A House in Berlin is an epic novel covering the period from 1939 to the summer of 1944. It follows actual events, and provides plausible interactions between fictional and historical characters. ***** During World War II, Germany wasn't a pleasant environment. It was especially difficult for: - Dieter, an army officer who served in the Great War. His wounded leg had never fully healed. When called up again, he was initially confined to a desk job in army intelligence. He was passing information to the British and risked being shot as a spy; - Clara, the woman Dieter loved, had a mysterious past and was afraid for her life; - Ernst, a top salesman for Krupp before the war, lost his job when Hitler stopped all sales of steel outside the Reich. Unable to find other employment, he accepted a commission in the army; - Paula, who left and divorced Ernst when he could no longer support her life style; - Berthold, Ernst's brother, who enlisted in the Luftwaffe but was too tall to fit in the cockpit of a fighter; - Karl, a fanatic Nazi and Himmler's nephew, who served in the SS but was disgraced in battle. With his uncle's help Karl found a job as a Gestapo inspector, which gave him leverage to pursue Dieter, his competitor for Clara. As the war progressed and went badly for Germany, life became even less pleasant for: - Berthold, shot down over the coast of England; - Dieter, suddenly removed from his desk job, trained hastily as a tank commander, and sent to the Russian front. Himmler arranged that he was to be kept in action until he was killed; - Clara, hiding under a fake identity because the Gestapo suspected she was Jewish; - Heinz, a brilliant Panzer general fired by Hitler for lack of satisfactory progress in terrible winter conditions; - and - - Klaus, a Bavarian noble who learned that Hitler survived the bomb he planted. **** As things fall apart, Dieter and Clara flee. Karl and his Gestapo henchman wait for them and spring their trap.
About the Author: I love to read and write historical fiction, science fiction/fantasy. I like to imagine societies that differ from ours -- always looking for the perfect one: the Utopia, and trying to figure out what it could be like. The opposite, the dystopia, also interests me. My Wizard's World explores several societies, and A House in Berlin explores life in a dystopia -- the Third Reich. I grew up in Springfield, Missouri, graduated Central High 1950, attended Drury and Southwest Missouri State. I currently live in Eastern Kansas. I've been writing, mostly as a hobby, since around 1990. After I retired from business, I attended creative writing classes at Washington University in St. Louis. I'm a blogger. My shtick is political commentary. bio: Retired - Widower - former long time computer consultant to many medium and large firms, with extensive and varied experience in business. I got in on the ground floor with large mainframe computers, and when I retired they were on their way out - even faster than I was. Interconnected personal computers were on the way in. I have a fairly long perspective, and I remember what I was doing when my family first heard the radio announcement that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor. It was a Sunday afternoon, and I was sitting on the floor, near the family radio, playing with bubblegum cards of warplanes - British, German, and Italian. Europe had been at war for more than a year, and many thought it possible, or even wanted, war with Germany, but no one I knew expected war with Japan. I was still a kid, too young to go. During World War II, I eagerly read newspapers and watched newsreels in the movies. I sold and delivered newspapers during the war. I sold the extra editions for D-Day, Roosevelt's death, Germany Surrenders, Hiroshima, and Japan Surrenders. After I grew up a bit, I went to college, was drafted, served two years in the army including a year in Germany. This was about eight years after the war ended, so a lot of damage was still visible there. The people were damaged as well. So much for my early perspective. I've lived through World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam war, the Cold War, both Iraq wars, 9-11, Afghanistan, and the War on Poverty. I've been blitzed by many technical advances: penicillin, jet aircraft, television, computers, transistors, the Internet, iPads and iPods, smart phones, and on and on. -- William R. Dameron