The Storm of Steel
From the Diary of a German Stormtroop Officer
on the Western Front
by Ernst Jünger

Ernst Jünger wrote this book telling what he lived in the Great War. He describes it with full passion and impressing style, making you feel like you are being barraged in the the trenches or you are in the middle of an assault. It is interesting to know that, apart from being one of the most important German writers in this century, Jünger was awarded with the last "Pour le Merité," the Germany's highest medal for valor in action, given in that war. I was strongly suggested by a friend to read this book. I have not been disappointed.

Copse 125: A Chronicle from the Trench Warfare of 1918
by Ernst Jünger

COPSE 125 is a battle memior of sorts, which Jünger wrote using the journal he kept during a stay at Pieseux-au-Mont in 1918, but it is not by any means a "combat" book. In fact, Jünger deliberately picked from his experiences a relatively quiet on the line to use as his source material. What he wanted to explore, among other things, was the effect of trench warfare on the human heart and soul.

Education Before Verdun
From the Diary of a German Stormtroop Officer
on the Western Front
by Arnold Zweig.

It is a famous novel written by one of the greatest German novelists. A gripping story about the insanity and futility of war. "Education before Verdun," was chocked full of small details that only someone who had actually been to the battlefield could know.

It is, in its own way, a murder plot, administered through the guise of the war, and the story of an injustice imposed by the army.  The author's talent are manifested through the way he brings all of his characters to life, and his descriptions of the landscape and battle.

Fritz
The World War I Memoir of a German Lieutenant
by Fritz Nagel

Based upon a collection of diaries he kept for all but the first four months of the war, Nagel's finished narrative documented an aspect of that conflict seldom encountered in print. For nearly four years Nagel served in a succession of anti-aircraft batteries -- fighting French, Russians, British, Australians and Americans -eventually becoming an officer who received credit for shooting down two Allied planes.

FRITZ is a compelling account of Nagel's experiences as a green recruit in the pre-war Imperial German artillery; of exhaustive marches and brutal fighting through Belgium and France in 1914; of seemingly endless days of dust, rain, snow and alternating German and Russian attacks in Poland; of desperate combat on land and in the air during 1918's Western Front offensives

Supplementing this widely praised memoir are 60 rare photographs -- many taken by Nagel himself.

War
by Ludwig Renn

The author is the central figure who begins the war as a lance corporal and finishes as a sergeant having served on the Western Front from beginning to end, from the invasion of Belgium to the armistice. He was wounded on the Somme and again during the March offensive. His vivid descriptions of the fighting - the Somme, the 1917 Aisne-Champagne battle, the trenches and the final German offensive quite clearly, to my mind, reflect what he personally went through, and the result is a Great War classic.

Through German Eyes
The British & The Somme 1916
by Christopher Duffy

The 1916 Battle of the Somme is one of history's bloodiest moments, with more than one million casualties in five months. Analyzing hitherto unknown archival material, including long-lost interviews of British POWs by German interrogators, historian Christopher Duffy paints a picture that will change your perception of the past. While the battle is often seen as a defeat for the British, for the first time the German perspective—such as their respect for the British forces and their own massive losses—is explored.

To the Last Man
Spring 1918
by Lyn MacDonald

As poignant as Niall Fregusson's The Pity of War, as powerful as John Keegan's The First World War, this is an engrossing eye-witness history of World War I. From the trenches to the battle lines, in bold advances and fighting retreats and courageous stands, this oral chronicle of World War I by award-winning historian Lyn MacDonald brings to life the massive German offensive of Spring 1918 that became the Second Battle of Somme. As moving as it is monumental, the volume recounts the devastating assault in the words of the men who survived it -- from the commanders to the war-weary British Tommies, the eager German foot soldiers, and the as-yet-untested doughboys fresh from the U.S. Unforgettably, To the Last Man puts a human face on the armies in the field as it gives voice to the soldiers who together held their position against the foe-resisting, as the Allied command had ordered, "to the last round and the last man."

The Defeat Of Imperial Germany, 1917-1918:
(Major Battles & Campaigns)
by Colonel Rod Paschall

January 1917. On the Western Front the armies of Imperial Germany, Great Britain, and France were locked in grim stalemate. Repeated attempts by both sides to achieve breakthrough in the face of machine-gun fire, barbed wire, long-range artillery, and poison gas had brought only enormous casualties.The Defeat of Imperial Germany focuses on the innovative plans created by generals on both sides in their struggles to dislodge the entrenched enemy and to restore maneuver and victory on the Western Front. In a series of vivid analyses of successive offensives, Paschall examines the problems of command and what happened when the massed soldiery sought to carry out their orders. These strategies and tactics developed by the military leadership in 1917-1918, though largely failing to shatter the deadlock, would prove successful when implemented twenty years later in World War II.The first volume in the Major Battles and Campaigns series published under the general editorship of John S.D. Eisenhower, The Defeat of Imperial Germany has been designed for the "armchair strategist." Dozens of photographs, many never before published, as well as clearly drawn theater and battlefield maps help to make this book an outstanding, challenging, and original contribution to the history of the Great War.

The Myth of the Great War:
A New Military History of World War I
by John Mosier

Mosier offers a scathing indictment of the Allied military mindset that caused so many senseless deaths on the Western Front during the Great War. For example, Mosier argues that it took the slaughter of thousands of infantrymen before the British and French commands tried to use artillery as an effective offensive weapon. Even then, Allied artillery bombardments never matched their opponents' effective use of heavy-caliber howitzers. Mosier points out that from the very beginning the German General Staff attempted to minimize losses by making firepower central to its offensive tactics. Consequently, German casualties were half those of the Allies. Blind adherence to antiquated military doctrines is not a new criticism of Allied generalship, but Mosier's original scholarship does offer a fresh perspective on an old theme.

This Carnival of Hell:
German Combat Experience on the Somme, July-November 1916
by Richard A. Baumgartner (Compiler)

This book is about the German soldier's experience during the battle of the Somme as told by the soldiers themselves through a variety of means. Rick has extensively studied, collected and translated rare and hard to find regimental histories, published memoirs and other works written in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as interviews he conducted — including Ernst Junger. As if that wasn't enough, he also used several private unpublished memoirs shared from private family collections.

This Carnival of Hell does not retell the Battle of the Somme from the grand tactical level but zooms in the level of the microscope to the individual soldier. The book follows the battle as much as possible on a day-by-day and month-by-month format with a soldier's story covering several days spent in the front line. For the casual student of the First World War, this book is a rare fantastic view through the eyes of the soldiers of the Imperial German Army and a sharing of their experience during their time on the front line during this great battle.

Eye-Deep in Hell:
Trench Warfare in World War I
by John Ellis

Millions of men lived in the trenches during World War I. More than six million died there. In Eye-Deep in Hell, the author explores this unique and terrifying world—the rituals of battle, the habits of daily life, and the constant struggle of men to find meaning amid excruciating boredom and the specter of impending death.

Attacks
Trench Warfare in World War I
by Erwin Rommel

Rommel's Attack! is a great first person account on the activities of a junior military officer, trained on the concept of problem solving and overcoming the obstacles that he finds as he accomplishes the tasks that present themselves to him during combat in the Great War. In a war that has been defined as a defensive engagement, Rommel is consistently able to overcome these defenses, attack effectively, and achieve his objectives. This book is a great account on one military officers utilization of his leadership ability, coupled with the effective incorporation of those around him into an effective fighting organization. Rommel also incorporates numerous sketches of troop movements, obstacles overcome, and his battle plan intentions that add to the readers ability to learn from these writings. While many see warfare of today as much different from that of the Great War, it is important to remember that conflict still requires one group to overcome another and the thought process utilized by Rommel (and explained in this book) is still as useful today as it was then.

Stormtroop Tactics:
Innovation in the German Army, 1914-1918
by Bruce I. Gudmundsson

Describing the radical transformation in German Infantry tactics that took place during World War I, this book presents the first detailed account of the evolution of stormtroop tactics available in English. It covers areas previously left unexplored: the German Infantry's tactical heritage, the squad's evolution as a tactical unit, the use of new weapons for close combat, the role of the elite assault units in the development of new tactics, and detailed descriptions of offensive battles that provided the inspiration and testing ground for this new way of fighting. Both a historical investigation and a standard of excellence in infantry tactics, Stormtroop Tactics is required reading for professional military officers and historians as well as enthusiasts.

Contrary to previous studies, Stormtroop Tactics proposes that the German Infantry adaption to modern warfare was not a straightforward process resulting from the top down intervention of reformers but instead a bottom up phenomenon. It was an accumulation of improvisations and ways of dealing with pressing situations that were later sewn together to form what we now call Blitzkrieg. Focusing on action at the company, platoon, and squad level, Stormtroop Tactics provides a detailed description of the evolution of German defensive tactics during World War I — tactics that were the direct forbears of those used in World War II.

The Trench War
On the Western Front, 1914-1918
by Antonio Mayoralis

A visually stunning book looking at the horror of trench warfare in World War I.

As well as providing a chronology of the development of the technique of trench warfare in the larger war of attrition, this book also looks at the techniques used for digging trenches and the highly developed transportation and communication systems that were used by both sides on the Western Front.

The German Infantryman, 1914-18
by Jean-Claude Laparra

This book covers the daily life of the ordinary German infantryman from 1914 to 1918, through "Michel", the archetype of the German soldier, the national personification of the German people, the symbol of patriotic union.

We see his life, his material surroundings, his joys, his hardships, the way he ate, expressed himself, his relationship to authority, mobilization, moving up to the front, life in the front line and the rear, the fighting, his assignment to the assault troops, care in hospital, combined with an examination of the way uniforms and equipment altered as the war went on. The context of the period is also particularly well rendered thanks to extracts from songs in vogue at the time and a host of anecdotes and accurate details which make this book such a unique collection.

The German Army in the First World War:
Uniforms and Equipment, 1914 to 1918
by Jürgen Kraus

This superbly illustrated, 640 page volume presents, for the first time, a comprehensive picture of the uniforms and equipment of the German army in the First World War. More than 1,400 magnificent color photographs illustrate the full range of clothing and insignia, from lowly private to lofty field marshal. This book includes not only detailed descriptions of all the garments worn in the German army during the war, but also of the special uniforms and insignia of each branch of service.

Imperial German Field Uniforms and Equipment 1907-1918: Volume I:
Field Equipment, Optical Instruments, Body Armor, Mine and Chemical Warfare,
Communications Equipment, Weapons, Cloth Headgear
by Johan Somers

This three-volume set provides the reader with an insight into the wide range of uniforms, weapons and field equipment used by the Imperial German Army during the First World War. These books provide a good mix of period and current images of the subject matter and includes much rare and virtually unknown subject matter - a treasure trove of photos and descriptions for those interested in the subject.

Imperial German Field Uniforms and Equipment 1907-1918: Volume II:
Infantry and cavalry helmets, infantry and cavalry uniforms,
insignia, imperial marines
by Johan Somers

This three-volume set provides the reader with an insight into the wide range of uniforms, weapons and field equipment used by the Imperial German Army during the First World War. These books provide a good mix of period and current images of the subject matter and includes much rare and virtually unknown subject matter - a treasure trove of photos and descriptions for those interested in the subject.

Imperial German Field Uniforms and Equipment 1907-1918: Volume III:
Landsturm - Cyclists - Colonial Uniforms (1899-1918) in China, Africa and the South-Sea
Cavalry Gear - Map cases - Ersatz equipment and uniforms
by Johan Somers

This three-volume set provides the reader with an insight into the wide range of uniforms, weapons and field equipment used by the Imperial German Army during the First World War. These books provide a good mix of period and current images of the subject matter and includes much rare and virtually unknown subject matter - a treasure trove of photos and descriptions for those interested in the subject.

All Quiet on the Western Front

Directed by Lewis Milestone, starring Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, Slim Summerville. Adapted by Maxwell Anderson from the novel written by Erich Maria Remarque. This is the classic movie about the German WWI soldier, with original uniforms and equipment and actors trained by real WWI German vets. One of the few irritating things about this movie is the strong 1930s-style moralizing along with Lew Ayres' heavy over-acting. The "must-have" movie for your library. Do not confuse this with the vastly inferior "John-Boy" made-for-TV version of All Quiet which is reviewed below. All Quiet on the Western Front is available from most video stores. Even better, simply wait and watch it on The Classic Movie Channel where it is occasionally shown, sometimes along with an interview of Lew Ayres.

All Quiet on the Western Front
(The so-called "John-Boy" version)

Directed by Delbert Mann, starring Richard Thomas, Ernest Borgnine, with Donald Pleasence. This version of All Quiet is a heavily "Hollywood-ed" 1970's era made-for-TV movie. The script was "adapted" (I would say "ruined") by Paul Monash from the original novel written by Erich Maria Remarque.

Among the truly irritating things about this "movie" is the HORRIBLE uniforms and equipment used by the actors--the Technical Advisor and Property Manager for this movie were surely not up to snuff and probably should have been shot. Saying all of this though, if you know absolutely NOTHING about WWI German uniforms, equipment and the Imperial German Army, this movie tells a good tale--just DO NOT watch it to learn anything about the Kaiser's Army in WWI.

WESTFRONT 1918:
Vier von der Infanterie

Directed by G.W. Pabst, starring Fritz Kampers, Gustav Diessl, Hans Joachim Moebis, Claus Clausen. In German, with subtitles--well, poor, but amusing subtitles anyway ("Hey, that's not what Scheiße means!"). This is another "gotta-have" for your film library! Original uniforms and equipment with many of the actors having been real WWI German vets. The only bad thing about this flick is, once again, the heavy 1930s-style moralizing--much like in All Quiet.

A group of German infantrymen of the First World War live out their lives in the trenches of France. They find brief entertainment and relief in a village behind the lines, but primarily terror fills their lives as the attacks on and from the French army ebb and flow. One of the men, Karl, goes home on leave only to discover the degradation forced on his family by wartime poverty. He returns to the lines in time to face an enormous attack by French tanks.

Stosstruppe 1917 (Shock Troop 1917)

Stosstrupp 1917 (Shock Troop 1917) is the story of the steel hurricane known as the Great War, told from the German perspective. Lewis Milestone's All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) had been fiercely pacifistic, and G. W. Pabst's Westfront 1918 (1930) no less so, but while Hans Zoberlein's equally lavish Stosstrupp 1917 is also antiwar, it is more sympathetic to Germany's trench-warfare ordeal.

All Quiet on the Western Front and Westfront 1918 are universally hailed as the two greatest First World War films ever produced, based as much on the astonishingly mobile cinematography of Arthur Edeson and Fritz Arno Wagner as on their masterly direction. Regrettable is the omission of Stosstrupp 1917 from this pantheon, for its cinematography by Karl Hasselmann is as uniformly dazzling. An enormous box-office hit upon its release on 20 February 1934, Stosstrupp 1917 was based on director Zoberlein's own war memoirs, Der Glaube an Deutschland, to which Adolf Hitler contributed a foreword; was financed by the National Socialist government; and featured Wehrmacht and SA troops in its cast, which make its invisibility since 1945 more readily comprehensible. The picture has been banned in Germany since the end of the Nazi era. Prints that have circulated since then have been heavily censored and run less than 90 minutes, removing militaristic dialogue and diluting the film's impact and painstaking realism; many of its pyrotechnics, for instance, were produced with real ammunition and explosives. The present release restores 21 minutes of missing footage. Directed by Hans Zöberlein, Franz Adam, Marian Kolb, and L. Schmid-Wildy. Starring Ludwig Schmid-Wildy, Beppo Brem, Max Zankl, Hans Possenbacher.

Special NEW updated version available from IHF here

Standschütze Bruggler

Rarely covered subject-matter-- even in Europe--about an Austrian farmer's son who joins in the fight against Italy in the First World War. As a Kaiserjager, he fights bravely in the mountain war and eventually saves his unit from a very grim fate.

Directed by Werner Klingler; music by Herbert Windt; featuring Ludwig Kerscher, Franziska Kinz, and Rolf Pinegger. Germany, 1936, B&W, 81 minutes, German dialogue.

Be very, very aware, that the actors are Tirolean and quite often speak in that dialect. So, yes, it's in German, no subtitles--watching this movie allows you to realize just how poor your German really is. Neat scenes of the Alps and German soldiers later-on. Look for the German Army to come in and save the day.

Available from IHF here

Der Hauptmann von Köpenick

This is a great movie. Set in about 1910 in Prussia, after a true story ... In Prussian Germany, at the beginning of the 20th century the shoemaker Wilhelm Voigt (Heinz Rühmann) is released from prison where he spent most of his lifetime. By nature never truly a bad guy but someone who kept over water by swindling he mostly got unlucky and repeatedly went to jail. Generally of good will he spent his time there working and learning everything he could. In a military influenced society and era like this the scholarly-lessons were dominated by army knowledge which one would actually call meaningless for civil life. Particularly today everybody would fear any such knowledge in the hands of civilians as a basis for terrorist-actions.Now on the edge of retirement Voigt gets his pardon and goes free, the law knows he's too old to commit serious crimes. Equipped only with the release papers of the Ministry of Justice, he tries to get back into life, eager to finish it as a decent working man. But the paper-though stamped and typed by the legal authorities-isn't accepted anywhere as a passport and isn't even meant to be swapped into one, not even at any communal registration office. And without a passport: no job! Without registered employment: no passport! A true catch-22 situation... After weeks of unregistered residence, the order to leave the country hits Voigt like a nail to the temple. Desperate about the authorities' oppression he roams the streets and comes to a pawn-shop. He spots an abandoned captain's uniform (which in this film has had an own interesting story) in the window and puts his last money down for it. His age and the scholarly lessons from prison make him appear like an experienced veteran, the uniform does a ongoing job in the streets where no one would ever dare to question it's bearer. Soldiers of lower rank submit to the uniform and the harsh commanding voice of the shoemaker who's sharpest weapon was that he simply had nothing more to loose. The uniformed Voigt hijacks a coincidentally patrolling imperial platoon and orders them to the city hall of Köpenick (a suburb of the capitol Berlin). Under his command they set the building under siege while Voigt intends to get a couple of minutes alone at the registration-office to issue himself a real passport.

That's when the true High-Command gets aware of the incident. Heinz Rühmann - who in his prime may have been for the Germans what Tom Hanks is for Americans these days-shows the essence of his acting-nature here: a humorous, always kind-hearted, simple man with a tragic halo who is nevertheless willing to find his place in life and to do anything for that, except harming other people. „Der Hauptmann von Köpenick" is a brilliant and disarming masterpiece about the naive military-mania and the ridiculousness of blind obedience to uniforms and is generally even valuable about it these days. It also accuses the monstrous Prussian bureaucracy which is also criticizeable even today and which still refuses to see the human beings behind all the documents.Ever since the original incident from 1906, in German gossip the term "Köpenickade" is used to describe masquerades mainly to cheat authorities and/or to accomplish something which is actually your right but which you can't accomplish the straight way. But it is only used in these contexts when nobody came to harm.From this fact-based theater-play by novelist Carl Zuckmayer there've been numerous screen- or TV-adaptions. You actually only need this one.

World War One: The Complete Story
CBS series: The World at War - The Classic CBS World War I Series
Narrated by Robert Ryan, Over 10¾ Hours.
Now Available on DVD!

The most comprehensive World War 1 documentary series ever made recalls the causes conduct, and aftermath of "The War to End All Wars". Along with the social, political, and economic fabric of the times, the roles of key figures are analyzed in depth. Produced during the Golden Age of CBS TV documentaries, this series, narrated by Robert Ryan, contains some of the highest-quality World War 1 footage known to exist.

Put together in the 1950's using original source film--mostly from old newsreels. Lots of neat stuff on the Kaiser and the German Army. This series has so much good stuff you'll flip. The only real down side to this series is its strong anti-German bias, but otherwise--if you can live with that, it's very good.

Just buy it from Amazon...