Translation of German diaries detailing the beginning of Operation Barbarossa

[StefanM]

Here is another thought why not scan at 300 dpi each page of the diaries and produce a facsimile of the diaries which you could self-publish through a service such as lulu.com. German audience only to begin with but if it proved popular an English language publisher who specialises in military history may consider it worthwhile to pick up the bill to translate and publish it in English with you?

[HPL2008]

If you're thinking of HPL, I doubt that he would have anything near the time involved to do such a huge project, but he may well Know someone who might be able to help.

Oh no no no, I didn't mean HPL! He already does an amazing amount of work for this forum(often for free and is not rewarded enough for it), and I appreciate every time he chimes in.

Thanks for the kind words and glad you understand. While the material is certainly of great interest, I absolutely don't have the time for this project.

Sorry; I can't recommend another translator as I actually don't know any. Wagriff's university suggestion may be a good way to go. Of course the fact that text is written in Sütterlin script could be a problem here as you need to find someone who is not only fluent in German and English but can also read Sütterlin. (And, ideally, has an understanding of military terminology as well.)

[DioMac]

Hey mate, get in touch with Mounir - he has a good translator who has translated one of my letters. She can do Suetterlin as well

[Paul D]

Eddie this looks like a wonderful pick up !! You will find many translation companies around , it's big business these days but as has been pointed out how many modern langauge experts will be able to transcribe Sutterlin i don't know , unfortunately to translate it all i feel will be very costly.

Do you know the unit the Soldat was in ?

[Monuir]

Thanks William, I counted 260 pages to be transcribed and translated, I hope that wouldn't be too expensive, I'd love to read this thing! I will definitely get it done some way and keep you all posted. There is a member here who has letters transcribed/translated regularly. I'll ask him, but if anyone else has any suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them.
Thanks,
Eddie

Hi. I had many german documents translated and 260 pages like that would cost something like 3000+ dollars.

I pay 65 GBP (105 USD) for 1000 words.

I count about 200 words on 1 page, that would be about 20 dollars / page. 260 x 20 = 5200 dollars. Of course when you have so much material it is possible to make deals, but still I think this might be very expensive to have translated. As people said before, it's better to have a few interesting looking pages translated first and see if it's good or not. Also look for interesting dates, ϟϟ signs, interesting names etc etc, and have these pages translated.

Best of luck, definetly seems cool! Diaries are some of the most interesting things from the war, I personally think.

[DioMac]

Pardon my ignorance, but I think this diary is of great historical value?

[Eddie]

Thanks for all the suggestions and replies guys! I think I will do a few selections to figure out the content first, that is a good idea!

Do you know the unit the Soldat was in ?

I know that he was in IR72, and here is the Wehrmacht Lexikon entry for that unit. Infanterieregiment 72 - Lexikon der Wehrmacht

[drmessimer]

Eddie: You're right that those diaries have publishing potential. One way you might get it done at a minimum cash outlay would be to find someone who reads Sutterlin script, and, as a team, co-edit the manuscript. Your language expert would handle the translation and you, after considerable research to put the diaries in historical contex, would handle the writing. There are several publishers who would be happy to publish the diaries. You can find publishers in the latest edition of the Writer's Market. You can also find publishers who handle military history works by using Google. Another approach, would be to contact a university press, such as Texas A&M, describe what you have, and ask if they could hook you up with a translator who would work for a reasonable fee or be willing to co-edit and receive half the royalties. It will take patience and some effort, but you do have a very worthwhile property there and one that can definitely be sold for publication. If you have any questions about publishing in general, send me a PM. In the meantime, good luck. Dwight

[StefanM]

Given that most publishers' author royalties are within the range of 5-12% net (publisher sale price less cost of sale ie minus publishers artwork production, contract fees, ISBN no., book printing, distribution, warehousing strorage costs, copyright clearance, other allocated overheads etc)... don't expect to get rich and splitting 50-50 means even less! But hey, we do these things for love of the subject!

[Eddie]

Here is another thought why not scan at 300 dpi each page of the diaries and produce a facsimile of the diaries which you could self-publish through a service such as lulu.com. German audience only to begin with but if it proved popular an English language publisher who specialises in military history may consider it worthwhile to pick up the bill to translate and publish it in English with you?

This is a good idea, though is it legible enough for a German speaker to read it? I imagine there might be interest not only with Militaria buffs, but perhaps German historians as well? (not to overstate the importance of these, I'm not sure how common these things are)