Hans Fallada „Iron Gustav“

• 1937, Rowohlt-Verlag, book jacket by Prof. E.M. Weiß using silhouettes by Ernst Moritz Engert

In 1937 Fallada signed an agreement to compose a family story which took place between 1914 and 1933 as the basis for a film with Emil Jannings. This led to the creation of the novel “Iron Gustav” that, against the terms of the agreement, ended in 1928 with Iron Gustav’s journey of reconciliation in a horse-drawn carriage to Paris. This caused displeasure among official bodies, who wanted to see the eponymous hero as a fervent National Socialist at the end of the novel.

Fallada, who did not want to let himself be “senselessly slaughtered for anyone’s benefit…before the thrones of tyrants…to the detriment of his children,” rewrote the manuscript and delivered an ending that made the client happier and where the main character was receptive to the idea of National Socialism. The film project did not come to fruition.