J'accuse: Zwei Jahre in französischer Gefangenschaft

Brausewetter, Max Georg, 1867-1916Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.0
Word count
276K words
Chapters
28

Tags

Foreign Language Books Documentary Literature Fate and FortunePrisoner of War ExperienceHumanistic CareWar ReflectionSocial CritiqueDocumentary NarrativeFranco-German Relations

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.J'accuse (Ich klage an): Zwei Jahre in französischer Gefangenschaft by BrausewetterAuthor: Brausewetter, Max Georg, 1867-1916,Language: German, Class: D501: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: World War I (1914-1918), Release Date: Jul 23, 2016

Editor's review

This memoir records, from a first-person perspective, two years in a French prisoner-of-war camp during the First World War and is a relatively rare German-language text within prisoner-of-war narrative. The author, Brausewetter, writes with a journalist's eye, rendering camp daily life, interpersonal friction, and shifts in status vividly and concretely; the title “J'accuse” itself carries a strong polemical charge, and readers can see from it how war changes the fortunes and judgments of ordinary people. The book suits readers interested in the social history of the First World War, prisoner-of-war studies, or German-language documentary literature, and can also serve as supplementary material for understanding Franco-German relations in wartime. It is best read as a text somewhere between historical source and literature, attending both to the vividness of its detail and to the author's emotions and stance. The Project Gutenberg edition is a free e-book, easy to search and cite, and makes a good starting point for thematic reading.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the title and preface first to clarify whom the “accusation” targets and what the author's stance is, then turn to the main text.
  2. Take brief chronological notes, marking three kinds of content: camp life, interpersonal conflict, and the author's judgments.
  3. Read alongside a history of First World War prisoners or an overview of Franco-German relations, so a single memoir is not mistaken for the whole picture.
  4. After finishing, return to the title and consider the distance between personal narrative and historical judgment.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
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  8. 8
  9. 9
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FAQ

Is this book a novel or a true memoir? It is a documentary memoir written by the author, Max Georg Brausewetter, based on his two years' experience in a French prisoner-of-war camp, with personal observation and emotion; it is not a fictional novel.
Do I need to know German to read this book? The original is in German, and Project Gutenberg offers the German e-book edition. If you do not know German, you might first look for a translation or use translation tools, and read related scholarship to understand the background.
Is this book suitable for researching the history of First World War prisoners of war? It can be used as a first-hand eyewitness source, but it is an individual narrative with a limited perspective. It is best read in comparison with monographs on prisoner-of-war studies, official archives, or memoirs of prisoners of other nationalities.
Why is the book titled “J'accuse”? The title borrows a strongly accusatory tone to express the author's stance toward the injustices he witnessed during his captivity. The specific target of the accusation must be judged from the main text and preface; the whole book should not be summed up from its title alone.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Brausewetter, Max Georg, 1867-1916 Author · German · 1867–1916

Max Georg Brausewetter (1867–1916) was a German writer and editor. He compiled and edited German literary works while also writing fiction, engaging in both editorial and creative practice. His representative work is J’accuse: Zwei Jahre in französischer Gefangenschaft, a title meaning "I Accuse: Two Years in French Captivity." Drawing on his experience as a prisoner of war, the book has a documentary and accusatory character, reflecting wartime personal circumstances and the experience of war. Public information about his life is limited; details of his education, positions, and specific career cannot be reliably confirmed and should not be guessed at. Only one of his works is held in the collection, which is not enough to present his oeuvre fully, yet this single work shows his attention to lived experience and a direct, critical tone.