Violence, Disease, and Death in Contemporary Legend


Gillian Bennett - 2005
    They confront us with macabre, fantastic, horrific, or hilarious characters and events that seem to come straight out of myths and folktales, but are presented as present day events. The difficulty is that it is not at all easy to decide whether these often disturbing stories should be treated as reliable or dismissed as fantasy.The legends explored in this book are some of the most bizarre, gruesome, and politically sensitive stories in the contemporary legend canon. At any moment a body may be invaded by noxious creatures, deliberately infected with deadly disease, or raided to provide donor organs for sick foreigners. These are "winter's tales," the stuff of nightmares.In this book Gillian Bennett traces the cultural history of six legends, well-known in Europe and America from medieval times to the present day. Appearing in broadsides, ballads, myths, ancient and modern legends, novels, plays, films, television shows, and stories told in the oral tradition, these legends are not just silly tales which can be dismissed as trivial and untrue. They reveal much about the concerns and fears of everyday life and demonstrate the limits of knowledge and power in the modern world.

Ann Angel's Freedom


Katharina Gerlach - 2005
    Still, as long as Adam is working near her, Ann Angel Waldmann is happy. However, everything changes when her father decides to buy their freedom and starts a lawsuit to get it. How can life change for the better when Adam starts courting her mother?This novel is based on the true history of the Waldmann family. It covers the time from 1799 to 1803 in the area of Osnabrueck, a time of world-wide changes. Beside the everyday worries about friends and families, people of the rural community have to cope with the results of the first and second Napoleonic wars. Even if they aren’t involved yet, war casts its shadow over the peaceful village.

U-Boat Commander: The Story of Gunther Prien


Gunther Prien - 2005
    Suddenly two torpedoes blew the mighty Royal Oak battle ship apart it Capsized with the loss of over 800 men.

Complete German: The Basics (Coursebook) (Complete Basic Courses)


Living Language - 2005
    This simple four-step building block approach will have you speaking with confidence right from the beginning, and you’ll be able to learn gradually and effectively. If you’re confident in your pronunciation, then this coursebook includes everything you need - vocabulary, grammar, culture, and practice. This comprehensive coursebook includes:• 40 step-by-step lessons• Practical vocabulary and authentic everyday usage• Simple explanations and plenty of examples• Supplemental sections, including e-mail and internet resources• A comprehensive grammar reference section