''Zero Hour'' (originally published as ''Fahnenjunker Volkenborn'') is an autobiographical

war novel A war novel or military fiction is a novel about war. It is a novel in which the primary action takes place on a battlefield, or in a civilian setting (or home front), where the characters are preoccupied with the preparations for, suffering the ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

author Georg Grabenhorst. The book was initially published in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in 1928 and was translated into

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the following year. ''Zero Hour'' was later re-published by the

University of South Carolina Press The University of South Carolina Press is an academic publisher associated with the University of South Carolina. It was founded in 1944. By the early 1990s, the press had published several surveys of women's writing in the southern United States ...

in 2006, with an introduction by

Robert Cowley Robert Cowley is an American military historian, who writes on topics in American and European military history ranging from the Civil War through World War II. He has held several senior positions in book and magazine publishing and is the foundi ...

. The book has been compared to '' All Quiet on the Western Front''.

Synopsis

The book follows Hans Volkenborn's experiences in the German army during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He initially goes into the war with some enthusiasm, taking pleasure in the camaraderie with his fellow soldiers. This eventually turns sour as he goes through the toil and bloodshed of war.

Reception

Initial reception in 1928 was mixed to positive, with the book garnering positive reviews from the ''

Daily Sketch The ''Daily Sketch'' was a British national tabloid newspaper, founded in Manchester in 1909 by Sir Edward Hulton. It was bought in 1920 by Lord Rothermere's Daily Mirror Newspapers, but in 1925 Rothermere sold it to William and Gomer Berry ...

'' and the '' Daily News''. ''

The Miami News ''The Miami News'' was an evening newspaper in Miami, Florida. It was the media market competitor to the morning edition of the ''Miami Herald'' for most of the 20th century. The paper started publishing in May 1896 as a weekly called ''The Miami ...

'' stated that it "does for a German officer what "'' All Quiet''" did for the common soldier", while a reviewer for '' The Window'' commented that "one feels that the author's memory of details is defective".

References

{{reflist, 2 German books