Black Tulip

The Life and Myth of Erich Hartmann, the World’s Top Fighter Ace

Erik Schmidt

$42.95

Paperback

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English

Casemate Publishers
01 June 2023

True war & combat stories; History; The Cold War; Second World War; Fascism & Nazism; Aviation skills & piloting

The story of the top-scoring ace in history, a Luftwaffe pilot named Erich Hartmann who totaled 352 kills.

Black Tulip is the dramatic story of history's top fighter ace, Luftwaffe pilot Erich Hartmann. It's also the story of how his service under Hitler was simplified and elevated to Western mythology during the Cold War.

Over 1,404 wartime missions, Hartmann claimed a staggering 352 airborne kills, and his career contains all the dramas you would expect. There were the frostbitten fighter sweeps over the Eastern Front, drunken forays to Hitler's Eagle's Nest, a decade of imprisonment in the wretched Soviet POW camps, and further military service during the Cold War that ended with conflict and angst.

Just when Hartmann's second career was faltering, he was adopted by a network of writers and commentators personally invested in his welfare and reputation. These men, mostly Americans, published elaborate, celebratory stories about Hartmann and his elite fraternity of Luftwaffe pilots. With each dogfight tale put into print, Hartmann's legacy became loftier and more secure, and his complicated service in support of Nazism faded away. A simplified, one-dimensional account of his life-devoid of the harder questions about allegiance and service under Hitler-has gone unchallenged for almost a generation.

Black Tulip locates the ambiguous truth about Hartmann and so much of the German Wehrmacht in general: that many of these men were neither full-blown Nazis nor impeccable knights. They were complex, contradictory, and elusive. This book portrays a complex human rather than the heroic caricature we're used to, and it argues that the tidy, polished hero stories we've inherited about men like Hartmann say as much about those who've crafted them as they do about the heroes themselves.

AUTHOR: Erik Schmidt has made a career of researching complicated topics. A former magazine editor and senior marketing writer, he has an MFA in creative nonfiction and a lifelong love of history and aviation. He is a freelance writer living in Denver, Colorado with his family.

By: Erik Schmidt
Imprint: Casemate Publishers
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9781636243030
ISBN 10: 1636243037
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 01 June 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Unspecified

Erik Schmidt is a senior marketing writer and idea-maker, with a professional mindset. He has a graduate degree in creative nonfiction. A lover of history and aviation, this book started out as a grad-school thesis.

Reviews for Black Tulip: The Life and Myth of Erich Hartmann, the World’s Top Fighter Ace

"""This is a genuinely fascinating and often compelling book. I like Erik Schmidt's honesty and his attention to detail. ""-- ""War History Online"" ''Well-written, thought provoking.''-- ""Aeroplane Monthly"" ''Highly recommended for aviation fans...''-- ""Detail Scale View"" ''If you are attracted to the idea of a book that attempts to explore, lucidly, the Nazi period German serviceman's mindset and which uses Hartmann as its fulcrum, then this might appeal.''-- ""The Aviation Historian"" ''What sets this book apart is the in depth analysis of who Hartmann was and whether his reputation is apt and why he was and still is held in such high regard. It's a fascinating book and I highly recommend it.''-- ""Aviation Enthusiast Book Club"" ""I am jealous. This is a wonderfully different--and wonderfully written--work. Schmidt is no fawning fanboy of the 'Greatest Ace of All Time.' Instead, he is a sympathetic and insightful researcher who has produced an engrossing and thoughtfully wandering analysis of the multi-dimensional Hartmann that is unlike, and better than, anything ever done. Get this one.""--Jay Stout, author of Vanished Hero and Unsung Eagles ""A fascinating insight into the making of a flying legend ... exposes through rigorous analysis how myths are made, and sometimes used, to excuse one of the most evil mass slaughters in history.""-- ""RAF News"" ""Portrays a complex human ... Black Tulip does much to fill in the backstory of the greatest fighter ace."" -- ""Flight Journal"""