New Release: The Black Eagle Inn by Christoph Fischer.
This is the final installment in Christoph Fischer's Three Nations Trilogy.
Why I wrote THE BLACK EAGLE INN
Early feedback to my
third book in the Three Nations Trilogy stated that it would probably
be of most interest for people with a German heritage. As author I
had to ask myself: could this novel bear relevance and interest for
other people and non-German readers? The answer is yes.
I was born 25 years
after the end of the war. Our history lessons at school ended with
the year 1945. One of the most urgent and important questions
remained unanswered for me: How did a country with so much shame and
horror in its past recover and move forward? How could it? I don’t
think anything can ever make up for what has happened and nobody can
forgive or atone for the collective guilt. But can the new generation
ever deservedly rid itself of the stigma the previous generation has
brought to the country?
Apart from the actual
family story in my book I hope a great point of interest will be the
way different characters carry on with their life and develop their
philosophies, outlooks and politics. De-nazification, restructuring
of a political landscape and implementation of new state leaders are
issues the book touches upon. Only ten years after the end of the war
a wave of Italian and Turkish Immigrants filled the hole in the
German employment market, but how did the Nation respond to those
foreigners (named Gastarbeiter)? Ten years after that a new right
wing party formed and threatened to tip the political balance and
bring new shame to the nation.
The Sixties brought the
Bader Meinhoff Complex, student revolts and many family conflicts
instigated by the generation born after WWII. Many of those were
disillusioned with politics and turned violent. It took a new
generation of politicians to instigate a modernisation of German
society.
The year of my birth
Chancellor Willy Brand famously fell on his knees in Warsaw, humbly
honouring a monument for the victims Warsaw Uprising. An important
symbolic gesture after previous governments tried too hastily to move
on from the dark past. My book covers a lot of ground about post war
Germany and should be interesting for those whose knowledge of
Germany also ends with 1945. We know about the Nuremberg Trials and
the Nazi’s on the run in South America, but what about the little
man, guilty or not? What does he do with this broken country?
What is your personal
experience with the issues in the book?
I grew up with the
first generation of children of mixed marriages and Gastarbeiter
families and I experienced them being treated badly by some but also
very welcoming by others. I grew up in times of a United Europe,
exchange students and pop music from Italy, France, Britain and
America. For me other nations and cultures were never anything but an
exciting cultural enrichment and I adored the people in my generation
who had a similar vision and worked hard to make such a mentality
part of a modern Germany.
Of the three books THE
BLACK EAGLE INN is the one that is closest to my own life experience
although I was born around the time the story ends. While all three
books deal with family sagas vaguely similar to some of my ancestors,
this story takes place in an environment and times that I know almost
first hand. Yet, there were an awful lot of facts that I only learnt
about while researching the foundations for the book. I hope it helps
to understand more about the path of the German people from its past
to the current state.
*****
A New Germany?
Can a leopard ever
change its spots and can a Nation ever change? Is Germany trying to
take over the European Union in militant fashion as some people
claim? Are Germans always rigid, organised and pushy? Did Mussolini’s
fascism stem from a reminiscent ‘Roman’ megalomania? Is there
something inherently unchangeable in the makeup of a Nation?
Confronted with often
harsh stereotypes of Nazi-esque Germans in film, television and
conversations abroad it seems that a certain image sticks to us
Germans in the view of other Nations. I left the country 20 years ago
and often see the Germans from the outside perspective with similar
eyes and cringe at some innocent remarks by my compatriots and their
sometimes only misunderstood behaviours. Yet some of these
stereotypes can reinforce undifferentiated ideas about German
mentality and politics.
My book is by no means
a glorification of the German nation. As much as I love my place of
origin I am happy where I live now. By having written a somewhat
political book about post-war Germany I hope to paint a more balanced
and more complex picture about its past and its people. Like every
country in the world Germany should remain a work in progress of
continuous development and improvement.
****
Religion in THE BLACK
EAGLE INN
Most of my characters
in this book are Catholics and some of them are not portrayed
favourably even though other Catholics are written with more
differentiation. I would like to point out however in any case that
by no means do I intend to condemn religion or Catholicism as a
whole.
Implied criticism of
those devout Catholic characters is directed at the dogmatism of
some, which also shows in their political and other beliefs and
behaviours. Certain outdated beliefs and practices are part of the
historically accurate portrayal of the times and places. Misuse of
religion and Bible quotes for personal gain or political goals are as
old as religion itself and are not limited to Catholicism.
I would like you to
know that I have the most profound respect for any responsible
religious person who uses their respective belief system to become a
better person and to better the world with love and tolerance of
others.
Politics in THE BLACK
EAGLE INN
To write about any
Nation and its generational renewal party politics are difficult to
avoid, even more so in the case of Germany where for 12 years one
party dictated world history. In one plotline of the book I have gone
deep into the rivalry between the two main parties in post-war
Germany, which exists to this day.
I must apologise for
any perceived bias and any offensive remarks against either of the
parties portrayed. Party politics at the time were more
differentiated than I could afford to showcase them in this book. The
fictional party affiliation of some of my characters in the book was
determined by certain ideas they stand for and which of the actual
parties at the time would have fitted their profile the most.
In my view politicians
of every party can be corrupt as they can be idealists. By no means
would I like to imply that I favour the politicians of one party of
another. My book is not a manifesto for political ideas per se but
for humanitarian ideas that should be the foundation for any type of
politics.
Politics can also be a
frustrating and hard business and I applaud all of the idealists who
go into politics and struggle hard for their visions and beliefs. I
do not have the endurance for it myself and would like to thank those
who have done so and who selflessly help to form and shape Germany
into a modern state that has learnt from its past.
Sebastian
is the story of a young man who has his leg amputated before World
War I. When his father is drafted to the war it falls on to him to
run the family grocery store in Vienna, to grow into his
responsibilities, bear loss and uncertainty and hopefully find
love.
Sebastian Schreiber, his extended family, their friends and the store employees experience the ‘golden days’ of pre-war Vienna and the timed of the war and the end of the Monarchy while trying to make a living and to preserve what they hold dear.
Fischer convincingly describes life in Vienna during the war, how it affected the people in an otherwise safe and prosperous location, the beginning of the end for the Monarchy, the arrival of modern thoughts and trends, the Viennese class system and the end of an era.
As in the first part of the trilogy, “The Luck of The Weissensteiners” we are confronted again with themes of identity, Nationality and borders. The step back in time made from Book 1 and the change of location from Slovakia to Austria enables the reader to see the parallels and the differences deliberately out of the sequential order. This helps to see one not as the consequence of the other, but to experience them as the momentary reality as it must have felt for the people at the time.
The Luck of the
Weissensteiners (Three Nations Trilogy Book 1)
In the sleepy town of
Bratislava in 1933 a romantic girl falls for a bookseller from
Berlin. Greta Weissensteiner, daughter of a Jewish weaver, slowly
settles in with the Winkelmeier clan just as the developments in
Germany start to make waves in Europe and re-draws the visible and
invisible borders. The political climate in the multifaceted cultural
jigsaw puzzle of disintegrating Czechoslovakia becomes more complex
and affects relations between the couple and the families. The story
follows them through the war with its predictable and also its
unexpected turns and events and the equally hard times after.
But this is no ordinary romance; in fact it is not a romance at all, but a powerful, often sad, Holocaust story. What makes The Luck of the Weissensteiners so extraordinary is the chance to consider the many different people who were never in concentration camps, never in the military, yet who nonetheless had their own indelible Holocaust experiences. This is a wide-ranging, historically accurate exploration of the connections between social location, personal integrity and, as the title says, luck.
But this is no ordinary romance; in fact it is not a romance at all, but a powerful, often sad, Holocaust story. What makes The Luck of the Weissensteiners so extraordinary is the chance to consider the many different people who were never in concentration camps, never in the military, yet who nonetheless had their own indelible Holocaust experiences. This is a wide-ranging, historically accurate exploration of the connections between social location, personal integrity and, as the title says, luck.
On Amazon:
http://bookshow.me/B00AFQC4QC
On Goodreads:
http://bit.ly/12Rnup8
On Facebook:
http://on.fb.me/1bua395
Sebastian (Three
Nations Trilogy Book 2)
Sebastian
is the story of a young man who has his leg amputated before World
War I. When his father is drafted to the war it falls on to him to
run the family grocery store in Vienna, to grow into his
responsibilities, bear loss and uncertainty and hopefully find
love.Sebastian Schreiber, his extended family, their friends and the store employees experience the ‘golden days’ of pre-war Vienna and the timed of the war and the end of the Monarchy while trying to make a living and to preserve what they hold dear.
Fischer convincingly describes life in Vienna during the war, how it affected the people in an otherwise safe and prosperous location, the beginning of the end for the Monarchy, the arrival of modern thoughts and trends, the Viennese class system and the end of an era.
As in the first part of the trilogy, “The Luck of The Weissensteiners” we are confronted again with themes of identity, Nationality and borders. The step back in time made from Book 1 and the change of location from Slovakia to Austria enables the reader to see the parallels and the differences deliberately out of the sequential order. This helps to see one not as the consequence of the other, but to experience them as the momentary reality as it must have felt for the people at the time.
On Amazon:
http://bookshow.me/B00CLL1UY6
On Goodreads:
http://ow.ly/pthHZ
On Facebook:
http://ow.ly/pthNy
The Black Eagle Inn
(Three Nations Trilogy Book 3)
The Black Eagle Inn is
an old established Restaurant and Farm business in the sleepy
Bavarian countryside outside of Heimkirchen. Childless Anna
Hinterberger has fought hard to make it her own and keep it running
through WWII. Religion and rivalry divide her family as one of her
nephews, Markus has got her heart and another nephew, Lukas got her
ear. Her husband Herbert is still missing and for the wider family
life in post-war Germany also has some unexpected challenges in
store.
Once again Fischer
tells a family saga with war in the far background and weaves the
political and religious into the personal. Being the third in the
Three Nations Trilogy this book offers another perspective on war,
its impact on people and the themes of nations and identity.
On Facebook:
http://ow.ly/pAX3y
On Goodreads:
http://ow.ly/pAX8G
Short Biography:
Christoph Fischer was
born in Germany, near the Austrian border, as the son of a
Sudeten-German father and a Bavarian mother. Not a full local in the
eyes and ears of his peers he developed an ambiguous sense of
belonging and home in Bavaria. He moved to Hamburg in pursuit of his
studies and to lead a life of literary indulgence. After a few years
he moved on to the UK where he is still resident today. ‘The Luck
of The Weissensteiners’ was published in November 2012; 'Sebastian'
in May 2013.He has written several other novels which are in the
later stages of editing and finalisation.
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