Germany Books

I picked this up in Louisiana, to dull the 6 hours of fly time back home to Wasington DC. Wow! Frankly, I read it twice, and have passed it on to a friend, and he'd better take good care of it. A great story, with details, intriguing situations, and thorough emotional context. A really great book. I highly recommend it.

It could have happened. Edwin Rommel meets William Faulkner for a pre - WWII romp through North Mississippi in search of Nathan Bedford Forrest's war waging strategy. What fun and what a great means of absorbing history in this delighful work of fiction...or did it happen?

Every January leftists honor three revolutionaries who died in that month, V.I. Lenin of Russia in 1924, Karl Liebknecht of Germany and Rosa Luxemburg of Poland in 1919 murdered after leading the defeated Spartacist uprising in Berlin. Lenin needs no special commendation. I made my political points about the heroic Karl Liebknecht and his parliamentary fight against the German war budget in World War I in this space earlier so I would like to make some points here about the life of Rosa Luxemburg. These comments come at a time when the question of a woman President is the buzz in the political atmosphere in the United States in the lead up to the upcoming 2008 elections. Rosa, who died almost a century ago, puts all such pretenders to so-called `progressive' political leadership in the shade. This biography by one of her followers amply explains why this is true.

The early Marxist movement, like virtually all progressive political movements in the past, was heavily dominated by men. I say this as a statement of fact and not as something that was necessarily intentional or good. It is only fairly late in the 20th century that the political emancipation of women, mainly through the granting of the vote earlier in the century, led to mass participation of women in politics as voters or politicians. Although, socialists, particularly revolutionary socialists, have placed the social, political and economic emancipation of women at the center of their various programs from the early days that fact was honored more in the breech than the observance.

All of this is by way of saying that the political career of the physically frail but intellectually robust Rosa Luxemburg was all the more remarkable because she had the capacity to hold her own politically and theoretically with the male leadership of the international social democratic movement in the pre-World War I period. While the writings of the likes of then leading German Social Democratic theoretician Karl Kautsky are safely left in the basket Rosa's writings today still retain a freshness, insightfulness and vigor that anti-imperialist militants can benefit from by reading. Her book Accumulation of Capital alone would place her in the select company of important Marxist thinkers.

But Rosa Luxemburg was more than a Marxist thinker. She was also deeply involved in the daily political struggles pushing for left-wing solutions. Yes, the more bureaucratic types, comfortable in their party and trade union niches, hated her for it (and she, in turn, hated them) but she fought hard for her positions on an anti-class collaborationist, anti-militarist and anti-imperialist left-wing of the international of the social democratic movement throughout this period. And she did this not merely as an adjunct leader of a women's section of a social democratic party but as a fully established leader of left-wing men and women, as a fully socialist leader. One of the interesting facts about her life is how little she wrote on the women question as a separate issue from the broader socialist question of the emancipation of women. Militant women today take note.

One of the easy ways for leftists, particularly later leftists influenced by Stalinist ideology, to denigrate the importance of Rosa Luxemburg's thought and theoretical contributions to Marxism was to write her off as too soft on the question of the necessity of a hard vanguard revolutionary organization to lead the socialist revolution. Underpinning that theme was the accusation that she relied too much on the spontaneous upsurge of the masses as a corrective to the lack of hard organization or the impediments that reformist socialist elements threw up to derail the revolutionary process. A close examination of her own organization, The Socialist Party of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, shows that this was not the case; this was a small replica of a Bolshevik-type organization. That organization, moreover, made several important political blocs with the Bolsheviks in the aftermath of the defeat of the Russian revolution of 1905. Yes, there were political differences between the organizations, particularly over the critical question for both the Polish and Russian parties of the correct approach to the right of national self-determination, but the need for a hard organization does not appear to be one of them.

Furthermore, no less a stalwart Bolshevik revolutionary than Leon Trotsky, writing in her defense in the 1930's, dismissed charges of Rosa's supposed `spontaneous uprising' fetish as so much hot air. Her tragic fate, murdered with the complicity of her former Social Democratic comrades, after the defeated Spartacist uprising in Berlin in 1919 (at the same time as her comrade, Karl Liebknecht), had causes related to the smallness of the group, its political immaturity and indecisiveness than in its spontaneousness. If one is to accuse Rosa Luxemburg of any political mistake it is in not pulling the Spartacist group out of Kautsky's Independent Social Democrats (itself a split from the main Social Democratic party during the war, over the war issue ) sooner than late 1918. However, as the future history of the communist movement would painfully demonstrate revolutionaries have to take advantage of the revolutionary opportunities that come their way, even if not the most opportune or of their own making.

All of the above controversies aside, let me be clear, Rosa Luxemburg did not then need nor does she now need a certificate of revolutionary good conduct from today's leftists, the reader of this space or this writer. For her revolutionary opposition to World War I when it counted, at a time when many supposed socialists had capitulated to their respective ruling classes including her comrades in the German Social Democratic Party, she holds a place of honor. Today, as we face the fourth year of the war in Iraq we could use a few more Rosas, and a few less tepid, timid parliamentary opponents. For this revolutionary opposition she went to jail like her comrade Karl Liebknecht. For revolutionaries it goes with the territory. And in jail she wrote, she always wrote, about the fight against the ongoing imperialist war (especially in the Junius pamphlets about the need for a Third International). Yes, Rosa was at her post then. And she died at her post later in the Spartacist fight doing her internationalist duty trying to lead the German socialist revolution the success of which would have gone a long way to saving the Russian Revolution. This is a woman leader I could follow who, moreover, places today's bourgeois women parliamentary politicians in the shade. As the political atmosphere gets heated up over the next couple years, remember what a real fighting revolutionary woman politician looked like. Remember Rosa Luxemburg, the Rose of the Revolution.

Rosa Luxemburg was one of the major Marxist political theoreticians and economic reform advocates during the period of the Russian Revolution. Although communism and marxism as political and economic s systems have now been largely discarded, Rosa Luxemburg's writings continue to be relevant, especially in view of the current global nature of the struggle against the excesses of capitalism and corporate sponsored exploitations assault the lives and initiatives of ordinary people and the universal struggle for human liberation. A definitive, single volume anthology of Luxemburg's writings in English translation, The Rosa Luxemburg Reader includes all of her major political and economic work (including many previously untranslated and recently-discovered texts) and is enhanced with a substantial and information Introduction. Very strongly recommended reading, The Rosa Luxemburg Reader will aptly serve to introduce her perceptive commentaries to a whole new generation of social and political activists.

This collection is worth it for the article "What is economics" alone. You'll never feel the need to plough through another tedious economics tome again. She applies her razor-sharp wit to ripping apart conventional economists' dronings. Explaining how early 19th century economists really tried to elucidate the workings of the system, she lays out how, once they'd realized that they were exposing a class system of exploitation that had no future, the whole lot just dissolved into obscurantist ramblings in order to befuddle the rest of us. Her exposé certainly makes Greenspan and his ilk look like either benighted fools or not-very-sophisticated snake oil peddlers. I loved it. No wonder I flunked Economics 101 - it didn't seem to make any sense because it doesn't. You'll never feel like a fool reading the Business section again.

Rosa Luxemburg was a revolutionary born in a Poland, which had been divided up amongst Germany, Austria, and Russia. This historical accident enabled her to be a participant in the working class movement in Poland, Russia, and Germany. She was a member of Germany's massive Social Democratic Party for the bulk of her life. This collection includes writings on subjects ranging from the German socialist leadership's betrayal of its working class following, capitalism and war, why workers can and should understand economics, and the new road to social justice opened by the Russian revolution.

It is no wonder that the German ruling class, anxious to hold the line against the rising tide of workers and farmers revolution, murdered this fighter in 1919.

I am surprised to see this book has not been reviewed. Perhaps it is not selling well, as it is available for free as a PDF download from the author's web site.
The Rudolf Report totally destroys the assertion that the Nazis operated homicidal gas chambers in the Auschwitz/Birkenau camp complex. The writing is factual and expository, and the style is matter-of-fact, but the conclusions are inescapable. Some half-hearted attempts have been made to refute Rudolf's work, but none have made any inroads into the core of his case: chemical analysis of the buildings and ruins at the camp disprove the thesis the cyanide gas was used inside the alleged gas chambers.

The author has been prosecuted and convicted, and is now in prison in Germany, for the very act of writing this book.

I heartily recommend this work for it's veracity and relevance.

But they Can't. This book is BANNED in Germany. This is the first book that the author was sentenced in absentia back in 1993. It has never been refuted, Actually it has been confirmed by world-renowned chemists as accurate. Germar Rudolf sits in jail asking the simple question:

What sort of Truth is it that crushes the freedom to seek the truth?

With all of the popular New-Age and cultist books on runes out there, it is often difficult to spot the facts in a growing tide of fantasy. By all means practice your esoteric ideas as you wish, but at least have enough respect for the real and historical runes to read some of Page's books first.

Professor Page has been a foremost authority on the runes for more than quarter of a century, and this collection of essays is a sampling of an illustrious career. It is also gives a thorough and accurate description of many of the inscriptions and contexts in which runes are found.

If you are unfamiliar with the academic study of runes, you may want to start with his easier and cheaper introduction "Runes (Reading the Past, Vol 4)".


Sweyn
The Rune Primer: A Down to Earth Guide to the Runes

Anything by Prof. Page is good! This book is a collection of some of his harder-to-find essays on runes, spanning a number of decades. I treasure my copy, and recommend it most highly to the serious student of runes.

Kracauer's "Salaried Masses", finally translated after seventy years, is a fascinating study of Weimar society, with a particular emphasis on the workforce and the dynamics between employers and workers. This analysis, along with his collection of essays entitled "The Mass Ornament", shows a side of Kracauer that surfaces only occasionally in his more popular works like "From Caligari to Hitler", a side that is highly critical of social institutions, especially those structured upon a fascist hierarchy. His discussion on the tactics employers use to train and pacify workers is outstanding (early secretaries were taught to type with the rhythm of music coming from a phonograph; the corporate "trainers" slowly increased the speed of the record until the women were typing with sufficient speed). The role of company-sponsored sports or recreational events (baseball, picnics, etc.) does not escape scrutiny and it's amazing how relevant much of this material is in today's corporate-dominated culture. It's a brief and highly-engrossing read that anyone interested in the functions of social institutions should enjoy.

Kracauer's "Salaried Masses", finally translated after seventy years, is a fascinating study of Weimar society, with a particular emphasis on the workforce and the dynamics between employers and workers. This analysis, along with his collection of essays entitled "The Mass Ornament", shows a side of Kracauer that surfaces only occasionally in his more popular works like "From Caligari to Hitler", a side that is highly critical of social institutions, especially those structured upon a fascist hierarchy. His discussion on the tactics employers use to train and pacify workers is outstanding (early secretaries were taught to type with the rhythm of music coming from a phonograph; the corporate "trainers" slowly increased the speed of the record until the women were typing with sufficient speed). The role of company-sponsored sports or recreational events (baseball, picnics, etc.) does not escape scrutiny and it's amazing how relevant much of this material is in today's corporate-dominated culture. It's a brief and highly-engrossing read that anyone interested in the functions of social institutions should enjoy.

Luftwaffe ground-attack aircraft were absolutely crucial elements of Germany's war. Employing a variety of aircraft ranging from Heinkel 50s to Me 262s, Schlachtflieger units helped ensure victory in the early Blitzkrieg phase of the war along with delaying Germany's ultimate defeat in the war's final years. The development and combat ops of Schlachtflieger units are detailed in this 2007 'Classic Colours' title from Ian Allan.

Germany's development of ground-support tactics and technology, which dated from the First World War, went into high gear in the late 1930s, being subsequently tested in the Spanish Civil War. Once war broke out in 1939, units flying Henschel 123s and Junker 87s supported the Blitz. Beginning in mid-1941, Messerschmitt 109s - and later FW 190s - conducted hit-and-run raids on English targets. Against Russia, Germany utilized 123s and 109s supplemented by Henschel 129s, FW 190s and a mish-mash of often experimental tank-busters like the Junkers 88P-1. Nocturnal ground attacks were handled by unlikely warbirds such as the He 50, He 46, Gotha 145 and so on. Eventually the FW 190 became Germany's main ground support aircraft. The final months of the war saw many of these aircraft still flying combat bolstered by last-ditch improvisations like Bucker 181 trainers equipped with four Panzerfaust rockets!

Given the crucial role Schlachtflieger played in Germany's war-making, it's a bit surprising the Classic Colours crew tried to sandwich all that history into one volume. Perhaps they felt a two-volume history wouldn't fly.

Also surprising was the authorship of this volume, six 'Classic Colour' stalwarts contributing separate chapters on various subjects. J. Richard Smith, for example, contributes chapters on "Early Experiences," "The Spanish Experience," etc. Chris Goss describes the "Tip and Run" jabo raids on England. Martin Pegg reports on "The Schlachtflieger on the Eastern Front." Other sections deal with combat ops in the West and in the Med, night ground attack units, the Me 262's ground attack record, special units like Sonderstaffel Einhorn and so on.

The book contains over 200 black & white and color photographs along with 18 marvelous color profiles of He 51s, Hs 123s, FW 190s, Bu 181s, Stukas, He 46s, Ju 88s, Bf 109s and Me 26s by the Tullis/Brown/Estanislau triumvirate.

The result is an interesting, colorful if somewhat fragmented history of Schlachtfliegers in action. Shoehorning all that history into one volume apparently precluded using first-person combat accounts, which I enjoyed in the various earlier 'Classic Colours' series. If it were possible, I'd have given SCHLACHTFLIEGER 4 1/2 stars. It has some fascinating history, great photos and artwork but really needs two volumes to do justice to the vast story of Luftwaffe ground-attack aircraft in action.

The whole collective of authors worked on this book. At last, their work is finished. Now we can take pleasure in long-awaited volume in which all questions concerning Luftwaffe Ground-attack Units are considered. The each new chapter - the new author. As for me, I like such approach. He allows each author to concentrate on the object of research and doesn't distract it from attempt to mix all in a heap. In our case, all is done excellently.

Early experiences with various types of planes, the Civil War in Spain - The Testing Ground for Hs 123 and Stukas, 1941-1942 operations, Schlachtflieger on the Eastern Front, a "hellhound" Hs 129, NSG on the Eastern Front 1943-1945, Mediterranean Campaign 1942-1944, adventures of the Jabostaffel 5 in the Eismeer Region, SG 4 in Italy and France 1943-1944, NSG 1, 2 and 20 in the West 1944-1945. Also covered are the special task force units: Sonderstaffel Einhorn, III./KG 200, Kommando Schenck. I was surprised to see an article about one of the original units in the World War II - the Bucker Bu 151 Panzerjagdstaffeln with Panzerfausts attached to their wings. Rather informative and exhaustive!

I was confused in one moment. The subscription under a photo (p. 53, second from above) says, that these persons are Ofw. Ludwig Belloff, Oblt. Doye and Oberstlt. Beushausen, commander of the NSG 3. According to Arturs Silgailis, these are Fw. Klints, Lt. Mencis and Lt. Abrams. Quite interesting moment, isn't it?

since our trip to scotland i've bought book after book of photographs of scotland. this is the best i have found. the pictures actually do capture the scotland we saw. i wasn't sure anyone could do that. i can almost put myself as a little ant in the pictures and take myself back there. we could never have climbed the mountains, so, with this book, i can also see views i could never have seen for myself. i will look for more photography by colin prior!

Fans of Scottish images will find Scotland: The Wild Places a powerful gift choice that presents some special images. Photographer Colin Prior utilized a specialized panoramic camera to capture these expansive images of Scotland's wild places: Scotland: The Wild Places is an impressive and memorable collection of superb landscape photography which is organized around solstices and equinoxes, and clearly excels at capturing images of light which fairly leap from the page. A lovely coffee table gift item.

The activities of the German U-Boats during World War II are well known. While not as great a threat, the activities of the Luftwaffe in attacking shipping in the Med and in the Atlantic has been one of the ignored subjects of the war.

Chris Goss's series of two books with Volume 1 (Pages 1-96) covering 1939 to 1941 and Volume 2 (Pages 97-190)covering 1942 until the end of the war changes this picture. These are largely photograph books, covering the equipment and some of the men involved.

I had heard of the use of the FW-200 Condor in this role, and had also heard that it had had a lot of problems when forced into military usage. On page 122 there's a picture of a Condor broken in half by a hard landing. On page 135 there is a picture and a description of the extra fuel tanks carried inside the fuselage where the chance of fire had to be great in case of an attack. There are lots of Condor pictures here.

At the back of the book are a few pages on the special glide bombs and air launched torpedoes used by the Germans. These as well I've never seen before.

All in all, a welcome addition to the literature.

Chris Goss wraps up his two-volume history of Luftwaffe anti-shipping units with this wonderfully illustrated history that covers events from 1942 to war's end. Like the first volume, this book is great value for the price, offering coverage of the varied units and airmen that sought to cripple Allied shipping in the Atlantic and Mediterranean theaters.

The timeframe covered in this volume would witness many initial successes by Luftwaffe anti-shipping units followed by defeat after defeat. In 1942 crews equipped with Junkers 88s, Heinkel 111s and Focke Wulf 200s savaged Allied convoys, especially those headed for Russia. Churchill even labeled the FW 200 the "Scourge of the Atlantic." Yet, in large part, those convoys lacked adequate escorts and the individual merchantmen were poorly armed with AAA weaponry. When more escorts were provided, especially escort carriers, the Luftwaffe's dive- and torpedo-bombers suffered ever increasing losses in the far north and the Med as well.

Goss does a fine job of charting the rise and fall of the Luftwaffe's ship killers, covering both major battles and behind-the-scenes organizational and technical developments. His narrative includes many first-person German and British accounts of convoy attacks and aerial battles.

The text is illustrated with over 180 color and black & white photographs, maps and diagrams. FW 200 afficiandos will especially appreciate the large number of Condor photos. Tim Brown contributes 13 nicely done color profiles of Heinkel 111s, 115s, 177s along with Condors and Ju 88s.

The role Luftwaffe anti-shipping units played in World War II has largely been ignored. Chris Goss' book is a well written summary of those airmen and aircraft who once posed a significant danger to Allied merchantmen and warships alike.

The Seven Addictions And Five Professions Of Anita Berber: Weimar Berlin's Priestess Of Depravity is the career story of actor, dancer, poet, and sex culture icon Anita Berber, who scandalized Weimar Berlin by appearing naked in nightclubs and casinos save for a sable wrap. Her performance in Expressionist films, her disregard of all taboos and her drug habits all contributed to a life devoted to casting off restraints. Dozens of black-and-white photographs and drawings recreating Anita's "Repertoire of the Damned" illustrate this one-of-a-kind tell-all of Europe's first postmodern woman.

Author Mel Gordon details a glittering, decadent Weimar Berlin in the book, "The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber: Weimer Berlin's Priestess of Depravity." Post WWI Berlin "became the world showcase of nude dance and the erotic revue-sketch", and with the catastrophic devaluation of the German Mark, "moral degeneration" reigned in a city that rapidly became a metropolis of exotic, erotic cabaret performances. During her brief, explosive career Anita Berber was Weimar Berlin's "most widely discussed female personality." She performed to packed theatres, outraging her audiences, sharply dividing critics, and shocking society with the scandals that surrounded her both on and off stage. With her perfect, lithe body, dancer and performance artist Anita Berber reigned supreme.

Gordon charts the meteoric rise and tragic fall of the notorious dancer. During her short, brilliant, and self-destructive life, she earned many names, and was called a "totally perverted woman", the "Madonna of Dresden", the "Countess of Sin", "a living embodiment of sin", and "an incarnation of the perverse." Gordon offers the reader a portrait of a difficult life--fraught with public scandal, private demons, and an avant-garde approach to dance that brought Berber the wrong sort of audience. Gordon argues that the very audience who flocked to Berber for her scandalous naked dances could not appreciate the artistic relevance of her performances, and thus heckled--and ultimately abused her.

Gordon tracks Berlin's long-standing tradition with Naked Dance as an art form and traces Berber's career from her early dance training to German Expressionist Richard-Oswald films. But it was Berber's ability to dance that brought Berlin--at least temporarily--to her feet.

The book examines Berber's disastrous relationship with petty criminal, con man, and fellow dancer--Sebastian Droste. Included are details of Droste's post-Berber career in America and his membership in a notorious New York sex cult. The major scandals in Berber's life are examined--her three husbands, her affairs with the sexually obsessed Gerda and her daughter Elsa, and the "lovesick" Baroness Leonie Puttkamer-Gessmann. Berber's health steadily declined as her various addictions grew uncontrollable, and she rapidly became a "creative liability" on stage--even whacking a businessman over the head with a bottle of champagne one evening.

The book also serves as a glimpse into artistic life of Weimar Berlin--and there are mentions here of many notables--including Leni Riefenstahl (she was Berber's understudy for one engagement), Conrad Veidt, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, Marlene Dietrich, and Fritz Lang. The text is peppered with marvelous photographs, posters and graphics depicting various Berber routines (including the Dances of Depravity, Horror, and Ecstasy). Additional materials follow the text--including poems by Berber and Droste, synopses of Berber's dance performances, and a bibliography. It's sadly ironic that Anita Berber--who once was so infamous--has now almost disappeared, and it is a particular joy for those interested in Berber (me) that Mel Gordon wrote this work on a much-neglected artist. For more on the life of Anita Berber, I recommend the film "Anita: Dances of Vice" by Rosa von Praunheim--displacedhuman