''Das Boot'' (, English: ''The Boat'') is a 1973 autobiographical German novel by

Lothar-Günther Buchheim Lothar-Günther Buchheim () (6 February 1918 – 22 February 2007) was a German author, painter, and wartime journalist under the Nazi regime. In World War II he served as a war correspondent aboard ships and U-boats. He is best known for his 19 ...

based on his experiences as a

war correspondent A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories first-hand from a war, war zone. War correspondence stands as one of journalism's most important and impactful forms. War correspondents operate in the most conflict-ridden parts of the wor ...

U-boat U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the G ...

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

s. Buchheim recorded his time on submarine ''U-96'' and submarine ''U-309'' during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The Buchheim historical drama book was published in 1973 by

Piper Verlag Piper Verlag is a German publisher based in Munich, printing both fiction and non-fiction works. It currently prints over 200 new paperback titles per year. Authors published by the company include Andreas von Bülow and Sara Paretsky. It is ow ...

, the book has sold millions of copies and was translated into 18 languages. The novel portrayed the harsh and difficult

submarine warfare Submarine warfare is one of the four divisions of underwater warfare, the others being anti-submarine warfare, Naval mine, mine warfare and Naval mine, mine countermeasures. Submarine warfare consists primarily of Diesel engine, diesel and nu ...

life on a German submarine.L.-G. Buchheim: Der Film Das Boot Ein Journal. Goldmann Verlag, München 1981.Lothar-Ggünther Buchheim's Das Bboot: Memory and the Nazi Past
by Dean Jon Guarnaschelli, St. John's University Theses and Dissertations, 2020Lothar-Günther Buchheim: Das Boot. 1977

Buchheim

Buchheim was a painter, author, and war correspondent for the

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official military branch, branche ...

. Buchheim was employed by the Nazi propaganda company, Propagandakompanie (PK). As part of his work, Buchheim was a "guest" on board Kriegsmarine ships and submarines. The novel is based on Buchheim's six weeks of experiences on several U-boat trips. Buchheim also wrote the books ''The Fortress'' and ''The Farewell'', in which he also used fictional names. In ''Das Boot'', the main character is the commander, who is modeled after commander

Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock Fregattenkapitän Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock (11 December 1911 – 18 April 1986) was a submarine commander in the ''Kriegsmarine'' of Nazi Germany during World War II. He commanded four U-boats, including , a German Type VII submarine, Type V ...

(1911-1986) of ''U-96'', a Type VIIC U-boat. Willenbrock was given the nickname "the Old Man" and ''Herr Kaleun''. In ''Das Boot'', the other officers are unnamed and referred to by their job on the submarine. One

ensign Ensign most often refers to: * Ensign (flag), a flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality * Ensign (rank), a navy (and former army) officer rank Ensign or The Ensign may also refer to: Places * Ensign, Alberta, Alberta, Canada * Ensign, Ka ...

is named Ullmann, and two noncommissioned officers are also named. Buchheim refers to himself as ''Herr Leutnant'' as the narrator, but not given a submarine job. In the book, the submarine is only referred to as the fictional ''UA''. Other submarines are given fictional names: UF, UX, or UY. Places and dates are not used in the book. So while the book is in part a record of Buchheim's tenure, much of the book is fictionalized. Buchheim died in 2007 at the age of 89. Buchheim wrote a short story about his experiences in the 1960s. Before he wrote ''Das Boot'', the short story was called ''Die Eichenlaubfahrt'', (or ''Oak Leaves Patrol''). Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock was awarded the Knight's Cross with oak leaves, thus the title of the short story. In 1976 Buchheim released the book ''U-Boot-Krieg (U-Boat War),'' a story of his trip on ''U-96'' and ''U-309''. ''U-Boot-Krieg'' including 200 photographs Buchheim took on the trips.

Book

A U-96''">German_submarine_U-96_(1940).html" ;"title="Type VII submarine similar to ''German submarine U-96 (1940)">U-96'' ''Das Boot'' starts with the celebrations of the U-boat officers on land. The officers are enjoying life before leaving port. The crew are in a bar, Bar Royal, in northern France, near a base of the Kriegsmarine Organization. The officers talk about the dangers, Führer der Unterseeboote">Organization of the Kriegsmarine">Kriegsmarine Organization. The officers talk about the dangers, Führer der Unterseeboote (leader of the U-boats), Befehlshaber der U-Boote (Commander-in-Chief of the U-boats), and Admiral Karl Dönitz. The officers talk about the Hotel Majestic near the Saint-Nazaire submarine base, a real place, a U-boat hang out. Life on the U-Boat is discussed: rules, dress code, drinking, and the tight confines on the submarine with 50 men. The base was under air raid attack as they depart. ''Das Boot'' described life on board in storms, idleness, attacks on ships, moral dilemmas to rescue or not, and hours of

depth charge A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon designed to destroy submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited ...

to avoid

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...

s. The submarine is damaged and needs to return to port, but is ordered to pass the dangerous

Strait of Gibraltar The Strait of Gibraltar is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Europe from Africa. The two continents are separated by 7.7 nautical miles (14.2 kilometers, 8.9 miles) at its narrowest point. Fe ...

and operate in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

. The submarine is attacked and damaged in the Strait. The submarine dives to the bottom and works to repair the submarine. The repairs get the submarine off the bottom and she makes it to

La Rochelle La Rochelle (, , ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''La Rochéle'') is a city on the west coast of France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime Departments of France, department. Wi ...

, a German-occupied port in France. But the submarine is sunk in an air raid at La Rochelle, with some of the crew lost.

Reception

Being a novelization of real experiences, the book received mixed reviews. The book is a fictionalized autobiographical story. *The portrayal of the submarine crew upset some German U-Boat veterans’ groups. *Buchheim writes about the specs of the U-Boat and then has it dive deeper than it can in the book. *''written differently, thought differently, must not change such a judgement: Lothar-Günther Buchheim has written the best German novel from the front of the Second World War to date, the first that is valid, and objections that the war, Either way, it's no longer an issue, have been wiped off the desk, and off the beer table too. – Peter Dubrow:

Die Zeit (, ) is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History The first edition of was ...

, October 12, 1973. *''In Buchheim, the submarine crew is no longer the hero. The boat, on the other hand, almost becomes a hero, which, as the whale Melville described in an almost erotic and affectionate way, becomes an almost mythical object – a "dark ferry on oily-black slick, as it glides out of the submarine bunker on enemy voyages.'' German Werth:

Der Tagesspiegel (meaning ''The Daily Mirror'') is a German daily newspaper. It has regional correspondent offices in Washington, D.C., and Potsdam. It is the only major newspaper in the capital to have increased its circulation, now 148,000, since reunificati ...

October 7, 1973

Translations

''Das Boot'' has been translated into 18 languages. The United Kingdom edition was translated into British English by John Brownjohn and published by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

in 1974. It was translated into American English by Denver and Helen Lindley in 1975 with editor-translator

Carol Brown Janeway Carol Janet Brown Janeway (1 February 1944 – 3 August 2015) was a Scottish-American editor and literary translator into English. She is best known for her translation of Bernhard Schlink's '' The Reader''. Biography Carol Janet Brown was b ...

. A Dutch translation, ''De Boot'', was published in 1974 by in den Toren.

1981 film

The book was the basis of the 1981 West German

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...

Das Boot (; ) is a 1981 West Germany, West German war film written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, produced by Günter Rohrbach, and starring Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer and Klaus Wennemann. An Film adaptation, adaptation of Lothar-Günthe ...

'', written and directed by

Wolfgang Petersen Wolfgang Petersen (14 March 1941 – 12 August 2022) was a German film and television director, screenwriter, and producer. His international breakthrough was the 1981 war film (1981), which earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Directo ...

and starring

Jürgen Prochnow Jürgen Prochnow (; born 10 June 1941) is a German actor. His international breakthrough was his portrayal of the good-hearted and sympathetic U-boat Commander "Der Alte" ("Old Man") in the 1981 war film ''Das Boot''. He is also known for his r ...

Herbert Grönemeyer Herbert Arthur Wiglev Clamor Grönemeyer (born 12 April 1956) is a German singer, musician, producer, composer and actor, popular in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Grönemeyer starred as war correspondent Lieutenant Werner in Wolfgang Peter ...

, and

Klaus Wennemann Klaus Wennemann (18 December 1940 – 7 January 2000) was a German television and film actor. Wenneman was born in Oer-Erkenschwick, North Rhine-Westphalia. He is perhaps best known for his leading roles as the Chief Engineer, (the LI), in '' ...

. The film makes some changes from the novel.

Sequels

Buchheim subsequently published ''

Die Festung ''Die Festung'' ('The Fortress') is a German-language novel by Lothar-Günther Buchheim, the sequel to his 1973 ''Das Boot''. It was published in 1995 by Hoffmann und Campe and reissued in 2005 by Piper. Plot ''Die Festung'' is a novelised versi ...

'' (1995), an immediate sequel to ''Das Boot'', and ', set after the war. The three books form an autobiographical trilogy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boot, das, novel U-boat fiction Novels about submarine warfare Novels adapted into video games 1973 German novels German autobiographical novels Piper Verlag books Cultural depictions of Karl Dönitz Novels set during World War II