Hans Fallada's 'Alone in Berlin'

Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada is simply an amazing read.

The book was originally written in 1947 and only translated into English in 2009.

Hans Fallada is the pen name of Rudolf Ditzen, who was born near Rudolstadt. An interesting man. His Little Man, What Now was made into a film

Anna and Otto Quangel live in a working class apartment in Berlin. The buildings in Jablonski Strasse are homes to families of all types and shapes. The usual lot of human misery: pain and love. Good people, nasty people, brave people, cowards.
France has ‘fallen’ to the German Army and there is euphoria in Germany. What and where next for the all conquering Wehrmacht?

The Quangels receive post from the front informing them that their only son, Otto, has fallen in France. Anna becomes hysterical and her husband asks here what’s wrong. She tells him Otto is dead, looks at him and adds, “you and your Führer”.

Otto was a man of few words, slow to show his emotions. He makes a decision. He spends the next two years delivering post cards all over Berlin denouncing Hitler.

The police are on his trail and eventually track him down. The inspector in charge of the case does good and bad things. He becomes obsessed about catching his ‘Hobgoblin’. He has a map in his office of all the places where the cards have been reported to have been dropped. Most of them are handed in to the police – people are afraid.

In the two years chasing the Hobgoblin the inspector comes in contact with all sorts of humanity. He does terrible things.

Early on the inspector realises that his Hobgoblin is a special type of person. When he does come face-to-face with him he sees his courage and exceptional personality.

Alone in Berlin is a great story of how brave people behave against the odds.

At he end of the book there is the portrayal of two chaplains – one a great man the other a stooge. One is interested in people, the other in souls and the recitation of prayers.

Published by Penguin Modern Classics. 568 pages.

The English title is a little misleading. The German title is Jeder stirbt für sich allein, which more or less means Everyone dies on their own/alone.

Cycling to work this morning it dawned on me how lucky we are to live in a democracy, even with its limitations. To be able to breathe the air. The prisoners in Prince Albrecht Strasse risk being shot by simply looking out their windows in search of fresh air.

The book is set in the Nazi regime but it is about people and their behaviour.