Introduction vi
The 1944 Prison Diary 1
A despatch from the house of the dead. Afterword 219
The genesis of the Prison Diary manuscript 233
Chronology 236
Notes 239
Index 268
Hans Fallada was born in Greifswald, Germany, on 21 July 1893 as Rudolf Wilhelm Adolf Ditzen; he took his pen name from a Brothers Grimm fairy tale. He died from an overdose of morphine on 5 February 1947 in Berlin. Fallada was the author of many bestselling novels including Little Man - What Now? (1932), Wolf Among Wolves (1938) and Every Man Dies Alone (1947).
"This is certainly a revelatory book. As its author intended, it
reveals much about the pernicious nature of Nazi rule during the
Third Reich; the compromises demanded, the tribulations endured,
the lives ruined. At one point Fallada laments: “Oh, how they bled
us dry! How they robbed us of every joy and happiness, every smile,
every friendship! Yet it also reveals something that its author did
not intend, and that is Fallada’s own deeply flawed character."
The Financial Times
"An outspoken memoir of life under the Nazis written from a prison
cell... a fascinating document"
The Independent
"Exquisite and troubling... one of the most powerful accounts of
life in the Third Reich."
The Economist
"This is a remarkable book"
The Scotsman
""Colourful and anecdotal reflections of life under Hitler.
Fallada's diary turns out to be not a record of quotidian events
inside but reminiscences of scrapes, challenges and day-to-day
reality outside, from the advent of Nazi misrule to the final
stages of the war."
The Sunday Herald
"Fallada, one of Germany's most well-regarded writers of the 20th
century, tells the tale of a writer and his friends, and how the
swell of Nazism means there's always a listening ear outside the
door - except this time he's telling his own story"
South China Morning Post
"His prison diary is a heartfelt diatribe against the nazis,
revealing a highly compromised man riddled with contradictions and
ambiguity. In reading it, the high price Fallada paid for living
out the war in his homeland is all too clear."
Morning Star
"A rare account of living close to an edge that you can’t quite
locate in the darkness.""A rare account of living close to an edge
that you can’t quite locate in the darkness."
Tribune
"Vivid"
Sydney Morning Herald
“Fallada’s strength as a diarist is to convert his unsteady,
sometimes ethically questionable existence into disciplined,
objective narrative. His life and writings reflect the endless need
to challenge authoritarianism in both family and society.”
The Tablet
"This long-awaited publication will... greatly increase our
knowledge of an author whose reputation has never been completely
eclipsed in Germany, and who is now being rediscovered in Britain,
the USA, France, and Italy. All these countries have recently
published his last, posthumously published novel [Alone in Berlin],
thus demonstrating his rare ability to attract the common and the
literary reader alike."
Modern Language Review
"Recording his experiences of Nazi Germany while confined in an
asylum in 1944, Hans Fallada wrote in real life what Günter Grass
later wrote in fiction. An intriguing literary testament, expertly
edited by two leading Fallada scholars, and skilfully translated by
Allan Blunden."
Geoff Wilkes, The University of Queensland
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