I thought this novel (a well read audiobook) was stunning. It tells the story of a married German couple who return to a devastated Berlin at the end of the war. They have waited out the war in a village and, as the novel starts, the Russians are arriving in their tanks. (It is apparently auto-biographical to some extent. )

Strikingly, the story is told from the perspective of a protagonist, who is a writer, does not support Hitler, but who also did nothing to resist the Nazi regime. He is ordinary and not particularly courageous even though he despises his neighbors who loved the Fuhrer. I found it immensely sad to reflect on what that would have been like, to be a German who « belonged » to the defeated and despised country. Fallada depicts the awful material and psychological effects as people try to reclaim their lives: the shame, the trauma of the city in ruins, the confusion of all Germans being taken for Nazis and not knowing who was or wasn’t, the hostility among the survivors, the occasional acts of kindness, the indifference of leftover administrators in charge of food coupons, housing permits, etc. Personally, I’d just never thought about the aftermath for ordinary Germans—not in the way one has thought about the rescue of Jewish and other victims of the Holocaust. This novel makes that story vivid and human.

I couldn’t help think of the divisions in our own society, the hatefulness that erupts, and the absolute need for government to order and moderate the worst of our human impulses, to model and foster the best. ( )

Der einstmals angesehene Schriftsteller Dr. Doll verbringt mit seiner deutlich jüngeren Gattin die letzten Kriegstage 1945 am Land. Obwohl in der dortigen Bevölkerung unbeliebt, wird er von der einmarschierenden Roten Armee als Bürgermeister ernannt und zerbricht an der Aufgabe. Daraufhin ziehen die Dolls nach Berlin, wo sie den totalen Zusammenbruch in der "Stunde Null" im Morphiumrausch erleben.

"Der Alpdruck" ist ein autobiographischer Roman Hans Falladas der düster und defaitistisch die Zustände und Stimmung im Berlin der unmittelbaren Nachkriegszeit beschreibt. Der Hauptprotagonist Dr. Doll verzweifelt an der durch die nationalsozialistischen Verbrechen dem deutschen Volk aufgebürdeten Schuld und hält Sühne für ausgeschlossen. So lässt er sich träge und fatalistisch gehen und gibt sich der Morphium-Sucht hin. Dr. Dolls Verfall und Genesung ist sinnbildlich für den Untergang des deutschen Reiches und den beginnenden Wiederaufbau Deutschlands samt allen daran verbundenen Ängsten und Zweifeln. ( )

ספר מעניין אבל דוחה ומתסכל של פלדה. למעשה אוטוביוגרפי לחלוטין ומתאר כמה שנים אחרונות של חיי המחבר ובת זוגו הצעירה מייד אחרי המלחמה. הסיפור המעניין של גרמניה אחרי המלחמה וההשתקמות שלה מתחבא בתוך הסיפור ההרבה פחות מעניין של הסבל של הזוג הלא יוצלחי שמעבר לכל הצרות מכור לסמים וסובל מהפרעות נפשיות. ( )

Finals d’abril de 1945. Malgrat que la guerra ja s’ha acabat a Europa, el doctor Doll, un pessimista moderat, encara viu tenallat per la por. De nit l’assetgen malsons en els quals ell —i la resta d’Alemanya— malviu al fons d’un immens cràter provocat per una bomba. Per sobre de tot, vol vèncer el dimoni de la culpa col·lectiva, però es veu incapaç d’esmenar cap error des de la seva posició d’alcalde d’una petita ciutat ocupada per l’Exèrcit Roig.

Tractant de fugir de la seva addicció a la morfina —cada dosi representa una petita mort—, es trasllada a Berlín, on intenta refer la seva vida en el caos d’una ciutat agonitzant. Acompanyat de la seva dona, addicta com ell, lluitaran per salvar la vida perseguint la possibilitat de construir un futur millor.

Escrita amb l’energia i la vivor distintives de l’art de Hans Fallada, El malson és un retrat demolidor de l’atmosfera desesperada en què es va sumir l’Alemanya de la postguerra, on la vergonya i la culpa convivien amb la més severa de les misèries.

Nightmare in Berlin is the fifth book I’ve read by the German author Hans Fallada, (1893-1947) but it was when I read the first one that I wondered if Fallada had any optimism about the future of post-war Germany. This is what I wrote at the conclusion of my review of Alone in Berlin, (1947) Fallada’s story about the futile resistance campaign of a working-class couple against the Nazis, a couple who believe that once you’ve seen that a cause is right, you’re obliged to fight for it.

Is there redemption? Writing so soon after the war, Fallada must have yearned for a new Germany, and the Quangels are a metaphor for parents of the next generation. The ‘baptism’ of the street-thug Kuno, his rejection of his unrepentant father and his adoption by the symbolically named Eva is a clear indication of Fellada’s hopes for a humane post-Nazi Germany.

Nightmare in Berlin is the novel that Fallada had to write before he could write the more hopeful Alone in Berlin. It’s about the time between the evil regime and the establishment of a new order, and how an ordinary man felt about his country’s past when he could not see what its future might be. A thinly disguised autobiographical novel which traces the life of Doctor Doll in the immediate aftermath of Germany’s defeat, it represents not only the chaos of its downfall, but also the soul of a man trying to come to terms with the moral quagmire of German responsibility for its monstrous crimes against humanity.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2016/06/17/nightmare-in-berlin-by-hans-fallada-translat... ( )