Generalsaffären

by Hans Hellmut Kirst

German

Genres: Historical Fiction, War, Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

A veteran from WW II, he wrote various novels focused on military life and the corruption in the army.


Hans Hellmut Kirst, der international erfolgreichste deutsche Autor der Nachkriegszeit, wurde am 5. Dezember 1914 in Osterode in Ostpreußen als Sohn eines Gendarmeriebeamten geboren. Von 1933 bis 1945 diente Kirst als Berufssoldat. Mit seiner später verfilmten Romantrilogie „08/15“, seinen Welterfolgen „Fabrik der Offiziere“ und „Die Nacht der Generäle“ fand Hans Hellmut Kirst auch literarisch große Anerkennung.

Reviews

[Roberto · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a historical novel setting out the events which ultimately led to the dismissals of Field Marshal von Blomberg and General von Fritsch, the two most senior German military officers, and Hitler taking over effective control of the German armed forces.
Starting from historical facts, the author fleshes out the human dimension of the personal tragedies of Von Blomberg and Von Fritsch and the corruption and evil inherent to a totalitarian political system.
I found the novel worth reading as an addition to the historical studies of the Nazi era.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 1 out of 5]

[As an unusual prelude to my review I wanted to mention the review from Christopher Saunders on April 15, 2024 which is largely laudatory, unlike mine below. What Mr. Saunders says is true and, in ways I agree with it. I recommend strongly as 'balance' to my negative review and in doing so it frees me from the necessity of many 'on the hand' remarks I would otherwise have to make']

From the jacket flyleaf from the 1979 English language edition of the novel issued by the UK publishers Collins:

"Hans Helmut Kirst has written his most highly dramatic novel...about one of the most notorious episodes in the Third Reich: how the commander-in-Chief of the Wermacht, General von Fritsch, and the War Minister, Field Marshall von Blomberg, were framed by Hitler in 1938 so that he might decimate the top ranks of the officer corps and gain control of the armed forces.

"How could two such upright, honourable, highly respected, old school officers be brought low by the upstart Nazi regime? With that cynical disregard for truth which became the hallmark of the Nazis wen they were out to get their man, von Fritsch was accused - on the basis of fabricated 'evidence' - of being a homosexual; while von Blomberg was brought down by means of his wife, a young woman wholly guiltless of the slanderous accusations against her - and known to be so by none more than Hitler and Goering, the witnesses at her wedding and now the subtle architects of her ruin."

I have quoted so extensively because this publishers 'blurb' reveals the problem with most of Mr. Kirst's oeuvre in which 'The Nazis' are a clear cut group of baddies who have, almost inexplicably, managed to hijacked the German political and administrative apparatus and draws heavily on the Nuremberg convictions of Goring, Ribbentrop, Donitz, Hess, and others, for planning, preparing, and waging aggressive war which was defined as a crime against peace. All very well and good but it allowed all blame to be cast onto 'The Nazis' and thus absolves everyone else from not simply blame but any responsibility (see my footnote *1).

This novel and many, though not necessarily all of Kirst's novels, were part of the post WWII long lived legend of 'Mythos der sauberen Wehrmacht)' (Myth of the Clean Wehrmacht) which blamed Nazis like the SS for all the horrors and in the process exculpated 'ordinary' soldiers (I do recommend following this link to learn more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of...#). It was only with the 1995 'Wehrmachtsausstellung' (Wehrmact exhibition) a touring exhibition organised by the Hamburg Institute for Social Research that the myth was forever demolished and consigned to history's dustbin (again I cannot recommend to highly exploring this and related links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wehrmac...).

Am I taking this all too seriously and using a sledgehammer to demolish a peanut? No, and that Mr. Kirst's novels are so readable makes it all the more necessary. Was he being deliberately dishonest? Probably no more then the rest of his contemporaries who clung tenaciously to the 'Clean Hands' legend. They knew but they didn't want to know and Mr. Kirst wrote novels that reflected that. Does it matter? Yes I think it does because truth matters and to dismiss it as relative is as specious today as it was when Pontius Pilate asked 'quid est veritas'.

I would not deny that my rigidity on this has a connection to current events (I am writing in January 2025). I would not deny that my age, education and background also come into play. But I found it impossible to read this novel without it leaving a distinctly nasty taste in my mouth because it is dishonest.

*1 This transference of responsibility to a monolithic 'baddie' has parallels, in my experience, with the way the way the horrors of the abuse scandals involving catholic priests and religious organisations has been vested in the 'Catholic Church' as if it was some 'alien' organisation and not a body composed of Irish men and women. It was the Irish people who allowed the abuse it was not something imposed on them.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

With a much more documentary style than Night of the Generals, this traces the downfall of Field Marshal von Blomberg and Wehrmacht head, von Fritsch, both of whom weren’t as loyal or as Machiavellian as Hitler wanted by early 1938. The SS and Gestapo frame both Blomberg’s new young bride with prostitution and Fritsch as gay. The characters are a mix of the real and the invented (a couple of whom are anti-Nazi). Conversations between Blomberg and his wife are very artificial and don’t ring true but otherwise it’s absorbing with believable portraits. 3.5 stars

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hans Hellmut Kirst's The Affairs of the Generals dramatizes a footnote of the Third Reich's path to war: the Blomberg-Fritsch affair, where two of Germany's highest-ranking generals were driven from power by sex scandals in winter 1938, clearing away the last military opposition to Hitler's expansionist aims. Kirst approaches the material with his usual vigor and sardonic eye towards a soldiers' tear between duty and morals. In this book, the morals seem very rotten indeed: War Minister Werner Blomberg marries a younger woman with a rumored history of prostitution, while Army Chief of Staff Werner von Fritsch is falsely accused of homosexuality by the Gestapo. The evidence is so thin that even Hitler's inner circle finds it unpersuasive, yet for the generals' enemies (particularly Hermann Goering, who views Blomberg in particular as a rival for control of the Wehrmacht) it's more than enough to drive them from power and consolidate Nazi control over the Army. By Kirst's standards, after fictionalizing SS death squads, the Holocaust, murder in the officer corps and the Valkyrie plot to kill Hitler, the fate of these generals might seem small beer indeed; and truthfully, whatever the historical interest there's little drama inherent in the story (both Blomberg and Fritsch remained loyal to the Fuhrer, despite or even because of their sacking). Yet Kirst's penchant for lively caricature and moral ironies serves him well; the historical figures are well-sketched, and if the work's not as humorous as his earlier novels, Kirst certainly demonstrates how a totalitarian regime must destroy decent men for the slightest, even imagined transgressions. Not a thriller so much as a tart parable about the exercise of power; recommended for Kirst fans and WWII buffs more than general readers.

[Maciek S! · Rating 3 out of 5]

U nas podobnie, polityka i armia w jednym bagnie