As much philosophy and personal review as it is memoir or history, this short "report" by Andersch has some truly great moments. As he moves through his experiences living in the years of the Third Reich, and then finally fighting (or at least traveling with) and then deserting Hitler's forces, Andersch' pre-occupations are philosophical, revolving around personal freedom, justice, and art. The introduction notes that readers will be doing Andersch a disservice to read him as a hero, and that the power of the work comes only when one overlooks his presentation of self. Yet, truly, Andersch doesn't make any attempt to present himself as any sort of a hero. In fact, he speaks instead of what it might mean for him to be heroic, or act heroicly, where instead he constantly carried both cowardice and courage with him at all times, and veered toward cowardice...because cowardice could mean freedom (in life).

This is a short read, and one which is impossible to describe. It speaks honestly of the justice and injustice accompanying non-volunteer armies, citizenship, and even politics, but does so in such a poetic and commonplace language that the words are artful and lasting. Whether it should be considered memoir, philosophy, or history is for each individual reader to decide. It should, however, be read.

Recommended. ( )

Quite a number of German authors who started their career at the time of the Nazi German Third Reich, and became celebrated authors of the postwar period, are now forgotten or in disrepute. Especially those writers who did not go into exile are under fire as their integrity is questioned. For many authors whose career was built during the late 1940s to circa mid 1980s no substantial evidence existed except for personal testimonies by eye witnesses or close relations with whom they may have shared the most intimate details of their personal histories. These personal testimonies are only recently appearing or made known to the public. In some cases, as with Alfred Andersch speculation has proved to be without foundation. Still, any dispute of an author's moral integrity must negatively influence readers' ideas, even though the value of the authors' works are not reevaluated.

The essay by W.G. Sebald in "On the Natural History of Destruction" basically started the controversy around Alfred Andersch. That essay, "Between the devil and the deep blue sea. Alfred Andersch. Das Verschwinden in der Vorsehung" was first published in 1993. It was then included in the German first edition of Luftkrieg und Literatur: Mit einem Essay zu Alfred Andersch, This book was later published in a slightly different form and expanded to include two more essays as On the natural History of Destruction: With Essays on Alfred Andersch, Jean Améry and Peter Weiss (English trans. Anthea Bell (2003).

Sebald's essay marks the beginning of a 20-year controversy around the moral integrity of the German author Alfred Andersch, among others. This controversy has not been concluded.

Anyone interested to read postwar German literature, written by authors who were basically aged 18 before 1944, and may or may not have been active as writers during the period of the Third Reich, while not living in exile, should be aware of possible controversy around their authorship and moral integrity. Similar debates regularly flare up over other German authors belonging to that generation, and many of these controversies started or were refueled by new, recent discoveries in the 1990s or even through to the present, as I showed in my reviews of autobiographical work of Luise Rinser in various reviews last year. These controversies and attacks have bothered the Nobel Prize winner Günter Grass as well as several other members of the socalled Gruppe 47 (Engl. "Group 47", originally founded by Alfred Andersch, and others such as Wolfgang Koeppen, Christa Wolf, Peter Huchel, Günter Eich and Martin Walser.

The controversy around Alfred Andersch relates in particular to his representation of the facts around his marriage, and the suggested strategic use of that marriage to his own advantages. Die Kirschen der Freiheit (Cherries of Freedom) takes a key position in that debate, with Rolf Seubert claiming that, after detailed analysis of the manuscript and external documents "in „Kirschen der Freiheit“ kaum ein Detail mit den Quellen und Berichten übereinstimme." (hardly any detail corresponds with the sources). These details relate to Andersch position in the Communist youth organization, the duration of his imprisonment in concentration camp Dachau, factual observations in Dachau, his release from the German army, his marriage and anullment thereof and his status as a POW in 1944.

The main discussion, and the issue or moral integrity, raised by W.G. Sebald is about his marriage. In 1935, Alfred Andersch married Angelika Albert, who was half-Jewish. Conscripted into the German army (Wehrmacht) in 1940, Andersch met and fell in love with Gisela Groneuer while he was on leave in the autumn of 1940. In March 1941, Andersch was released from the army. Andersch claims that his request for release was based on his imprisonment in Dachau, but such imprisonment could not form a ground for release. In fact, reference to that imprisonment would have made his situation worse. In 2008, it was proved that Andersch requested release on the ground of being married with his half-Jewish wife. This release was enabled through the Nürnberger Gesetze (Nürnberg Laws) which forbade conscription of soldiers into the Wehrmacht who were married to partners who were not Arian (Angelika was classified as mixed blood of the first degree). Although his mother-in-law was deported, Angelika and their daughter was apparently and eventually not exposed to any danger. German citizens of mixed ancestry were never persecuted or deported, and were not treated in the way Jewish citizens were.

In the course of 1941, Andersch started an affair with Gisela, with whom he had a baby, and lived separately from his wife from 1942 onwards. Encouraged in his career as an author by Gisela, Andersch applied for the right to publish his work in Germany in 1943. To obtain this right he had to divorce Angelika. In his application he told the commission that he had already divorced from Angelika, which was factaully not true. The actual divorce came through later in 1943. This is supposedly the second case in which Andersch made strategic use of his marriage to Angelika to his own advantage.

As a result of the divorce, Andersch was again conscripted into the German army (Wehrmacht). Following his desertion from the army, described in Die Kirschen der Freiheit (Cherries of Freedom) was captured and locked up as a POW by the Americans in Italy in 1944. During this imprisonment, Andersch claimed to be married to Angelika. This claim constitutes the third time he made strategic use of the marriage to Angelika Albert, as marriage to a "Jewish mongrel" helped him secure his earlier release and the release of his manuscripts which had been confiscated. After the war, Andersch married Gisela.

Throughout the controversy about Alfred Andersch moral integrity, the moral integrity of W.G. Sebald was equally disputed, as Sebald's claims in 1993 were based on very scanty and inconclusive evidence. Sebald's accusations were later strengthened by new discoveries in 2008. However, Alfred Andersch biographer Stephan Reinhardt, in Alfred Andersch. Eine Biographie had already suggested that Andersch marriage to Angelika had floundered. To many, Sebald's position resembles more that of a troublemaker, who did not do sufficient research, and would possibly benefit from the exposure.

The Alfred Andersch controversy is not a small matter. The debate has raged for more than 20 years, since the publication of Reinhardt's biography in 1990 and Sebald's essay in 1993. Several books have been published about it, notably following a conference on the issue in 2010 and Alfred Andersch 'revisited'. Werkbiographische Studien im Zeichen der Sebald-Debatte (2011) by Jörg Döring and Markus Joch (Eds).

The controversy is no longer merely about "proof". In matters of moral integrity over Andersch marriage, it seems the reader must decide which version to believe (with Andersch biographer, who believes the marriage was at an end). In Die Kirschen der Freiheit (Cherries of Freedom), Alfred Andersch has already convincingly argued that fear limits freedom and makes people make choices and do things they would or might not otherwise.

With regard to Die Kirschen der Freiheit (Cherries of Freedom), it needs to be seen to what extent this work is autobiographical.

Die Kirschen der Freiheit is a beautifully written personal account of pre-war Germany and the Nazi period from about 1919 to 1945. It should definitely be considered on a par with for instance Ernst Toller's Eine Jugend in Deutschland.

Andersch biography Die Kirschen der Freiheit starts with the demise of the Munich Soviet Republic (Münchner Räterepublik) in 1919. In subsequent years, with a father who is a fanatic Hitler fan, Alfred became a leader the a Communist youth organization, for which he was arrested and locked up in the concentration camp Dachau in 1933. This instills so much fear in the young Alfred Andersch that after his release he abandons he political activities and turns to the relatively innocent occupation or art and writing. He describes how circumstances force him to cheer and welcome Hitler as the new Reichskanzler a few months later, waving a little flag as Hitler's motorcade passes through the streets.

Next, the autobiography describes how Andersch, who was conscripted into the German army (Wehrmacht) since 1940, deserted from his unit while fighting on the last front in Italy in June 1944. While his desertion seems frightfully simple, the reader is persuaded to feel the fear of doing so, as recapture would inevitably have meant immediate execution.

Apart from a (personal) history, Die Kirschen der Freiheit explores the question to what extent personal human freedom can be said to exist. Obviously, none of Andersch actions and life since his arrest in 1933 were motivated by even the merest semblance of free will, but more likely the result of a lifelong fear. In addition, Andersch explores the question to what extent an oath is binding in creating loyalty to a loathed master. Andersch conclusion is that people are never really free, and that freedom only exists in rare moments, which may possibly even only occur once in a lifetime. For who is ever truly free from fear or duty? ( )