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Hans Fallada (1893-1947) - originally Rudolf Ditzen | |
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German writer, representative of 'Neue Sachlichkeit', who took his pen name Fallada from the magical talking horse in the Grimm tale 'The Goose Girl'. Fallada's best-known works include Little Man, What Now? (1932). It depicted the survival struggle and problems of a young couple, Johannes and Lämmchen, in Germany in the grip of unemployment. During World War II he did not openly criticize the government, but published in 1947 a pitiless story, JEDER STIRBT FÜR SICH ALLEIN, about the police state which had silenced him. --"... Alles ist Gott, Sie verstehen? Ihre Seele, Ihre unsterbliche Seele wird in die grosse Weltenseele heimkehren, Quangel!" Rudolf Ditzen (Hans Fallada) was born in Greifswald as the son of a jurist, who would later become a supreme court judge. In his childhood memoir, DAMALS BEI UNS DAHEIM (1941) Fallada described his father, Wilhelm Ditzen, as a sensitive man, who loved music and literature, and suffered deeply, when he had to condemn somebody to death and attend and witness the execution. The first 18 years of his life Fallada spent in Berlin and Leipzig. In his youth he joined the Wandervogel association, which arranged walking tours and journeys to young people. Due to its opposition to petty bourgeois conventions, it was viewed with suspicion by teachers and parents. After causing death of his friend in a duel in 1911 and trying to shoot himself, he was confined to an asylum. His attempt to enlist the army in 1914 was rejected. In his childhood Fallada had found the fantasy world of books. Among his favorite writers was Karl May, whose works he later, as an adult, bought - all 57 volumes. In his early teens Fallada read also works by such authors as Flaubert, Zola, Daudet, and Maupassant. Encouraged by his aunt Adelaide, who had known Nietzsche, Fallada went to Berlin, where he was introduced to expressionist circles. He worked in odd jobs, as a clerk, a bookkeeper, an estate agent, a dealer in provisions, a potato grower. Between the years 1920 and 1922 Fallada wrote his first novels, starting with autobiographical DER JUNGE GOEDESCHAL (1920). After his second novel, ANTON AND GERDA (1922), Fallada fell in silence for years. He became addicted to morphine, and was unable to write. Continuing his self-destructive way of life, Fallada was condemned into prison twice for embezzlement when trying to finance his drug use. Fallada also spent times in clinics. In the late 1920s Fallada's life took a new turn. He married in 1929 Anna Margarete Issel, of a working class woman, who helped him with his writing. He moved to Holstein where he worked for Neumünster Advertiser, rising to the rank of an editor. Fallada, who supported socialists, had there a close observation place in the conflict between the socialist administration and the farmers. After moving back in Berlin, where he worked as a journalist, Fallada published BAUERN, BONZEN UND BOMBEN (1931). It was followed by KLEINER MANN - WAS NUN? (1932), which gained international success. It was praised by Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, Carl Zuckmayer and Graham Greene, and filmed eventually twice. Also Fallada's children's book became immense popular. GESCHICHTEN AUS DER MURKELEI, published in 1938, remained a classic for several generations of German children. The realistic style of Neue Sachlichkeit (new factualism) was born partly as a reaction against expressionism in the 1920s. Partly it acknowledged the effects of technological advances on attitudes. Among the most prominent representatives of the movement were Fallada, Erich Kästner, and Erich Maria Remarque. Cynicism and disillusionment marked novels which depicted the tribulations of the working class and petty bourgeois figures in the economic and politic crisis in the Weimar Republic. Fallada's novels dealt with the moral and social problems of the era between the two world wars, but they were often optimistic and expressed his faith in people. His style was uncomplicated and although critics considered it banal, his novel were highly popular. Almost all Fallada's novels, which he wrote in the 1930s, were translated into English. Little Man, What Now? was filmed in Hollywood in 1934. The director, Frank Borzage (1893-1962), was known for his unabashed sentimentalism and lyrical tenderness. His other memorable films from the 1930s are A Farewell to Arms (1932), based on Hemingway's novel, and Three Comrades (1938), based on Eric Maria Remarque's novel. Fallada was blacklisted by the Nazis in 1935. He started to drink again, had an affair with a woman, whom he later married and who also suffered from morphine addiction and alcoholism. After a shooting incident when visiting Anna Issel - they divorced by mutual agreement - Fallada was incarcerated in an asylum, and spent there four months. During this time Fallada started to write DER TRINKER, which tells about his alcoholism and was published in 1950. Der Trinker (1950) - A novel written in the form of a diary. "Of course I have not always been a drunkard. Indeed it is not very long since I first too to drink. Formerly I was repelled by alcohol; I might take a glass of beer, but wine tasted sour to me, and the smell of schnaps made me ill. But then the time came when things began to go wrong with me." Erwin Sommer, a shopowner, starts to drink when his business is going down. His wife Martha, who had run the shop better, has devoted herself to take care of their home. Erwin has an affair with an other woman. He meets Lobedanz, who is an alcoholic and drinks with him Martha's money and tries to steal her silverware. He is later taken into an institution. Martha wants a divorce. In hospital Erwin infects himself with tuberculosis, hoping to die and to get drunk for the last time. In 1945 Fallada married Ursula Losch; his second marriage lasted until his death. At the end of World War II Fallada was appointed mayor of Feldburg, after the Red Army had occupied the town. When he resigned he was taken up by the literary establishment of the German Democratic Republic. He settled in East Berlin where he worked on the radio and the East German journal Aufbau. His last works include Jeder stirbt für sich allein, a story of a working-class couple, Otto and Anna Quangel, in their tragic fight against Gestapo. Their real-life models were two Berliners, Otto and Elise Hampel, who were executed after conducting an anti-Nazi postcard campaign. Fallada died of an overdose of morphine on February 5, 1947 in Berlin. DER ALPDRUCK (1947), which was published posthumously, dealt with the feeling of guilt among survivors after the defeat and occupation of Nazi Germany. For further reading: More Lives Than One: A Biography of Hans Fallada by Jenny Williams (1998); Hans Fallada - sein Leben in Bildern und Briefen, ed. by G. Müller-Waldeck, R. Ulrich, U. Ditzen (1997); Es war wie ein Rausch: Fallada und sein Leben by Cecilia von Studnitz (1997); World Authors 1900-1950, ed. by Martin Seymor-Smith and Andrew C. Kimmens (1996); Hans Fallada: Beitrèage zu Leben und Werk: Materialien der 1. Internationalen Hans-Fallada-Konferenz in Greifswald (1993); Hans Fallada Als Politischer Schriftsteller by Reinhard K. Zachau ( 1990); Techniken der Leselenkung bei Hans Fallada by Angelika Kieser-Reinke (1986); Leben und Tode des Hans Fallada by Tom Crepon (1978); Hans Fallada in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten by J. Manthey (1973); Hans Fallada: Humanist and Social Critic by H.J. Schueler (1970); Hans Fallada by L. Frank (1966) - Other writers who gained fame in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s: Bertolt Brecht, Erich Kästner, Joachim Ringelnatz, Carl Zuckmayer, Alfred Döblin, Ernst Glaeser, Hermann Kesten, Erich Maria Remarque, Leonhard Frank, Arnold Zweig, Ernst Wiechert - For further information: Hans Fallada Selected works:
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