Reichert, Gerrit U 96. Realität und Mythos

Lothar Günther Buchheim published his international bestseller Das Boot in 1973. This special edition of the fourth edition of U 96. Realität und Mythos includes one of the last 150 diaries of the chief engineer of the submarine, Friedrich Grade, making it a real collector's item. Based on a wealth of previously undiscovered facts, such as the private diaries of the chief engineer of U 96, Friedrich Grade, it traces Das Boot as a propaganda myth whose threads reach into the present day. It reveals Buchheim's true role as a PK with a sensational re-evaluation of his activities for Nazi propaganda. It describes the connection between reality and myth that made U 96 a story for the ages and destroyed the friendship between the Old Man and Lothar-Günther Buchheim. And it reveals exclusively where exactly the physical remains of U 96 are buried. Das Boot is the most successful submarine story of the post-war period. It was told by Lothar-Günther Buchheim, a member of a propaganda company in the Kriegsmarine (PK). He and the Old Man, Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, commander of U96, met in 1941 on the legendary Sägefisch submarine. They became friends, but their friendship broke down shortly before Lehmann-Willenbrock's death. Why? The answer lies in the war and what Lothar-Günther Buchheim shaped it into in Das Boot and many other submarine books. What was reality, what was fictional myth?