Customer Reviews

Germania: A Novel

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

At first glance, Germania appears to follow the lives of the Four Magical Flying Loerber Brothers, a fictitious Weimar-era troupe of acrobats and performers, who were huge stars in pre-war Germany. While the stories are centered mostly around these characters, I came to find that the main crux of the story was the brief period after Germany's surrender known as the Flensburg Government, when Grand Admiral Dönitz was ruling (in a loose sense) the country. Between the facts presented surrounding those principal characters (Albert Speer, Henirich Himmler, and others), and the fanciful addition of the Loerbers, there is an incredible dynamic created that not only expresses the absurdity of three weeks after surrender, but tries to explain the actual historical events in the same strange light surrounding the defeated Axis power.

What struck me as interesting was the historical basis for this novel. Just as with Shaara's works, McNally provides us an insight into World War II through use of fiction, but in a different sense. Rather than merely rely on imaginative powers to conceive of words that historical figures might have used, there is the additional element of fictional characters who serve to move the plot forward, as well as signify the era in a sense.

Not knowing a great deal about the Flensburg Government as I began to read this novel, I was intrigued by the political atmosphere and social upheaval of the time. I think the absurd nature of the Loerbers perfectly captures this period in time, however. My only complaint would be that I felt somewhat empty at the end. I suppose that is due to the very nature of the topic, in which case, bravo to McNally for wonderfully capturing his point.

A definitely must-read for WWII history fans/buffs, those who are curious how a people could turn against one race, those who enjoy post-war German literature, or anyone in the mood for a very well done historical fiction. While it nearly lost a star for me due to the apparent fizzling out at the end, upon reflection, it was merely the perfect denouement to sum up the Flensburg Government, Germany's wartime era, and this most excellent novel.

Brendan McNally's first novel, Germania, is superb. It's the history of what happened at the end of World War II in a part of Germany called Flensburg. Much has been written about the start of World War II but reading about the ending was an eye-opener. How some of the SS tried to escape punishment. How some of the regular German military officers had to pay the ultimate price for the excesses of the SS. How the regular German military had to admit, first to themselves then to history that they really did know what was going on in the concentration camps. An amazing story about a terrible time in world history. Truly a 'Must Read' book.

This is a cracking read, both as a piece of history and a character study. It is fascinating in the detail of a little-known and short-lived period of German history immediately after the Second World War and also as a story of sibling rivalry.
I didn't know what to expect when I picked it up and I stayed that way until the final sentence.
It's a book that will keep popping back into your thoughts long after you've read it.

I absolutely love this book and heartily recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good read. Brendan McNally deftly weaves an intriguing tale that centers around the fictional Loerber brothers, four German-Jewish entertainers, and their interactions with Nazi mass murderers, Zionist pioneers, arrogant Englishmen and, perhaps most engagingly, with one another. This book took me on a wonderful journey away from my daily life. I look forward to reading McNally's next opus.

I really flew through this book. It's written in a very interesting and readable style. The format is similar to the movie "Titanic", in that a true story - the Flensburg Reich at the end of WWII - is told through the eyes of fictional characters - in this case the Magical Flying Loerber Brothers. The great part of the book is that it covers a part of the end of WWII that usually isn't addressed by the history books. That doesn't mean there aren't problems with it. I really didn't see the need to make the Loerber Brothers actually use magic. They would have been more captivating characters without it. To me that actually detracted from the story by introducing the factor of disbelief. And that's a shame because the real, historical events that are brought to light here are riveting. Overall, I'd recommend the book mostly for the historical significance of the events it portrays. That part makes for very intriguing reading.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It chronicles the ending days of the Third Reich from an unusual standpoint.

Clearly, many different people made up the society of the old Weimar Republic and they were all caught up in the ensuing maelstrom of the Third Reich.

This tells the story of some such "innocent' bystanders-The Flying Magical Loerber Brothers (a popular vaudeville act of the Weimar Republic).

This is actually a terrific adventure story with lots of subplots and twists & turns. Here we read about the famed hidden Nazi Gold, the U Boats, and various intrigues as all strive to gain Power.

I turned the pages on this book quickly-I really got caught up in it and found this a very original way to explore one of history's darkest chapters.

"Germania" is an odd and original book that mixes authentic historical characters from the twilight of the Third Reich (Himmler, Speer, Doenitz and a host of others) with a surreal narrative about a family of Jewish acrobats called the Flying Magical Loerber Brothers. As the tale begins, Manni Loerber works as Albert Speer's driver, helping him in his desperate attempt to countermand Hitler's scorched earth orders. Franzi Loerber serves as Himmler's massage therapist and astrologer. Ziggy Loerber is a U-boat captain. And Sebastian Loerber is missing and presumed dead. As the tale progresses to period after the fall of the Reich, they converge on the temporary German government in Flensburg staffed by ex-Nazis and created to handle the surrender to Allied powers.

Why and how are these Jewish acrobats (one of them gay) working at the highest levels of the crumbling Nazi empire? Therein lies the tale. The Loerber brothers, you see, have certain magical powers. In addition to their ability to perform fantastic acrobatic stunts, they possess the power of telepathy, mind-control, and the ability to project their thoughts into other minds. This allows them to insinuate themselves into the highest levels of the Reich.

But how can they square their work there with their Jewishness? It is a question of moral compromise. Franzi works as a spy. Ziggy wants to do his duty as a German. They stumble their way forward, like everyone else in occupied Europe, trying to find ways to survive and to do the right thing.

The superimposition of the light-hearted and the horrifying makes reading this novel a dizzying experience. Just when we are tempted to relax into its comic aspects (Manni teaching Speer how to juggle; Franzi making up ridiculous New Age prophecies to soothe the hysterical Himmler), McNally hits us with a stack of concentration camp photos, reminding us of what a horror the Third Reich really was. This perfectly captures the ambivalence with which we, at a distance of seventy years, now view the Nazi era--both as a time of utter kookiness, of Hitler's silly square moustache, the regime's Wagnerian obsessions and absurdly Gothic pretentiousness, Himmler's trips to Tibet--but also and always with the spectre of mass murder and starvation lurking underneath. In the end, the remaining members of the ruling Nazi clique try to preserve some tatters of their dignity and to wrap themselves in a cloak of innocence, but they are stripped of both of them and some of them are even stripped of their clothing by souvenir-hunting GIs. Flensburg cannot last, because a new era has dawned.

I enjoyed "Germania" for its surrealism coupled with the authentic historical narrative. The novel is based on real events, not only those of the Flensburg Reich but also Hitler and Himmler's strange affinity for magical occultism. In fact there was a real Jewish magician who palled around with the Nazis in their late Weimar days. His name was Erik Jan Hanussen, and it is said he taught Hitler crowd control techniques. Once Hitler came to power, Hanussen was murdered by Nazi storm troopers. His fate should remind us that even at their weirdest, the Nazis were never anything just to laugh at (Mel Brooks notwithstanding). Their evil was real.

This is a really excellent and accessible fiction mixed with fact, and showing major historical figures in a convincing, if perhaps sympathetic, light. Speer, Donitz, and others are shown scheming and hoping for some way to end the war, or maybe even get away from it. Mixed in this brew are magician brothers and their mind-bending tricks, as the whole cast of characters gets mixed up in this truly surrealist and murderous last days of the reich. The book attempts to put the insanity and horror of these last days in all their bizarreness, and to a large degree succeeds. Smoke and mirrors meets depravity on a cosmic scale, and this book by a first time author adds a new dimension tho this historical reality of only 63 years ago, as a great nation and culture dissolves. Fine job!

Hindsight may be 20-20, but McNally's "Germania" provides fresh and fact-laden insights on how murky and quirky history can be. It's as if the Nazi "zeitgeist" was some phantom spawn out of chaos theory. If you don't think war is crazy, you will after you read this book. What a fun and fascinating read. Highly recommended!

Germania is a novel which highlights Nazi Germany in the final days of the war. It is seen through the eyes of four brothers who were magicians in a very popular Vaudeville act in Germany. Though Jews, they are survivors and use their mystical powers to communicate. They each take a different path to the collapse of Germany and are participants in the Flensberg Reich, a forgotten piece of history. It is fascinating for its historical detail while very entertaining. I enjoyed it and recommend it for the beach this summer!