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**ehrentitle** · 04-02-2011, 04:03 PM

And the Author's biography: http://soan.gmu.edu/people/details/abickfo1

From reading the excerpt of Chapter 1 it appears that he served in the Berlin Brigade at one time.

**Ralph P** · 04-02-2011, 04:49 PM

Kevin - Thanks for the heads up...I will add it to my list to find and read at some point...

**Jeff Mack** · 04-02-2011, 06:35 PM

Thanks for the headsup. Looks like a good read to me from the preview pages. It's for sale on Amazon too.

**Gordon Craig** · 04-02-2011, 10:05 PM

Kevin,

I suppose it would be interesting to me if there was some reflection on what transpired in the armed organs of the DDR as things began to come apart. In my research into the early Bundeswehr I have come across several references to former NVA units that had become part of the Bundeswehr. I wonder how much influence, if any, these former senior officers had with those soldiers who became part of the BW. If you get a copy please let us know if it was worth getting.

I picked up book called "Berlin Journal 1989-1990" by Robert Darnton last week as the tittle intrigued me. I'm only on page 71 and it has proved a disappointment so far. Darnton was in Berlin in 1998-1990 and purports to describe the events as he saw them unfold. Perhaps it will get more interesting as I read more of the book.

Regards,

Gordon

**DaveM** · 04-03-2011, 12:24 AM

Berlin Journal

Hi Gordon,
I read the Berlin Journal book years ago.... one or two passages were good but overall it was entirely forgettable until you mentioned it....

my copy went in the recycle bin

**Drugo** · 04-03-2011, 03:31 AM

Originally posted by ehrentitle View Post

I stumbled across a new book that just came out last month titled, Fallen Elites: The Military Other in Post-Unification Germany by Andrew Bickford. Has anyone else heard about it? Is it worth buying.

Here is Prologue which is an interesting teaser about a meeting with General Baumgarten former head of the Border Guard:

http://www.sup.org/pages.cgi?isbn=08...e_pages&page=1

This website also shows the Table of Contents and provides a 10 page excerpt of Chapter 1. It'd obviously written for an academic audience, so I don't expect a real page turner.

These are dark times if a General drives a Trabant.

**ehrentitle** · 04-03-2011, 05:22 AM

Originally posted by Drugo View Post

These are dark times if a General drives a Trabant.

I suspect that meeting took place more than a decade ago when he was on his Fulbright Research Grant in Germany in 1998-1999. According to Bickford's Curriculum Vitae he has been writing scholarly articles on this topic since at least 1999.

**ehrentitle** · 04-03-2011, 05:25 AM

Originally posted by DaveM View Post

Hi Gordon,
I read the Berlin Journal book years ago.... one or two passages were good but overall it was entirely forgettable until you mentioned it....

my copy went in the recycle bin

I have to agree with Dave, read part of it years ago, a forgettable book written in 1991, shortly after the event. I still have a bookmark in my book at the point I stopped reading at the halfway point.

**torstenbel** · 04-03-2011, 08:35 PM

Originally posted by Drugo View Post

These are dark times if a General drives a Trabant.

probably a case of Ostalgia on his part. He would certainly not have been driving a Trabant before 1990.

**jkeegen** · 01-02-2012, 05:07 PM

I received a copy of "Fallen Elites" for Christmas and will provide a report when I finish reading it.

**Mike G.** · 01-02-2012, 05:58 PM

A little more on the subject .....

The author, Andrew Bickford is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at George Mason University.

This might shed a little bit more on the subject matter of the contents of the book:

Military officers are often the first to be considered politically dangerous when a state loses its authority. Overnight, actions once considered courageous are deemed criminal, and men once praised as heroes are redefined as villains. In Fallen Elites, Andrew Bickford examines how states make soldiers and what happens to fallen military elites when they no longer fit into the political spectrum. Gaining unprecedented entry into the lives of former East German officers in unified Germany, Bickford relates how these men and their families have come to terms with the shock of unification, capitalism, and citizenship since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Often caricatured as unrepentant, hard-line communists, former officers recount how they have struggled with their identities and much-diminished roles. Their disillusionment speaks to global questions about the contentious relationship between the military, citizenship, masculinity, and state formation today. Casting a critical eye on Western triumphalism, they provide a new perspective on our own deep-seated assumptions about "soldier making," both at home and abroad.

Heretofore, I knew nothing of this author nor know anything of prior published works he may have authored.

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**ehrentitle** · 01-02-2012, 06:53 PM

This book still sits on my nightstand since I first started reading in April. I got a third of the way through it and lost interest because I didn't find it pleasurable to read. It's full of academic jargon which made reading it more of a chore than it should be. It has some interesting nuggets of information, but not enough to hold my interest.

**ehrentitle** · 04-22-2012, 09:49 PM

After a year I've finally finished to book. Not an easy read, very academic, but still holds some interesting information for those willing to slog thru the academic jargon.

**Hagen** · 04-23-2012, 10:48 AM

After hearing rather ho-hum reviews of this book I tried getting a copy from the library, they couldn't even find me a copy through their network.

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Fallen Elites: The Military Other in Post-Unification Germany

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