Georg Mandel

Georg Mandel (sometimes also Gregor Mandel) was the pen name of the Yonderian-born Viktor Rührstein (20 April 1925 – 21 September 1995) who wrote novels based on his claimed and frequently disproven service as a Yonderian volunteer to Burgundie in the Great War. Mandel wrote his first book, Legion of the Fallen, in the immediate aftermath of the Great War, and its 1955 release was met with great sales amid much controversy from Volonderre veteran associations. Mandel stated that whilst his novels are essentially works of fiction, the characters are based on real people and some events are related to historical events, but still maintained the authenticity of his service with the Burgoignesc Foreign Legion. No record exists of Georg Mandel in neither the Burgoignesc Foreign Legion nor the Yonderian Defence Force, although a Viktor Rührstein was dishonourably discharged from the YDF in 1943.

Mandel claimed to have served with the 3rd Regiment of the Guard Cuirassier Division from 1943-1944 at which time he claimed to have travelled to Burgundie to volunteer for the Burgoignesc Foregin Legion, with which he then claimed to have served until the end of the war in 1953. Mandel claimed to have been promoted and demoted several times, being variously a sergeant, a private and a corporal at different times throughout the books. Mandel claims in his book to have seen service across all fronts of the Burgoignesc war effort in the "14th Penal Light Infantry Regiment", a fictional unit made up of sentenced criminals and court-martialed soldiers.

It has been alleged that Mandel's books were ghostwritten. In 1965 the radio journalist Anton de Jargon participated in a reception Mandel gave to celebrate his ten years as a vastly successful writer. The reception saw participation by numerous dignitaries including ambassadors and envoys of six foreign countries. Until then the public was under the impression that Mandel was a real person and that his books were autobiographical. When during his late night radio programme de Jargon subsequently revealed that Georg Mandel was a fictitious person and that the author was a convicted felon a major scandal ensued. Gabion police journals released in 1965 from 1948 show that an intoxicated man marked down as a labourer by the name of Viktor Rührstein fled the scene of an automobile accident. The attached mugshots show what appears to be Mandel. Several similar journals later became public from several cities in Vandarcôte.

Mandel's works have sold more than 105 million books. From 2004 to 2012 his website promoted his books as mostly auto-biographical based on his participation in the war on the Burgoignesc side with parts based on stories from his comrades and parts free fantasy. In total Mandel published 14 novels which have been translated into 25 languages. Although he is arguably one of the bestselling Yonderian authors, Yonderian public libraries do not stock his books, and a 2011 opinion piece on literature in the Collinebourg Gazette described Mandel as a hack fraud and his debut novel as a poor jigsaw puzzle with its characters plagiarized from other novels. By contrast, readers of Mandel's books say that by graphically portraying war as violent and hopeless in such manner, wherein people are killed by chance or with very little reason and occasional pleasant events and peaceful meetings are brutally cut short, the books contain an anti-war message.

Viktor Rührstein died in his sleep on September 21st, 1995, in his home in Iscasta, Caphiria, where he had lived since 1968. He was survived by his wife Viktoria Rührstein (née Gleichtahl) (1931-2016) and three sons.