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Black Tulip: The Life and Myth of Erich Hartmann, the World's Top Fighter Ace
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About Black Tulip: The Life And Myth Of Erich
Product Description Black Tulip is the dramatic story of history's top fighter ace, Luftwaffe pilot Erich Hartmann. It's also the story of how his service under Hitler was simplified and elevated to Western mythology during the Cold War. Over 1,404 wartime missions, Hartmann claimed a staggering 352 airborne kills, and his career contains all the dramas you would expect. There were the frostbitten fighter sweeps over the Eastern Front, drunken forays to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, a decade of imprisonment in the wretched Soviet POW camps, and further military service during the Cold War that ended with conflict and angst. Just when Hartmann’s second career was faltering, he was adopted by a network of writers and commentators personally invested in his welfare and reputation. These men, mostly Americans, published elaborate, celebratory stories about Hartmann and his elite fraternity of Luftwaffe pilots. With each dogfight tale put into print, Hartmann’s legacy became loftier and more secure, and his complicated service in support of Nazism faded away. A simplified, one-dimensional account of his life—devoid of the harder questions about allegiance and service under Hitler—has gone unchallenged for almost a generation. Black Tulip locates the ambiguous truth about Hartmann and so much of the German Wehrmacht in general: that many of these men were neither full-blown Nazis nor impeccable knights. They were complex, contradictory, and elusive. This book portrays a complex human rather than the heroic caricature we’re used to, and it argues that the tidy, polished hero stories we’ve inherited about men like Hartmann say as much about those who've crafted them as they do about the heroes themselves. Table of Contents Introduction Part 1: Inheritances 1. ‘The force that is devoted to death’ 2. Harmony 3. The demolition function 4. Jugend 5. Into the Luftwaffe Part 2: Hartmann’s wars 6. Kills 7. Against Stalin’s falcons 8. Recognition and attrition 9. Into captivity 10.The east and the west 11. Old gray ghosts Part 3: Stories told 12. Marketing the Wehrmacht 13. The first, the last, the family 14: What we can say Conclusion Review ''Well-written, thought provoking.''-- "Aeroplane Monthly" ''Highly recommended for aviation fans...''-- "Detail Scale View" ''If you are attracted to the idea of a book that attempts to explore, lucidly, the Nazi period German serviceman's mindset and which uses Hartmann as its fulcrum, then this might appeal.''-- "The Aviation Historian" ''What sets this book apart is the in depth analysis of who Hartmann was and whether his reputation is apt and why he was and still is held in such high regard. It's a fascinating book and I highly recommend it.''-- "Aviation Enthusiast Book Club" "I am jealous. This is a wonderfully different--and wonderfully written--work. Schmidt is no fawning fanboy of the 'Greatest Ace of All Time.' Instead, he is a sympathetic and insightful researcher who has produced an engrossing and thoughtfully wandering analysis of the multi-dimensional Hartmann that is unlike, and better than, anything ever done. Get this one."--Jay Stout, author of Vanished Hero and Unsung Eagles "A fascinating insight into the making of a flying legend ... exposes through rigorous analysis how myths are made, and sometimes used, to excuse one of the most evil mass slaughters in history."-- "RAF News" "Portrays a complex human ... Black Tulip does much to fill in the backstory of the greatest fighter ace." -- "Flight Journal" About the Author Erik Schmidt has made a career of researching complicated topics. A former magazine editor and senior marketing writer, he has an MFA in creative nonfiction and a lifelong love of history and aviation. He is a freelance writer living in Denver, Colorado with his family.
