Publisher's Synopsis
Fritz Oswald Bilse was a German novelist, playwright and a lieutenant in the Prussian Army. He also used the pseudonyms Fritz von der Kyrburg and Fritz Wernthal. He joined the Prussian army in 1896, and in 1900 was posted with the 16. Train-Bataillon at Forbach in Lorraine. He rose to instant notoriety with his novel Aus einer kleinen Garnison. Ein militärisches Zeitbild (1903). In later editions, he used the pseudonym "Fritz von der Kyrburg", after his home town's most prominent landmark, the Kyrburg castle. The book, in which Bilse satirizes the manners of the Forbach garrison and of the Prussian army in general, became a succès de scandale and was soon reprinted many times.
