From the other side

[Peter Beckett]

After reading Lee's post of his listening to Arthur Halestrap, late Royal Engineers, I was wondering of any such happenings, meetings, etc from the other side of the trenches. I would be most interested in hearing or reading of stories, exploits, etc of survivors. It just seems to me that we never hear anything from the German side.

Peter

[Garde Grenadier]

One reason why you don't get much from the "other side" is the lack of translations I presume. One (translated) book I might recommend is Herbert Sulzbach: With the German Guns.

Regards

Daniel

If you'd like German books in German listed I could give you quite a number of stories and personal reminiscences.

[David Filsell]

The comment that their is a lack of German Great War material is a frequent - but innacurate one. I am currently working on a bibliography and commentary on German and Austro Hungarian material which was translated into English from 1916 to date. Excluding books written by senior commanders there are over 100 novels, diaries and personal accounts.

They cover the war on land, sea and in the air and the home front. Overall the quality is high - translators/publishers clearly chose those they considered most likely to succeed in the UK and the US.

For front line experiences try try War and After War by Renn, The advance from Mons, by Bloem, and German Students War letters, by Witkopp - recently repuiblished in the US -

There is a new Penguin translation just out of Storm of Steel, by Junger, and I recently picked up a new hardback reprint of Copse 125 in Ypres from the same author.

These are fairly easy to find but many others are hard to locate - hence my bibliography which I hope to publish next year.

Any comments from Forum users - or leads - would be welcome. Hope this helps

[Garde Grenadier]

"The comment that their is a lack of German Great War material is a frequent - but innacurate one".

Thanks, David, for putting us right. Glad to hear it!

Looking forward to your bibliography

Daniel

[trenchwalker]

my gt gt gt gt uncle who was german and fought around marconing (i think thats how its spelt) he only ever talked about his experiances of the great war to his familie who got wiped out in ww2.

but he lost both his sons whos names are at langermarck cemetary they are both 1 of the 3000 odd students mowed down.

[David_Blanchard]

Having looked at 'War Books' by Cyril Falls I came up with the follow ing titles:

'The Way of Sacrifice' by Fritz Von Unruth (written during the siege of Verdun, is powerful antiwar

propaganda) (1928)

'The Case of sergeant Grischa' (1928) byArnold Zweig (set on the Eastern Front)

'Peter Jackson, Cigar Merchant' by Gilbert Frankau (Battle of Loos from a German gunners perspective) (1920)

'The Fiery Way' by Franz Schauwecker (A novel with a number of sketches of the war, including Second Battle of Marne) (1929)

'Class 1902' Ernst Glaeser (Conerns students of the year that was about to be called up before the war ended) (1929)

'Zero Hour' Gerg Grabenhorst (Records the fighting at Poelcappelle during third Ypres)

A few other books looking at from the German side are:

'A Surgeon with the Kaisers Army' Stephen Westman (1928)

Rudolph Binding 'A Fatalist at War'

Erwin Rommel 'Infantry Attacks'

In the book by Sidney Rogerson 'The Last of the Ebb' there is a section written of the battle from the German perspective by Fritz Von Unruth.

There are some other titles I know little about:

'A Roumanian Diary' by Hans Carossa (1930)

'Four Weeks in the Trenches' Fritz Kreisler (1915)

'Escape to the Present' Johannes Steel

'Through a Lens Darkly' Franz Seldte (1933)

(These latter books were included in the biblio. of John Tolands 'No Mans Land)

[David_Blanchard]

My apologies, 'Peter Jackson, Cigar Merchant' by Gilbert Frankau is not a German account of the war. However, I have come across a couple more:

Paul Alverdes 'Changed Men' (1933)

(German novel concerned with a Rhineland artillery regiment on the western front from 1915 onwards)

Franz Shauwecker 'The Furnace' (1st Eng Edition 1930)

(The author of the 'Fiery Way')

Georg von der Vring 'Private Suhren: The Story of a German Rifleman' (1928)

Rudolf Kreutz 'Captain Zillner: A Human Document' (1919)