foreign rights

foreign rights spring 08
history
Hans-Christian Huf
The Popes
Rulers of Heaven and Earth
Bogdan Musial
Battle Field Germany
Stalin’s Plans to Wage War Against the West
All rights available except
for Polish rights
What were they really like, the rulers of the Vatican? The book accompanying the television series reveals
hitherto unknown aspects of Christ’s representatives on earth. It shows them not only as power politicians
and warlords, but also as family men and passionate lovers – of the arts and sciences.
The history of Christ’s representatives is synonymous with the history of the Western world. The book covers
a vast expanse of time from the legendary beginnings of the papacy to its establishment at the heart of the
Western world. The struggle for power between emperors, kings and popes is described in detail – from the
humble pilgrimage to Canossa, covering the dramatic pillaging of Rome by German mercenaries, all the way
to the triumphant construction of St. Peter’s Basilica. The authors present the latest findings of archaeological
research on the legendary St. Peters sepulchre. With the skills of a detective they explain the role Pope Sixtus
IV played in the conspiracy to murder Lorenzo Medici. They enable us to experience at first-hand Leo X’s
machinations following Luther’s denunciation of the papacy. The players of the Holy See appear as people of
flesh and blood, who have to strike a balance between their spiritual vocation and their secular legacy.
Hans-Christian Huf has created numerous prime-time series for ZDF German public television.
The tie-in books have all become bestsellers. His most recent publications at Econ are Mit Gottes Segen in
die Hölle? Der Dreißigjährige Krieg (Into Hell with God’s Blessing? The Thirty-Year War) and Vom Aufstieg und Fall
großer Reiche (The Rise and Fall of Great Empires).
Ullstein +++ hardcover with dust jacket +++ 288 pages with numerous colour illustrations
€ 24,90 +++ ISBN 978-3-550-08693-9 +++ February 2008
“If it is the will of the Party, we shall conquer Berlin.” General Wassili Tshujkov in November 1939
Hitler’s campaign against the Soviet Union was not intended to be a pre-emptive strike, as Goebbels claimed
in his propaganda and as is often alleged even now. In point of fact it was a war of aggression par excellence.
But it is equally true that from the 1920’s onwards, the Soviet Union was, under Stalin, pursuing a policy of
military expansion on an immense scale, and this was intensified still further in the ‘30s as they prepared to
wage war against Western Europe. Such plans were concealed by the state propaganda images of the USSR
as the “peace-loving” fatherland of the workers.
What went on within the walls of the Kremlin during those turbulent years has remained largely unexplored
by historians until now. Bogdan Musial is one of the few western historians to have had largely unrestricted
access to the archives in Moscow. He is the first to analyse systematically the relevant records and special
files of the Soviet regime, in particular those of the polit bureau and the highly secret defence committee.
He provides conclusive evidence that the Party and the military leadership were manifestly planning a major
offensive against the West. For the first time ever, the brutal campaigns of industrialisation and the Stalinist
terror of the ‘30s, which resulted in the loss of millions of lives, are placed in context and shown to be directly
connected to the plans to wage war. Musial’s book sheds new light on the background to the Second World
War, which can only now be recounted in full.
Bogdan Musial was born in 1960 in southern Poland. In 1985 he was granted political asylum in
Germany. He studied history, political science and sociology in Hanover and Manchester. From 1999 to 2004
he was a research assistant at the Warsaw Institute of National Remembrance (IPN).
Propyläen +++ hardcover with dust jacket +++ 584 pages with b & w illustrations +++ € 29,90
ISBN 978-3-549-07335-3 +++ February 2008
contact Susanna Schäfer +++ susanna.schaefer@ullstein-buchverlage.de +++ phone +49 (0)30 23456 450 +++ fax +49 (0)30 23456 515