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Reise durch Ruinen: Reportagen aus Deutschland und Österreich 1945 (textura)
Zwischen März und November 1945 folgte George Orwell als Kriegsberichterstatter den alliierten Streitkräften durch Deutschland und Österreich. Seine Reportagen schildern frei von Triumph oder Hass, welche Zerstörung der Krieg über Städte, Länder und Menschen gebracht hat. Hier erscheinen sie erstmals geschlossen in deutscher Übersetzung.
- GenresNonfictionHistoryGermany
103 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 16, 2021
6 people are currently reading
75 people want to read
About the author
George Orwell
1,278 books50.6k followersEric Arthur Blair was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to all totalitarianism (both fascism and stalinism), and support of democratic socialism.
Orwell is best known for his allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), although his works also encompass literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. His non-fiction works, including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), documenting his experience of working-class life in the industrial north of England, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences soldiering for the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), are as critically respected as his essays on politics, literature, language and culture.
Orwell's work remains influential in popular culture and in political culture, and the adjective "Orwellian"—describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices—is part of the English language, like many of his neologisms, such as "Big Brother", "Thought Police", "Room 101", "Newspeak", "memory hole", "doublethink", and "thoughtcrime". In 2008, The Times named Orwell the second-greatest British writer since 1945.
Orwell is best known for his allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), although his works also encompass literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. His non-fiction works, including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), documenting his experience of working-class life in the industrial north of England, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences soldiering for the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), are as critically respected as his essays on politics, literature, language and culture.
Orwell's work remains influential in popular culture and in political culture, and the adjective "Orwellian"—describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices—is part of the English language, like many of his neologisms, such as "Big Brother", "Thought Police", "Room 101", "Newspeak", "memory hole", "doublethink", and "thoughtcrime". In 2008, The Times named Orwell the second-greatest British writer since 1945.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 27, 2022
Reprints of 20 of Orwell columns as a war correspondent in France and Germany in the last days of the Western war. He is very insightful, if not always correct in his predictions (footnotes point out what happened instead (i.e., results of French elections). Uses the phrase "cold war" in 1945 before the end of the war. Not sure who first used this term.
January 3, 2023
Super Buch und die Texte von Orwell sind wie immer toll geschrieben. Störend war, dass das Nachwort dann doch relativ lang und eigentlich sogar der längste Text in dieser Sammlung von Texten war.
Want to read
November 28, 2021Empfehlung von Heribert Prantl (SZ).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 22, 2022
Interessant, aber nicht zu sehr. Dennoch die Seiten wert!
October 28, 2021
During the years between writing Animal Farm and 1984, George Orwell was mostly engaged with journalism. In early 1945, he was sent over to the continent to observe the final weeks of the Second World War in Europe. He spent time in France, Germany and Austria and his short articles from that period have just now been collected in this little book, a couple of them being published here for the first time.
One has to say at the outset that this is not Orwell at his very best. These are short pieces, quickly written, that are not necessarily of the quality that one would expect from the man who wrote Homage to Catalonia.
The editors helpfully point out a few of these weaknesses. For example, when Orwell writes about French politics in April 1945, he concludes that “an overwhelming victory for the Left is not to be expected.” The editors have added a footnote reading “The elections were held in France on 21 October 1945 and the parties of the Left won three-quarters of the seats.”
But it was not just his inability to predict the future that makes this book a lesser one. It was also what Orwell didn’t say. Though news of the liberation of the death camps was coming out on a daily basis, Orwell says nothing of this. He describes the forced labourers in Germany, then being organised for repatriation to their home countries, as being quite well fed and insists that in many cases they could not really be considered slaves. (He was writing in particular about the agricultural workers.). He does correctly notice the problem of people from Eastern Europe being forced to return to the USSR against their will.
He expresses some rather odd opinions. For example, he wrote that “Only the minority of sadists, who must have their ‘atrocities’ from one source or another, take a keen interest in the hunting-down of war criminals and quislings. If you ask the average man what crime Goering, Ribbentrop, and the rest are to be charged at their trial, he cannot tell you. Somehow the punishment of these monsters ceases to seem attractive when it becomes possible: indeed, once under lock and key, they almost cease to be monsters.”
Not his best work by a long shot.
One has to say at the outset that this is not Orwell at his very best. These are short pieces, quickly written, that are not necessarily of the quality that one would expect from the man who wrote Homage to Catalonia.
The editors helpfully point out a few of these weaknesses. For example, when Orwell writes about French politics in April 1945, he concludes that “an overwhelming victory for the Left is not to be expected.” The editors have added a footnote reading “The elections were held in France on 21 October 1945 and the parties of the Left won three-quarters of the seats.”
But it was not just his inability to predict the future that makes this book a lesser one. It was also what Orwell didn’t say. Though news of the liberation of the death camps was coming out on a daily basis, Orwell says nothing of this. He describes the forced labourers in Germany, then being organised for repatriation to their home countries, as being quite well fed and insists that in many cases they could not really be considered slaves. (He was writing in particular about the agricultural workers.). He does correctly notice the problem of people from Eastern Europe being forced to return to the USSR against their will.
He expresses some rather odd opinions. For example, he wrote that “Only the minority of sadists, who must have their ‘atrocities’ from one source or another, take a keen interest in the hunting-down of war criminals and quislings. If you ask the average man what crime Goering, Ribbentrop, and the rest are to be charged at their trial, he cannot tell you. Somehow the punishment of these monsters ceases to seem attractive when it becomes possible: indeed, once under lock and key, they almost cease to be monsters.”
Not his best work by a long shot.
July 30, 2023
Anschaulich berichtet der Kriegsreporter George Orwell aus dem besetzten Deutschland und Österreich bis zum Kriegsende und schreibt hierbei eine literarische Reportage, die nüchterne Urteile, scharfsinnige Analysen und hellsichtige Reflexionen verbindet, ohne Triumph oder Hass des Siegers über den Besiegten durchscheinen zu lassen. Vielmehr schafft er es die Zerstörung zu beschreiben, die der Krieg über die Städte und Menschen gebracht hat und arbeitet hier insbesondere den Kontrast zu den ländlichen Regionen heraus, die beinahe unversehrt und unbekümmert dem Grauen entkommen sind. Besonders hervorzuheben sind die Passagen, in denen er von der Uneinigkeit der Alliierten in der Frage des Umgangs mit dem besetzten Deutschland spricht, sowohl im Hinblick auf die politischen Interessen der Sowjetunion, als auch den Revanchegedanken der Franzosen. Fast prophetisch sieht er in dieser Uneinigkeit das Potenzial neuer Konflikte zwischen den Alliierten voraus und empfiehlt Maßnahmen um dem entgegenzuwirken.
August 8, 2025
In dem Buch wird detailliert alles beschrieben, was George Orwell auf seiner Reise durch das vom Krieg zerstörte Deutschland und Österreich erlebte.
Es werden vor allem viele Fragen beantwortet z. B. wie die Gefühlslage der Menschen sei, wie die Niederlage verarbeitet wird und wie die neuen Strukturen sowie der Wiederaufbau vonstattengeht.
Das Buch sollte man keinesfalls unterschätzen und ist ideal zum Einstieg in Orwells Bücher, da es relativ kurz ist. Ich kann es nur bestens empfehlen.
Es werden vor allem viele Fragen beantwortet z. B. wie die Gefühlslage der Menschen sei, wie die Niederlage verarbeitet wird und wie die neuen Strukturen sowie der Wiederaufbau vonstattengeht.
Das Buch sollte man keinesfalls unterschätzen und ist ideal zum Einstieg in Orwells Bücher, da es relativ kurz ist. Ich kann es nur bestens empfehlen.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews