Flight of the FalconThe hidden agenda behind the 1943-1944 evacuation across the Baltic Sea

Marcus Wallén

A new work of historical non-fiction shedding new light on an obscure piece of European history.

FLIGHT OF THE FALCON is a vibrant portrait of the only man ever to have served Heinrich Himmler and the Swedish prime minister simultaneously. This is the story of Ludwig Lienhard.

The book begins at the end, in January 1948, when the Falcon, nick-named the ‘Nazi ship’ by the Swedish media, sets out from Stockholm bound for Argentina. There’s stormy weather at sea and before long they have lost contact with the rest of the world and gone missing.

Onboard, presumed dead with the rest of the passengers, is the freshly disgraced Ludwig Lienhard, who just three years before had been awarded a medal by Sweden’s Prince Carl for his humanitarian efforts in rescuing and evacuating thousands of Estonian-Swedes during WWII. However, since then, disturbing information has come light that the network of operatives that helped the refugees by order of the Swedish prime minister may have also been used to smuggle Nazis and Nazi sympathisers out as well.

A high-tempo page-turner by journalist Marcus Wallén, THE FLIGHT OF THE FALCON is a nuanced portrait of a highly complex character, trying to answer the questions: who and what was Ludwig Lienhard? Was he an entrepreneur, an opportunist, or simply trying to survive in a world where the line between good and evil had become dangerously thin?

In the spirit of honest reflection, Wallén intersperses the traditional, historical documentary storytelling of an historical figure with his own, personal insights, allowing the reader to peer behind the curtain into the complexities of giving history a fair account.