Hitler's Niece: A Novel

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A Sick and Sad Relationship

'Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt. (Abraham Lincoln)

Disgusted, but far from Disappointed

Mazel Tov!

My Review on Hitler's Niece

Hitler's Niece: A Novel
Ron Hansen
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060932201
Release Date: 2000-08-22

Amazon.com

Hitler's Niece offers the unforgettable spectacle of a tyrant in love: kneeling, shouting, groveling, sputtering with rage, posing naked for his lover with fists clenched and stomach sucked in--and that's leaving out the dog whip and jackboots. The unfortunate victim of these attentions is Angelika Raubal, daughter of Hitler's half-sister, and the only one in his circle who dares to stand up to him. "What a good game: Who's not frightened of Adolf Hitler?" Geli's friend Henny playfully asks. No one, as it turns out, but Geli--the one who should be most afraid.

Ron Hansen's tale begins with the most gemütlichkeit family gathering imaginable: a Sunday-afternoon party celebrating the infant Geli's baptism, with a pale, peevish, and hungry young Adolph as one of the guests. Geli's father Leo teases the would-be painter ("Rembrandt's only rival!"), the Monsignor needles him about his ancestry, and finally Hitler leaves in a huff. This is, truly, a new view of der führer--the 20th century's greatest villain as the embarrassing relative you don't want to talk to at reunions. By the time Geli has reached her teens, however, the tables have turned. Her father is dead, her mother is an impoverished widow, and Hitler has begun his meteoric rise to power. Geli herself is no intellectual, much less interested in politics, but she's a fun-loving, good-looking girl who captivates the Nazi inner circle even though she speaks her mind more often than she should. At first, her uncle seems like a savior, sending Geli off to university and showering gifts on his "Princess." As the infatuation deepens, however, Hitler's grip tightens, until what began with a family party ends 23 years later with a gunshot.

The basic outlines of this story are true--or at least rumored to be true--and although Geli's 1931 death was officially ruled a suicide, Hansen describes a quite plausible version of events. But the real enigma here is not who killed Geli Raubal; it is Hitler himself. How did he manage to seduce her? How did he manage to seduce an entire people? In a way, Ron Hansen's novels are all mysteries: solving the murder of a prodigal son, as in Atticus, or approaching the miracle of faith, as in Mariette in Ecstasy. He is preoccupied with the big questions, and in Hitler's Niece, that big question is none other than evil.

In this case, evil wears an ordinary human face. The novel's Hitler, much like the real one, is lazy, vain, jealous, and cowardly. In his relations with other people, "he shoots for love, but the arrow falls, and he only hits sentimentality," as his sister puts it. His looks are far from impressive; until Geli sees him speak in public, he seems "wary, officious, and ordinary, like a concierge in a hotel that had fallen on hard times." But what Hitler has is the most powerful seduction tool of all: the ability to inspire fear. By the time his niece has learned to fear rather than to pity him, it is too late--for her, and for the German people. In this heartbreaking portrait of aggression and complacency, Hansen has created a Hitler all the more frightening for how much he looks like us. --Mary Park

Amazon.com Audiobook Review

Combining fact with supposition, Ron Hansen's audio novel tells the story of Adolf Hitler's relationship with his half-niece Geli. Beautiful, flirtatious, and 19 years his junior, Geli charms her uncle along with his inner circle, but is found dead at the age of 23 with Hitler's gun by her side. Hansen's glum characterization of the German leader is given stern voice by Tony-winning stage actress Janet McTeer, who excellently approximates male speech. She is equally adept at the accents of the numerous characters, and since the audiobook takes place over a span of 23 years, allows the voices to age. She takes Hitler from bitter to fanatical, and Geli from giddy to heartbroken. McTeer's vocalizations team with Hansen's abridged words to probe how this humorless and repulsive man was able to seduce his niece along with a nation. (Running time: 6 hours, 4 cassettes) --Kimberly Heinrichs

Book Description

Hitler's Niece tells the story of the intense and disturbing relationship between Adolf Hitler and the daughter of his only half-sister, Angela, a drama that evolves against the backdrop of Hitler's rise to prominence and power from particularly inauspicious beginnings. The story follows Geli from her birth in Linz, Austria, through the years in Berchtesgaden and Munich, to her tragic death in 1932 in Hitler's apartment in Munich. Through the eyes of a favorite niece who has been all but lost to history, we see the frightening rise in prestige and political power of a vain, vulgar, sinister man who thrived on cruelty and hate and would stop at nothing to keep the horror of his inner life hidden from the world.

Customer Reviews:

A Sick and Sad Relationship.......2007-10-18

An unusual, ficitionalized account of Hitler's bizarre relationship with his much younger niece, this book is filled with insights (albeit imagined) into many of the other main player's in Hitler's Reich. Hitler is percieved as strange even by his own family--his half-sisters, half-brother, nieces, nephews,cousins etc.

Sure, the dialogue and happenings are embellished or completely imagined by the author--including the speculative and shocking ending of this story and this relationship. Seeing how he would treat an innocent member of his own family, one who is so much younger and should have earned nothing but his protection, is so insightful considering his devious, master plan and how successful it finally was...well, the whole thing is heartbreaking. Hitler is portrayed as someone with no compassion, no real heart and a sick soul who took no joy in life at all.

I liked this book to some extent, but did find it a little nightmarish towards the end. Hitler's minions' behavior is sickening, but I can only assume, it can't be too far from the truth. And his evilness comes through in this story--regardless of what really happened one night in the luxery apartment Hitler shared with his niece. He certainly always chose to not do the "right thing." A horrifying time to be German or a Eurpean for that matter.

'Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt. (Abraham Lincoln) .......2006-06-27

What a dreadful book! Wildly inaccurate historically, the author uses what little facts he's gleaned to insert salacious cliches in keeping with today's market demands. Should the subject interest you read "Hitler and Geli", Ronald Hayman's book.

Disgusted, but far from Disappointed.......2006-02-25

By virtue of his already classic "Mariette in Ecstasy" and "Atticus", his two novels with Catholic themes, Ron Hansen must already be viewed as one of the great Catholic novelists writing in English. He's also one of the few, judging by a recent interview in Sojourners, who doesn't cringe at the description, bless him. Given my lifelong fascination with the history of the Nazi era, therefore, it was with a great deal of eagerness that I picked up his 1999 "Hitler's Niece : A Novel".

And I wasn't disappointed-shocked, horrified, fascinated, disgusted, yes, often all at the same time, but hardly disappointed.

Since not all the facts surrounding the short life and violent death of Hitler's niece, Angelica ("Geli") Raubel can be known with certainty, the book must be categorized, strictly speaking, as a novel. "Creative non-fiction" might be a little closer to the truth, however, since much is known, and more information has come to light recently pointing to the probable accuracy of Hansen's conclusion, which he shares with a growing number of historians: i.e., that Geli Raubel was not only sexually abused by her famous uncle, but ultimately murdered by him as well.

Unfortunately, the event occurred in 1930, three years before Hitler's rise to the Chancellorship of Germany, but well after this evil genius and perfectly sick individual had already gained enough power to get such potentially damaging incidents tidied up by a whole army of slavish underlings. Alas, there was no brilliant (or at least sufficiently courageous) detective on this case to risk the wrath of the SA and SS, and catch his man. Had there been, the world might have been spared an expensive object lesson in the price ultimately paid when an entire country hands the Devil a blank check.

And I don't use the D-word lightly. One of the surprising elements in this book was the light Hansen shines on the goofy occult, neo-pagan and anti-Christian (as well as anti-Semitic) beliefs and practices of Hitler and his inner circle--something too often blown off by secular historians as of little importance. And yet it was in many ways the heart and soul of National Socialism, and certainly of Hitler's otherwise inexplicable hold on so many, even well-educated individuals. As Jung once wrote, a religion can only be replaced by another religion, and in the case of the Nazis, they were not only providing Germany with a flashy new religion to replace a stale Christianity, but a new Aryan god to replace a too-Jewish Christ.

Caveat lector: This is at times a very difficult book to read. Hitler's well-known sexual pathology raises the Ick-factor to an unusually high level in this book, but it is not in the least gratuitous. If Hansen feels it necessary to sketch in some of the darker shades in Der Fuehrer's personal psychology, it is in the service of giving us a valuable and disturbingly three-dimensional portrait of a possessed and possessing individual.

Highly recommended.

Mazel Tov!.......2005-07-06

I was So blown away by the photo I found of Adolf and Geli when I Googled them, that I tried to find a website containing Hitler/Geli Fan Fiction... to no avail. However; THIS book showed up. I ordered it and read it in less then a day! So amazed and compelled by the story... I wrote my own version. And this one is free! Do check it out if you're over 18 and PLEASE leave a review! Good or bad!
(...)

My Review on Hitler's Niece.......2004-12-03

I really liked this book a lot. I have never seen Hitler portrayed so dependent on someone else. Though he maintained his ruthless status to the world, inside he did have a weakness, not only from his past, but for Geli. Geli in this novel was 19 years younger than Hitler. She was smart and not like most women. She was strong inside and probably the only person who wasn't afraid of her "Uncle Alf". Her mother was his half sister and also one of the most important women in Hitler's life. In fact, Hitler only really had women in his life growing up and that is why he had so much respect for them.
But even when I thought she wasn't afraid of him, I found that she did have to watch herself at times because he could be so unpredictable with his moods and affections. Often times in the novel I found it hard to decide if Geli was interested in her uncle or not. She would get jealous at times like when Henny spoke of Hitler's attention to her. But then her interests in other men such as Emil led me to believe it might of been her love of his love for her. Maybe she was intrigued by all his fame, power, and access to nice things. Whatever the case, I do not wish to give away the whole story and ending, but this was definately a page turner. At times the two would come so close and you could just feel the tension and the feelings inside you fought between the wish that they were together and the realization that it was rather inapropriate. He was sort of like a father to her, protecting her, yet he only loved her. His ways of getting her nearer without revealing his sole motive was heart warming. He admired everything about her and it would make one think that Hitler did have a big heart and he was truly a brilliant man, with the wrong dream.
This book seemed to have a lot of historical facts in it, and I want to believe that this is how Hitler truly was. It spoke of how he affected people. He could sway decisions of non-supporters by insisting his views upon them in such emotional force that they fell under his spell. Women fell in love with him as he spoke. Sometimes his speeches lasted almost 2-3 hours. A good quote from the book that I highlighted describing him throughout his life in short: "And I realized, 'What a fantastic imagination! Others' wildest dreams are reality to him!"- Kubizek, pg. 9.

--Helene Vollbracht

Average customer rating:

Reader beware...
Not what it is cracked up to be
Interesting Look

Hitler and Geli
Ronald Hayman
Manufacturer: Bloomsbury USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1582340366

Book Description

Few people know of the affair Adolf Hitler had with his niece, Geli Raubal. The couple shared a strangely intense, passionate relationship, but it was always dogged by Hitler's intolerance, his chauvinistic attitude to women, and his possessive jealousy.

In 1931, aged twenty-three, Geli Raubal was found dead in the Munich flat she shared with Hitler, his revolver on the floor, and an unfinished letter on the table. Hitler was shattered by his niece's death, and for the rest of his life couldn't speak of her without becoming emotional.

Hitler & Geli is the remarkable and little-known story of the most important relationship in Hitler's life.

Customer Reviews:

Reader beware..........2002-07-15

This book offers little by way of truth, I'm afraid. Hayman gives a grossly distorted description of Adolf's childhood, his relationship with his parents, and the man he later became, among other points. The author's portrayal of Adolf Hitler throughout the book is wholly biased and much too negative (nothing new there). I gave him two stars, however, for touching on a few truths, although they were few and far between. Also, he occasionally admitted speculation on some points (although not nearly enough). He gathered his "information" from a number of sources, which I liked, but what I disagree with is his tendency to readily accept many of the negative pieces of gossip made public after Hitler's death, simply because they were negative. The true role of a historian is not to condemn, but to explain.

Not what it is cracked up to be.......2000-02-09

I give this 2 stars only for its historical information of Hitler himself. Most of which you can get from anyother book. I thought that this book barely started to unfold the history of Geli and Hitler. It's main focus was on Hitler with what seemed to be a few side thoughts about a realationship that was said to be the most meaningful in Hitler's life. It raised many questions and did not offer many answers. There are a few conflicts with previously written accounts of Hitler's sexual life. This relationship was surrounded by mystery and will continue to be surrounded by mystery when you are done reading.

Interesting Look.......2000-02-01

Some people would criticize this book for not being the historical end all analysis of Hitler's relationship with his niece. I don't feel that's important. No one should base their opinions off of one book. This is just one of the many you should read on the subject. Ronald Hayman takes an approach that many others haven't by concluding that Hitler's abnormal relationship with his niece may have spawned the genocidal impulses latent within him. That's one man's opinion. And it's an enjoyable one to read as the author is very articulate. But don't leave your research here. Continue on. Others have written on the subject (who are just as biased as the sources Hayman uses). One must find their own opinion of what's out there and to do so you'll need to read this book.

Average customer rating:

Hitler & Geli
Ronald Hayman
Manufacturer: Bloomsbury
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HZVF7K

Average customer rating:

Fun, fun, girls just wanna have fun!
Historically inaccurate, errors abound!

Hitler + Geli
Ronald Hayman
Manufacturer: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Amazon.com

Accomplished playwright and biographer Ronald Hayman has written an imaginative account of the tormented affair between Adolf Hitler and his niece, Geli Raubal, in Hitler and Geli. Contending that historians have not adequately explored "the most important relationship in Hitler's life," Hayman argues that Geli's mysterious death in 1931 fully unleashed the Führer's hunger for power and destruction. He maintains that the connection between Hitler and Geli was characterized by Hitler's sadomasochism, a perversion that drove the dictator toward extremes of jealous cruelty (in addition to arousing within him a desire to be urinated upon, kicked, and verbally abused). Geli indulged his appetites, but she also soothed his loneliness: "She could give him something that no other man or woman could ever offer--the opportunity to relax. She was his only friend." With Geli's death, Hayman concludes, Hitler couldn't find the release he craved, and his sexual preoccupations, no longer confined within his relationship, began to define the authoritarian structures of the Reich.

Hitler's life seems to beg for a psychoanalytic explanation. Indeed, when he boasts about himself, as in the following passage, it is difficult not to draw the same psychoanalytic conclusions as Hayman:

I never feel tired when my storm troopers and soldiers march past me and I stand at this salute. I never move. My arm is like granite, rigid and unbending. But Goering can't stand it.... He is flabby. But I am hard.

Although readers will find a more comprehensive social, medical, and psychological portrait in Fritz Redlich's Hitler: Diagnosis of a Destructive Prophet, Hitler and Geli nevertheless examines a strange part of Hitler's life that has been largely neglected.

Book Description

Few people know of the affair Adolf Hitler had with his niece, Geli Raubal. The couple shared a strangely intense, passionate relationship, but it was always dogged by Hitler's intolerance, his chauvinistic attitude to womanhood and his possessive jealousy.

In 1931, aged 23, Geli Raubal was found dead in the Munich flat she shared with Hitler, his revolver on the floor and an unfinished letter on the table. Hitler was shattered by his niece's death, and for the rest of his life couldn't speak of her without becoming emotional.

Hitler & Geli is the remarkable and little-known story of the most important relationship in Hitler's life.

Customer Reviews:

Fun, fun, girls just wanna have fun!.......2000-06-13

Folks may take umbrage with historical laxities and the author's pyschoanalytical velleities, yet I doubt any person who takes a serious interest in the creeping grips of totalitarian regimes would give much credence even to the TRUE facts of a dictator's love life, purported or otherwise.Dictators are mainly nasty folks interested in controlling others' actions and speech, and guiding nations into the depression and doom of wretched restrictions. That they may or may not go for relationships, perverse or gay or kinky or violent, is irrelevant. Hitler had a niece named Geli (from "Angelika") and took over her upbringing from a semi-impoverished Austrian town. He had a certain "Mitleid" (sympathy) with her at age 15, reminding him of his own hard days as a youth with little money or vision of how to attain a normal middle-class male dream - home, family and well-paid trade, as most of his classmates may have dreamed of. He falls in love, and here again we can only speculate: was it her vivacity, her youthful enthusiasms, and her great appreciation of all the thrills that he could bring her? A ride in a wonderful car, a new wrap, a dress, shoes, good meals with a housekeeper to handle the cleaning up, and access to opera, theater, and all kinds of evening entertainment with the upper class of Munich. This, for a small-town girl, was certainly a high-rolling ponycart ride! From my Irish village (Swinford, Co. Mayo) point of view, I can understand 100% what motivated Geli to have fun in Munich far away from her homegrown "kleine Leute" (little people) origins.Fun, fun, fun, girls wanna have fun! Even if it's through your dictator uncle, Hitler! In one way, understandable; on the other hand, how could she have been so naive, blind, deaf and dumb? Didn't others ever speak to her about the morals and habits, racial obsessions and megalomania of this lonely uncle? Was she really so sympathetic or was she simply angling, day after day, to keep the goodies flowing, just as Hitler himself was going for the power, glory and goodies of industrialists' renumerations, kickbacks, bribes and invitations to hear renowned singers, etc. Many a lover has done so in the past, and often when they're not so young and innocent as Geli!One might question indeed how a character, Geli, in her late teens, gains admissions to a medical faculty and considers seriously a biology career, associating with Munich's educated young people, studying and doing labwork full time while Uncle Adolf was out succoring industrialists and "die kleine Leute" = money and votes = "Millionen stehen hinter mir!". Somehow she never hears anything against her agitator landlord/lover/dictor/beer hall haranguer? I do wonder that Geli's intelligence and common sense is underrated in this novel. That she would in the end commit suicide is pushing it.IF the lack of freedom and happiness with Uncle Adolf started to grate, as it does for most young people, then the arguments that start to grow back at the fancy apartment are nothing surprising. So Adolf starts threatening the obvious: that she must get out, go back to Vienna, to the misery of earning a living on low working-class wages as a shopgirl. Was it this that led Geli to suicide?You decide. It's all fiction anyway, or speculatized history! Who will ever know? The author as a male might have not quite seen the clear mind of a normal girl and entangled her into his ill-gotten goodies, political spoils. Yes, yes, and yes, but still, ask yourself: would YOU have commited suicide as a result? Speaking for myself, probably not! Disappointed, bitter and angry, yes, but at that age, probably I'd just bite the bullet and get going, find a job, a new friend or two, and lots more fun for years to come.

Historically inaccurate, errors abound!.......1999-08-08

Don't bother with this idiotically poorly researched book. I counted 71 errors in all. The author has no basic understanding of Hitler, Geli, Munich politics of the 1920's or anything else connected to Nazism. Hitler was obviously evil and abnormal in most areas of his life. He was not abnormal sexually, even if most authors want to claim this in order to sell their books. The author ignores research and interviews with many women on the 1920's who had relationships with Hitler that claim he was normal. He obviously doesn't know about the extensive interviews conducted with Stefan Lorant, who *saw* Hitler picking up women in Munich and later interviewed them. Their verdict? Hitler was a dud in the sack, but he was never a pervert. The author also claims (erronesouly) that Hitler was "impotent." Really? He relies upont he bogus Langer work for this absurd contention and ignores, conveniently, the first-person proof from Eva Braun that Hitler was not impotent. He continually relies on discredited sources, who were motivated by political pique to claim Hitler was abnormal sexually. People like Rauschning, Gregor Strasser, Renate Mueller, etc. These may seem like trivial points, but for historical accuracy, they are important. This is pablum trash, written by a man who did virtually no research into the complexities of Hitler.

Average customer rating:

Terrific thought-provoking novel!!
Rewarding ,Though provoking
worth reading
Good but not great pre-WWII mystery

Hitler's Angel
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Manufacturer: St Martins Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0312154984

Amazon.com

In Hitler's Angel, author Kris Rusch gathers the usual suspects: there's Eva Braun and Rudolf Hess and of course the future führer himself. But rather than put them at the center of her novel, Rusch relegates them to cameo appearances only and hands the starring role to the fictional Fritz Stecher, a cop investigating the death of Hitler's beloved niece, Geli Raubal. The relationship between uncle and niece has been the subject of speculation for decades--everything from incest to murder has been suggested, but the facts are these: Hitler and the 23-year-old Geli lived together in a house in Munich, and in 1931, she died, the apparent victim of a suicide. Historians may debate the circumstances; novelists have the freedom to imagine answers. Rusch's solution to the riddle of young Geli Raubal's death is at the heart of this dark novel, encompassing both Hitler's tangled personal relationships and his cutthroat political rivalries. Told from the perspective of a now-elderly Stecher, Rusch's tale not only speculates on what might have happened, but also hints at what might have been if Hitler's career had been derailed early on by scandal.

Customer Reviews:

Terrific thought-provoking novel!!.......2002-08-10

This is a very thought provoking novel about something that has been losts in the mists of time - and had the potential to change history and save millions of lives. The character Fritz is very well done. He's "real" and "flawed" - but evokes the reader's sympathy. The use of flashbacks to tell the story of his investigation of the death of Hitler's niece works very well. I couldn't put this novel down. At times it was almost lyrical. I am deeply impressed by Krish Rusch's writing. She is a very, very good writer. This novel will spur me to read more of her novels. Do yourself and read Hitler's Angel!!

Rewarding ,Though provoking.......1999-10-10

I found in this novel parellels with today. How a man with panegyric political skills can get friends to cover up crimes. How lying in high places is sometime sanctioned if you agree with his political aims. The novel will entertain you and enlighten you; why even the pope could not have stopped Hitler.

worth reading.......1998-09-06

I have some problems with this book..the ending revelations about Fritz's past, the judgements of Fritz on the American character are not inaccurate, but a bit repetitive, and the "hitler in all of us" idea is dabatable, and will be debated for a long time. But this novel does succeed in several ways, particularly in showing how devasted the world of the German was after WWI, and it depicts well the political labyrinth of german society before Hitler actually took full power in 1933. The story was engrossing and intelligent, the world depicted is complex and interesting. There were many times and ways Hitler could have been stoped by the Germans, the plain and tragic fact was that he was not stopped until 50 million people had died violent deaths as a result of the german people following him. As insane or not as Hitler may have been, he did not effect the Holocaust or unleash history's bloodiest war by himself...millions and millions of Germans willingly followed him into this moral hell, and millions more in Europe and even for a time, America, acquiesed in the horror. We, after all, bombed Dresden weeks before the war's end, killing a hundred thousand civilians when we could have been bombing the rail lines to the camps. One great success of this book is that it does not avoid the moral ambiguities of the time. Worth reading.

Good but not great pre-WWII mystery.......1998-06-08

In 1972, Annie Pohlman, a criminology student, travels to Munich to interview the legendary German homicide detective of the 1930's, Fritz Stecher, who desperately needs to tell someone about the case of Geli Raubal. In 1931, Geli is found dead in Hitler's apartment. The official ruling is suicide. Since Hitler is only one of several competing politicians trying to rise to the top and Fritz's superiors loathe the Nazi, they assign him to quietly investigate the murder.

Almost immediately, Fritz decides that circumstantial evidence points towards murder, probably arranged or even done by Hitler. As Fritz gets closer to learning the truth, he finds his own life in danger from Hitler's Brown Shirts, who want the investigation stopped so that their leader's rising political power does not abruptly crumble. Fritz also has problems with the government, especially with the Ministry of Justice. If Fritz is to successfully complete his most difficult case, he will have to proceed with great caution and incredible speed.

The premise behind HITLER'S ANGEL is quite clever (a real case from the 1930's) and the use of flashbacks works exceedingly well. Fritz, who tells the entire story, is a great senior citizen, who seems grandfatherly and wise. However, Annie is not well-developed and Fritz's apartment seems lacking as a backdrop with Munich preparing for the Olympics just outside the building. Kris Rusch shows her highly regarded fantasy story telling ability easily crosses genres into the historical mystery realm, but what could have been a classic falls a bit short. Still, this very good book is worth reading by fans of the writer and readers of historical mysteries.

Harriet Klausner.

Average customer rating:
Hitler's Niece

Manufacturer: Recorded books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
ASIN: 0788740431

Product Description

Unabridged - audio book 8 cassettes

Average customer rating:

Eh. What is there to say?
Heil Hitler!
Thrilling and Edifying
Really "The Last Stop..."
Read This Book!

Last Stop Vienna: A Novel
Andrew Nagorski
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

War | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Alternate History | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0743237501
Release Date: 2002-12-31

Book Description

Germany in the 1920s, in the early days of Hitler and the Nazi party, was a country plunging into darkness and violence. Andrew Nagorski has written the story of a doomed generation, of evil, hopelessness, sexual perversion and murder that set the stage for the ultimate destruction of a society. But in a stunning denouement, a young Nazi brownshirt, acting out of passion and revenge, changes the course of history.

Karl Naumann, a German teenager who has lost his father and brother in World War I, has tried to find a place in a defeated, demoralized and anarchic Berlin. Impressed by the returning veterans who refuse to lay down their arms and fight running battles with communist revolutionaries, and alone and adrift on the streets, he is recruited to their cause and camaraderie. He is sent to Munich, where he works his way up the ranks to become one of Adolf Hitler's bodyguards, a storm trooper.

The new movement is increasingly split between Hitler and rival leaders, including Karl's mentor, Otto Strasser, a real-life Nazi activist. As the schism within the party widens, the battles intensify and Hitler asserts his dominance, Karl must determine where his loyalty lies. He has fallen in love with a nurse, Sabine, whom he marries, but he is infatuated with Hitler's young niece, Geli Raubal, who is caught up in a deeply disturbing sexual relationship with her uncle.

Obsessed by the seductive and elusive Geli, Karl is startled by what he sees through her of the dark core of Hitler's personality. When Geli finally summons up the courage to leave her uncle, it is too late. Soon after, she is found dead in their apartment, a gun in her hand, allegedly a suicide. Karl believes that Hitler has murdered her. He follows him to Geli's grave in Vienna where their final confrontation takes place. Last Stop Vienna presents a chilling and suspenseful look at what might have been.

Customer Reviews:

Eh. What is there to say?.......2006-11-14

I started reading the book believing it was about something totally the opposite of how it ended. Does that make sense? It begins as a good illustration into just what kind of people enlisted into the Brown Shirts, then the SA, and ultimately, the SS. I thought that was excellent... really getting into the mind of a troubled angry youth that did what thousands of others did. The SA gave the angry, brutish, and the uneducated a place to belong. They just had to sell their souls. That I got. Nagorski's depiction of the main character's mindset I got. The reacton of the main character's wife as she detests his beliefs, I got. It went so well until...well honestly around the time Geli was introduced. It departed its roots and really became a dirty novel with facist undertones. I'm not totally sure exactly what the description of the sexual encounters added to the story, but to each his own.

Maybe it was the main character, himself, that let me down. Another reviewer said it correctly, HE LEARNS NOTHING. After a while it's just outright annoying to see him walk around in the same stupifying haze he began the book in.

The ending, well I don't want to give it away if you plan on reading this book... but it was unexpected. Here, the final departure from what the book initially said it was occurs. You're left with a WTF reaction. Not so much for the sheer climax of the story, but for the "damn it, the book outright lied to me! " type reaction. Again, it may just be me. But really. What the hell? The book ends after the strange and almost silly climax. You have no real idea what the ramifications are.

If you want to read a book with a decent grasp on history with an ok fictional component, this may be worth your while. If you can get over the idiocy of the main character and simply enjoy a piece of well written fiction, read this book. If you have some time to kill, read this book. It's an easy read. I'd borrow it or buy it at a deep discount. Or you will end up like me...not knowing what to do with it after you're done. I almost feel dirty for placing it in the bookcase with my other books. Basically, this book is the reason why I normally do not read historical fiction.

Heil Hitler!.......2006-02-20

I found here many interesting historical facts, many scenes from Otto Strasser's "Hitler and i". I liked it!

Thrilling and Edifying.......2005-04-01

A vivid and engaging piece of historical fiction, Nagorski's tale traces the life of a young Karl Naumann against the stark backdrop of Germany's decaying liberal order. What begins as a coming of age story quickly maps to the increasingly dramatic events culminating in the Nazi takeover. But Naumann's investment in the events shaking Germany take on an entirely different character as he meets -- and falls in love with -- Hitler's troubled niece, Geli. Nagorski's prose is absorbing, and his grasp of the period's history is excellent. At turns thrilling and edifying, it's a story not to be missed.

Really "The Last Stop...".......2003-11-26

Why was this book written in the first place? Why was it reprinted at all? Thank God I did not buy it, just read it - and am sorry I wasted all this time on a well-written piece of garbage.

Geli Raubal might not have died a virgin, but she certainly was not the tramp Nagorski made her out to be. Having been a victim of exactly the time period which the "writer" expounds on, I have long ago stuck my nose in just about every publicaton I could read that was pertinent to the subject of Hitler . The flights of phantasy the author takes are so way out it makes you wonder what he was thinking (if at all) when he made up the story.

He has written such excellent, serious books and now this.....

How could he deteriorate into this garbage dump? Waste not (your money), and it is not worth reading seiously - except for a few excellent description of sexual encounters. Your choice -- not mine.

Read This Book!.......2003-05-13

I derive no greater reading pleasure than when I learn something while being highly entertained. Andrew Nagorskiýs Last Stop Vienna is an amazing novel that manages to teach as well as engage. The rise and rule of Adolf Hitler is the most notorious tale of the twentieth century, yet how many people truly understand the dire social, economic, and political climate in 1920ýs and 1930ýs Germany that enabled the emergence of a man like Hitler? Perhaps better than any novelist in recent history, Nagorski does. Through the eyes of young and idealist Nazi Brownshirt, Karl Naumann, Nagorski tells a story that demonstrates in eerie and vivid detail how readily evil can rise out of desperation. Last Stop Vienna is not only a compelling book but also an important one. We live in an age where the conditions in many countries throughout the world are jarringly parallel to those of pre-World War II Germany. It would behoove us all to gain an understanding of such matters. Andrew Nagorski has provided us a great service by making it easy and enjoyable to edify his readers using his 288-page gem, Last Stop Vienna.

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