Haffner
Sebastian Haffner (born Raimund Pretzel on December 27 1907 Berlin; died January 2 1999) was a German author and journalist.
Life and work
Haffner graduated as a lawyer and worked at the Kammergericht in Berlin as a Referendar.
In 1938 Haffner emigrated from Nazi Germany to London with his Jewish fiancee. He worked as an author and journalist. To protect his familiy in Germany from prosecution he started using the Sebastian Haffner. Under his mentor David Astor, Haffner worked for the London Sunday newspaper "The Observer", where he gradually became the inofficial editor-in-chief. After the war, partly due to differences with Astor, who meanwhile had become publisher of the observer, and with the London editorial office on issues about the division of Germany he became The Observer's correspondent for Germnay in Berlin in 1954. On the day of the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 he left the Observer and started writing for the German newspapers "Die Welt" until 1962 and the "Stern" until 1975. Haffner was frequent guest at the television talkshow Internationaler Frühschoppen of Werner Höfer. Furthermore he had his own television feature at the Berlin TV station SFB. Haffner is considered as one of the best and most successful German authors on history of the 19th and 20th century written for a broader and nonacademic audience.
List of works
(The title translations do not refer to a book available in english. They just give an idea of what the book is about) - 1940 Germany: Jekyll & Hyde. ISBN 3-930-27804-9
- 1964 Die sieben Todsünden des deutschen Reiches im Ersten Weltkrieg - (The Seven Deadly Sins of the German Empire in the First World War)
- 1967 Churchill. Biography. ISBN 3-463-40413-3
- 1968 Der Verrat - (The Treason, about the German Revolution in November 1918)
- 1978 Anmerkungen zu Hitler. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main ISBN 3-596-23489-1 - (Notes on Hitler)
- 1979 Preußen ohne Legende, ISBN 3-442-75544-1 - (Prussia Without Legend)
- 1980 Überlegungen eines Wechselwaehlers. Kindler, München ISBN 3-463-00780-0 - (Thoughts of a Swing Voter)
- 1985 Im Schatten der Geschichte: Historisch-politische Variationen. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart ISBN 3-421-06253-6 - (In The Shadow of History: Variations on History and Politics)
- 1987 Von Bismark zu Hitler: Ein Rückblick. Kindler, München ISBN 3-463-40003-0 - (From Bismarck to Hitler: A Retrospective)
- 1989 Der Teufelspakt: Die deutsch-russischen Beziehungen vom Ersten zum Zweiten Weltkrieg. Manesse, Zürich ISBN 3-717-58121-X - (The Devil's Treaty: The Russo-German Relations Between The First and Second World War)
- 1995 Der Verrat: Deutschland 1918/19. Verlag 1900, Berlin ISBN 3-930-27800-6 - (Reviewed version of Der Verrat)
- 1997 Zwischen den Kriegen. Essays zur Zeitgeschichte. ISBN 3-930-27805-7 - (Between The Wars: Essays on Contemporary History)
- 2000 Geschichte eines Deutschen. Die Erinnerungen 1914-1933. (History of a German. The Memoirs 1914-1933, written around 1940, published posthum) ISBN 3-423-30848-6
- 2000 Defying Hitler. English version of Geschichte eines Deutschen
- 2000 Der Neue Krieg, Alexander Verlag, Berlin. ISBN 3-895-81049-5 - (The New War)
- 2002 Die Deutsche Frage: 1950 - 1961: Von der Wiederbewaffnung bis zum Mauerbau. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main ISBN 3-596-15536-3 - (The German Question 1950-1961: From the Rearmament to The Building of The Wall)
Biography - Uwe Soukup: Ich bin nun mal Deutscher. Sebastian Haffner. Eine Biographie, Berlin (Aufbau-Verlag) 2001 - ISBN 3-351-02526-2
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