German and/or German-American Books, Magazines & Movies

Have you read something interesting, published a new book or seen a movie that you would like to have mentioned. Please send me an email with the title and brief description.

last modified Wednesday, July 18, 2007 2:10 PM

Books
	America Has Been Good To Me, by Siegfried P. Bette The intriguing story of a German immigrant and his flight to America, the land of opportunity. As a youth growing up during Nazi Germany and the bitter aftermath, the author takes the reader through time as he endures the hardships of a devasted country and sets his course for the shores of America where opportunity is abounded. Proceeds donated by the author the Steuben Society of America Monument Project. Available at Amazon.com & Barnes and Noble.
	Becoming German by Philip Otterness Becoming German tells the intriguing story of the largest and earliest mass movement of German-speaking immigrants to America. The so-called Palatine migration of 1709 began in the western part of the Holy Roman Empire, where perhaps as many as thirty thousand people left their homes, lured by rumors that Britain’s Queen Anne would give them free passage overseas and land in America. They journeyed down the Rhine and eventually made their way to London, where they settled in refugee camps. The rumors of free passage and land proved false, but, in an attempt to clear the camps, the British government finally agreed to send about three thousand of the immigrants to New York in exchange for several years of labor. After their arrival, the Palatines refused to work as indentured servants and eventually settled in autonomous German communities near the Iroquois of central New York. Becoming German tracks the Palatines’ travels from Germany to London to New York City and into the frontier areas of New York. Philip Otterness demonstrates that the Palatines cannot be viewed as a cohesive “German” group until after their arrival in America; indeed, they came from dozens of distinct principalities in the Holy Roman Empire. It was only in refusing to assimilate to British colonial culture—instead maintaining separate German-speaking communities and mixing on friendly terms with Native American neighbors—that the Palatines became German in America. See Cornell University Press for more details.
	BETWEEN THE LINES: A Boy's Survival in the Combat Zone, 1939-1945 By Walter Beller During World War II, Walter Beller and his family lived in the border region between France’s Maginot Line and Germany’s Siegfried Line, where some of the fiercest battles and bombardments took place. Considering that Allied air raids all but leveled his German hometown Zweibruecken, young Walter’s survival was nothing short of miraculous. Rounding out his own memories, Beller re-examines the impact of pivotal historical events, including the humiliating aftermath of Germany’s defeat in World War I, the frustrating and failed German land negotiations with Poland that triggered the start of World War II, and the Allied bombing campaign that deliberately targeted cities and civilians. Giving voice to what many German people (including his anti-Nazi father) felt and believed at the time, he provides a different perspective than the official version of what happened during the war. Detailed descriptions of battles, air raids and post-war American and French occupations will be of special interest to historians of the period. At the same time, Beller’s gripping saga of survival offers a moving account of war as seen through the eyes of a young boy. For more information and to read excerpts from the book, go to www.walterbeller.com Comments: The above is information on a new book by a retired German-American businessman about his experiences growing up near the French border during World War II. The book was published in July of 2006. Submitted by Chris Angermann 11/30/2006
	ERLANGEN: AN AMERICAN'S HISTORY OF A GERMAN TOWN By Gary C. Fouse This work is a historiography of the German town of Erlangen, which lies approximately 20 kilometers north of Nuremberg in the Franconian region of Bavaria. With a current population of just over 100,000, the city is primarily noted for its university, which was founded in 1743, and as headquarters of the Siemens Corporation.In this book, author Gary Fouse, who spent three years as a U.S. military policeman in Erlangen, traces the history of Erlangen from its humble beginnings as a village in 1002 to the current era. Fouse describes the city during the most important historical events in German history including the Reformation, the Thirty Years War, the Napoleonic Wars, the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, the two world wars and post-World War II recovery. Fouse delves into the life of the city under the rule of the House of Hohenzollern, the arrival in 1686 of French Huguenot refugees, the founding of the university, and the history of the Jewish community in Erlangen. Also detailed is the history of the U.S. Army in Erlangen from 1945 to 1994. The author's personal accounts provide an interesting look into the lives of the Americans, both inside and outside the caserne. Please click on Title for more details.
	Finding the Way From Prussia to a Prairie Homestead A novel by Alfred Wellnitz Finding the Way is a historical novel that follows a young German immigrant through adventures and difficulties encountered in pursuit of his goal to homestead land in America. Karl Mueller undertook a long journey from his native Prussia in order to reach his goal to homestead land in America, a journey which ends in the Dakota territory during the time of the 1876 Black Hills gold rush. Karl meets companion Heinrich Schlicter on the ship taking him on the first step of what becomes a seven year odyssey. The two remain friends and partners while they travel across the young country and Karl pursues his goal. Karl’s first priority is to accumulate enough money to finance his homestead plans. The quest to accumulate the needed stake takes the two young men to Chicago’s notorious meat-packing plants, and to a Wisconsin logging camp. After two winters in the logging camp Karl is ready to complete his goal to homestead land on the western frontier. At this point his companion, Heinrich, persuades Karl to join him in seeking their fortunes in the 1876 Black Hills gold rush. While in the Black Hills Karl falls in love with a mixed blood Lakota woman who helps him redefine his goal and to understand who he really is. A blending of history and social issues with a compelling story makes Finding the Way entertaining and informative reading. For more information or to buy go to Amazon.com: www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0595315909
	Mamywoto I Love Germany On the occasion of the International Tourism Exchange in Berlin, the Nicolai Verlag has published one of the most original and most amusing picture books on Germany. Mamywoto, a typical German garden gnome, introduces his homeland from its loveliest and most interesting vantage points. His book shows a refreshingly unconventional photo-view of the world; its texts in German and English burst with information entertainingly featured. In the run-up to the FIFA-Worldcup it presents the sights-to-see in Germany from a whole new angle. 5.00 Euro of the price of each book goes towards supporting Unicef Germany. All photos and stories are online An important tip: Editorial departments may call up a gallery. Review copies via Susanne.Boger@nicolai-verlag.de
	MEMORIES OF WORLD WAR II AND ITS AFTERMATH By a Little Girl Growing up in Berlin By Inge Stanneck Gross Can you remember what you were doing, or what you said when you were five years old? Inge Gross– now age seventy–certainly can. On the night of Sunday, August 25, 1940, there had been a terrible thunderstorm, and the following morning her playmate, Reinhard Engel, a year older, told her it was something called an “air raid.” The British had bombed Berlin in their first major raid. Inge recalls from the vantage of a little girl of modest means what it felt like to grow up in Berlin with war around her; of the hasty evacuations each night to the cellar bomb shelter, and the emotional impact of going to school the next morning wondering which of her classmates would not show up that day–or ever!– followed by wondering when her own time would be up. Eventually her mother took Inge and her younger brother to a small village fifty miles from Berlin to escape the bombings. Toward the end of the war that village was also bombed, and later overrun by the Russians. They barely managed to get back to Berlin in late 1946 before the Russians totally closed the border. Most accounts of World War II contain a sterile historical record of battles fought and lost, or the horrors from an adult viewpoint. Inge brings the perspective of a little child, and records her mother’s fight to keep the family alive during the war and the equally difficult years that followed. She tells what it was like to be hungry for years–not months–at a time, the constant fear, the constant losses, and how the Allies kept Inge and 2.2 million other West Berliners alive during Stalin’s blockade of Berlin in 1948-1949. After the Berlin Airlift, which eventually broke Stalin’s blockade, she describes her hometown’s gradual recovery and her own experiences growing into a teenager but with adult responsibilities. Her account ends in 1954, when at age nineteen she gets an opportunity to immigrate to the United States. An Epilogue briefly tells what happened to this “little girl growing up in Berlin.” Readers wanting to know more can read volume two, MEMORIES OF OPPORTUNITIES, FAMILY AND ADVENTURES, published simultaneously. The book is available on Inge’s website, MemoriesOfWWII.com. The website also contains twenty extracts from the book, and the Berlin Candy Bomber’s Foreword.
	The Missing Peace of a Heritage Puzzle: A Memoir Uniquely Set in a Vanished Sudetenland by Frank Koerner Frank Koerner sought to demystify the homeland of his parents, which "vanished" when he was a child. He journeyed there and what he found was magically fascinating. This book recounts his discoveries, flavored by their intriguing happenstances. The vignettes are written with a commendable command of language and style. Mr. Koerner smartly balances personal emotions and reactions with historical information, while presenting a clear depiction of his trip overseas. Each recounted tale occurred during less than a week's stay in that faraway land which no longer "exists." Why is he drawn to a region from which people of his heritage are vengefully banned in perpetuity? His marvelous ability to depict a personal anecdote or memory to highlight its timelessness and universality is remarkable. Most of this book's chapters have been separately published in seventeen separate publications in Canada, Germany, and the United States. The articles have appeared in English and German. The book is available on the Amazon and Barnes&Noble websites Here's a reprinted translation of a Review of this book printed by Sudetendeutsche Zeitung
	The Prison Called Hohenasperg: An American boy betrayed by his Government during World War II by Arthur D. Jacobs Unknown to most Americans, more than 10,000 Germans and German Americans were interned in the United States during WWII. This story is about the internment of a young American and his family. He was born in the U.S.A. and the story tells of his perilous path from his home in Brooklyn to internment at Ellis Island, N.Y. and Crystal City, Texas, and imprisonment, after the war, at a place in Germany called Hohenasperg. When he arrived in Germany in the dead of winter, he was transported to Hohenasperg in a frigid, stench-filled, locked, and heavily guarded, boxcar. Once in Hohenasperg, he was separated from his family and put in a prison cell. He was only twelve years old! He was treated like a Nazi by the U.S. Army guards and was told that if he didn't behave he would be killed. He tried to tell them he was an American, but they just told him to shut up. His fellow inmates included high-ranking officers of the Third Reich who were being held for interrogation and denazification. The book tells how the author survived this ordeal and many others, and how he fought his way back to his beloved America. Available at http://www.Amazon.com and http://www.BarnesandNoble.com
	Rising from Rubble…Germany Revisited by Kenneth Weaver. Rising from Rubble chronicles the story of Germany’s post-war period through the author's memoirs and the life stories of seven young men from Germany, France, Po land, and the United States. Filled with the author's own photography, Kenneth Weaver's Rising from Rubble reveals the consequences for Germany of Adolph Hitler's aggression and "The Greater Holocaust" through the eyes of those who experienced it. Kenneth Weaver reminds us “the world must not forget the evil of Adolph Hitler and the German Nazi party. Millions of Jews, Polish Christians, gypsies, homosexuals, and 'inferior' enemies of the Third Reich were executed.” His work poignantly captures the very aura of the time, bringing to life the fears, joys and struggles of human existence in a post-war world. In an age where history is often relegated to a mere factual recitation of events, Rising from Rubble reminds us of the human element inherent in these events. Memoirs such as this are gifts both to us in the present and to our future generations. The book is available on the Internet from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, aspenmtnpublishing.com and local book sellers. Bulk orders may be placed with the publisher An Author signed book may be purchased for $19.75 plus $4.05 USPS Priority Mail (4.6/% sales tax in Colorado) payable by check or postal money order sent to Kenneth Weaver, Author, 7066 Carter Trail, Boulder, Colorado 80301 *Comments:* I have just read the first few chapters of your book and memories come back from my youth and that time of my life. Apparently there are no real bad memories, yes there was hardship, sometimes hunger and fright. But human nature puts a gentle cover over this experience: called forgetfulness and more "rememberness" of fun and joys. I'm looking forward to read more about your experience and insight of your travels during those days in Europe. Sincerely, Reimer 8/3/06
	These Strange German Ways and The Whys of the Ways by Susan Stern An amusing count of "German" behaviors and their origins.
	Stones from the River, by Ursula Hegi A compelling book about a girl growing up during post WWI and WW2 Germany.
	Surviving WWII: The Story of a German Soldier and His Family, by Victoria Armstrong The author tells the remarkable story of her grandparents, Eugen and Ruth Dietz, survival which is both captivating and compelling. This account of Eugen and Ruth captures the lives of a typical family as they live through the horrors of war under a strict dictatorship. Their story is one of fear, adversity, despair, hope, and courage. Based in Pforzhiem, Germany, Eugen tells of being a German soldier who fought on the front lines in Russia for more than two years, before being captured by the Russian Army. His capture led to five years in a prison camp where he was forced to work in deplorable conditions. However, he was one of the fortunate few to survive. Ruth's story also told of the inhumanities of war. Food was scarce, disease rampant, and the threat of harm endless. Both endured emotional and physical suffering, unknown to most in our generation. But from the hardships of war came a strengthening of family, a new daughter and a journey to America where a new life would begin. Available NOW!! Through the publisher at www.eakinpress.com under war and conflict.
	The Vision of Emma Blau,by Ursula Hegi If you enjoyed Stones from the River, you'll love reading this book as well. A German Immigrant makes their way through America during a time when people hid their German heritage. A must read for every German-American.
	We Were Not the Enemy Remembering the United States’ Latin-American Civilian Internment Program of World War II By Heidi Gurcke Donald The United States clandestinely funds the operation of a huge prison in Cuba. Men, women, and children are spirited away from their homes and imprisoned indefinitely. No charges are made; no legal counsel is allowed. Newspapers fill with stories of espionage and enemies. Current events? No. During World War II, the United States used tactics remarkably similar to those in use today against presumed terrorists. By 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt had covertly authorized J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret Intelligence Service to begin surveillance of Axis nationals in Latin America. Believing that “all German nationals without exception [are] dangerous,” the United States surreptitiously pressured Latin-American countries to arrest and deport more than four thousand civilians of German ethnicity to the United States. There, many languished in internment camps, while others were shipped to war-torn Germany. Heidi Donald is a native of Costa Rica who was deported to the United States with six family members and interned at Crystal City, Texas during World War II. We Were Not the Enemy, her recently published memoir, is a personal look at the pain this indiscriminate civilian internment program inflicted on her family. The story Donald tells—of blacklists, of her father’s abduction from Costa Rica, of the family’s eventual internment for over a year in Crystal City, Texas—is shocking and heart-wrenching. … For historians, We Were Not the Enemy will stand as a shocking antecedent to our government’s present policy of extreme rendition. For others, this gripping memoir will stand as a reminder of the heartache engendered by wartime fear and panic. —John Christgau, author of Enemies, World War II Alien Internment Heidi Gurcke Donald’s family was among those who, with little or no evidence and no legal procedures, were forced from their homes and shipped to the United States. … This is a cautionary tale. It is a chapter of American history that is not taught in school. But it happened. And it could happen again, if we do not vigilantly safeguard our civil liberties. —Jay Feldman, author of When the Mississippi Ran Backwards and Suitcase Sefton and the American Dream From a moral standpoint … every foreign policy or series of policies must be judged both by its intentions and its consequences at home and abroad. —Ernest W. Lefever
Magazines
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Movies
	Good Bye Lenin! by Wolfgang Becker A Humorous movie about a young man who goes to great lengths to keep his mother from knowing that the Berlin wall has been brought down and the DDR as she knew and loved it, no longer exists. The movie is in German with English subtitles, so it's great practice for those of us who don't have the opportunity to stretch our German speaking skills as often as we'd like.