I second this recommendation.

The whole series is amazing. I doubt though that Bernie would appreciate to be said to "end up in the SS" :)

This was a good read. If anyone familiar with Germany authors can comment I'd love to be reading more historical fiction by actual Germans (Kerr is English, I think). I'm familiar with Thomas Mann and Hermann Hesse (and of course, Goethe), but looking for authors a little more approachable than these greats. All Quiet On The Western Front was more in this category of an approachable read.

tldr; looking for recommendations from more recent German novelists translated into English because this American has a hard time finding them.

Hans Peter Richter wrote multiple young adult historical fiction books about the rise of Hitler, which have been translated to English and are very approachable. His most famous is Friedrich. They were written in the 80s, which isn't exactly modern but is certainly more recent than Herman Hesse.

Not recent at all, but as you mentioned Goethe, the comparatively lower class playwright Friedrich Schiller was considered to be his intellectual equal and rival.

Thank you! I'd really like to get away from war novels, but I'll give this one a try.