Sebastian P. Breit's Blog, page 24

Review - Mussolini's Shadow

 
Review - Mussolini's Shadow
Benito Mussolini was Count Galeazzo Ciano's father in law. Ciano had married Mussolini's daughter Edda, and the two soon became the most glamorous - and scandalous, since both had many affairs -couple in Italy. Ciano was an aristocrat, a masher, a soldier, a diplomat and a politician - and he only was good at the first two of that list of five. He was largely unfit to fill the role of foreign minister when it still mattered in the years preceeding the war; too arrogant, too gullible, too out-of-touch with the specialists in the diplomatic corps. Despite having been informed by the charge d'affaires in Berlin as early as May 1939 that a war against Poland was in the making, he chose to ignore this counsel. With devasting consequences: Italy blundered into a war, and it did so in no small part to Ciano's lack of professional and moral spine. This development was doubly tragic, since there were instances when he did prove he had one (he vehemently argued with Mussolini to stay out of the war in 1939 after it had started).
Moseley shows Ciano and his father in law as bundles of contraditions, full of ambition an empty of all political morals, devious and naive at the same time, criminals without any qualms to order murder on the one hand, loving husbands and fathers on the other. In both cases, the word schizophrenic seems like a good description. 
Ciano was appalled at what he saw as an immoral attack on an innocent Poland, but had no qualms about annexing Albania and starting an unprovoced war against Greece. He despised the double game that Hitler played with Italy, but he betrayed and treated the representatives of smaller nations just as condescending no different than that. And as the greatest irony of al he thought the Italian people loved him whereas in fact he was the most hated man in Italy.
What the book also does exceptionally well besides following Ciano's professional life and death is shining a light onto the character of Benito Mussolini, a man of fickle judgement and so volatile of character he made Hitler look amicably stable in comparison. Mussolini's mood swings were no less pronounced than those of Germany's "Führer", but whereas Hitler managed to maintain a keen mind in military and technological matters, making him at least gifted amateur, Mussolini not only lacked the knowledge but was outight delusional even during the best days of the war.
That, and Moseley's book is of course a fountain of hilarious and mind-boggling quotes like this one:

"I am very happy about the fact that - for once - Italians spread terror through their hawkishness instead of spreading pleasure through their skills as mandoline players."
-- Benito Mussolini after the bombing of Barcelona in the Spanish Civil War, as quoted in the Diaries of Count Ciano.

Moseley does well in condensing thousands of pages of Ciano's diaries and correspondence, and statements of his friends, associates and enemies into less than 300 pages. It's not the full picture - it's never the full picture - but it is a fascinating overview over the rise and fall of Italy's second man behind Mussolini.
Final Verdict: 5/5 Moseley's biography of Galeazzo Ciano is an insightful, frustrating, and at times surprisingly amusing volume shining light on the man who saw himself as the heir to the Duce, and who only too late found the strength of character to act. Buy it. Read it.

Upcoming Reviews... some may be turds

Hi guys, just wanted to give you a quick status update on what I'm doing/planning to do:
At the moment, I'm reading Ray Moseley's Mussolini's Shadow about Count Galeazzo Ciano, and I've got Turtledove's Hitler's War sitting on my desk.
Beyond that, however, I've set my sights on two further gems (I use that term loosely), and because they've garnered completely reviews in English completely opposite to those I've found in German.
The first you can see on the left side; it's Andy Johnson's Seelöwe Nord (and I can just hear some of you scream in rage at the unmentionable sea mammal being  mentioned after all). The product description isn't exactly exhaustive:

Late summer 1940, and Britain stands on the brink of complete and utter defeat. Thrown out of mainland Europe by the unstoppable Nazi war machine, the British stand alone against the might of Hitler's Third Reich. Poised for imminent invasion, cut off by U-Boats and bombarded daily from the air, the British strive to re-equip their shattered army. They don't know when, and they don't know where, but one thing is certain... The Germans are coming!

The second one is The Afrika Reich by Guy Saville, a novel that's received rather favorable reviews by The Times and The Economist, which nonetheless doesn't fill me with too much confidence. Here's the product description:

1952. It is more than a decade since the Dunkirk fiasco marked the end of Britain's war and an uneasy peace with Hitler. In Africa, the swastika flies from the Sahara to the Indian Ocean. Gleaming autobahns bisect the jungle and jet fighters patrol the skies. Britain and the Nazis have divided the continent but now the demonic plans of Walter Hochburg - architect of Nazi Africa - threaten Britain's ailing colonies. In England, ex-mercenary Burton Cole is offered one last contract. Burton grabs the chance to settle an old score with Hochburg, despite his own misgivings and the protests of the woman he loves. If Burton fails, unimaginable horrors will be unleashed in Africa. No one - black or white - will be spared. But when his mission turns to disaster, Burton is forced to flee for his life.His flight takes him from the unholy killing ground of Kongo to SS slave camps and on to war-torn Angola, finally reaching its thrilling climax in a conspiracy that leads to the dark heart of the Reich itself.

I'm not expecting either of those to be turds on the scale of Kaiserfront, but I'm approaching them with due caution - and a bottle of whiskey in the fridge.

Exclusive "Wolf Hunt" Sneak Preview

I've posted two exclusive chapters of Wolf Hunt over at my personal website SPBreit.com.

Please check them out and - as always - leave your questions and comments.
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Wolf Hunt is available in ebook format for your Kindle at Amazon US & Amazon UK, and for all other digital formats at Smashwords.

You can purchase the paperback edition (ships also internationally) at Amazon US.

Fighting the US Civil War - in Germany...

The Local, a Germany based English language newspaper has an interesting article up. Titled "The South rises again – in eastern Germany" it details that US Civil War Reenactment groups and events have a growing following. And one reason for this, as one observer points out, is that "it's safe", because other martial interests are discouraged in Germany. Here is an excerpt: [image error] As America marks the 150th anniversary of the outbreak of the US Civil War this year,
German history buffs have been re-enacting the bloody battles between the Union and Confederacy Christian Ortschig's weekdays are spent working in Germany's social insurance administration. But on any given Saturday, he might be leading Union troops into battle against the Confederate Army.

Ortschig's historical re-enactment character is modelled after a member of the 79th New York Cameron Highlanders – a militia unit of Scottish immigrants from New York City who fought for the anti-slavery North. That accounts for his uniform: a brightly-coloured kilt and a dark jacket with brass buttons.

Cannons fire in the distance. Men and women mill around their campsites that are outfitted with antique furnishings like gas lamps and old fashioned bed rolls.

"We know that 200,000 Germans served in the US Civil War. That's more than 10 percent of the Union soldiers," Ortschig says. "So this is our history too."

It's a number cited by most of the participants. Often, individuals model their characters after specific German immigrant soldiers so the history feels more personal.

The history they are re-enacting this weekend is the bombardment of Fort Sumter and the first battle of Bull Run.

Ute Frevert is the head of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. She says the choice for Germans to re-enact the Civil War battles may seem odd on the surface, but she explains it this way: "It's safe."

In Germany, it's taboo to glorify anything military-related since World War II. So for Germans who want a taste of the pageantry of battle, the 19th-century American conflict fits the bill.


"It's safe enough for Germans to re-enact the US Civil War because it is so far away," says Frevert. "It is not something you associate with Germany."

Like Ortschig's Scottish uniform, a lot of the history here is an odd mishmash of fact, fancy, and convenience. Men meticulously dressed in period costumes from the 1860s mingle with soldiers in uniforms from the US Revolutionary War. Conversation seems to focus on the physical trappings – the clothes and the weapons – not difficult issues like slavery or the war's staggering body count.

Such events happening about once a month in Germany do feel a little bit like drama camp for adults. But most of the people say they come for the history, not just the costumes.

Ortschig stands in a field overseeing the military drills of a couple dozen men and women as they prepare for the afternoon's big battles at the Wild West theme park "El Dorado," which is located on the outskirts of Templin about 50 miles north of Berlin.

"This is like a film, like theatre," says Ortschig. "I am not a Union boy. I am not a Rebel boy. I am a German. But when I put on this uniform, I play a Union officer."

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1.) Trying to reenact WW II is a surefire way to go to jail, lose your job and end as a social pariah.
2.) Trying to reenact WW I is a surefire way to social disenfranchisement, since the Kaiser and his whole nation were proto-Nazis (which is bollocks, but that's the image drilled into German heads).
3.) Trying to reenact the Franco-Prussian War is... well, see point 2.

Trying to reenact the American Civil War, however, is at worst considered to be awkward. No German politics and no direct German history is involved there, and the overwhelming number of German emigrants to the US fought for the Union. 
Nothing of this is new or a suprise to any German reader this blog may have, but I felt it's necessary to point these things out to people who are not familiar with the German situation. Almost certainly more interesting than the article itself are the comments below it. I'll just pick out the most teeth-grinding I saw on first sight:

lunchbreak: Its nice to have a hobby but germans should pay more attention to their own military history for which they have a lot to atone. How about a reenactment of the discovery by allied troops of the consentration camp at say, Bergen-Belsen for starters?

Yeah, we still have a lot to atone for... suuuuure. Something tells me the good lunchbreak didn't exactly grow up in Germany, or he's got a really twisted sense of proportionality, given this type of higher education...

Time Shift Audioplay Part 3: Music Sneak Peak

Some of you may remember that I'm speaking a minor role in a German language indie audioplay. Well, the two lead heads behind it all have composed a couple of musical pieces and uploaded them on the lead writer's blog. Please check out the four pieces and leave your feedback (don't worry, they all speak English there).

No Wolf Hunt For Germany

Wolf Hunt has been available world-wide for the past two weeks. But apparently now Amazon registered some problems, as this email details:

In regards to the issue with the searchablity of your book in the DE Kindle Store, please note that your book "Wolf Hunt" has not been made available in the following countries (due to local laws and policies):

1) Austria
2) Germany
3) France

I checked with the concerned team, and it appears that your book contains images that are banned in the above countries; hence, your book is not searchable (or not available for sale) on the DE Kindle Store. Further, since you've updated a German address in your KDP account, you're unable to view your book on the US/DE Kindle Store (as the book is not available to customers located to Germany). In order to view your book on the US Kindle Store, you'll have to log out of your account, then search for your book on the US Kindle Store.

Please be assured that your book is available for sale to customers worldwide (other than the above mentioned countries).

Michael Wallace's "Red Rooster", available since
March 2011 for Kindle in Germany. Note the rather
prominent Swastika...In plain old English, I can't see my own book in the US store because the cover contains a swastika, and my book's been blocked from sale on Amazon.de's platform for the very same reason. And there I was, thinking that Paragraph 86 of the German Code of Criminal Law was pretty straightforward. But apparently writing isn't art, and neither is writing about the events of contemporary history... writing about the events of contemporary history! I guess I'd have to had studied law to actually get the difference.

So no Wolf Hunt for the German Kindle market right now. Well, maybe it's for the better. Who knows what kind of legal shenanigans I could have stumbled into. Still, it leaves a bad taste, and not just under a "freedom of speech" vantage point. It reeks of censorship. It's also apparently arbitrary, as shown by the cover to the right:

3rd Song: Tech Noire - Intro

Tech Noire - Intro (mp3) Tech Noire - Intro
I'm working on a new project, and this more or less fits as an intro song.

My First Interview!

I'm very excited to present you guys with the very first interview that's ever been taken with me!
The industrious David Wisehart over at Kindle Author - which is an excellent ressource to find out about new books and up and coming authors - was so kind to ask me a couple of questions regarding "Wolf Hunt" and my writing in general. Please check out the full interview over at Kindle Author or at my personal website. Please post your comments and questions there!

Beatification of Anti-Nazi Resistance Members

In a grand ceremonial mass former vicars Hermann Lange, Eduard Müller and Johannes Prassek will be beatified today, on 25 June 2011. Protestant pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink, who along with the other three became known as the "Lübeck Martyrs", will also be beatified. The four men were executed by the National Socialist government in November 1943. 
It is the first time a Protestant christian will be beatified. Approximately 9,000 people are said to have attended the mass.
weiter lesen: http://www.gmx.net/themen/nachrichten...
weiter lesen: http://www.gmx.net/themen/nachrichten...

Weird Quote of the Day - 1

20 March 1938"I am very happy about the fact that - for once - Italians spread terror through their hawkishness instead of spreading pleasure through their skills as mandoline players."
-- Benito Mussolini after the bombing of Barcelona in the Spanish Civil War, as quoted in the Diaries of Count Ciano.