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INTRO

AUTHOR

ABOUT THE BOOK

EVALUATION

INTRO

FABRIK DER OFFIZIERE

TYPE

GENRE

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AUTHOR

HANS HELLMUT KIRST 

DEC. 5, 1914, OSTERODE, GER. —DIED FEB. 23, 1989

FARMER, PLAY WRITER, SOLDIER, CRITIQ AND NOVELIST

WK TRANSLATED IN 24 LANGUAGES

BOOKPYRAMID - FIRST EDITION (1964)

TOTAL PAGES 574

REPRINT CASSELL & COMPANY 2002

48 DOLLARS

PAPERBACK & HARD BOUND

German

STORYSET IN EARLY 1944 AT A TRAINING ACADEMY FOR WEHRMACHT OFFRS

THE STORY FEATURES A GP OF UNFORGETTABLE PERSONALITIES, ALL FINDING THEIR WAY THROUGH THE MORAL FOG OF WAR

AN ACCIDENTAL EXPLOSION AT THE OFFICER SCHOOL CLAIMS THE LIFE OF AN EXPERIENCED, STRONG WILLED JR OFFR

LT KRAFT IS GIVEN THE TASK OF FINDING THE TRUTH BEHIND THE DEATH

HIS PATH OF DISCOVERY EXPOSE THE SILENCE AND COMPLICITY OF EVEN THE "GOOD" GERMAN OFFICERS IN THE HORRIFIC POLICIES OF THE FUEHRER

EVALUATION

SIMPLE STYLE

PICTURESQUE DESCRIPTION

THOUGHT PROVOKING

ESSENCE OF THE BOOK“The soldier must say yes when he

thinks yes. But when many say yes and think no, when they feel forced to say

yes, though they think no, or when they say yes for sake of their careers,

their own comfort or self interest while their conscience tell them no, the pt

has been reached where true soldering dies out altogether and not only

soldering, this is deaths great triumph, for when conscience dies, mankind dies

with it.”

THANK YOU

• Hans Hellmut Kirst, (born Dec. 5, 1914, Osterode, Ger. —died Feb. 23, 1989, Bremen, W.Ger.), West German novelist who wrote more than 40 popular novels, mainly political thrillers and military satires.

• Kirst served in the German army (1933–45), rising to the rank of first lieutenant during World War II. Disillusioned by his military experiences, he turned to fiction with the anti-Nazi novel Wir nannten ihn Galgenstrick (1951; The Lieutenant Must Be Mad). Kirst gained international acclaim for the satiric trilogy Null-acht fünfzhen (1954–55; Zero Eight Fifteen), the continuing story of an army private, Gunner Asch, and his personal battle with the absurdities of the German military system. He was perhaps best known for Die Nacht der Generale (1962, The Night of the Generals), which was made into a Hollywood motion picture (1967). Many of his novels conveyed a collective sense of guilt over German complacency under Nazism. Kirst’s post-war popularity faded somewhat in the 1970s.

• Hans Hellmut Kirst was born in Osterode, East Prussia, which is now part of Poland.• Kirst joined the German Army in 1933 and served as an officer during World War II,

ending the war as a First Lieutenant.[1] Kirst was a member of the Nazi Party, stating later that he had "confused National Socialism with Germany."[1]

• Kirst later indicated that after the war he did not immediately believe accounts of Nazi atrocities. "One did not really know one was in a club of murderers," he recalled.[1

• Hans Hellmut Kirst died in 1989. He was 74 years old at the time of his death and was survived by his wife, Ruth, and a daughter.[1]

• Kirst's books were translated into 28 languages and sold a total of 12 million copies during his lifetime.[1]

• This timeless novel is part character sketch, part comedy, and part morality tale.

• Set in early 1944 at a training academy for Wehrmacht officers, • the story features a group of unforgettable personalities, all finding their way

through the moral fog of war. • Cynics, idealists, and those just trying to survive, clash following the murder of

a strong-willed junior officer. • Kirst draws a painfully humanizing sketch of Germany during the National

Socialist era, with sometimes hilarious glimpses of a tragic society en route to "final victory." Written two decades after WWII, the themes are still lamentably relevant in the 21st Century

• A very clever look in the moral and ethical void of the Third Reich while following the stained tragic figure of Lt Kraft. Kraft is given the task of finding the truth behind an accidental explosion at the officer school which claims the life of an experienced officer. A delicious tale of intrigue and suspense follow until, like a runaway train, the book comes to its inevitable, tear wrenching conclusion.

• Kirst drew on his experiences as a soldier and officer in World War II. He has been a farmer, playwright, and critic and is now one of Germany's most successful novelists; his work has been translated into 24 languages.

• Hans Kirst's officers and officer candidates are chillingly ordinary guys at an officers' training school near the end of World War II. The training officers go through the motions of readying potential officers as fodder for the war effort. The training officers are quite a mix: some have enormous but fragile egos, wife and girlfriend problems, or are in denial about their distate for women but admiration for young men, flout the rules of command, or show great compassion. The young cadets are jokers, followers, outsiders; some are for the Fuehrer, others are wholly indifferent, and others actually dislike Hitler. The constant jockeying for position has its fatal attractions; when a training officer is killed during an exercise, another young officer, Lieutenant Kraft, is given the thankless task of determining whether it was an accident or murder. His path of discovery and the decisions he makes expose the silence and complicity of even the "good" German officers in the horrific policies of the Fuehrer.