The Bohemians: The Lovers Who Led Germany's Resistance Against the Nazis

by Norman Ohler

Overview

"An astonishing story of the anti-Nazi resistance—a story of love, incredible bravery and self-sacrifice . . . brilliantly told." —Antony Beevor, New York Times-bestselling author
 
Harro Schulze-Boysen already had shed blood in the fight against Nazism by the time he and Libertas Haas-Heye began their whirlwind romance. She joined the cause, and soon the two lovers were leading a network of anti-fascist fighters that stretched across Berlin's bohemian underworld. But nothing could prepare Harro and Libertas for the betrayals they would suffer in this war of secrets—a struggle in which friend could be indistinguishable from foe. Drawing on unpublished diaries, letters, and Gestapo files, Norman Ohler spins an unforgettable tale of love, heroism, and sacrifice in The Bohemians.
"An unforgettable portrait of two young lovers and their circle of friends in the anti-Hitler resistance, The Bohemians offers a fascinating glimpse of life in Nazi Germany, where the simple self-assertion of youth was a political act, and daily life was a minefield where missteps could have fatal consequences." —Joseph Kanon, New York Times-bestselling author

"A detailed and meticulously researched tale . . . that reads like a thriller." —The New York Times Book Review
"A taut, absorbing tale of anti-Nazi resistance . . . Sharply drawn characters enliven a tragic history." —Kirkus Reviews
"Each chapter leaves readers wanting more and rooting for the ill-fated group . . . Ohler's gifts as a writer shine as he brings to life the personalities, motivations, and machinations of the Red Orchestra." —Library Journal
"This deeply researched and stylishly written account unearths an appealing yet overlooked chapter in WWII history." —Publishers Weekly

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781328566232
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/21/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	323
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Norman Ohler is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, and journalist. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Blitzed, the non-fiction book The Bohemians about resistance against Hitler in Berlin, as well as the novels Die Quotenmaschine (the world's first hypertext novel), Mitte, Stadt des Goldes (translated into English as Ponte City), as well as the historical crime novel Die Gleichung des Lebens. He was cowriter of the script for Wim Wenders's film Palermo Shooting. He lives in Berlin.

Read an Excerpt

From the New York Times bestselling author of Blitzed, the incredible true story of two idealistic young lovers who led the largest anti-Nazi spy ring—right in the darkening heart of Berlin.
 

Table of Contents

Map of Berlin, 1942 viii

Foreword xiii

Prologue: The Thick of It xxi

Part I Adversaries (1932-33) 1

Part II Work and Marriage (1933-39) 33

Part III Resistance and Love (1939-42) 91

Part IV The Black Curtain (Fall 1942) 177

Epilogue: Restitutio Memoriae 245

Acknowledgments 251

Notes 253

Bibliography 273

Index 280

Editorial Reviews

With the opening scene of The Bohemians…[Ohler] masterfully establishes his trustworthiness as a narrator, which is crucial as we travel with him back to the 1930s and then on through the war. He weaves a detailed and meticulously researched tale about a pair of young German resisters that reads like a thriller but is supported by 20 pages of footnotes…The story he reconstructs is that of Harro and Libertas Schulze-Boysen, drawing on letters, articles, diaries and interviews to acquaint us with the couple in all their complexity—engaging, bold and flawed…Theirs is a tragic tale of defiance, espionage, love and betrayal. Ohler employs the present tense throughout, imbuing his account with a sense of urgency and reminding us that the past in many ways remains our present.

The New York Times Book Review - Ariana Neumann

The Bohemians is an astonishing story of the anti-Nazi resistance—a story of love, incredible bravery and self-sacrifice, which could end only in death—and it is brilliantly told.”—Antony Beevor, New York Times best-selling author of The Fall of Berlin 1945,The Second World War, and D-Day “An unforgettable portrait of two young lovers and their circle of friends in the anti-Hitler resistance, The Bohemians offers a fascinating glimpse of life in Nazi Germany, where the simple self-assertion of youth was a political act, and daily life was a minefield where missteps could have fatal consequences.”—Joseph Kanon, New York Times best-selling author of Leaving Berlin and The Good German “A thrilling and urgent true story. Inside Nazi Germany, as tyranny spreads, a few friends decide to resist, and a secret circle of anti-fascists starts to grow. They are not mythic heroes but instead flawed humans struggling for meaning in a time of terror: writers, artists, a fashion designer, a dentist. With skill and passion, Norman Ohler brings these remarkable men and women back to life. The Bohemians is a gift of a book—one I feel a little stronger, a little braver, after reading.”—Jason Fagone, author of the best-selling The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America’s Enemies “A taut, absorbing tale of anti-Nazi resistance . . . Conveys a sense of immediacy and encroaching terror . . . Sharply drawn characters enliven a tragic history.”—Kirkus Reviews   —

From the Publisher

2020-04-20
The story of a valiant group of resisters who stealthily undermined the Nazi regime.

Drawing on a trove of unpublished and archival documents from the German Resistance Memorial Center, the Institute for Contemporary History, and German, British, Russian, and American national repositories, screenwriter, novelist, and journalist Ohler creates a taut, absorbing tale of anti-Nazi resistance. Told in the present tense, the narrative conveys a sense of immediacy and encroaching terror. Central to the history are Harro Schulze-Boysen and his wife, Libertas, an attractive bourgeois couple, “apparently ‘Aryan’ through and through,” who become the vortex for a daring movement. Harro began as an idealistic publisher of the Gegner, a prominent journal dedicated to raising consciousness about threats to society from the rise of Nazism. “A people divided by hate…cannot get up again,” Harro wrote in one piece. He felt optimistic that Hitler would fail and that Germans’ enthusiasm for the Nazis could be directed “toward a genuine social revolution.” After he was arrested and tortured for his activities, however, Harro was forced to adopt a new strategy: “to appear outwardly unsuspicious in order to change the system from within.” To further that strategy, he enlisted in the air force. Libertas, a publicist for MGM and a member of the Nazi Party, radically changed her “immature, Nazi-oriented worldview” after falling in love with Harro, soon becoming a valued, if sometimes erratic, member of their “social network,” which spread and surfaced, focused in part on printing and disseminating pamphlets and flyers. Harro, whose military position put him “at a nexus of information of the German war machine,” had a vital role in producing documents with which to “flood the country with sensitive information about how the war is going and bring about a popular revolt.” Ohler capably recounts the intrepid activities, alliances, and betrayals that led to sweeping arrests and executions.

Sharply drawn characters enliven a tragic history.

Kirkus Reviews