Lina Danielli – Per Il Pane Del Reich

Published by Lupetti Editore in 2022, Italian language

In 1941, the Third Reich attacks Russia. The special SS Botanical Unit, commanded by Lieutenant Heinz Raucher, follows the invading troops to capture a huge quantity of edible seeds. The most organized botanical piracy of the century must literally sow the seeds of a new imperialist expansion east of the Urals and guarantee the German population’s bread. Raucher, a young geneticist trained at the University of Yena, nurtures a grandiose plan: to create in a laboratory the perfect seed, the glory of Aryan botany. A seed capable of granting Nazi Germany botanical domination of the planet. After the defeat of National Socialism and the collapse of the project, the former Nazi lieutenant escapes with a significant portion of the loot. The narrative follows the journey of the samples of the seven sister cereals, the most resistant and ancient on earth, from Russia to Germany and, through Spain and Sweden, to South America.