Germany Books

Siegfried Mandel's Nietzsche and the Jews is a title which either attracts instantly or detracts instantly. In my case I was a little put off by the title, for it almost sounds like a parody. When I began to read I noticed the book takes a biographical path with regard to its subject matter, tracing Nietzsche's exposure to anti-Semitism throught his years. I have read many, too many in fact, biographies of Nietzsche and was about ready to '86 this one. I'm glad I didn't, for when I got to the chapters concerning Wagner and Nietzsche, the book suddenly came alive with little known facts based on terrific research. Nietzsche's relationships with Richard and Cosima Wagner, Peter Gast, Paul Ree and Franz Overbeck are examined against the background of German anti-Semitism and Nietzsche's reaction to it.

Also, whereas most books center on sister Elizabeth and Lou Salome when discussing Nietzsche and women, Mandel provides a deep look at the relationship between Nietzsche and Helen Zimmern, his first translator and herself a Jew. Scattered in between are some revealing tidbits about Nietzsche and sexuality rarely revealed in other studies.

Another strong point is the chapters on Jewish scholars and disciples interested in Nietzsche, such as poet Siegfried (Solomon) Lipiner, scientist Josef Paneth, and journalist Paul Lansky. The chapter on critic Georg Brandes is an absolute gem.

Two Appendix chapters on Nietzsche's thought concerning the Jews contain an excellent analysis of Nietzsche's often confusing writings on the subject.

If you are looking for a serious book on this subject, or if you are looking for just a good book on Nietzsche, this one is definitely one to add to your collection.

On such a weird set of subjects, I should limit myself to the remarks on humor. Not listed in the index, but noted in Appendix II on page 321, Nietzsche praised American laughter, as "in the fashion of Mark Twain. I've not been able to laugh along with anything said by Germans." Mark Twain gets credit for having written "Our heavenly father invented man because he was disappointed in the monkey." (p. 321) The rest of this book is pretty serious, and it's also well written.

I really had fun reading this book. The chapters alternate between different narrative structures, all of them used to get at Nietzsche's psyche at the end of his life from different angles. Readers who know Nietzsche and a few things about his life will probably find it more interesting than those who don't. But the book has great energy. Its structure may be experimental, but its style and attitude are very accessible.

This is a beautiful and unflinching work, carefully gorgeous in its language and human insight without once groveling for sentimentality. Every page houses another poem of a line ("my mother's love voice telling me that history always happens in the future"), which means that while this book can be read while maintaining 90 RPMs on a recumbent stationary bike, it should not be. Nietzsche breathes in this book, perhaps even to an extent he didn't permit in his own writing, and the ghost his breath keeps bated is Hitler himself. Until finally making an official appearance in the penultimate chapter, Weimar and the Reich haunt three massive sections of the tale, hinting at a future Germania that would extend beyond Nietzsche's life and be all he despised. He would've hated what was done to his work (his corpus-corpse) "after," and that gives this fiction an air of momentous inevitability. There's no beginning and no end: if mortality doesn't get you, the publishers will. This is a smart and lovely piece that dismisses despair in favor of...breath.

This biography is the most accurate and indeed, critical. It dealves into the life and thought of one of the greatest thinkers in Western Europe. Anyone who wishes to have a good introduction into Friedrich Nietzsche should read this book...by all means, read it!!

This is a great, however brief, look into the life of one of the world's greatest minds. Hayman opens with a fleeting glance at Nietzsche's genealogy before diving into the seemingly bright life of the future philosopher. He cites Nietzsche's pendulum-esque nationalistic devotion prior to his near-death collapse from a horse. He then charts Nietzsche's intellectual progress from the life-altering secondhand bookstore find of Schopenhauer to the later critique of previous idols Wagner, Kant, and Renee. Hayman, however repetitiously (though nonetheless factually), outlines Nietzsche's incessant battle with illness throughout his life. The key to this text is that is does not attempt a definitive stance at the perpetual enigma as to the cause of Nietzsche's demise, but rather outlines possibilities starting from birth until his death. For those unfamiliar with the German titles of Nietzsche's works, it will require a bit of page flipping to the appendix until one grows accustomed to Hayman's methodology. Also, all passages from the philosopher's works are translated by Hayman that, in some cases, are clearer and more concise than the renounced Kaufmann readings. My only complaint is that Hayman didn't spend more pages in his great explication of the philosopher's life. I rate this alongside Monk's biography of Wittgenstein.

Shirer writes a wonderful, exciting memoir of what it was like to be in Europe as Hitler began his rise to power.

As I read, I became aware that Hitler could have been stopped many times before the U.S. became involved. Had the French or the British acted in a timely manner, Hitler could have been squashed like a bug before all the destruction and loss of life. But politics got in the way and everyone seemed afraid to call Hitler on his obvious, transparent lies and bold treaty violations. Churchill had his number, but he was criticized strongly. Everyone believed Hitler's lies, they closed their eyes and allowed him to grow powerful. He bluffed everyone.

I enjoyed the book and found it good reading. Now I am reading Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. I recommend The Nightmare Years as a good preface.

In this superb memoir, William L. Shirer describes life inside Nazi Germany from his six-year perch (1934-1940) as a foreign correspondent for newspapers and CBS radio. Readers get a feel for everyday life in Nazi Germany as Hitler consolidated his power, crushed (or killed) his opponents, and put the jobless to work building a war machine for future conquest.

Shirer begins by describing his days in Vienna, Afghanistan, Spain, and France, but the book's heart comes with his posting to Berlin in 1934. Readers learn about Gestapo terror, prewar rearmament, increasing anti-Semitism, and the devotion of many (but not all) Germans to their violent Fuehrer. Shirer also examines the inexplicable appeasement policies of France and Britain - policies that leave one as baffled today as in the 1930's. The author recounts joining Ed Murrow at CBS Radio in 1938 and then broadcasting events such as the Anchluss (takeover) of Austria, the betrayal at Munich, and the German invasion of Poland. Shirer also recounts traveling with the German army as it tore through Belgium in 1940, seeing Paris under Nazi rule, and broadcasting the French surrender. The book's nicely readable prose vividly recreates the stifling atmosphere and the unfolding, utterly preventable tragedy.

Journalist-author William L. Shirer (1904-93) wrote superbly readable eye-witness accounts of 20th Century history. This 1984 memoir was his final bestseller on Nazi Germany, and every bit as readable as the earlier two, BERLIN DIARY (1941) and RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH (1960).

Whether focusing on the high and mighty she met ,the earth-shaking events she witnessed, the brutal turmoil she survived,Meta Cordy's story is not one just of her own life,but of our whole century. This book seems to cover everything-- from Hitler and the Holocaust,to Hollywood and the Metropolitan Opera House,with lots of world history and even a mention or two of everyday housework thrown in. Whatever or whoever her subjects (and they range widely--from Toscanini to Edward G. Robinson),Cordy manages to convey fresh impressions that make the reader empathize with her as a young refugee adapting to a new life in a new country. I especially enjoyed Cordy's happily coming to terms with the peculiar American custom of the baby shower. Utterly captivating. Not for Johnny Only is,indeed,not for Johnny only--it is for everyone.

In a charming and natural conversational style, the author (once an aspiring opera singer) recounts chapters of her life (growing up in Germany, facing the Hitler years, settling in Paris, New York City and Hollywood) with vivid descriptions of the times and lots of colorful anecdotes about celebrities in the world of arts and letters. Never for a second does Cordy feel sorry for herself as she descibes a life beset with difficulties but lived optimistically and with a gladness in her heart. Lots of inside intelligence on the music world of the '40s and '50s. This is a really pleasant read written by someone who's not famous but who led the kind of life a famous person would have.

Freyhofer has offered the reader a stimulating account of an important historical event. By using the dual viewpoints of law and ethics as a benchmark, he successfully manages to transport the reader to the courtroom in Nuremberg. Once there, the serious student of history will be rewarded with an armchair appreciation of a work well done.
For those who seek a lighter read, you may soon find youself enjoying a serious work that highlights the need for a better unerstanding of causes and effects in world history.
If you truely wish to have a better understanding of why the world is the way it is today, this book could serve as a stepping stone to a better understanding of human nature.

The book is the first one I could find that gives a comprehensive overview of the medical trial.

The book puts the trial into its correct political and cultural background so that the actions of the major players are not mystified but are made understandable.

The author shows more clearly than others how implicated that Allies were in the medical research conducted on helpless victims. Americans condemned the experiments and used the data. They contracted Nazi scientists indicted at Nueremberg after the trial to work for the military, sometimes using equipment left over by the Nazis.

The author leaves no doubt about the abominable nature of the experiments, the depraved character of the perpetrators, and the unimaginable suffering of the victims. And it obviously not his intention to soil American history. But by merely pointing to the records and abstaining from speculating about them, such soiling seems inevitable. This may be the real reason why this book so far is the only one offering a comprehensive account (meaning leaving out none of the "uncomfortable" facts) of the medical trail, and may remain the only one for a long time to come.

_Old Dreams of a New Reich: Volkish Utopias and National Socialism_ by Jost Hermand is a book which provides a fascinating examination of some of the literature surrounding the rise and subsequent fall of the Third Reich. The book examines many sources, mostly idealistic and utopian in nature, from philosophers and writers, as well as a great deal of the science fiction and fantasy type novels that proliferated during the rise of the Third Reich. The book also provides an excellent collection of pictures, including detailed drawings by National Socialist fellow travellers, Volkish utopians, and Romantic Teutonic dreamers, which make this book quite unique. This book shows how those within the Volkish movement beginning in the Nineteenth century and culminating after the defeat in the First World War, calling for a Third Reich, were naïve dreamers and utopians, whose viewpoints were ruthlessly exploited by the opportunists within the upper echelons of the NSDAP proper, and Hitler himself. The book also traces out the background of Hitler and shows precisely which aspects of Volkish ideology and utopian theorizing were to play an influence on him as he grew in power after commandeering the reigns of the NSDAP. It should be noted that pastoralist and utopian dreams frequently became replaced by purely technocratic and Social Darwinist ideologies as soon as Hitler came to power. The book includes a vast amount of detail beginning with early calls for a socialised utopia by Fichte (and other philosophers) in the spirit of the French Revolution as well as along the lines of those laid out by Tacitus in his _Germania_ (the society of the primitive Germanic tribes), to calls for a restored kingdom (under a great ruler (Der Furher) - a supposed revival of that of Friedrich the Great), to the ideas of various "Aryanosophists" and pan-German nationalists (early preludes to the NSDAP) such as Guido von List, to the calls for "conservative revolution" by those "leftists on the right" such as Ernst Junger and Oswald Spengler, to the bizarre theories of Hans Horbiger (believed in by Hitler himself) regarding a global age of ice (made popular by the novelist Edmund Kiss), to the ideas of the Land Reform movement of Volkish idealists calling for a move towards the East and emphasizing the agricultural ways of the old Teuton, as well as beliefs in a primitive Teutonic matriarchy needed to achieve breeding towards the superior race, to the ideas of Hitler himself. This book makes available literature that has not become available in any other place, much of it destroyed after the war (or suppressed during the Third Reich by Hitler as heretical, an apostasy from official Third Reich propaganda). The book also includes material made available during the Second World War regarding the superiority of the German race and nation, much of it science fiction literature (often extreme in both its racism and anti-Semitism). For containing all this information, mostly discarded by other historians who will not touch upon the irrational elements behind the Third Reich, this book is to be highly recommended.

I was somewhat sceptical before purchasing this book, since most German historians these days write their books with an extremely annoying Marxist terminology; EVERYTHING is interpreted as the struggle between the "classes", even when it is blatantly obvious that the subject has nothing whatsoever to do with this nonsense. Although this book shows tendencies to this from time to time, it is not something you get annoyed by. The book chronicles the authors and their work in the field of prose literature by the radical "Right" in Germany, from the early 1800's, to the end of Germany in the Ragnarok of 1945.

Seeing as no books are written in a vacuum, Hermand includes a lot of information about the general history of Germany and the political and ideological development that took place on this side of the political spectre. Most of the literature from these gentlemen of the radical "Right" was relatively Utopian and Apocalyptic, and most of it is today very hard to find, being condemned to the bonfires in the "de-nazification process" of post-war Germany. In these literary purges all the literature deemed "brown" by the occupational forces was purged from libraries and private collections and only very few copies remained. Hermand has done everyone interested in this period, and especially those who are unable to read German, a big favour with all his short résumés of this vast literature, and the intellectual milieu it was created in.

The book mentions a lot of names and books, most of them unknown today and also manages to paint a very thorough picture of the times as well. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in the various Utopian movements, thinkers and authors in Germany from the 1800's to 1945 that took their part in the struggle against the Modern world. As a bonus I can mention that the edition is very pretty, filled with wonderful art and photographs that would have been worth the price of the book alone.

Highly recommended!

I was panicking about doing a research paper for my Intercultural Communications class until I got this book. It's geared towards the differences between mainstream U.S. culture and three mainstream European cultures. It's easy to read without skimping on info. I only wish Intercultural Press had similar books for Wales.

In Old World New World: Bridging Cultural Differences, Craig Storti (founder and director of the Washington, D.C. intercultural communication training and consulting firm Communicating Across Cultures) assembles fifty-one cross-cultural dialogues and analyses on the differences in ways of life for people in America, Britain, France, and Germany. A bibliography and index of key concepts proves helpful in using Old World New World for reference, but it makes most fascinating reading in own right even for armchair travelers who never leave their home country. Old World New World is very highly recommended for anyone interested in comparing and contrasting the different ways of thinking in different nations.

"It is very important for survivors to bear witness in order to teach children what can happen when bigotry, racism, and anti-Semitism become the law of the land" (p. 15). Fred Spiegel is not only a Holocaust Survivor - his story, indubitably, has assisted in the creation of a new, much more potent, "law of the land", insomuch as he redirects those manifestations of hatred into that which is positive, purposeful, and inherently necessary. Spiegel's sobering story of struggle, dread, hope, and perseverance allows for advancement in the war against ignorance, hatred, and violence. Once the Acacias Bloomed is required reading for all who assume responsibility for remembering the past, and simultaneously, for those who refuse to allow the recurrence of an evil piece of history to pervade the future.

This review is the work of CBerchini, and cannot be reproduced without expressed written permission.

Fred Speigel is an extraordinary man. I met him in-person today March 8, 2005 at Brookdale Community College, where he gave lecture and answered questions in my class. Speigel, a Holocaust survivor, revealed an oddysey unfathomable and unquestionably true. Absent of pretense, I listened and watched the humanity and wisdom pour from Speigel as he provided rare insight. As an African American descendant of Slaves, I can only wonder and continue to research the suffering of my people. Today, however, Mr. Speigel put a face on the Holocaust and the suffering of his people. This is what education is all about!!!

Respectfully,

Neil K. Holloway BCC Student

This charming, beautifully written book takes the reader on a double journey -- a journey through a tiny German village, where the breathtaking scenery, as well as the kind, friendly, hard working people, warm the heart, and a journey through the life of one incredible German family, as seen through the eyes of their long-time American friend -- artist, photographer and writer, Ronald Harmon. Join Harmon as he celebrates Christmas and New Years with his "adopted" family, and you will experience these holidays in a way you never have before. With each page, you will feel like a child opening his presents on Christmas
Day. In this deeply moving testimonial to love, faith and the important of family, Roald Harmon has given us a wonderful gift.

They don't write books like this anymore, that's for sure. Among the serial killer thrillers and ditzy romances, take some time out to enjoy the simple pleasures of life -- and life abroad -- as author Ron Harmon takes you right inside the cozy Bavarian cottage pictured on his book cover. There you'll find a family you'd be proud to call your own, who lives in a town we all should visit now and again. The writing is familiar and friendly, and from page one you'll be hooked -- and reaching for the hot chocolate! It's holiday fun, but fun you'll enjoy all year round...