Die Brücke

 

"Die Brücke" is based on the West German anti-war novel written by Gregor Dorfmeister under the pseudonym of Manfred Gregor. The book is based on a true event in Germany during the last days of the Second World War.

 

May 1945. Somewhere in Germany. Only a few days before the capitulation. Seven Hitler-youth, who’ve been stuck into Wehrmacht uniforms, are deployed to defend a bridge of no strategic significance, equipped with nothing more than a few carbines and bazookas. Abandoned by their senior officer, helplessly torn between a thirst for adventure and a confused belief that they must save the Fatherland, they take up the futile struggle just as the American tanks roll in.

 

Unfortunate for those who never got past "La plume de ma tante" in their elementary French language instructions, the book is available online only in French - click here

 

"The Bridge", which achieved worldwide success as a book in 1958, followed by the equally successful film in 1959 (followed by a television remake in 2008 - click for the trailer here), is a memorial to a duped generation that was sent to the slaughter in the final days of the War.

 

 

The publication of the book and the release of the film did nothing to popularise the "Wehrpflicht" (conscription) which began in 1956. My turn came in 1963 when I had turned 18. Despite fallen arches and prescription glasses, I was given the all-clear and a shiny new "Wehrpass" with the instructions not to leave town (or worse, the country) which I did, with the help of the Australian embassy, in 1965.

 

 

Better to serve two years as an assisted migrant in Australia than eighteen months under some sadistic "Feldwebel" in the "Bundeswehr".

Sixty years later, I am still here!

 

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The world's worst title for a book ever

 

Read the book online at www.archive.org

 

Heinrich Hoffman was a key part in the making of the Hitler legend, the photographer who carefully crafted the image of the Führer as a godlike figure. Hoffmann published his first book of photographs in 1919, following his work as an official photographer for the German army.

In 1920 he joined the Nazi Party, and his association with Hitler began. He became Hitler's official photographer and travelled with him extensively. He took over two million photographs of Hitler, and they were distributed widely, including on postage stamps, an enterprise that proved very profitable for both men. Hoffmann published several books on Hitler in the 1930s, including "The Hitler Nobody Knows" (1933).

Hoffmann and Hitler were very close, and he acted not only as a personal confidante but also as a matchmaker; it is Hoffmann who introduced Eva Braun, his studio assistant, to Hitler. Unlike millions of others, Hoffmann survived the war and died in 1957, aged 72.

 

 

The book also includes a photograph of Adolf Hitler that so embarrassed him he banned it from being published. It shows the Führer in his lederhosen, striking a more "camp" than "commandant" pose as he awkwardly leans against a tree with his hands in his pockets.

 

 

I haven't had time yet to read Heinrich Hoffmann's "Hitler Was My Friend", as I'm still trying to finish the one about his kampfy chair.

 

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Tell 'em they're dreamin'!

 

 

On this first day of spring, as warm and sunny as it turned out to be, I felt a bit flat, and so I turned to an old-time favourite to cheer me up: "The Castle", still considered one of the most iconic and greatest Australian films ever made.

It's all about every Australian family's dream. A quarter-acre block. A Pool Room. A barbie. And an airport over the back fence.

Shot in eleven days on a budget of just A$750,000, on its cinema release in Australia on 10 April 1997, it grossed A$10,326,428 at the box office. Some of the quotes from the movie have become part of the Australian vernacular, none more so than Darryl's "Tell 'em they're dreamin'!"

 

"How's the serenity?"

"That's going straight to the pool room!"

"It's the Constitution, it's Mabo, it's the vibe..."

"What are you calling an eyesore? It's called a home ya dickhead!"

"It's not just a house... it's a home!"

"Dad, he reckons powerlines are a reminder of man's ability to generate electricity."

"The real estate agent said 'location location location' and we were right next to the airport!"

"Dad still can’t work out how he got it so cheap. It’s worth almost as much today as when we bought it."

"We're right next to the airport. It'll be very convenient if we ever have to fly one day."

"He say plane fly overhead, drop value. I don't care. In Beirut, plane fly over, drop bomb. I like these planes."

"Dad reckons fishing is 10% brains and 95% muscle, the rest is just good luck."

"Tell 'em they're dreamin'!"

 

Michael Caton, who was 54 years old at the time, was paid $3,000 for his starring role as Darryl Kerrigan. Caton later said that the real value of the film came from the decades of career opportunities it created for him afterward, because it sent his career straight to the pool room.

 

 

There are only trailers and other bits and pieces on YouTube. And there's no point in hoping to find a cheap copy at your local op-shop, as over the years I must've have bought them all to give as a present to visitors to "Riverbend" and give to friends here or send to friends overseas.

If you want to see the full movie, you can still buy it on ebay, or by clicking here, after which you can take it straight to your pool room.

 

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The Thirty-Nine Steps

 

 

I always thought that "The Thirty-Nine Steps" was just another Alfred Hotchcock movie until I discovered the slim hundred-page book by John Buchan of the same name. As the book's Introduction tells me, it is one of five novels which have Richard Hannay as hero, the others being "Greenmantle", "Mr Standfast", "The Three Hostages", and "The Island of Sheep".

"The Thirty-Nine Steps" is significant as being the first true espionage adventure, following "The Riddle of the Sands" by Erskine Childers, which was made into a beautiful movie in the U.K., and also in Germany where it was filmed in the Frisian Islands off the North Sea coast.

 

Listen to a radio dramatisation here
Read the book here

 

I've just copied the above audiobook onto a USB stick to take to bed with me for some four hours of listening pleasure under my electric blanket on this penultimate winter's night. See you all in the morning.

 

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P.S. Don't pick on me for using the word 'penultimate'. I'd never used it either until I worked for the American construction company Bechtel Corporation on Bougainville Island. Americans love big words - well, except for the Donald perhaps - and after one of them had used this word in one of his memos, it spread like wildfire, with some even adding an extra paragraph to their memos so that they could refer to the 'penultimate paragraph'. The words 'penultimate' and 'Bougainville' will be one and the same for me until I draw my penultimate breath.

 

I know you won't read this book ...

 

Read the book online at archive.org

 

Under the noses of British intelligence, London has become the European hub for the promotion, recruitment and financing of Islamic terror and extremism - so much so that it has been mockingly dubbed Londonistan. In this ground-breaking book Melanie Phillips pieces together the story of how Londonistan developed as a result of the collapse of traditional English identity and accommodation of a particularly virulent form of multiculturalism. Londonistan has become a country within the country and not only threatens Britain but the rest of the Western world.

 

 

I know you won't read this book - well, at least not until it's too late to do anything about it - so I've found you two video clips of a speech by the author, Melanie Phillips. It received a total of altogether FIVE!!! thumbs-up on YouTube which says it all about the apathy of the West.

Now go back to watching "Gardening Australia".

 

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