The Silences of Hammerstein, the latest work from one of Germany's
most significant contemporary authors, engages readers with a blend of a
documentary, collage, narration, and fictional interviews. The gripping
plot revolves around the experiences of real-life German General Kurt
von Hammerstein and his wife and children. A member of an old military
family, a brilliant staff officer, and the last commander of the German
army before Hitler seized power, Hammerstein, who died in 1943 before
Hitler's defeat, was nevertheless an idiosyncratic character. Too old to
be a resister, he retained an independence of mind that was shared by
his children: three of his daughters joined the Communist Party, and two
of his sons risked their lives in the July 1944 Plot against Hitler and
were subsequently on the run till the end of the war. Hammerstein never
criticized his children for their activities, and he maintained contacts
with the Communists himself and foresaw the disastrous end of Hitler's
dictatorship.
In The Silences of Hammerstein, Hans Magnus Enzensberger offers a
brilliant and unorthodox account of the military milieu whose
acquiescence to Nazism consolidated Hitler's power and of the heroic few
who refused to share in the spoils.