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This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) The topic of this article may not meet Misplaced Pages's notability guideline for books. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. Find sources: "Der Wehrwolf" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Der Wehrwolf" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Der Wehrwolf (a portmanteau and word play, combining the words for "defence" and "wolf" to Wehrwolf) is a novel by Hermann Löns, first published in 1910. The German word is unrelated to English werewolf, which means man-wolf (from Old English 'wer', meaning 'man').

Plot summary

The Thirty Years' War is at its height and the peasantry suffers under countless marauders, which roam the lands. The main protagonist Harm Wulf, a peasant, already lost his family in the first years of war and becomes the defending Wulf (wehrender Wulf) by defending a hill fort and its surrounding carr, where some local peasants hide from the pillaging hordes. Harm Wulf gathers more and more allies until 121 men are in the Alliance of the Wehrwolf. When peace is finally restored Harm Wulf is an old and grim man.

Aftermath

Der Wehrwolf became a bestseller in Nazi Germany and was used for purposes of propaganda, because its content could be interpreted as nationalistic. Near the end of World War II Luftwaffenhelfer and children in the Hitler Youth were constrained to read the novel to promote guerrilla warfare against the allies (to act like a We(h)rwolf). Because of that, the book was indexed for a short time after the war.

References

Notes

1. Beevor, Antony (2002). The Fall of Berlin 1945. Penguin. p. 173. ISBN 0-14-200280-1.

• 1910 novels