⋙ [PDF] Stalingrad Theodor Plievier HansHarald Müller 9783462030549 Books

Stalingrad Theodor Plievier HansHarald Müller 9783462030549 Books

Download As PDF : Stalingrad Theodor Plievier HansHarald Müller 9783462030549 Books

Stalingrad Theodor Plievier HansHarald Müller 9783462030549 Books

This is probably the most brutal and intense depiction of war I have ever read. Theodor Plievier's "Stalingrad" is a graphically honest historical novel of the final days of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad. First published in 1948, "Stalingrad" became one of the books in Plievier's trinity of WWII novels whose other titles,"Moscow" and "Berlin," are about the battles for those cities. "Stalingrad" is an ensemble novel with dozens of interesting, well developed characters, both fictional and historical. Written from an omniscient point of view to give the novel greater historical appeal and to cover more characters and scenes of action, Stalingrad still manages to feel like a great literary novel of the war, a companion to other anti-war novels such as "The Red Badge of Courage" or "All Quiet on the Western Front" (A more lyrical title might have secured its place alongside such books). Yet despite its epic scope, "Stalingrad" is told entirely from the German perspective of its doomed cast. The Russians are a faceless enemy, the German leadership and citizens in the rear are only occasionally glimpsed through the thoughts and memories of the German soldiers stuck with the hopelessly encircled 6th Army. The book begins and ends with three characters who symbolize Plievier's hopes for the future of his homeland: Sergeant Gnotke, the failed storm trooper who ends up in a penal battalion for his insubordinate acts; Private Gimpf, his companion in suffering, whose catatonic behavior is the result of the intense secret guilt he carries within; and Colonel Vilshofen, later promoted to Brigadier, the tank commander and former philosophy student who spent his entire professional career charting the dangerous waters of early 20th Century German politics. Plievier was a German WWI Navy veteran and socialist who wrote several anti-war novels in the years between WWI and WWII. In 1933, he fled Nazi Germany and lived in Soviet Russia, a move that branded him a traitor and propagandist for the Soviets. But Plievier was already writing anti-war and anti-Nazi literature before he left his homeland. And his depictions of personalities and the careful way he describes the desperate fate of his fellow Germans suggests a more complicated reality. Propaganda it may have been but Plievier loved the landsers and decried their fate at the hands of Hitler and the Nazi regime. And "Stalingrad" depicts the death of the 6th Army in a historically accurate way that resonates with other accounts and the vast amount of Stalingrad film footage accessible online (Von Paulus, the thoughtful but indecisive last commander of the 6th is depicted particularly well). Yet Plievier also implies their suffering may have been a kind of divine retribution for their blood guilt and participation in atrocities associated with the Severity Order of Field Marshall Von Reichenau, the 6th Army commander prior to Von Paulus. And "Stalingrad" does have some propagandist disconnects between historical truth and reality. The Russians are all decent chaps, a laughable bit of revisionism. And some generals such as Hube and Pickert are depicted as cowards for flying out of the trap when, in fact, it was a cynical move on the part of Hitler to sacrifice the 6th while rescuing those generals he needed to re-assign to other theaters. Not that anyone associated with Stalingrad came out ahead. Stalingrad was war at its most inane, incomprehensible and bloody worst. This book is highly recommended for those with an interest in WWII history, war/anti-war literature, military leadership and philosophical, ethical or existential ideas related to conflict.


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Stalingrad Theodor Plievier HansHarald Müller 9783462030549 Books Reviews

Stalingrad is is one of the most powerful antiwar books I've ever read, Plievier brings the horror of war to the reader the senseless slaughter, the hunger, the brutal cold, the madness, the despair, the betrayal of the German leadership. For those interested, some other great anti-war novels and memoirs include All Quiet on the Western Front (WW I), Goodbye to All That (WW I), The Naked and the Dead (WW 2), A Rumor of War (Vietnam), If I Die in a Combat Zone (Vietnam), The Things They Carried (Vietnam), So far I've only read just over 100 pages of Berlin, another novel by Plievier and I suspect that it could be added to the list.
Second of the WWII trilogy of novels featuring August Gnotke, and the most powerful of the three. Ranks alongside "The Forgotten Soldier" in its gritty depiction of warfare on the Eastern front.
As a historian I have read many books dealing with warfare. As a man married to a Russian woman I have read a great many books of Russian literature and history. Much of my reading about Russia in World War II has been battlefield accounts including many by former Russian soldiers. So I was somewhat prepared for the horrors of this war when I began reading this novel of the battle of Stalingrad. But this book simply went beyond anything I have read before in terms of describing the physical, mental and emotional horrors of war.

This book is a fictional account of the last days of Stalingrad and the disintegration of the German resistance. The Germans are surronded by the relentless Russian army and air force. They are ordered by Hitler never to surrender. Many go down fighting, others commit suicide rather than be captured. Many others flee toward the center of the city, often committing attrocities against their fellow Germans along the way. Men are left with little to eat, hounded by the terrible Russian winter, covered with lice, with little strength they slowly plod on toward the city center. As they flee and become surronded these fictional German protaginists are forced to examine what they have done, to come to grips with the terrible barbarisms that they have followed Hitler to.

One example of the horrrs described --- so many men die literally right on the main roads that trucks drive over the top of the dead bodies like cord wood. Men become automatons --- plodding, grey, barely breathing, starving, diseased, looking for food, shelter and warmth.

This is a great anti-war novel. The horrors that the soldiers endure are not just German but Everyman.

This book should be required reading for all generals and politicians --- that is for anyone that has the power to send men into battle or send a country to war.
The Plievier war trilogy of Moscow Stalingrad Berlin is an unvarnished depiction of WWII from the point of view of German soldiers on the Eastern Front. Combine the point of view of the book "The Face of Battle" with the the popular movies "Fury" and "Enemy at the Gates"; then add the unrelating reality of 1,5 million casualties in Stalingrad alone, freezing cold, starvation and pointlessness.
I read these books when in early high school and my view of war, militarism and dictatorships (regardless of the "ism") was established with grim certainty.
It is a shame that these books are out of print and largely forgotton. Xenophobia, demonizationof political and military opponents, admiration of so-called strong leaders and a belief that might makes right (much less, successful) would have no fertile ground if citizens were exposed to these books.
This is probably the most brutal and intense depiction of war I have ever read. Theodor Plievier's "Stalingrad" is a graphically honest historical novel of the final days of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad. First published in 1948, "Stalingrad" became one of the books in Plievier's trinity of WWII novels whose other titles,"Moscow" and "Berlin," are about the battles for those cities. "Stalingrad" is an ensemble novel with dozens of interesting, well developed characters, both fictional and historical. Written from an omniscient point of view to give the novel greater historical appeal and to cover more characters and scenes of action, Stalingrad still manages to feel like a great literary novel of the war, a companion to other anti-war novels such as "The Red Badge of Courage" or "All Quiet on the Western Front" (A more lyrical title might have secured its place alongside such books). Yet despite its epic scope, "Stalingrad" is told entirely from the German perspective of its doomed cast. The Russians are a faceless enemy, the German leadership and citizens in the rear are only occasionally glimpsed through the thoughts and memories of the German soldiers stuck with the hopelessly encircled 6th Army. The book begins and ends with three characters who symbolize Plievier's hopes for the future of his homeland Sergeant Gnotke, the failed storm trooper who ends up in a penal battalion for his insubordinate acts; Private Gimpf, his companion in suffering, whose catatonic behavior is the result of the intense secret guilt he carries within; and Colonel Vilshofen, later promoted to Brigadier, the tank commander and former philosophy student who spent his entire professional career charting the dangerous waters of early 20th Century German politics. Plievier was a German WWI Navy veteran and socialist who wrote several anti-war novels in the years between WWI and WWII. In 1933, he fled Nazi Germany and lived in Soviet Russia, a move that branded him a traitor and propagandist for the Soviets. But Plievier was already writing anti-war and anti-Nazi literature before he left his homeland. And his depictions of personalities and the careful way he describes the desperate fate of his fellow Germans suggests a more complicated reality. Propaganda it may have been but Plievier loved the landsers and decried their fate at the hands of Hitler and the Nazi regime. And "Stalingrad" depicts the death of the 6th Army in a historically accurate way that resonates with other accounts and the vast amount of Stalingrad film footage accessible online (Von Paulus, the thoughtful but indecisive last commander of the 6th is depicted particularly well). Yet Plievier also implies their suffering may have been a kind of divine retribution for their blood guilt and participation in atrocities associated with the Severity Order of Field Marshall Von Reichenau, the 6th Army commander prior to Von Paulus. And "Stalingrad" does have some propagandist disconnects between historical truth and reality. The Russians are all decent chaps, a laughable bit of revisionism. And some generals such as Hube and Pickert are depicted as cowards for flying out of the trap when, in fact, it was a cynical move on the part of Hitler to sacrifice the 6th while rescuing those generals he needed to re-assign to other theaters. Not that anyone associated with Stalingrad came out ahead. Stalingrad was war at its most inane, incomprehensible and bloody worst. This book is highly recommended for those with an interest in WWII history, war/anti-war literature, military leadership and philosophical, ethical or existential ideas related to conflict.