LogFAQs > #913762619

Firewerx posted...

If you were to go into a bookstore (and yep, people still do) and browse the shelves and spines on European history, you'd form the impression that German history was only twelve years long: 1933-45. I don't know if book retailers' obsession with the Nazi era is because they believe that swastikas sell books, but fuck me, I'm sick to death of it.

And I'm saying that as someone who, in his teens, voraciously consumed anything he could read about that era. The Axis forces fascinated me. Seeing the war through German eyes was a bit like watching the original Star Trek with the Klingons as the good guys: something coolly subversive. (And it was, back then -- when for most Brit schoolkids brought up on a diet of comic book patriotism, the war was all about GIs and Desert Rats battling a faceless foe: squareheaded and jackbooted hordes whose only speech was "Donner und Blitzen!" and "Gott in Himmel!" as Captain Hurricane clobbered them with a torn-off tank cannon. When you finally read about WWII from the German perspective it felt like you were breaking a taboo, and breaking taboos is always exciting.)

The important thing, Sunhawk, is not to become so close to your subject that your sense of perspective starts to erode and you find yourself always leaning towards your subject's side. I'm not saying you're letting that happen -- I'm just cautioning you against letting it happen.

You know, this is actually slightly true. It's a good warning. I suppose if a person consumes enough information / entertainment about the Nazi era, they could get quite sucked in.

Recently, though, I've become more interested in East Germany than the Nazis. I've watched a few hours of documentaries about it, and read various stuff on Wikipedia, but the funny thing is, it's somewhat hard to get lots of information on it. I suspect that East Germany TV documentaries are outnumbered by Nazi TV documentaries by a factor of 10:1. Also, there don't seem to be THAT many books on East Germany. Some, yeah, but not that many. Furthermore, most books about East Germany seem to focus mostly on the Stasi. It's really annoying. I want more information on East Germany, but it's hard.

I'd also like to learn more about the German Empire, which is a period of German history I'm largely ignorant on, but I don't know what to read / watch. If you, or anyone, have any suggestions, it would be good.

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