Movies and Films
This is the forum for Movie and Film discussions. Again, our topic is naval warfare in WWII for the most part.
Re: Buchheim
Posted by:
Meg Rosenfeld
()
Date: July 06, 2003 01:47AM
<HTML>Hello Dave,
Now I reveal myself for the ignoramus I truly am: All I know is what someone a lot more knowledgeable than I (Io--she's in Germany right now or I'd ask her for more details) told me about Buchheim's two patrols on U-96; if there's more information out there, I'm eager to hear it. I don't know about refueling (good question!) or about whether Buchheim got a war badge. Sorry--but there are a lot of people here who probably do know.
Die Festung is written in very much the same style as Das Boot: first person, present tense, minute by minute, very personal. You live through the story right next to Buchheim--actually, as though you were somehow inside his skin with him, just as in DB; you're right there with his every wandering thought, every barely mastered emotion, and every moment of pain or illness, which get pretty intense and awful in this book.
The beginning of Die Festung is a little unsettling: the last time we saw der Alte (at the end of Das Boot) he was hemorrhaging and dying, but now we meet him in the first line of DF calmly scratching his beard and telling the other officers that they're going to be coming into port in St. Nazaire today. (You probably already know that the real "der Alte" lived until 1986; the bombing at the end of Das Boot is fictional.) They come in without incident, someone runs to present both der Alte and Buchheim with messages, and the story is off like a gunshot.
Buchheim takes a few liberties with time-sequences, but otherwise he seems to have stuck with the facts pretty much. The story covers just about four months, May-September 1944; during this time, of course, the Normandy Invasion takes place. There is a pervasive sense that Germany is doomed, running throught the entire LOOONG book. We follow Buchheim as he criss-crosses France and Germany, following orders from the high command in Berlin, leaving and then rejoining "der Alte," worrying about Simone, going through all sorts of potentially fatal experiences. Das Boot is tightly structured and unified in its concern, like a classic tragedy, but Die Festung is like an old-fashioned novel that wanders all over the place and takes its hapless protagonist from "Pontius to Pilate," as the Germans say.
If you like Buchheim, or are at least neutral in your feelings towards him, then the book is fascinating, a real page-turner (and there are 1464 pages in my paperback edition.) If you hate him, don't even bother reading it.
Unfortunately, Die Festung has never, to my knowledge, been translated at all. I wrote to Buchheim a year ago and asked him if there were any plans to have it translated into English, and he wrote back saying no, not at this time. I've translated bits of it for my husband to read, just so he could see what I was carrying on about. I'd like to do the whole thing, which should take me up until the time of my death, if I'm going to have a REALLY long life.
Der Abschied is not, in my opinion, nearly as good a book as either of the first two. It is, like them, based on a real experience--Buchheim was a guest on the Otto Hahn during its final voyage, which was also the last voyage before retirement for Captain Lehmann-Willenbrock, "der Alte." Buchheim presented the book as, among other things, the source of answers to all the questions which his readers had stored up after the first two books. Well, he still leaves a lot of MY questions unanswered! Most of the book is taken up with "der Alte" and Buchheim sitting around talking. There is an inescapable air of sadness hanging over the book, because of course Buchheim was looking back to his very last voyage with his lifelong friend. Unfortunately there isn't much of a plot, just talk and sadness. Heartbreaking grief, actually. After reading the end of the book I wanted to throw myself down on the ground and sob, even though I knew that the last line wasn't even true!!! (Well, it's a NOVEL--he doesn't pretend that it's utterly factual.) I can't blame him for writing in this vein, but it doesn't--in my opinion--hold up very well when compared to DB or DF. Again, it's available only in German.
Is this about 400 times more about Die Festung and Der Abschied than you ever wanted to know?
Regards,
Meg</HTML>
Now I reveal myself for the ignoramus I truly am: All I know is what someone a lot more knowledgeable than I (Io--she's in Germany right now or I'd ask her for more details) told me about Buchheim's two patrols on U-96; if there's more information out there, I'm eager to hear it. I don't know about refueling (good question!) or about whether Buchheim got a war badge. Sorry--but there are a lot of people here who probably do know.
Die Festung is written in very much the same style as Das Boot: first person, present tense, minute by minute, very personal. You live through the story right next to Buchheim--actually, as though you were somehow inside his skin with him, just as in DB; you're right there with his every wandering thought, every barely mastered emotion, and every moment of pain or illness, which get pretty intense and awful in this book.
The beginning of Die Festung is a little unsettling: the last time we saw der Alte (at the end of Das Boot) he was hemorrhaging and dying, but now we meet him in the first line of DF calmly scratching his beard and telling the other officers that they're going to be coming into port in St. Nazaire today. (You probably already know that the real "der Alte" lived until 1986; the bombing at the end of Das Boot is fictional.) They come in without incident, someone runs to present both der Alte and Buchheim with messages, and the story is off like a gunshot.
Buchheim takes a few liberties with time-sequences, but otherwise he seems to have stuck with the facts pretty much. The story covers just about four months, May-September 1944; during this time, of course, the Normandy Invasion takes place. There is a pervasive sense that Germany is doomed, running throught the entire LOOONG book. We follow Buchheim as he criss-crosses France and Germany, following orders from the high command in Berlin, leaving and then rejoining "der Alte," worrying about Simone, going through all sorts of potentially fatal experiences. Das Boot is tightly structured and unified in its concern, like a classic tragedy, but Die Festung is like an old-fashioned novel that wanders all over the place and takes its hapless protagonist from "Pontius to Pilate," as the Germans say.
If you like Buchheim, or are at least neutral in your feelings towards him, then the book is fascinating, a real page-turner (and there are 1464 pages in my paperback edition.) If you hate him, don't even bother reading it.
Unfortunately, Die Festung has never, to my knowledge, been translated at all. I wrote to Buchheim a year ago and asked him if there were any plans to have it translated into English, and he wrote back saying no, not at this time. I've translated bits of it for my husband to read, just so he could see what I was carrying on about. I'd like to do the whole thing, which should take me up until the time of my death, if I'm going to have a REALLY long life.
Der Abschied is not, in my opinion, nearly as good a book as either of the first two. It is, like them, based on a real experience--Buchheim was a guest on the Otto Hahn during its final voyage, which was also the last voyage before retirement for Captain Lehmann-Willenbrock, "der Alte." Buchheim presented the book as, among other things, the source of answers to all the questions which his readers had stored up after the first two books. Well, he still leaves a lot of MY questions unanswered! Most of the book is taken up with "der Alte" and Buchheim sitting around talking. There is an inescapable air of sadness hanging over the book, because of course Buchheim was looking back to his very last voyage with his lifelong friend. Unfortunately there isn't much of a plot, just talk and sadness. Heartbreaking grief, actually. After reading the end of the book I wanted to throw myself down on the ground and sob, even though I knew that the last line wasn't even true!!! (Well, it's a NOVEL--he doesn't pretend that it's utterly factual.) I can't blame him for writing in this vein, but it doesn't--in my opinion--hold up very well when compared to DB or DF. Again, it's available only in German.
Is this about 400 times more about Die Festung and Der Abschied than you ever wanted to know?
Regards,
Meg</HTML>
| Subject | Written By | Posted |
|---|---|---|
Buchheim
|
Dave Prucha | 07/04/2003 06:59PM |
|
Re: Buchheim
|
Meg Rosenfeld | 07/05/2003 01:14AM |
|
Re: Buchheim
|
Dave Prucha | 07/05/2003 05:42PM |
|
Re: Buchheim
|
Meg Rosenfeld | 07/06/2003 01:47AM |
|
Re: Buchheim
|
Bill Forsythe | 07/08/2003 11:23AM |
|
Re: Buchheim
|
Meg Rosenfeld | 07/08/2003 01:17PM |
|
Re: Buchheim
|
Meg Rosenfeld | 07/06/2003 01:50AM |
|
Re: Buchheim
|
Dave Prucha | 08/07/2003 12:54AM |