Books
The First Soldier: Hitler as Military Leader
A leading expert offers a new assessment of Hitler as
military commander and strategist.
It is often said that Hitler lost
Germany the war. His uncompromisingly radical goals, impulsiveness, tendency
to pursue several objectives simultaneously and his inherent
mistrust of subordinates propelled the country towards humiliating
defeat. Indeed Hitler’s own generals published
memoirs after the war claiming that their military leadership had been
catastrophically undermined by the Führer’s erratic decision making.
But how far is all this true?
In this eye-opening account, Stephen Fritz argues that
the question of Hitler’s military leadership is complex and nuanced.
Dispelling the notion that Hitler’s strategy was inadequate and
ill-informed, Fritz shows how it could be considered rational, coherent and
competent. While Hitler’s generals did sometimes object to their leader’s
tactics and operational direction, Fritz shows that they were often in
agreement regarding their leader's larger strategic and political goals.
Weaving together primary documents, records of military
conferences, diaries, memoirs, and Hitler’s own words, Fritz provides a
provocative reassessment of Hitler’s role as military commander.
“Perhaps the best account we have to date of Hitler’s
military leadership. It shows a scrupulous and imaginative historian at work
and will cement Fritz’s reputation as one of the leading historians of the
military conflicts generated by Hitler’s Germany.”—Richard Overy, author
of The Bombing War
“Magnificent. Hitler emerges as a complex and nuanced
military leader who cannot simply be dismissed as the dogmatic ideologue or
the corporal in command. Original, insightful and authoritative Fritz’s
latest work is something I will return to again and again.”—David Stahel,
author of The Battle for Moscow
“Cuts a swathe through the reconstituted arguments of
countless other books about Hitler. Meticulously researched and adopting a
thoroughly readable style, Fritz offers profound new insights about Hitler
as commander. This is a volume which should serve as a warning to strategic
leaders who become blinkered by ideology, self-absorbed and neglect the
requirements of successful leadership.”—Lloyd Clark, Blitzkrieg
Yale University Press
hardcover 9780300205985
Ostkrieg: Hitler's War of Extermination in the East
On June 22, 1941, Germany launched the
greatest land assault in history on the Soviet Union, an attack that Adolf
Hitler deemed crucial to ensure German economic and political survival. As
the key theater of the war for the Germans, the eastern front consumed
enormous levels of resources and accounted for 75 percent of all German
casualties. Despite the significance of this campaign to Germany and to the
war as a whole, few English-language publications of the last thirty-five
years have addressed these pivotal events.
In Ostkrieg: Hitler’s
War of Extermination in the East, Stephen G. Fritz bridges the gap in
scholarship by incorporating historical research from the last several
decades into an accessible, comprehensive, and coherent narrative. His
analysis of the Russo-German War from a German perspective covers all
aspects of the eastern front, demonstrating the interrelation of military
events, economic policy, resource exploitation, and racial policy that first
motivated the invasion. This in-depth account challenges accepted notions
about World War II and promotes greater understanding of a topic that has
been neglected by historians.
University Press of Kentucky
cloth 978-0-8131-3416-1
ebook
978-0-8131-3417-8
paper 978-0-8131-6119-8
Endkampf: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Death of the Third Reich
At the end of World War II, Gen.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, fearing that retreating Germans would consolidate
large numbers of troops in an Alpine stronghold and from there conduct a
protracted guerilla war, turned U.S. forces toward the heart of Franconia,
ordering them to cut off and destroy German units before they could reach
the Alps. Opposing this advance was a conglomeration of German forces headed
by SS-Gruppenführer Max Simon, a committed National Socialist who advocated
merciless resistance. Under the direction of officers schooled in harsh
combat in Russia, the Germans succeeded in bringing the American advance to
a grinding halt. Caught in the middle were the people of Franconia.
Historians have accorded little mention to this period of violence and
terror, but it provides insight into the chaotic nature of life while the
Nazi regime was crumbling. Neither German civilians nor foreign refugees
acted simply as passive victims caught between two fronts. Throughout the
region people pressured local authorities to end the senseless resistance
and sought revenge for their tribulations in the "liberation" that followed.
Stephen G. Fritz examines the predicament and outlook of American GI's,
German soldiers and officials, and the civilian population caught in the
arduous fighting during the waning days of World War II. Endkampf
is a gripping portrait of the collapse of a society and how it affected
those involved, whether they were soldiers or civilians, victors or
vanquished, perpetrators or victims.
University Press of Kentucky
paper
978-0-8131-3461-1
ebook 978-0-8131-7190-6
Frontsoldaten: The German Soldier in World War II
Alois Dwenger, writing from
the front in May of 1942, complained that people forgot “the actions of
simple soldiers….I believe that true heroism lies in bearing this dreadful
everyday life.” In exploring the reality of the Landser, the
average German soldier in World War II, through letters, diaries, memoirs,
and oral histories, Stephen G. Fritz provides the definitive account of the
everyday war of the German front soldier. The personal documents of these
soldiers, most from the Russian front, where the majority of German
infantrymen saw service, paint a richly textured portrait of the Landser
that illustrates the complexity and paradox of his daily life. Although
clinging to a self-image as a decent fellow, the German soldier nonetheless
committed terrible crimes in the name of National Socialism. When the war
was finally over, and his country lay in ruins, the Landser faced a
bitter truth: all his exertions and sacrifices had been in the name of a
deplorable regime that had committed unprecedented crimes. With chapters on
training, images of combat, living conditions, combat stress, the personal
sensations of war, the bonds of comradeship, and ideology and motivation,
Fritz offers a sense of immediacy and intimacy, revealing war through the
eyes of these self-styled “little men.” A fascinating look at the day-to-day
life of German soldiers, this is a book not about war but about men. It will
be vitally important for anyone interested in World War II, German history,
or the experiences of common soldiers throughout the world.
University Press of Kentucky
paper 978-0-8131-0943-5
ebook
978-0-8131-2781-1
Selected Articles
"The Search for Volksgemeinschaft:
Gustav Stresemann and the Baden DVP," German Studies Review, 7, #2
(May 1984), pp. 249-280.
"`The Center Cannot Hold.'
Educational Politics and the Collapse of the Democratic Middle in Germany:
The School Bill Crisis in Baden, 1927-1928," History of Education
Quarterly, 25, #4 (Winter 1985), pp. 413-437.
"In the World
of Auschwitz: Aspects of the Final Solution," Social Science
Perspectives Journal, 1, #2 (1986), pp. 1-23.
"The NSDAP as
Volkspartei: A Look at the Social Basis of the Nazi Voter," The History
Teacher, 20, #3 (May 1987), pp. 379-399.
"When History Wasn't
History: The 1918-1919 Influenza Epidemic in Germany," Social Science
Perspectives Journal, 2, #2 (1987), pp. 93-104.
"Reflections
on Antecedents of the Holocaust," The History Teacher, 23, #2
(February 1990), pp. 161-179.
"Frankfurt," in Fred R. van
Hartesveldt, ed., The 1918-1919 Pandemic of Influenza. The Urban Impact
in the Western World (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1992), pp.
13-32.
"`We are trying to change the face of the world.' Ideology
and Motivation in the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front: The View From Below,"
The Journal of Military History, 60, (October 1996), 683-710.
“’This is the Way Wars End, With a Bang not a Whimper:’ Middle Franconia
in April 1945,” War and Society, 18, #2 (October 2000), 121-153.
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