Ok, let's finish this series with this post. Last time I stopped with the beginning of WW2. There are two series, which are between. I never one covered the period of the Freikorps 1919-1923. Sadly only 13 magazines, which usually had texts from old books. This is a period, I can't find much information, so I found these interesting. A pity, there is nothing from the Red point of view.
A listing of all issues you can find
here.
A series printed from 1939 to 1944 is the Kolonial Bücherei. The bad guys here were usual British...
We come to WW2. Beside the titles in the Series "Spannende Geschichten" the classic series is "Kriegsbücherei der Deutschen Jugend". Published between 1939 and 1944 the idea behind was naturally to find volunteers for the army. The stories are not always more a kind of adventure and of course we win every fight. But we also have casualties. Here comes the ideology of the 3rd Reich - The Polish are bad people, cowards etc. The French are tough soldiers, a honored enemy who simply fights for the wrong political reason.
After the war the stories changed. In the 1950ies several series hit the market. First two small (under 20 issues) which are very rare - "Signal" and "Schild-Hefte"
Now the war is terrible, sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. Especially Russia is cold, bloody, nothing to eat etc. etc. On the western front we fight against the odds. Now there is no "hurrah" propaganda. Some stories are true, others are simply imagination behind a historical context. First they are written by former soldiers, in the years this changed.
The better known series is "Soldatengeschichten". They not only cover WW2, but also have some from the Franco-Prussian war, WW1, Colonial wars, US Troops in Korea, French in Indochina etc.
And finally we have the popular "Landser" Published from the 1950ies until today (The name changed to "Weltkrieg" after some left thinking people stopped it, calling it Nazi Propaganda). We should leave politics out, I've never read about NS thinking in them. Some novels are written from the other side of the front. Especially all the issues about the Pacific war are from the US Point of view.
Talking about the other side, there was also a series "Die andere Seite". WW2 from allied view, usually translated from foreign books.
Now we come to the end. There are only two series, covering military history after WW2. One is "US Marines", combats in the 1990ies.
Finally in this year started a new series "Legion" The title describes who are the soldiers, covered in this stories. So far, five issues appeared. On Beau Geste style, two Indochina and two modern Africa.
So now I come to the end. For figure collectors the covers could be interested as inspirations. The stories are of course no love-stories. For historical research I use history books. These booklets bring a little bit more life and action into the subject, but they are simply what they are - short stories to spend some time. I usually read when the rest of the family is in the bed and I have a quiet time. When it is late, such a small 32-65 pages story is exactly what I want to read:-)
