Liebe Kück!

About the Book

One hundred years ago, the world suffered a brutal and destructive conflict. The Great War, World War I, or the War to End All Wars, by whatever name, cost the lives and the fortunes of millions of people. The modern world, now concerned with its own problems and conflicts, has pushed the memory of it deep into the recesses of collective memory. The veterans and the war dead are honored and memorialized annually; however, the ongoing destructive influence of this time on the personal lives, fates, and fortunes of individuals and families is forgotten. Liebe Kück! A German Soldier’s Story from the Great War is based on the letters Vice Feldwebel (Staff Sergeant) Alwin Ficke of the Seventy-Fourth Reserve German Infantry, stationed on the Western Front of the War, wrote home to his wife and family from August 1914 until his death in France in February 1915. Sergeant Ficke’s viewpoint was contrary to the popularized media reports of German military actions in Belgium and the Champagne Valley. This ugly war is best understood not through popularized media reports but as it is seen though the personal wars of soldiers and their families. His is the story of the journey taken from home to battle representing the struggles and turmoil in the lives of legions of others.

About the Author

Dr. Peter Lubrecht has a PhD in Educational Theater from New York University and a master’s degree in English and Drama Theory from NYU’s Graduate School of Arts and Science. An avid researcher with an interest in historical theater, Lubrecht has been lecturing locally on the Civil War and Nineteenth Century American Theatre. Peter is originally from New York City, where he appeared in and was a part of an experimental theater program conducted by the New York Public Schools, under whose aegis he studied acting with Harold Jackson of the Harlem Renaissance. He was on NPR as a guest at age nine. Peter is an adjunct professor of English, Speech, and Theater at Berkeley College; however, he also was with Lehman University Graduate School and Lincoln Center (Performing Arts in the English Classroom) Jersey City University, Bergen, Morris, and Passaic Community Colleges. He has written two history books: The New Jersey Butterfly Boys in the Civil War: The Hussars of the Union Army (History Press, 2011) and Germans in New Jersey: A History (History Press, 2013).