Hans Fallada: „The Nightmare“

• 1946, Aufbau-Verlag, binding: Hermann Kusch

In his 1946 novel “The Nightmare” Fallada addressed the issue of the desolate state of the “German people” in the first few months after the end of the Second World War. As he emphasised in several letters to different recipients, he was not particularly proud of this book. He also referred to this in the preface and made it clear that the novel “essentially remained an illness report” and “[explains] the story of the apathy from which the largest and primarily decent part of the German population suffered in April 1945 [and] from which many of them are still suffering.”

Fallada struggled, like most of his fellow countrymen, for guidance, which is also made clear in the working title for the novel – “Fallada seeks a way.” The novel did not appear until after Fallada’s death and also reflected the experiences of the mayor appointed by the Soviet military administration.