#hans hellmut kirst

[wheresthebus]

Snippet Sunday.

Quick rewrite of one of my favourite scenes in one of my favourite books. The Night of the Generals by Hans Hellmut Kirst.

~~~~~~

Ren was admitted into Hux’s presence at once, though his greeting could hardly have been called cordial.

“Haven’t you anything better to do than get under my feet? Why aren’t you at your post?”

“I’m looking for a murderer.”

Hux shook his head reprovingly. “This is absurd. The First Order is in danger and you waste your time on trivialities. I don’t understand your attitude.”

“Last night,” said Ren, “an officer was brutally murdered aboard the Steadfast.”

“Lord Ren,” snapped Hux, “earlier today someone tried to murder the Supreme Leader. The scavenger and a clique of Resistance scum were at the bottom of it. That should be your sole concern at the moment. Do your duty accordingly.”

“I intend to do my duty,” replied Ren. “However, what concerns me is not an attempted murder but a murder which has actually taken place.”

“Why bother me with it?” Hux asked impatiently.

“Somebody must have committed this murder. The circle of potential suspects is small, and my investigations have narrowed it down further still.”

“So what?” said Hux. “At a time when the Order calls us you seem to be more interested in the fate of a lowly dead officer. Kindly don’t smirk at me, I forbid it! Get out of here!”

“Certainly, as soon as you’ve answered a few questions.”

“How dare you interrupt my work with your ridiculous flights of fancy?”

“Where were you last night between Zulu and Alpha shift?”

“That’s nothing to do with you. I don’t have to answer your questions.”

“A refusal to make a statement usually means only one thing, General.”

Hux drew himself up, his eyes glacial.

“Kylo Ren,” he said majestically, “at this very moment I am the embodiment of Snoke’s will. An attack on me is an attack on the First Order, and anyone who tries to hinder my work automatically stands revealed as an enemy of the Order. I would go further: anyone who tries to destroy me must necessarily be trying to destroy the sacred ideals that inspire our great movement.”

“You’re delusional,” said Ren in a choked voice.

“No, true! That is why I have no alternative but to arrest you, Ren. You will leave this room a prisoner. You have shown yourself to be an enemy of the people. In a state of emergency, there can only be one penalty for that.”

[bartwatching]

Gestart met ‘Kameraden’ van Hans Hellmut Kirst. Kirst is in deze omvangrijke roman trouw gebleven aan het doel dat hij zich na de oorlog stelde: meedogenloos alles te geselen wat gedurende de Tweede Wereldoorlog in nazi-Duitsland gebeurde. Met deze roman is hij echter nog een stap verder gegaan. Daarin laat hij niet alleen het oorlogsgebeuren herleven, maar trekt hij de lijn door tot in het heden, tot het Duitsland van het "Wirtschaftswunder" en het herlevende militarisme. Zes geheel verschillende personen vormen de groep kameraden. Ze zijn goed door de oorlog heen gekomen, ze hebben weer nette posities en willen het verleden vergeten, maar het verleden, dat zij dood en begraven waanden, duikt weer op in de figuur van een soldaat, bij wiens vermeende dood ze alle zes betrokken zijn geweest...

[zakochana-w-cytatach]

"Prawdziwa wolność to wtedy, kiedy człowiek może decydować, jak chce żyć."

- Hans Hellmut Kirst

[pedroam-bang]

The Night Of The Generals (1967)

[thelivebookproject]

The "This Again?" Challenge

→Prompt 8: The Book Thief

I love reading about World War II, here are some recs:

The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah

Suite Française, by Irène Némirovsky

Salt to the Sea, by Ruta Sepetys

The Wolves, by Hans Hellmut Kirst

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Girl in the Blue Coat, by Monic Hesse

What other WWII books do you like?

[carlosrdozsa]

📚 Éste será el que sigue: "La noche de los generales" de Hans Hellmut Kirst. Parte del regalo de la tía @rosemarylozsan Gracias nuevamente... #Libro #Book #CirculoDeLectores #Family #Familia #LaNocheDeLosGenerales #HansHellmutKirst

[julesfelden]

But in the generals' sector half measures, ambiguity, inefficiency, are not tolerable. For their calculations are paid in blood. The mistake, that in other fields can still be called human, here becomes deadly. For in the end it is the generals who hold in their hands the destiny of a people, of a nation. It is they who take the ultimate decisions. To the generals it is not given to look their soldiers in the eyes at the moment of the decision. But if in that moment a general doesn't think of his soldiers, he has already failed before life, before men, before God. Without soldiers there is no people, no fatherland, no nation... but no generals either. They are one whole thing, indivisible. But it is not a man he who doesn't hesitate to use human lives as burning stacks to light a fire. And even when generals are ready to die in front of their soldiers, it doesn't mean they can live in front of them. What must be done - or at least attempted - is the effort to make the soldier feel like he is not just a number, one of those numbers from which losses are counted. Some generals make this effort and maybe it's not just a few of them. Others have given up. Others yet make a show to disregard it completely. The dead in their divisions and their army corps are laurel leaves for the crown they're busy weaving, without the least shame. They march on corpses. From one of such groups, exposed constantly to the gravest and hardest responsibilities, can sometimes spring out one of the beings that incarnate abnormality, pathology. For example General Tanz. He personifies war, war transformed into a mad, unstoppable, frightening bloodbath. He who abandons himself to war as a vice one can fall victim to, is marked, is finished. Exactly like someone who carries in himself a destructive germ. Thus the face of this man named Tanz - whom one of his soldiers had nicknamed 'Totentanz' - was nothing but the grimace of war. Bloodthirst under a steel mask: lust for destruction. Perhaps Hell.

From The Night of the Generals by Hans Hellmut Kirst. This translation of questionable quality was done by me using a copy of the book that is in Italian; sorry, don’t have an English (or original German) edition to cross-check.

[tipographia]

08/15 im Krieg, Hans Hellmut Kirst. Book cover by Otelo Azinhais.

[rudibernhardt]

Joachim Fuchsberger ist tot – Schauspieler, Talkmaster und Schlagertexter

Joachim Fuchsberger ist tot – Schauspieler, Talkmaster und Schlagertexter

Howard Carpendale zwitscherte seine Schlagertexte, Jürgen Marcus posaunte sie, Gitta Lind schmalzte sie und sogar Udo Jürgens machte sie zu Erfolgen. Nebenher bescherte er den Stuttgarter Kickers ihre Vereinshymne: Die Rede ist von Joachim Fuchsberger, der als gebürtiger Schwabe erstaunliches Hochdeutsch sprechen konnte.

Joachim Fuchsberger 2008 in Wien (Foto: Tsui/Manfred Werner/Wikimedia…

[wheresthebus]

Okay, so the book I’m reading at the moment is about a sadistic young German General who brutal murders a prostitute because she finds out he’s gay.

Low-key remind you of anyone?

[bartwatching]

Zojuist uitgelezen: De nacht van de generaals geschreven door Hans Hellmut Kirst. De nacht van de generaals: Warschau 1942. In Warschau wordt een Poolse prostitué vermoord, die voor de Duitsers heeft gespioneerd. Majoor Grau van de contraspionage volgt met gevaarlijke hardnekkigheid het spoor dat hij gevonden heeft. Hij vindt drie generaals die theoretisch voor deze misdaad in aanmerking zouden komen. Maar voor het Grau lukt het beslissende bewijs te leveren, wordt hij door een handige zet van zijn tegenspeler weggepromoveerd naar Parijs. De tot luitenant-kolonel bevorderde Grau volgt het spoor van de moordenaar opnieuw, geassisteerd door commisaris Prévert. Terwijl de verwarrende gebeurtenissen op de 20ste juli de stad de adem benemen, gebeurt er opnieuw een moord, die tot in details op de moord in Warschau lijkt.. https://www.instagram.com/p/CS7TEZ7NPZJdgEy4T-E86p5WK4j3yJylqXkimA0/?utm_medium=tumblr

[vonstauffenberg]

Soldier’s Revolt (Aufstand der Soldaten)

Written in 1965 by Hans Hellmut Kirst, this is a semi-fictionalized account of the Valkyrie conspiracy and July 20th told through alternating 3rd person point of views, mainly focusing on that of the fictional Captain Count von Brackwede, who was modeled upon the real-life conspirator Lieutenant Fritz-Dietlof, Count von der Schulenburg.   

From Wikipedia:

Hans Hellmut Kirst (5 December 1914 - 13 February 1989) was a distinguished German novelist and the author of 46 books, many of which were translated into English. Kirst is best remembered as the creator of the "Gunner Asch" series which detailed the ongoing struggle of an honest individual to maintain his identity and humanity amidst the criminality and corruption of Nazi Germany.

I haven't read any Gunner Asch, though I would like to.

My copy of Soldier's Revolt is a 1967 translation by J. Maxwell Brownjohn, published by Bantam. The covers leave a little something to be desired: 

No, really. I despise the cover. I covered mine with cardstock so I wouldn't have to look at it. 

Anyway, the book itself is solid, sufficient amounts of Stauffenberg but not as much as I hoped. It's got some of the prerequisite draws added in- romance, brotherly conflict over ideologies, the whole 'human interest' angle, in addition to SS intrigue and general Nazi unpleasantness, which I did not enjoy reading. 

The timeline of events is solid, it's well-researched for the time, Kirst went to the trouble of interviewing survivors himself, which I respect. It's rather dry in style with some black humor - not my usual thing - and to be honest I haven't read the thing cover to cover yet. I've skimmed for Stauffenberg.

Speaking of Stauffenberg, here are some quotes from the book involving him and his excellence:

"...Stauffenberg, who had a horror of physical contact..." (64) (Never heard this before, myself) 

"Red aristos, [like] Stauffenberg" (multiple occurrences) 

"'I'm the logical person.'" (179)  

"A dark glow seemed to emanate from Stauffenberg and his lone eye shone with steely brilliance. Konstantin watched him with fascination. . . he was piercingly aware that the man possessed enormous and infectious strength- that he was a leader whose men would follow him through thick and thin." (97) 

Also, the first line:

"I'm going to do the job myself," said the colonel.

That's how you start a book.  

[adamodetremblay]

Il generale Tanz (Peter O'Toole) e il caporale Hartmann (Tom Courtenay) davanti ad un autoritratto di Vincent Van Gogh. "La notte dei generali" diretto da Anatole Litvak e tratto dall'omonimo romanzo di Hans Hellmut Kirst.

[pedroam-boox]

Mindenkinek önmagának kell boldogulnia saját magával - mert a döntő pillanatokban mindenki magára marad.

Hans Hellmut Kirst: Tisztgyár

[pedroam-boox]

Vereségre csak az képes, aki megőrizte magában a tisztaság szikráját.

Hans Hellmut Kirst: Tisztgyár

[pedroam-boox]

Miért ragaszkodik az ember olyan nagyon az életéhez? Mert nem ismeri!

Hans Hellmut Kirst: Tábornokok éjszakája