The Train Was On Time
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The Train Was On Time
''The Train Was on Time'' (german: Der Zug war pünktlich) is a novella by German author Heinrich Böll. Published by Friedrich Middelhauve Verlag in Cologne in 1949, the book is about a German soldier, Andreas, taking a train to Przemyśl in Poland. It was translated into English by Leila Vennewitz. The story addresses the experience of German soldiers during the Second World War on the Eastern Front, where fighting was particularly vicious and unforgiving. Böll had explored the same issue in ''A Soldier's Legacy'', which was written in 1948 but published later. ''The Train Was on Time'' was his first published novel. Theodore Ziolkowski called it "an artistic ''tour de force''. __TOC__ Synopsis "Why don't you get on?" a chaplain asked him when the train arrived. "Get on?" asked the soldier, amazed. "Why, I might want to hurl myself under the wheels, I might want to desert ... eh? What's the hurry? I might go crazy, I've a perfect right to, I've a perfect right to go crazy ...
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Heinrich Böll
Heinrich Theodor Böll (; 21 December 1917 – 16 July 1985) was a German writer. Considered one of Germany's foremost post-World War II writers, Böll is a recipient of the Georg Büchner Prize (1967) and the Nobel Prize for Literature (1972). Biography Böll was born in Cologne, Germany, to a Roman Catholic and pacifist family that later opposed the rise of Nazism. Böll refused to join the Hitler Youth during the 1930s. He was apprenticed to a bookseller before studying German studies and classics at the University of Cologne. Conscripted into the Wehrmacht, he served in Poland, France, Romania, Hungary and the Soviet Union. In 1942, Böll married Annemarie Cech, with whom he had three sons; she later collaborated with him on a number of different translations into German of English language literature. During his war service, Böll was wounded four times and contracted typhoid. He was captured by US Army soldiers in April 1945 and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp. Afte ...
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Przemyśl
Przemyśl (; yi, פשעמישל, Pshemishl; uk, Перемишль, Peremyshl; german: Premissel) is a city in southeastern Poland with 58,721 inhabitants, as of December 2021. In 1999, it became part of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship; it was previously the capital of Przemyśl Voivodeship. Przemyśl owes its long and rich history to the advantages of its geographic location. The city lies in an area connecting mountains and lowlands known as the Przemyśl Gate (Brama Przemyska), with open lines of transportation, and fertile soil. It also lies on the navigable San River. Important trade routes that connect Central Europe from Przemyśl ensure the city's importance. The Old Town of Przemyśl is listed as a Historic Monument of Poland. Names Different names in various languages have identified the city throughout its history. Selected languages include: cz, Přemyšl; german: Premissel, Prömsel, Premslen; la, Premislia; uk, Перемишль (Peremyshlj) and (Pshemyslj); ...
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Leila Vennewitz
Leila Vennewitz (19128 August 2007) was a Canadian-English translator of German literature. She was born Leila Croot in Hampshire, England and grew up in Portsmouth. Her brother was the surgeon Sir John Croot. She studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, continuing her studies in Germany and China, where she spent twelve years. She is best known today for her translations of the works of Heinrich Böll, the Nobel Prize-winning German novelist. She also translated the works of Martin Walser, Uwe Johnson, Hermann Hesse, Nicolas Born, Alexander Kluge, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Jurek Becker, Uwe Timm, Walter Kempowski and Alfred Andersch. Her notable translations include: Heinrich Böll: *''Billiards at Half-Past Nine'' (1962) *'' The Clown'' (1965) *''End of a Mission'' (''Ende einer Dienstfahrt'') - Schlegel-Tieck Prize from the Society of Authors, London (1968) *'' Group Portrait with Lady'' (1973) *''The Train Was on Time'' (1973) *''The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum'' (1975) *'' The Bread ...
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Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ...
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Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a Theater (warfare), theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Polish Armed Forces in the East, Poland and other Allies of World War II, Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltic states, Baltics), and Southeast Europe (Balkans) from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945. It was known as the Great Patriotic War (term), Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union – and still is in some of its successor states, while almost everywhere else it has been called the ''Eastern Front''. In present-day German and Ukrainian historiography the name German-Soviet War is typically used. The battles on the Eastern Front of the Second World War constituted the largest military confrontation in history. They were characterised by unprecedented ferocity and brutality, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life due to combat, starvation, expos ...
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A Soldier's Legacy
''A Soldier's Legacy'' (german: Das Vermächtnis) is a novel by German author Heinrich Böll, published in 1982 (translator: Leila Vennewitz Leila Vennewitz (19128 August 2007) was a Canadian-English translator of German literature. She was born Leila Croot in Hampshire, England and grew up in Portsmouth. Her brother was the surgeon Sir John Croot. She studied at the Sorbonne in Pari ...). Written in 1948, the narrator writes about his dead friend Schelling, revealing his murder by the hated captain Schnecker. References 1982 German novels Novels by Heinrich Böll Novels set during World War II Epistolary novels Novels set in France Novels set in Russia {{1980s-WWII-novel-stub ...
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Theodore Ziolkowski
Theodore Ziolkowski (September 30, 1932 – December 5, 2020) was a scholar in the fields of German studies and comparative literature. He coined the term " fifth gospel genre". Early life Theodore J. Ziolkowski was born on September 30, 1932 in Birmingham, Alabama to Cecilia (née Jankowski) and Mieczysław Ziółkowski, second-generation and first-generation Polish immigrants to the United States. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Duke University in 1951, a Master of Arts from Duke University in 1952 and, following studies at the University of Innsbruck on a Fulbright Fellowship, his Ph.D from Yale University in 1957. Personal life Ziolkowski married Yetta Goldstein in 1951. Together they had two sons, Jan and Eric. Career Following appointments at Yale and Columbia, he was called to Princeton University as professor of German in 1964. In 1969 he was appointed Class of 1900 Professor of German and Comparative Literature and, from 1979 to 1992, Dean of the Graduate School ...
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Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches from the far eastern Czech Republic (3%) and Austria (1%) in the northwest through Slovakia (21%), Poland (10%), Ukraine (10%), Romania (50%) to Serbia (5%) in the south.
"The Carpathians" European Travel Commission, in The Official Travel Portal of Europe, Retrieved 15 November 2016

The Carpathian ...
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Oedipus
Oedipus (, ; grc-gre, Οἰδίπους "swollen foot") was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. A tragic hero in Greek mythology, Oedipus accidentally fulfilled a prophecy that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother, thereby bringing disaster to his city and family. The story of Oedipus is the subject of Sophocles' tragedy '' Oedipus Rex'', which is followed in the narrative sequence by ''Oedipus at Colonus'' and then ''Antigone''. Together, these plays make up Sophocles' three Theban plays. Oedipus represents two enduring themes of Greek myth and drama: the flawed nature of humanity and an individual's role in the course of destiny in a harsh universe. In the best-known version of the myth, Oedipus was born to King Laius and Queen Jocasta of Thebes. Laius wished to thwart the prophecy, so he sent a shepherd-servant to leave Oedipus to die on a mountainside. However, the shepherd took pity on the baby and passed him to another shepherd who gave Oedipus to ...
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Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on a person's life. Symptoms may include disturbing thoughts, feelings, or dreams related to the events, mental or physical distress to trauma-related cues, attempts to avoid trauma-related cues, alterations in the way a person thinks and feels, and an increase in the fight-or-flight response. These symptoms last for more than a month after the event. Young children are less likely to show distress but instead may express their memories through play. A person with PTSD is at a higher risk of suicide and intentional self-harm. Most people who experience traumatic events do not develop PTSD. People who experience interpersonal violence such as rape, other sexual assaults, being kidnapped, stalking, physical abuse by an intimate partner, and ...
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1949 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1949. Events *January 11 – Bertolt Brecht's play ''Mother Courage and Her Children (Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder)'', 1939, is first performed in Germany, at the Deutsches Theater in East Berlin, with his wife Helene Weigel in the title role and staged with his ''Verfremdungseffekt'' ("distancing effect"). This marks the origin of the Berliner Ensemble. *January 19 – The Poe Toaster first appears, at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe. *January 31 – ''Late Night Serial'', a pilot for the U.K. radio series ''Book at Bedtime'', begins on the BBC Light Programme with a reading of John Buchan's novel ''The Three Hostages''. *February – Théâtre du Rideau Vert, the first professional French-language theatre in Canada, gives its first performance. *February 10 – Arthur Miller's tragedy ''Death of a Salesman'' opens at the Morosco Theatre on Broadway in New York City with Lee J. Cobb in the title ...
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German Literature
German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy and to a lesser extent works of the German diaspora. German literature of the modern period is mostly in Standard German, but there are some currents of literature influenced to a greater or lesser degree by German dialects, dialects (e.g. Alemannic literature, Alemannic). Medieval German literature is literature written in Germany, stretching from the Carolingian dynasty; various dates have been given for the end of the German literary Middle Ages, the Protestant Reformation, Reformation (1517) being the last possible cut-off point. The Old High German period is reckoned to run until about the mid-11th century; the most famous works are the ''Hildebrandslied'' and a heroic epic known as the ''Heliand''. Middle High German starts in the 12t ...
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