The Aggregat 4 (A4) was the German Wehrmacht's first long range missile, regarded as suitable for war use since 1940. Werner von Braun, had been working towards a rocket capable of bearing a 750kg explosive charge over a minimum distance of 200 to 300 kilometers, hitting the enemy target with the greatest possible accuracy. The primary purpose of the Aggregat 4 was to terrorize the British, reducing London to rubble. This book provides a unique account of the development and combat history of Hitler's devastating missiles, detailing a wealth or previously unseen material, making this book a must for World War II historians and enthusiasts of strategic analysis alike. 100 photos
Carl Goerdeler was for a long time more than anyone else at the centre of the conspiracy against tyranny; he was in immediate personal contact with almost all of the groups and parties—and not only as a tirelessly active director and recruiting officer for the movement, but at the same time as its most productive mind when it came to working out comprehensive and mature plans dealing with both foreign and domestic problems. The German Resistance movement in its entirety can be surveyed very clearly from the vantage point of his biography. And conversely his biography is of historical significance only in the framework of this general setting. His work can be correctly estimated only when it is constantly compared with that of his colleagues. The history of the German resistance movement has hitherto been written predominantly in the form of a justification and defence against its critics, accusers, and apostates. Not infrequently it has acquired something of the flavour of a gallery of heroes or even of the lives of saints. We are here attempting something else; namely, to attain, by a critical and sober study, a grasp of the historical truth, and beyond this to search our own hearts with a new understanding. For this purpose it was indispensable to depict the German Resistance movement against the background of international politics, so far as relevant sources are now available. Likewise, the development of the movement’s ideals of freedom and plans for reform had to be traced back into the time of the Weimar Republic. And finally, its development and the political attitude of its leaders needed to be appreciated in terms of the internal and external history of Hitler’s Reich.
The Schlieffen Plan was the name given after World War I to the theory behind the German invasion of France and Belgium on 4 August 1914. In 1905-1906 Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen, the Chief of the Imperial Army German General Staff from 1891-1906, had devised a deployment plan for a war-winning offensive, in a one-front war against the French Third Republic. After the war, the German official historians of the Reichsarchiv and other writers, described the plan as a blueprint for victory. Post-war writing by senior German officers and the Reichsarchiv historians managed to establish a commonly accepted narrative that it was Schlieffen’s successor Helmuth von Moltke the Younger’s failure to follow the blueprint, rather than German strategic miscalculation, that resulted in four years of attrition warfare. In 1953, renowned historian Prof. Gerhard Ritter Schlieffen’s unearthed Schlieffen’s papers during a visit to the United States, and he published his findings in the book Der Schlieffenplan: Kritik eines Mythos, presented here in its 1958 English translation, The Schlieffen Plan: Critique of a Myth. It proved to be an important historical publication, as it set in motion a period of revision, when the details of the supposed Schlieffen Plan were subjected to scrutiny and contextualisation. In Der Schlieffen Plan, Prof. Ritter presents the full text of Schlieffen’s military testament, and the relevant parts of other memoranda which shed light on the evolution of the Plan. They are preceded by Professor Ritter’s masterly exposition of their content and significance, while his accompanying notes add to the illuminating effect. “FOR two generations the Schlieffen Plan has been a magic phrase, embodying one of the chief mysteries and ‘might have beens’ of modern times. The mystery is cleared up and the great ‘If’ analysed in Gerhard Ritter’s book—a striking contribution to twentieth-century history.”—B. H. Liddell Hart
Carl Goerdeler was for a long time more than anyone else at the centre of the conspiracy against tyranny; he was in immediate personal contact with almost all of the groups and parties—and not only as a tirelessly active director and recruiting officer for the movement, but at the same time as its most productive mind when it came to working out comprehensive and mature plans dealing with both foreign and domestic problems. The German Resistance movement in its entirety can be surveyed very clearly from the vantage point of his biography. And conversely his biography is of historical significance only in the framework of this general setting. His work can be correctly estimated only when it is constantly compared with that of his colleagues. The history of the German resistance movement has hitherto been written predominantly in the form of a justification and defence against its critics, accusers, and apostates. Not infrequently it has acquired something of the flavour of a gallery of heroes or even of the lives of saints. We are here attempting something else; namely, to attain, by a critical and sober study, a grasp of the historical truth, and beyond this to search our own hearts with a new understanding. For this purpose it was indispensable to depict the German Resistance movement against the background of international politics, so far as relevant sources are now available. Likewise, the development of the movement’s ideals of freedom and plans for reform had to be traced back into the time of the Weimar Republic. And finally, its development and the political attitude of its leaders needed to be appreciated in terms of the internal and external history of Hitler’s Reich.
Surrounded by potential adversaries, nineteenth-century Prussia and twentieth-century Germany faced the formidable prospect of multifront wars and wars of attrition. To counteract these threats, generations of general staff officers were educated in operational thinking, the main tenets of which were extremely influential on military planning across the globe and were adopted by American and Soviet armies. In the twentieth century, Germany's art of warfare dominated military theory and practice, creating a myth of German operational brilliance that lingers today, despite the nation's crushing defeats in two world wars. In this seminal study, Gerhard P. Gross provides a comprehensive examination of the development and failure of German operational thinking over a period of more than a century. He analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of five different armies, from the mid–nineteenth century through the early days of NATO. He also offers fresh interpretations of towering figures of German military history, including Moltke the Elder, Alfred von Schlieffen, and Erich Ludendorff. Essential reading for military historians and strategists, this innovative work dismantles cherished myths and offers new insights into Germany's failed attempts to become a global power through military means.
Notwithstanding its ruthless dynamics, the capitalist economy has the flaw of deficient employment-generating spending. This leads to unemployment of non-owners, individual suffering, social unrest and it undermines military strength. To deal with these issues, states use prosthetic policies, artificial transfers to the productive economy and to non-owners. But the funding of such prosthetic policies - through violent wealth appropriation abroad, protectionism, war, domestic expropriation and taxation, debt and money creation - is caught in dilemmas, while politicians are caught between non-solutions. According to Gerhard H. Wächter, the history of capitalist society is largely the history of this dilemmatic brotherhood.
When originally published in 1982 this was the first biography of Maximilian I to appear in English for half a century. It assesses a man who was Holy Roman Emperor, founder of the modern Austrian state and the grandfather of Charles V and Ferdinand I. Maximilian was a key figure and an appreciation of his role and career is vital to an overall view of European society and politics at the dawning of modern times. The book gives an insight into Maximilian’s style of government and reveals the underlying personal factors that determined many of the key decisions which influenced politics and control during his reign.
A concise, authoritative, heavily illustrated summary of this class of German WWII-era warships, covering their design histories and careers. The Admiral Hipper class was among the largest heavy cruisers to serve in World War II. Intended to be a class of five, they enjoyed contrasting fortunes: Seydlitz and Lützow were never completed; Blücher was the first major German warship sunk in action; Admiral Hipper became one of the most successful commerce raiders of the war; while the Prinz Eugen survived to be expended as a target in one of the first American nuclear tests in 1946. Part of a six-volume series on the German Navy’s WWII-era warships written by Gerhard Koop and illustrated by Klaus-Peter Schmolke, this book contains an account of the development of the Admiral Hipper class, a detailed description of the ships with full technical details, and an outline of their service, heavily illustrated with plans, battle maps, and a substantial collection of photographs.
During World War II, millions of Soviet soldiers in German captivity died of hunger and starvation. Their fate was not the unexpected consequence of a war that took longer than anticipated. It was the calculated strategy of a small group of economic planners around Herbert Backe, the second Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture. The mass murder of Soviet soldiers and civilians by Nazi food policy has not yet received much attention, but this book is about to change that. Food played a central political role for the Nazi regime and served as the foundation of a racial ideology that justified the murder of millions of Jews, prisoners of war, and Slavs. This book is the first to vividly and comprehensively address the topic of food during the Third Reich. It examines the economics of food production and consumption in Nazi Germany, as well as its use as a justification for war and as a tool for genocide. Offering another perspective on the Nazi regime’s desire for domination, Gesine Gerhard sheds light on an often-overlooked part of their scheme and brings into focus the very important role food played in the course of the Second World War.
This volume contains some of the most important and enduring work of Gerhard von Rad, the most influential Old Testament theologian of the twentieth century. The chapters cover a broad range of topics, including the doctrine of creation, memory and tradition in Deuteronomy, historical writing in ancient Israel, cultic language in the Psalms, and the Old Testament worldview.
An explosion of scholarly treatments of the book of Amos leaves one wondering: What do we know for sure about the prophet, his time, and his writing? Gerhard Hasel synthesizes the latest rethinking of the prophet’s vocation, background, purpose, themes, and motifs to explain why Amos is “a microcosm for the study of all the prophetic writings of the Old Testament.” The most extensive bibliography on Amos ever compiled enables further study.
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