Mein
Krieg
My War,
1975,
1999, 2000 |
Timeline of Mein
Krieg
and Erich Kuby biography
|
Review of Mein
Krieg
by Felix Florian Weyh
|
Demidoff, 1947,
with
sketches
|
Das Ende des
Schreckens
(The end of the Horror), 1956
|
Das ist des deutschen Vaterland, 1957
|
Nur noch rauchende
Trümmer
(Siege of Brest), 1959
|
Sieg! Sieg!
(autobiographical novel, 1961, available in English as "Sitzkrieg
of Private Stefan"). Companion piece to Mein Krieg.
|
Die
Russen
in Berlin 1945
The
Russians and Berlin 1945, 1965
|
Die deutsche Angst (the German Angst), 1970
|
Als Polen Deutsch
war
(When Poland was German), 1986
|
Der Preis der Einheit (The Price of
Unity), 1990
|
Deutsche Perspektiven (German
Perspectives), 1993
|
Lauter Patrioten (Nothing
but Patriots here), 1996
|
Mein ärgerliches Vaterland (My
Troublesome
Fatherland), 1990, 2010
|
Compare and contrast:
Deutsche Hörer!
(Listen, Germany!) by Thomas Mann
|
Photos
of Erich Kuby
|
My
other website:
Gen. George H. Thomas,
and the Army of the Cumberland
A critique of our historical Establishment. |
|
The Germans
hate themselves – that is the only
possible explanation. Mein
Krieg,
p. 462 |
|
Cliquez içi pour lire cette introduction en français,
qui per quella in italiano.
Erich
Kuby was
a German chronicler, author, journalist, publicist, and fiercely
independent
observer of
and
commentator on politics and history. His most important book Mein
Krieg – Aufzeichnungen aus 2129 Tagen (My War – Notes from
2129 Days) is based
on his diary
entries and the thousands of letters he sent and received while serving
6 years as a
common
soldier in the Wehrmacht (no battle medals), including 8 months in
American
capitivity.
Kuby was born on 28 June 1910 in
Baden-Baden, today located in Baden-Württemberg in southwestern
Germany. The last 25 years of his life he resided mainly in Italy, and
he died on 10 September 2005 in Venice where he is buried. 
Mein Krieg
(the title is a satirical reference to "Mein Kampf") is unique because
of Kuby's
combination of extraordinary narrative talent, refusal to bend to
relentless authority, his access to informaton as a Signals corpsman,
his extensive exposure to both the Russian and
French theaters of war as a private and (for six
weeks) infantryman,
and
a lot of good
luck
without which he would not have survived. Part of this luck was timing:
due to sickness and a stint in military prison, he was withdrawn from
the eastern front 3 times at critical moments. He was a gifted musician
(organ and violin), fairly talented sketch artist, and imbued with the German and
French literature of his time. In short, a prize in a normal civilian
cultural setting, but a thorn in the side of
many military pen-pushers. While
he was persecuted by many of his superiors, in
fairness it must be stated
that others
(such as the
Generals Lichl and Jahn, Captain Kaletta, commander of
the military prison in Smolensk, the Viennese Sergeant Stifter,
down to the company
clerk Brosius in Kempten, and others unnamed) recognized his genius and
protected him. Then there is the relatively cultured Colonel Maydorn
who refused to intervene when Kuby was sent from Demidoff back to a
military prison in Smolensk. A few hours before he left Demidoff, the
last gasp German sommer offensive of 1942 had begun from which few
participating soldiers returned. Careful reading of both Mein Krieg and Demidoff leads me to
the tentative conclusion that this colonel deliberately saved Kuby from
the
offensive, although the possibility seems not to have occurred to Kuby.
In any case, auch das hat es in der Wehrmacht gegeben.
That too was
possible in the
Wehrmacht.
Kuby loved his first book
Demidoff more than
all of the later ones, but he called Mein
Krieg his
"dauerhafteste Publikation" (most durable publication). However, until
now (see my partial translation) it has
never been available in other languages, partly because of its
length, but mostly because his basic message disturbs even today many
Germans. Namely, that "Nazism was a disease of the body politic, and it
too was deliberately contracted" (Introduction to Thomas Mann's novel Doktor Faustus, English
translation, pg. x). Moreover, he cuts the ground out from under
those non-German
writers, readers, and History Channel producers who are
content with the easy explanation that the Germans were misled by one
man (Hitler) or by Hitler and his power sharing clique. Kuby
demonstrates that the
mass ("99%") of Germans supported the goals of
the Nazi regime, and explains why, namely that the national impulse to
expand
eastward dated back centuries. He wrote: "My analysis of the times
doesn't go
from top to bottom, but rather from bottom to top" (Mein Krieg, pg. 150). At the announcement
of
victory in
Poland, Kuby writes: "The Volk
began to
glow – the bellowing of the Führer was answered by an erotic moan
from
the people which hadn't been heard until then...that was not the work
of propaganda, but rather erupted from the nation's depths. All of a
sudden, not being a Nazi was useless" (pg. 22, Sieg! Sieg!, 1961). Hitler
(in my words) was not the great Führer, but the great Follower who
sensed what
his people collectively
wanted, and
gave it to them. He (der große H.)
learned his
trade through his early speeches and the public's reaction to them. He
discovered that he was good at whipping up, at first, small crowds into
a frenzy, that
he really liked such power (the most potent of drugs), and that a path
to dominating (and being controled by) even greater crowds
was open before him. Ecce homo.
It turned out to be
a Faustian bargain, both for
him and for Germany. Rest assured, if someone back in Vienna had paid
good money for
Hitler's paintings (not that bad, really, just old fashioned), there
would still have been
a Führer, but with
another name.**
*See Thomas Mann's
radio address to Germany of Aug.1941, pg. 24.
**See Thomas Mann's radio address
to Germany of 28 March 1944,
pp. 124-5.
Three of Kuby's other
books
(Demidoff, Nur
noch rauchende Trümmer (about the defense of the fortified city
Brest in France), and the novel Sieg!
Sieg!)
are also drawn
from his diaries. Mein
Krieg, first
published in 1975, deals with these
episodes as well, but more succinctly, edited, and somewhat
"verklärt" (softened). Of his
books based on his experiences
in the war, his novel Sieg!
Sieg! (translated
into English in 1962 as Sitzkrieg
of Private Stefan) is the most extensive rendering of
his
notes and memories, and it covers the period from his arrival in an
army signals unit (Nachrichtendienst)
stationed in the Eifel
region in Nov. 1939 to the end of his
participation in the first French campaign in September 1940. The novel
ends with his court martial which actually took place almost a year
later
in Russia (near Leningrad) in
August 1941. The writing in Sitzkrieg
(the English version) is sometimes clumsy, as
the German translator, an authority in German literature, wasn't at
home with English vernacular and slang. Nevertheless, it is an
essential
companion to Mein Krieg because,
in the novel, Kuby really "packt aus"
(unpacks or unloads). For one
example among many of the tidbits left out of Mein Krieg, Captain
Geiler, the viola player and Notary from Düren (Hauptmann v.
Bissing in Mein Krieg)
reveals to Stefan what the Nazis have in store for all of Europe. For
the besessenen Erneuerer
(obsessed reformers, sound familiar?), not
only were the Jews in the way of the Germans' carrying out their
"historic mission," but all of the other unwanted peoples as well. The
French,
to be sure, were not to be exterminated, but merely purified and
fundamentally transformed (sound familiar?),
with velvet gloves and food rationing. And when that wasn't enough...
On this site I present
present
English translations of key parts of My
War (Mein
Krieg), including
the prefaces and epilogue, memorable quotes, and the entire
chapters "In den Krieg
gleitend" (Sliding into War), "Als Infanterist" (Foot Soldier Kuby), "Glücklicherweise ins Gefängnis" (Luckily
into Prison),
and "Vom
Dnjepr
Rückehr unerwünscht" (From the Dnieper Return Undesired). This last chapter throws a particularly
uncompromising
spotlight on the Wehrmacht in dissolution. His immediate superiors in a
reserve unit in
Kempten, upon sending the troublemaker back to Russia, had included in
his military files a letter with the stamp "R.U." (Return Undesired)
and the
explicit
instruction that soldier
K. was "to be used
in a way as to prevent his return to the homeland" – which was intended
as a
death sentence. But not to worry. On the transport train, in an
escapade worthy of the proverbial good Czech soldier, Kuby managed to
have a harmless letter substituted for the poisoned one. "One letter is as good as any" (Brief
ist
doch Brief, pg 351). In any case, the commanders of his new unit
in
Krementschuk, a small town about 200 km southeast of Kiev on the
Dnieper river, had more pressing matters on their minds than delving
into Kuby's record. The unit had already been punished at
Kharkow, and now a terrible storm was brewing just to the East. On 20
November 1943, a week
after Kuby's arrival there, the Soviet Dnieper offensive was renewed,
and the Wehrmacht
simply collapsed. A
precipitous withdrawal turned into an utterly chaotic retreat, with
apocaplytic scenes reminiscent of the retreat of Napoleon's army from
Moscow in 1812. "The steely criminality
unravels, the paint is peeling, and behold, it wasn't made of steel at
all! It was made of Braunau cardboard" (pp. 374-75). Language like that
still gets under the skins of many Germans. I give this
chapter the subtitles "Blitzkrieg in
Reverse" or "The
Oven of Defeat" (a quote from the chapter). If you can and want to
read the digitized book in German, use your
ingenity to find the file
/MeinKrieg.pdf.
I
have translated into English the complete radio
play from "The Siege of Brest" along with some passages from the
court procedings it elicited. I also
offer partial
translations and/or summaries of some of his other books which are most
relevant to an understanding of the Third Reich, including "Lauter
Patrioten" (Nothing but Patriots, 1996, a history of his family
before WW2), "Als Polen Deutsch war" (about the German occupation of
Poland from 1939 to 1944), and the two prefaces of the 1986 reprint of
"The End of the Horror" (Das Ende des Schreckens, first
published in
1956). In 1986, Kuby was 76 years old, so the newer preface represents
Kuby's matured viewpoints and insights. I may get around to translating
parts of "Der Preis der Einheit" (The Price of Unification, 1990)
about, you guessed it, German reunification. Mind you, his unbending
and very German socialism can be tiresome. Also befremdend is his
downplaying of
the brutality and corruption of the SED regime in East Germany.
I am less interested in his books about
post-war Germany. Events have overtaken many of his views about the
Federal Republic, his fear of a renewed German militarism has turned
out
to
be groundless. Monet (one of the founders of the European union) took
care of that by severely restricting Germany's sovereignty. Moreover, England, France, Russia, and probably Poland as well, have
the bomb. Politically Kuby stood aloof
from all parties, and in
this respect he
was
an equal opportunity "Nestbeschmutzer von Rang" (very
distinguished person who fouls his own nest – witticism borrowed from Heinrich Böll).
Despite
the common attribution, he was not an extreme leftwinger. "Lenin would
have called us [Kuby und Dr.
Hanko] two conservatives" (Mein Krieg, p. 455). Of all of his 30 or so works, only three have been
published in English: "The Russians and Berlin 1945," the novel
"Sitzkrieg of Private Stefan," and the novel "Rosemarie" (The Favorite
Child of the German Miracle, 1960) about
the unsolved murder of a call girl from Frankfurt. "Rosemarie"
has been translated into 17 languages, making it his most popular book,
although, in my opinion, the corrupt milieu he describes is in no way
specific to Germany or to the period. You can buy the book in English
at Amazon, and see portions of the movie on Youtube. I
find its critique
of the consumerism of post-war Germany strident, again a phenomenon not
limited to Germany or those times.
As a complement to Mein Krieg I include here
extensive Kostproben
(samples) from Deutsche
Hörer! ("Listen,
Germany!"), Mann's 58 + 1 BBC radio broadcasts to Germany during WW2).
Some
of these passages I have taken from Thomas Mann's own translation,
others
I have translated myself. I include also some
passages from his novel Doktor
Faustus as
translated by Lowe-Porter.
When I
first stumbled on Mein Krieg in
1976, I was a student in Bonn.
It overwhelmed me with its uncompromising portayal of
the common man's Third Reich. Over the years I have pondered the tendency of most historiographers to
shovel the problem of Nazi-Germany into
one man's shoes, and lamented this
book's continuing relative obscurity. Now I am doing something to
remedy this
situation.
By the way, no study of the German participation in WW2
is complete without reading "The Chief Culprit" by Viktor
Suvorow (in German "Der Eisbrecher" or Icebreaker, Stalin's pet name for
Hitler). This book is required
reading for anyone who wants to understand the Second World War.
Sayings by me (they have much more punch in German):
- Ich habe die Welt nicht erfunden, sondern nur
vorgefunden.
- Kein Volk verurteilen, keinem Volke vertrauen.
(Spruch auf die
Deutschen gemünzt, aber allgemeingültig)
- Es wird dafür gesorgt, daß die Suppe doch manchmal so
heiß gegessen, wie sie gekocht wird.
- Ein ins Unermeßliche gesteigerter Geltungsdrang
stammt aus einem
ins Unermeßliche gesteigerten Minderwertigkeitsgefühl.
- Es fehlt in der Welt nicht an Geld, sondern an
Geltung.
- Der Erzwidersacher Luzifer sitzet allerweil zur
linken Hand des
Vaters.
- Die Geschichte der Menschheit in zwei Sätzen. – Der
böse Krieg ergibt
den wurmstichigen
Frieden, aus dem der böse Krieg hervorgeht. (Nur
eineim Blöden leuchtet es nicht ein, daß all das in den Kram des lieben
Gottes paßt.)
- Meine Katze versteht wenig von meiner Verzweiflung um
die Menschheit,
aber immerhin etwas.
- Das Schlimmste ist Menschliches, Allzumenschliches.
(Eigentlich eine
Umschreibung von Göttliches,
Allzugöttliches.)
- Ich pfeife wortwörtlich auf die tröstlichen Mythen
und deren Anhänger.
- Daß wir einen freien Willen haben, ist eine dürftige
Notlüge.
- Und Gott schuf den Menschen und den Schimpansen nach
seinem Bilde.
- Im Grunde genommen ist Mitleid immer Selbstmitleid.
Project begun 31 March
2015 – redmanrt
at yahoo
dot com
Last updated 27 April 2018

|