Need Franz Kurowski Biography

[Tolga Alkan]

As well as you can see from the title,I'm looking for biography of famous author of many books,Franz Kurowski.

Thanks
Tolga

[Jan-Hendrik]

Famous ? OK , accepted !

But good ? Not really ...

Be aware , it seems has 3 Ghostwriter producing his "books"

Jan-Hendrik

[Uncle Joe]

Have an axe to grind? Your reviews seem to have tones far beyond any fair reviewing standards.

[Jan-Hendrik]

Yed , I have ! I read again and again in forums about Kurowski & his super "books" . Seldom that I find someone who is so honestly to tell the truth : most of his so called "books" are junk-food ! If recheck the stuff you find there you wil come to the conclusion that he "borrowed" the better parts of his books from other authors ( look at his book about Wenck/12th Army 1945 ) and likes to use his phantasy to produce "history" whre he lacks on information . Ask old tank veterans what they think anout his "Landser"-like stories ( common comment "Well , that must have been an other war than the one we survived ) . He "produced" nearly 300 books and uncountable "Landser"-Hefte under "Franz Kurowski , Karl Alman , Volkmar Kühn , Karl Kollatz , and so on ". Do you think that someone who write serious work could to this ? A historian told me once he is the "Konsalik" of the "pseudo-historian guild" .

Or do you reallly think one author could be an expert on ALL themes ? KC-Winners , Campaigns , biographies , Kriegsmarine , Luftwaffe , Panzerwaffe , Panzer ?

Jan-Hendrik

[Marc Rikmenspoel]

My impression is that the inaccuracies in Kurowski's books are mainly because most of his research was done in the 1950s and 60s, and that much new information has come to light. He certainly has recycled materials between various books as he got older. My understanding is that Kurowski was a signaller in WW2 in the Heer, and is now about 80. That information came from John Fedorowicz some years ago.

[Klar zum Gefecht !]

Jan-Hendrik,

first of all don't get me wrong, I totally agree with you on the fact that kurowski's books are not good at all: I recently bought his "Armee Wenck" and it was a waste of money. If Kurowski ever did research of his own, it's outdated and he now fills the gap by rewriting the works of others.

BUT please don't accuse him of having ghostwriters, unless you have serious proof of that.
I'm very sensitive to this matter since my father is also a writer who writes a lot (3 books a year minimal, he just never stops)...because of that some people who don't like his works accuse him of having ghostwriters. They have all right to dislike his work, find it fast written without deep research ( and I agree with them) but it's unfair to raise the accusation of not writing one's books, which the most insulting for a writer...
the same goes for Kurowski.

[Michael Kenny]

I once did a search on him and the amount of books he has 'written' is staggering. It seems he also does travel books. I thought that there was no way he could produce so many books and be doing his research properly. When he wrote about Villers Bocage in his 'Panzer Aces' he got nearly everything wrong. Would dearly like to know where he got so much of Wittmann's personal conversations from!

[trollelite]

But his "sturmartillerie" is fairly good and ( to my opinion) contains little exaggeration, perhaps because there existed a co-author?

[Panzermahn]

Anyone had his book, Bridgehead Kurland for reviews or comments?

Regards
Panzermahn

[Malbork]

I've got Bridgehead Kurland and have mixed views about it.

There's plenty of info in it, although in parts it's very difficult to read, partly due to the poor translation and partly due to Kurowski's own writing style. I've read his book on Demyansk in German and some sections are equally difficult to get through.

Sometimes the heroics and attitudes of the German troops reminded me of the gung-ho WW2 British stories I read as a kid: doughty Tommy holds on against impossible odds against beastly Hun. Swap Landser for Tommy and Russkies for Hun and you'll get the idea.

However, given the drastic situation at the end of the war, who am I to say that this wasn't the case? That said it does make for some awkward reading.

If you're looking for a quick overview of the Kurland fighting, this book give sit to you. It's then up to the reader to check facts for himself.

HTH and my style is not too Kurowski-inspired

[Tolga Alkan]

Exactly what I wanted to learn that is how did Franz Kurowski write countless books on many subjects.Does anybody have his biography?

[Benoit Douville]

Anyone had read his book about Joachim Marseille, I just buy it and can't wait to read it:



Regards

[Jan-Hendrik]

Evil-K , our beloved BS-writer and his career :

http://www.lwl.org/literaturkommission/ ... 0ba5a5ee58

Jan-Hendrik

[Ypenburg]

His "Der Kampf um die Festung Holland" ISBN 3 8132 0133 3, together with the Dutch Frans S.A. Beekman(and for which he visited the famous Dutch historian LtCol rtd E.H. Brongers) is however a very accurate book in contrast to some newer German books who still have the old "propaganda" stories about f.e. the Fallschirmjägers.

I don't know enough about his other books so I can only say this book is worth buying and reading.

[Richard Hargreaves]

Evil-K , our beloved BS-writer and his career :

http://www.lwl.org/literaturkommission/ ... 0ba5a5ee58

Jan-Hendrik

Sheesh, that is a lot of books. It takes me on average three-four years to research and write a book of c.125,000 words (admittedly it's not my day job). I could probably do one every two years if it was a full-time profession. He must be writing three or four books a year. Which says a lot, because there's no way of doing serious research and writing in that time. Even Guido Knopp isn't that prolific