Customer Reviews

German Students' War Letters (Pine Street Books)

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This book contains letters written by German soldiers during World War I. Every writer in the book was killed in combat. The letters are, as one would expect, incredibly moving. They also contain some of the most graphic descriptions of battle I have ever read. Many of the letters talk about what war does to those who are religious, while others are just pragmatic attempts to convey the experience of battle to those back home. These letters are important because they show how people under such incredible stress are able to communicate something of value to those they love. I highly recommend this book. It is not sentimental and does not force you to draw conclusions; it simply makes you think about what would you do under the same circumstances. Excellent introduction by Jay Winter as well.

Wow-what a great book. Letters that will haunt you long after the book has been read and shelved. Pages full of young men yearning to impact the world knowing full-well that their young death is inevitiable. It is difficult imagine the psychic turmoil that comes with sustained bombardment, gas attacks and abolutely vicious hand to hand combat. What rings loud and clear is that thousands of good men-far better than any of us-died horrific deaths, often in isolation-all for absolutely nothing. I am certain the world lost the cure for cancer, the next Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein etc. amongst those brave souls. Read "The Living Unknown Soldier" to get a good idea what it was like to survive WWI and assimilate yourself back into the devastated European civilization.

Contemporary German letters and opinions from World War I are still surprisingly difficult to find in English translation, and this book gives us valuable first hand insights. They are immediate and often fascinating views of war, untouched by subsequent ideas and hindsight. This can be said with confidence, because the original German version was published by way of memorial to its authors who were killed in battle. The only real weakness is that this volume does not cover the whole war, and its restriction to ex-students somewhat narrows the valuable window that we are given. Recommended reading.

Awesome book... I was very moved to read this collection of articulate letters from German soldiers.

This book reminded me of "All Quiet on the Western Front" in that it showed we are all victims of war no matter what side we fought on.

I like that the author gives a brief background on the authors of each letter.

You will enjoy this book

This collection of letters serves as a wonderful primary source of information about the Germans' perspective of the war. Sometimes heartbreaking and sometimes overly prideful, these show how soldiers felt on the frontlines. Also, these letters show how sentiments changed over time -- in both good times and bad.