Buchheim's Books
 

Well i've been to the end of the internet and back looking for all of Buchheim's books, most of which can't be bought online.
I was wondering what books (non-fiction and about the war/u-boats) he has written (i'm sure i've missed out a few) and if they're any good (if they include photos too).

So far I know there is:

• Zu Tode Gesiegt
• Die U-Boot Fahrer
• U Boot Krieg
• Jäger im Weltmeer
• U 96. Szenen aus dem Seekrieg. Ein Film. (is this the one about what he would've done different with Das Boot?)
• Der Film. Das Boot. Mit über 250 Farb- und Schwarzweis-Abbildungen. (is this the "film journal" one?)
• Der Film 'Das Boot'. Sonderausgabe. Ein Journal (or is this the journal one?)

Think that's it aside from the novels he wrote also set during the war (anyone have any opinions on those btw?)...

I have U-Boat War (though a cheap version) and am planning on collecting his books in both german and english and different publishers/versions/prints/whatever. For example, I have 3 versions of Das Boot on DVD (TV series, Directors Cut Superbit version and the normal widescreen Directors Cut) haha.

From what I understand, most of Buchheim's work has never been translated into English or released for publication in English-speaking markets. So if you're trying to find something for sale in the US you may be hard pressed to locate a seller, even online.

At Amazon.com, almost everything that comes up in a search is only available through third-party sellers, and most of those seem to have used copies only. I got U-Boat War that way (used library copy) and I'm happy with it.

I've searched for things at Amazon.de but unfortunately the German site never lets me actually buy anything. :cry:

Sorry I should've mentioned that I was looking online for these books internationally. I'm actually from NZ and we wouldn't have anything aside from Das Boot here so i've already set my sights on German/European websites that sell his books. I picked up my U Boat War from Canada (English version) and i'm not too bothered about getting the others in German. There are several German sites which sell the three books together for about 45 euro but they're all out of stock.

I have some German friends who probably could help me out with Amazon.de or buying from a third party seller. Postage is going to be a b|tch though.

Sorry for the misunderstanding - but yeah, finding them in any language in any English-language market is going to be difficult. Das Boot aside, they're just not that well-known; the subject matter, dear as it is to many hearts here, doesn't really appeal to a huge number of people, which no doubt limits their availability world-wide as much as the language barrier does.

I don't know that they've even been published in anything except German (someone who knows better please correct me if I'm wrong), if that's the case then Amazon.de or another German/European source is probably your best bet.

Besides the semi-fictious "Die Festung" are these are all of his books which cover the war.
As you probably know the first 3 are photo books with only little text, so you can enjoy them without knowing German - though you didn't mention if you can read the language. Sometimes you can find all of them as a bundle on ebay.de
"Jäger im Weltmeer" is still in print, should be easy to find. The last third of the bokk are photos - at least in my edition, so you want to go for the version with the most pages :03:
"U96" is a female dog to find, been looking for it since quite a time. This one is the script Buchheim wrote before the script for the Boot movie was written (by somebody else).
The last two have the same content, the latter is the newer edition, but it has the same cover and pages as "Der Film Das Boot", which I have and can only recommend. A quick search on amazon.de showed that you can buy it used for as little as 79 cent (plus postage) IIRC there are only one or two articles in this book which are written by Buchheim himself.

Buchheim's (written) criticism about the movie is an article you can find in an old "Geo" magazine. It's called "Die Wahrheit blieb auf Tauchstation" and can be found here: http://www.kbismarck.com/u-boot/uartikel_geo1981.htm Some guy here at subsim did a fine job and translated the article into English, you can find the thread here: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom//showthread.php?t=113386

"Die Festung" is a bit boring/long in the beginning, but the second half when they are finally on (in?) the boat is quite intense and well-written.

If you are looking for used books in Germany I can recommend you to type "Antiquariat" (used book store) into your search engine. Here are links to two of the better ones to check out: http://www.abebooks.de/ and http://www.antiquariate.de/ They both have search functions.

For postage to NZ you can use the search on http://www.posttip.de/ to find the cheapest parcel service - depending on the weight of the books.

Wow, thanks for the info!

np, I'm glad if I can help, I got into submarines through the TV series and the book, with my interest "refueled" through SH3:arrgh!:

Vielen Dank! I studied German for 3 years at High School and have been learning a little by hanging around lots of Germans who come on exchange to NZ:yeah:

So I can read a little bit but not enough to be able to understand the German books by Buchheim. I always do English homework for my German friends so perhaps they can pay me back and translate parts of his books:DL

Gerne!:salute:
If you want to train your listening comprehension, there will also be an audio book of "Das Boot" published in October called "Das Boot: Schall & Wahn". I haven't found out if it is abridged but it is read by Dieter Bär, one of our good actors who speaks a very clear German. Should be easier to understand than the often mumbling U-96 crew from the movie ;)