MU Libraries New Books: History - Germany

About the new book list

11/4/2009

The RSS feeds for the new books list is updated every Wednesday and contains a list of books added to the Ellis Library collection for the last six weeks. The titles are grouped by call number classification, and are listed by week and alphabetically by title.

Books for the most recent weeks are currently on the New Books Shelves inside the north entrance of Ellis Library. They can be checked out.

Voyage through the twentieth century : a historian's recollections and reflections / Klemens von Klemperer. (10/21/2009)

10/21/2009

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Call #: DD86.7.V66 A3 2009

Of mind and matter : the duality of national identity in the German-Danish borderlands / Peter Thaler. (10/14/2009)

10/14/2009

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Product Description

Of Mind and Matter analyzes identity formation in the multicultural border region of Sleswig. It highlights the changeability of national sentiments and explores what has motivated local inhabitants to define themselves as Germans or Danes. The analysis focuses especially on the respective national minorities, among whom the transitional and flexible aspects of Sleswig identity surface most clearly. The study investigates national sentiments in a border region from a theoretical and comparative perspective. It relies on diverse forms of historical evidence, including quantitative sources such as language statistics and election results, but also more subjective sources such as personal life stories and interviews. The study pays equal attention to German and Danish source material. Of Mind and Matter adds important new angles to the literature on national identity in border areas and fills a conspicuous gap in English-language historiography, which completely lacks modern analyses of Sleswig history.

Call #: DD801.S63348 T438 2009

Die Ahnen der hochmittelalterlichen deutschen Könige, Kaiser und ihrer Gemahlinnen : ein kommentiertes Tafelwerk / Eduard Hlawitschka. (10/7/2009)

10/7/2009

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Call #: DD126 H53 2006

With Hitler to the end : the memoirs of Adolf Hitler's valet / Heinz Linge introduction by Roger Moorhouse translation by Geoffrey Brooks. (10/7/2009)

10/7/2009

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Review
The scariest thing about [With Hitler to the End is its] showing that Hitler could be quite charming—a seemingly regular guy, or at least as regular as anyone who killed millions could ever be. Of interest to anyone seeking more insight into the everyday life of one of history's monsters. (Ed Goedeken - Library Journal )

Product Description
The remarkable memoir of a man who was by Hitler’s side from 1935 to 1945. Heinz Linge worked with Adolf Hitler for a ten-year period from 1935 until the Führer’s death in the Berlin bunker in May 1945. He was one of the last to leave the bunker and was responsible for guarding the door while Hitler killed himself.
During his years of service, Linge was responsible for all aspects of Hitler’s household and was constantly by his side. He claims that only Eva Braun stood closer to Hitler over these years.

Here, Linge recounts the daily routine in Hitler’s household: his eating habits, his foibles, his preferences, his sense of humor, and his private life with Eva Braun. In fact, Linge believed Hitler’s closest companion was his dog Blondi. After the war Linge said in an interview, “It was easier for him to sign a death warrant for an officer on the front than to swallow bad news about the health of his dog.” Linge also charts the changes in Hitler’s character during their time together and his fading health during the last years of the war. During his last days, Hitler’s right eye began to hurt intensely and Linge was responsible for administering cocaine drops to kill the pain. In a number of instances—such as with the Stauffenberg bomb plot of July 1944—Linge gives an excellent eyewitness account of events. He also gives thumbnail profiles of the prominent members of Hitler’s “court”: Hess, Speer, Bormann and Ribbentrop amongst them.

Though Linge held an SS rank, he claims not to have been a Nazi Party member. His profile of one of history’s worst demons is not blindly uncritical, but it is nonetheless affectionate. The Hitler that emerges is a multi-faceted individual: unpredictable and demanding, but not of an otherwise unpleasant nature. 12 b&w illustrations.

About the Author
Heinz Linge was born in Bremen, Germany, in March 1913. He worked as Hitler’s valet until the Führer shot himself in 1945. He was arrested by the Red Army, which interrogated him about the circumstances of Hitler’s death. Linge was released from Soviet captivity in 1955. He died in Bremen in March 1980.

Call #: DD247.H5 L4813 2009

Hitler's ethic : the Nazi pursuit of evolutionary progress / Richard Weikart. (9/23/2009)

9/23/2009

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Review

“There have been many attempts to provide the key to Hitler's world of ideas but Richard Weikart has succeeded in revealing what must be the central element in any understanding of Hitler's world view. The terrible paradox at the heart of the Third Reich, that biological utopia could only be created by intense physical suffering and violence, now has a proper explanation. What seemed to others bizarrely immoral appeared to Hitler an honorable duty.”--Richard Overy, Professor of History, University of Exeter, UK

Product Description

In this book, Weikart helps unlock the mystery of Hitler’s evil by vividly demonstrating the surprising conclusion that Hitler’s immorality flowed from a coherent ethic. Hitler was inspired by evolutionary ethics to pursue the utopian project of biologically improving the human race. This ethic underlay or influenced almost every major feature of Nazi policy: eugenics (i.e., measures to improve human heredity, including compulsory sterilization), euthanasia, racism, population expansion, offensive warfare, and racial extermination.

Book Description

About the Author

Richard Weikart is Professor of Modern European History at California State University, Stanislaus. He has published three previous books, including From Darwin to Hitler and his prize-winning dissertation, Socialist Darwinism. He has also published numerous essays on social Darwinism in anthologies and leading journals, such as German Studies Review, Journal of the History of Ideas, and Isis.

Call #: DD247.H5 W375 2009

Bebilderte Politik : Staatsbesuche in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1949-1990 / von Simone Derix. (9/16/2009)

9/16/2009

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Call #: DD260.5 .D433 2009

Historia Austrialis / Eneas Silvio Piccolomini Einleitung von Martin Wagendorfer Redaktion herausgegeben von Julia Knödler (9/9/2009)

9/9/2009

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Call #: DD3.M8 S5 24