Talk:Hans Hellmut Kirst

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I think this project schould be upgraded a bit. HH Kirst is no doubt a very good writer, who during the 50's , 60's and 70's has became world-wide wellknown and very productive wrighter. He is translated into at least 20 languages. 83.249.34.105 (talk) 02:05, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

There also seems to be some confusion regarding Party Games (1980) In the text there is no mention of Gunner Asch. The protagonist is a Konrad Breitbach. Asch appears at no stage in the work. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.45.118.231 (talk) 15:01, 26 September 2012 (UTC)

References needed

This article contains some statements that sound like personal opinions, with no references to back them up. "Not even Peter O'Toole at his (sic) height of his career could save the bad film manuscript. The film is often used as an example of how an excellent book is twisted around to something completely different." Strangely, the article about the film claims that it follows the book fairly closely. RenniePet (talk) 10:31, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

Nazi Atrocities

"Kirst is best remembered as the creator of the "Gunner Asch" series which detailed the ongoing struggle of an honest individual to maintain his identity and humanity amidst the criminality and corruption of Nazi Germany." That is not entirely true. The 08/15 trilogy is mainly about the tradition of overly and needlessly hard military drill in the German armies throughout history. Gunner Asch (actually, he is lance-corporal initially, rising to lieutenant via the ranks of corporal and sergeant in the course of the trilogy) discusses, for example, drilling in the Imperial German Army before and during WW1, with his stalwart father in law who adds interesting points of view to Asch's reflections. What became of Gunner Asch, (German title 08/15 heute, literal translation: 08/15 Today) broaches the topic of overly hard drilling for the West German Bundeswehr. (Actually, I was shocked that drilling like that was still employed then. The book was published, I think, in 1965.) So the topic of Nazi Germany is clearly secondary to the trilogy. I am not criticising the book or Kirst, just stating facts.

Hark Hark The Lark (talk) 10:16, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

And in fact, watching the movies (I did not read the books) and comparing them with the first part of that other movie always associated with drilling soldiers might be an interesting exercise. The drill is, in all, less harsh or at least seems so; there is little shouting and they only insult them when they mean it (and then with only one insulting expression and not a litany of them); the "get down! jump up march march" drill, called "manners of movement in the area" in the ministerial directives, is actually a lot of fun (at least if you do it, as my company did, not an afternoon long but an hour or so, and in wet grass, not in mud); the drill instructors apparently aren't told to leave their personality behind: their delight in owning their recruits is shown in detail, but they do not treat them with unpersonality, and are actually capable of being friendly also. (Only Cpt Witterer who sacrifices Cpl Vierbein for the faint hope of a decoration, in the second movie, is truly depicted as an evil figure.)--131.159.0.47 (talk) 20:08, 4 February 2016 (UTC)

Translated titles

It's not very clear which book (in German) is which book in English)

Perhaps put the original titles next to the English ones (or vice versa) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:1812:6:DB00:5CFF:EB8F:C3EF:9561 (talk) 12:10, 19 February 2014 (UTC)