My Father's Country: The Story of a German FamilyA huge bestseller in Germany for over a year, My Father’s Country offers extraordinarily moving and riveting insight into the experience of being German in the last century. On August 26, 1944, Hans Georg Klamroth, officer in the German army and member of the SS, was executed for high treason for his participation in the July 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler. My Father’s Country is the extraordinary work of Klamroth’s daughter, Wibke, born only six years before her father’s death. Decades later, Bruhns was watching a TV documentary about the events of July 1944 when images of her father in the court room suddenly appeared on screen. “I stare at this man with the empty face. I don’t know him. But I can see myself in him — his eyes are my eyes; I know I resemble him. I know I wouldn’t be here without him. And what do I know about him? Nothing at all.” Based on an extensive collection of family letters, private diaries, photographs and even menus, My Father’s Country traces Wibke Bruhns’ father’s, and more widely, her well-to-do merchant family’s, life in the Germany of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. With it, Bruhns not only brings to life the nuances of this world — its culture and its assumptions, politics and beliefs — but also comes to know, finally, the mysterious father she barely remembers. |
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Abwehr army battle Berlin Bernhard Bismarckplatz called child children's diary Christmas civilian Cläreliese Cuirassiers Curaçao Dagmar Danish daughter death Denmark Döberitz Eastern Front Else's everything father fatherland feel flags Freikorps friends front Führer Georg German Gestapo girls goes Grodno Halberstadt Hamburg hand Hans Litten happy HG writes HG's HG's diary Hitler Hitler Youth honor horses I.G. Klamroth Iron Cross Jewish Jews Jochen July Kaiser Königsberg Körte Kurt's later letters living look Magdeburg March ment military morning mother murder National Nazis never night NSDAP once parents Party peace Pleskau Plötzensee Podeus Ravelin Ravelin Horn regiment Reich Reich School reichsmarks Reichstag riding Russian Siegfried soldiers there's things tion town troops Ursula wedding weeks Wehrmacht whole wife Wismar worries young