Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood 1939 ~ Vintage Classics
Book Review
Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood 1939 ~ Vintage Classics
January 2026
This book’s original title The Lost as envisaged by its author Christopher Isherwood in 1939 Does not do justice to Christopher Isherwood’s work.
Goodbye to Berlin is by far the better title. It emphasises the collapse of German society at the very moment that its fledgling democracy was establishing roots.
Had the people thought things through, had they envisaged the onslaught of the fast approaching Third Reich, they would have brought Adolf Hitler to a stop. He would have been crushed, and the world would be a very different place today.
As it is, in 2026, we now discover that terrible misapplication of citizenship in the 1920s is now, a century later, manifesting itself again in the German Bundeswehr.
The German Armed Forces have no credible place in NATO if they persist in reverting to Nazi ideology.
At the most, they must only be a Defence Force.
The Facts
This month, January 2026, the media has reported a major scandal within the German armed forces and their elite 26th Parachute Regiment (der Fallschirmjägerregiment 26) based in Zweibrücken; and which has led to widespread criminal investigations and dismissals form the armed forces.
The allegations to a person of my age and previous military service cause me to go cold. Within the regiment, whistleblowers uncovered a “far right, openly anti-semitic clique” which included:
· Nazi salutes
· Nazi era terminology
· Nazi style uniforms
· Displaying unconstitutional symbols on their uniforms
· Widespread sexual harassment that included female recruits being forced to perform sexual acts
· Substance abuse i.e., drug use and trafficking among military personnel
Der Bunderstag (central government) has acted swiftly, and two weeks ago the German military confirmed that it was investigating 55 suspects, with between 19-20 dismissals from active service, with 16 cases proceeding to criminal investigation and prosecution.
The German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has condemned the behaviour as “shocking” and “fundamentally incompatible” with the values of the Bundeswehr, further confirming that he had ordered an uncompromising internal inquiry.
The greater German people should be aware of the potential damage this does across the European Union, bearing in mind that almost all of the nations of the European Union formed part of the Third Reich, by invasion and subjugation.
In Britain there is no tolerance for this regardless of the close relations between the British and German people that now preside.
In my own direct parade square language I say this…
“Get your act together,
Get it together now, or
Face up to the consequences
that you have still not learned
the lessons of history.”
Many of the soldiers identified for immediate discharge are eighteen years old. That does not inspire confidence either in the parents of these young people or in their non-commissioned officers nor their commanding officers. When this type of disgraceful behaviour takes place, the solution is to go for the jugular, and by that I mean removing the NCOs and commanding officers immediately, and then dealing with the soldiers themselves who stand to be indicted.
As a retired officer commanding in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, I take a dim view of the 26th Parachute Regiment, not least because what they have done is to remind me of what the Nazis did between 1933 and 1945, including the deaths of my parents’ brothers serving in the Royal Air Force over Germany. I have no patience with arguments about offensive air raids. The German people at that time brought Total War upon themselves and it is wise to recall that many a blind eye was turned by the Allies from 1946 onwards and which enabled many former accredited Nazis to return to profitable and respectable civil life.
I stand by the German people but my eyes range throughout the earth seeking those whose hearts are still yearning for those evil days of the Third Reich.
14 January 2026
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Liverpool
© 2026 Kenneth Thomas Webb
