Saturday, October 10, 2015

"Er ist Wieder Da"

This week.....a new movie appeared on the German landscape.  "Er is Wieder Da" (translated: He is back).

I actually picked up the book in English form, and started it two days ago.

It's a curious book.  Written by Timur Virmes and released in 2012....it's become a big seller.....in the neighborhood of 1.5 to 2 million books sold.  It was so popular....that it got flipped around to a movie and released this past week.

The scope of the book?  Well.....Hitler wakes up in 2011 in a Berlin city park.

Yeah, that's a shocker.  He gets up.....still feeling 56 years old and trying to grasp what happened.  The entire book is written from his prospective.

How he got to 2011?  That's left entirely out.  It might be aliens who dropped him off, or some mad German scientist who put him on ice for 60-odd years.

What Hitler discovers is that Germans are utterly fascinated with him still today, and whatever he says.....they generally support.  They think that he's just an actor and portraying the long dead Chancellor....which is OK with him.  He's back on a mission....to recapture his magic and utilize the tools at hand (TV, the internet, etc).

I admit....the book is witty and clever.  The writer is inventive and works a great tale out of this Hitler idea.

Hitler still a fundamental topic in Germany in 2015?  Yes.  The thing is....Nationalist Socialism sells.  If you wrote down the twenty top goals or agendas from 1932....at least ten of them would be supported today by most Germans.

For the book?  I highly recommend it.  It's a cynical book.....humor-laced, and lays out some great meetings and moments.

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