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celestine47

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I am looking for German books on the Great War, I already have "Forward March" and "German Students War Letters" , both in english, so I am looking for some more, does anyone know of any??

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There are many. many German books dealing with the war. Do you have a special interest?? I can give you some tips by searching the local libraries on-line.

Paul

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'Storm of Steel' and 'Copse 125' by Ernst Junger

'All Quiet On The Western Front' by Remarque, as long as you treat it as a work of fiction or at best faction.

My favourite is 'Advance From Mons 1914' by Walter Bloem

Sean

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'Storm of Steel' and 'Copse 125' by Ernst Junger

'All Quiet On The Western Front' by Remarque, as long as you treat it as a work of fiction or at best faction.

My favourite is 'Advance From Mons 1914' by Walter Bloem

Sean

Ah, guess it would be good to ask--are you looking for books in German or English?

Paul

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Some more books that have been translated into English, or written in English by Germans who fought in the war:

Marshal von Hindenburg: 'Out of My Life'

Ludendorff: 'The General Staff and its Problems'

Ibid: 'Ludendorff's Own Story'

von Kluck: 'The March on Paris 1914'

Crown Prince William: 'Memoirs of the Crown Prince of Germany'

Ibid: 'My War Experiences'

Max Hoffmann: 'War Diaries'

Ludwig Renn: 'War'

Rudolf Binding: 'A Fatalist at War'

Fritz Nagel: 'Fritz: The World War I Memoir of a German Lieutenant'

William Hermanns: 'The Holocaust'

Herbert Sulzbach: 'With the German Guns'

Georg Bucher: 'In the Line 1914-1918'

Ernst Toller: 'I was a German'

Stephen Westman: 'Surgeon with the Kaiser's Army'

Robert

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The German Army, it's structure and units are covered in "IMPERIAL GERMAN ARMY 1914-18: Organisation, Structure, Orders of Battle" by Hermann Cron. Currently available in paperback it appears to be a thorough and comprehensive survey of the German Army of WW1. It's a translation of a volume written (I think) around 1930.

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Ah, guess it would be good to ask--are you looking for books in German or English?

Paul

books in English as I do not unfortuanatley have the capacity for languages

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There are many. many German books dealing with the war. Do you have a special interest?? I can give you some tips by searching the local libraries on-line.

Paul

I suppose my interest would be memoirs as I am reading German Students Letters at present.

thanks

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Some more books that have been translated into English, or written in English by Germans who fought in the war:

Marshal von Hindenburg: 'Out of My Life'

Ludendorff: 'The General Staff and its Problems'

Ibid: 'Ludendorff's Own Story'

von Kluck: 'The March on Paris 1914'

Crown Prince William: 'Memoirs of the Crown Prince of Germany'

Ibid: 'My War Experiences'

Max Hoffmann: 'War Diaries'

Ludwig Renn: 'War'

Rudolf Binding: 'A Fatalist at War'

Fritz Nagel: 'Fritz: The World War I Memoir of a German Lieutenant'

William Hermanns: 'The Holocaust'

Herbert Sulzbach: 'With the German Guns'

Georg Bucher: 'In the Line 1914-1918'

Ernst Toller: 'I was a German'

Stephen Westman: 'Surgeon with the Kaiser's Army'

whata brilliant list, I did not know there were so many!, where did you get the list from??, as I can not find some of the books on Amazon.

Robert

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It is a selection of the books I have on my shelves. Several can be purchased from Naval and Military Press:

http://www.naval-military-press.com/

Others are more difficult to find. I guessed you might be interested in memoirs. The last eight books on the list were written by men who fought in some capacity. Renn, Sulzbach and Bucher should be readily available.

Robert

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It is a selection of the books I have on my shelves. Several can be purchased from Naval and Military Press:

http://www.naval-military-press.com/

Others are more difficult to find. I guessed you might be interested in memoirs. The last eight books on the list were written by men who fought in some capacity. Renn, Sulzbach and Bucher should be readily available.

Robert

Robert's list is outstanding. It's a shame more hasn't been translated into English. If I may, I would not recommend "Copse 125," (mentioned above) which, even with my intense interest in German-related books on the war, I found to be one of the worst books I've ever attempted to read. I only say it as it's available and you might purchase it simply for that reason.

The books by the German generals can be a bit dry at times, and tend to try and justify the decisions they made during the war. The accounts by the lower-ranking individuals are usually more personal.

Not on the list are a good number of books by German pilots. You might want to give them a look as well.

There are also some good accounts written from the navy perspective, the experiences of some of the crew of various German raiders comes to mind.

One of my personal favorites is "Fritz," mentioned in Robert's list.

Paul

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If I may, I would not recommend "Copse 125," (mentioned above) which, even with my intense interest in German-related books on the war, I found to be one of the worst books I've ever attempted to read. I only say it as it's available and you might purchase it simply for that reason.

Paul

There you go: the taste is total different in the www, as I consider the Copse 125 from Ernst Juenger the alltime best. This book started my WW1 interest many years ago and it has a special place in my bookshelves

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books in English as I do not unfortuanatley have the capacity for languages

OOPS. I referred you to a German book site. ABE.COM will allow you to search for second hand English books. If you start off with Great War as a key word and take it from there that ought to give you some idea.

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There you go: the taste is total different in the www, as I consider the Copse 125 from Ernst Juenger the alltime best. This book started my WW1 interest many years ago and it has a special place in my bookshelves

Egbert,

This I find very interesting. I read it (at least started it) in English. It could well be that the translation is bad. Perhaps I should give it a try in German?

My books should be here in a few weeks (hurrah) or I'd quote a few of the passages I found especially bad.

Paul

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Egbert,

This I find very interesting. I read it (at least started it) in English. It could well be that the translation is bad. Perhaps I should give it a try in German?

My books should be here in a few weeks (hurrah) or I'd quote a few of the passages I found especially bad.

Paul

I found it very hard to like " Storm of Steel" and I think this is because my view was coloured by my knowledge of his further career. I haven't managed to overcome this prejudice enough to read the sequel.

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Must recommend Jack Sheldon's German Army on the Somme; first-rate with scores of first-hand accounts.

The best general overview of the Central Powers in the War is Holger Herwig's book First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary

Not only is it outstanding scholarship, it's very readable.

There is a wealth of German material out there... but it's invariably in German, pre 1939, hence it's in Fraktur. :(

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........................

The best general overview of the Central Powers in the War is Holger Herwig's book First World War: Germany and Austria Hungary

Not only is it outstanding scholarship, it's very readable.

There is a wealth of German material out there... but it's invariably in German, pre 1939, hence it's in Fraktur. :(

Thanks for the tip, Halder. I have just ordered this new at £9. The books published between the wars are well worth the trouble of reading. When my eyes fall out I just give them a wipe on my cardigan and screw right back in. B)

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This I find very interesting. I read it (at least started it) in English. It could well be that the translation is bad. Perhaps I should give it a try in German?

My books should be here in a few weeks (hurrah) or I'd quote a few of the passages I found especially bad.

The English translation of Das Wäldchen 125/Copse 125 (1930) is by Basil Creighton, who also translated In Stahlgewittern/Storm of Steel (1929). I don't have an original German edition, but comparing the German text in the 1978 Klett-Kotta 'Sämtliche Werke' (Erste Abteilung, Tagebücher I, Band 1 - Der Erste Weltkrieg) with the 1930 Chatto & Windus English edition, it's clear that the German has been revised, sometimes extensively — presumably by Jünger himself, just as he also revised (and re-revised) SoS. So, you have a choice — find an original German edition and read it in Fraktur, or read the revised version in modern type.

Mick

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The English translation of Das Wäldchen 125/Copse 125 (1930) is by Basil Creighton, who also translated In Stahlgewittern/Storm of Steel (1929). I don't have an original German edition, but comparing the German text in the 1978 Klett-Kotta 'Sämtliche Werke' (Erste Abteilung, Tagebücher I, Band 1 - Der Erste Weltkrieg) with the 1930 Chatto & Windus English edition, it's clear that the German has been revised, sometimes extensively — presumably by Jünger himself, just as he also revised (and re-revised) SoS. So, you have a choice — find an original German edition and read it in Fraktur, or read the revised version in modern type.

Mick

Mick,

I liked "The Storm of Steel," though Juenger gets under my skin at times. Copse 125 I found to be a total washout. I got through about 30 pages (I had taken it with me on vacation to read) and it ended up staying at the bottom of the suitcase for the next few weeks.

Fritz I liked too, though it was night and day from SoS. I found it very easy to related to Nagel. I remember him telling the funny story about having the same name as a man who was trying to start a movement to abolish all the capital letters in German to save ink. That still makes me chuckle. :)

Paul

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I hear that on the Fraktur! I'm just finishing writing a book on the Polish campaign of 1939. A good 60 per cent of my source material was in Gothic German. Hideous!

If you don't mind reading Fraktur, you can pick up the Reichsarchiv official histories (Der Weltkrieg, the 15 volume one) from around £15 on abebooks and the Schlachten des Weltkrieges volumes from as little as £4.

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I hear that on the Fraktur! I'm just finishing writing a book on the Polish campaign of 1939. A good 60 per cent of my source material was in Gothic German. Hideous!

If you don't mind reading Fraktur, you can pick up the Reichsarchiv official histories (Der Weltkrieg, the 15 volume one) from around £15 on abebooks and the Schlachten des Weltkrieges volumes from as little as £4.

Yes, I have just bought Volume 10 of Der Weltkrieg. It was £10 but , sadly, another £10 for postage. I have started saving for Teile 8,9. The Schlachten des Weltkrieges are worth it for the maps and sketches in the back.

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Yes, I have just bought Volume 10 of Der Weltkrieg. It was £10 but , sadly, another £10 for postage. I have started saving for Teile 8,9. The Schlachten des Weltkrieges are worth it for the maps and sketches in the back.

£10 for volume 10. :blink: That's the Verdun volume? That's an absolute bargain. Most of the volumes after mid-1915 become ridiculously expensive.

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£10 for volume 10. :blink: That's the Verdun volume? That's an absolute bargain. Most of the volumes after mid-1915 become ridiculously expensive.

Sorry, volume 9. 1915 last six months. I would like the whole of 1915 which is why I am after 7&8. I really must check in future and not rely on a memory as bad as mine.

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