“Little Man, What Now?”  by Hans Fallada, translated by Eric Sutton

“Every Man Dies Alone” by Hans Fallada, translated by Michael Hofmann

These two fine novels by Hans Fallada could well serve as bookends describing the Nazi era in Germany.  “Little Man, What Now?” was published in 1932, the year before Hitler took full power in Germany.   “Every Man Dies Alone” (in many places, called “Alone in Berlin”) was written in 1946, the year after Hitler committed suicide, and World War II ended.

“Little Man, What Now” describes the young marriage and early family life of Johannes Pinneberg and his wife Bunny.  Although they have to struggle to get enough money to make ends meet, this young couple is quite happy due to the strong attraction between them.  In both novels, Fallada is very good at describing happily married couples.  Bunny can’t cook, and Johannes wastes money on these grand gestures like buying a big dressing table for his wife while they rent and live in a hovel, but due to their strong affection for each other, they get along just fine, even after they have the baby.  Later they face enormous difficulties which they face because they have each other.  One of Fallada’s major strengths as a novelist is describing everyday life of ordinary people in an accurate and intense way.

Johannes works as a salesclerk in a men’s clothing store for most of the novel, and he barely makes enough money for him and Bunny and baby to get by.   But they are helped by several eccentric people around them, and in many ways “Little Man, What Now?” is a playful, happy novel about this young family.

Where are the Nazis in “Little Man, What Now?”     They are around.  Anti-Semitism is everywhere in the streets.  The Nazis are on the rise.  In the novel, there is only one minor character Lauterbach who is a young Nazi.  He works with Pinneberg on one of Johannes’ early jobs.  Lauterbach is proud of his Nazi badge, and every night he and his Nazi friends go out in the streets harassing Jews and getting into street fights with them and anyone else they don’t like.

But for much of the book, “Little Man, What Now?” is a pleasant family story centering on the young husband and wife.  Hollywood grabbed the story up quickly, and by 1933 “Little Man, What Now?”  was already a movie.

The scene in “Every Man Dies Alone” is completely different, a nightmare. Berlin in 1940.  Now the Nazis have totally taken over.  All of the exotic eccentric people have disappeared from Berlin.  Everyone is in fear that their Nazi neighbors will report them to the Gestapo and then they too will be dragged away to prison.  Groups of Nazi neighbors living in the same apartment house as the Quangels, the main characters of this novel, terrorize the life and apartment of an elderly Jewish woman who lives there.  Her husband has already been sent away to a concentration camp. If anyone else is friendly toward or tries to help this woman, they too will be reported and hauled away by the Gestapo.

The story in “Every Man Dies Alone” also centers on a married couple, this time a middle-aged couple called Otto and Anna Quangel.  They are a quiet couple until their only son “Ottochen” gets killed on the Russian front during World War II.  Then Otto starts writing notes with messages denouncing the Nazis and leaving them anonymously in public buildings where people can find them.  His wife is in on this futile campaign and completely supports her husband in his efforts.  The Quangels are another strong supportive couple, but here there is nothing to be playful about.  There are Nazis under every toadstool in Berlin terrorizing their neighbors in the early 1940s.  One of the many strengths of this novel is that it paints a very clear picture of the oppressive life of ordinary people in Berlin during the Nazi era.   Until now, we did not know how terrible life was for the average Berliner during the Nazi era.   Of course,  these Germans suffered less from the Nazis than millions of other people throughout Europe.

“Every Man Dies Alone” is a powerful novel.  I consider it the best book I’ve read this year so far.  I will remember details from this novel long after I forget the whole stories of other novels I’ve read this year.  “Little Man, What Now” is also a very good novel, but it does not have the intensity of “Every Man Dies Alone”.  Hans Fallada put his heart and soul into his last book, and he died in 1947, the year after it was written.

Over the past few years the world has discovered or re-discovered many European novelists from this terrible era – Joseph Roth, Stefan Zweig, Irene Nemirovsky,  Irmgard Keun, and now Hans Fallada.  What a spectacular group of writers!

Will an era like the Nazi era ever happen again?  Given human nature, I expect it will.  I don’t think it will have the same trappings as the Nazis did or the same slogans or symbols.  It will try to sell itself as something completely new and different.  It will probably occur in a completely different place.  But it will have one thing in common with the Nazis.  There will be street gangs beating up and harassing the people they don’t like, and the police and government authorities will not only condone it; they will encourage it.