After Midnight
by Irmgard Keun
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"Sanna and her ravishing friend Gerti would rather speak of love than politics, but in 1930s Frankfurt, politics cannot be escaped--even in the lady's bathroom. Crossing town one evening to meet up with Gerti's Jewish lover, a blockade cuts off the girls' path--it is the Furher in a motorcade procession, and the crowd goes mad striving to catch a glimpse of Hitler's raised "empty hand." Then the parade is over, and in the long hours after midnight Sanna and Gerti will face betrayal, death, show more and the heartbreaking reality of being young in an era devoid of innocence or romance. In 1937, German author Irmgard Keun had only recently fled Nazi Germany with her lover Joseph Roth when she wrote this slim, exquisite, and devastating book. It captures the unbearable tension, contradictions, and hysteria of pre-war Germany like no other novel. Yet even as it exposes human folly, the book exudes a hopeful humanism. It is full of humor and light, even as it describes the first moments of a nightmare. After Midnight is a masterpiece that deserves to be read and remembered anew"-- show lessTags
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I followed up on [The Seventh Cross] by reading this slim novel. Again, this is set in 1930s Germany, as Hitler is in power and life is changing for everyone. Told through the eyes of a young woman, Sanna begins the novel interested in hanging out with her friends and flirting with men and giving sharp, pointed, sometimes humorous commentary on the new political regime. She obviously doesn't support Hitler, but she also isn't yet seeing the ramifications that the changes in Germany will have on her life. By the end of the book, that has changed. Friends of hers are getting denounced and turned in, she is pulled in for questioning, people are dying, and she is fleeing.
A moving and important novel that is also enjoyable and quick to show more read. I definitely recommend and appreciate the LTers who brought it to my attention. show less
A moving and important novel that is also enjoyable and quick to show more read. I definitely recommend and appreciate the LTers who brought it to my attention. show less
I first heard of this book and its author only a few weeks ago, when I read an article in the local newspaper in which a number of Australian writers were asked to nominate their favourite books of 2011. I don’t know why this particular work drew my attention, but I’m very glad that it did.
When the book was published in 1937, Irmgard Keun was living in exile in the Netherlands, her previous novels having been banned by the Nazi regime. As the editorial note at the end of the Kindle edition explains, Keun returned to Germany when the Netherlands fell to Germany in 1940. She travelled on a passport in an assumed name, after the publication of reports that she had committed suicide. She then lived with her parents in Germany for the show more duration of the war.
This is a short work and easy to read. However, its simplicity is deceptive and the final effect of the work is devastating. The novel is in the form of a first-person narrative and the story is slight. The narrator is Sanna, an unsophisticated and naïve 19 year old in Frankfurt, who is not interested in politics and has the same concerns as other girls of the same age. Sanna is in love with the unprepossessing Franz and she wants to have fun. Her friend Gerti is in love with a Jewish boy (or rather, with the son of a Jewish man). Her sister-in-law fancies herself to be in love with anti-Nazi writer Heini. Her brother Algin, a novelist, contemplates whether he can conform and write in a manner which will not cause him political problems.
Sanna’s observations about life for ordinary Germans under the Nazi regime are a large part of what makes this work a treasure. Her observations are ironic and often laugh-out-loud funny, all the more so because Sanna is not consciously criticizing Nazism : rather, she relates its contradictions and perversity in a matter-of-fact manner which leaves the reader in no doubt as to Keun’s views. As the novel progresses, the mood becomes darker and more desperate. Events start to spiral out of Sanna’s control and her state of mind is reflected in the narrative. Juxtaposed to Sanna’s first person narrative is her reporting of the comments of other characters, in particular those of Heini, who provides a much more direct criticism of Nazism than that of Sanna.
This novel provides an amazing insight into life in 1930s Germany and in particular into the choices which had to be made by writers. It has left me wanting to read more of Keun’s work. It has also left me wishing that I had not allowed five years of high school German language study go to waste. I have read that the most recent translation is very good, but of course I am in no position to know this from personal experience. I only wish I had not had to read the work in translation. show less
The narrative voice is very convincing. Sanna is not as naïve or artless as she seems at first. She sounds a bit like the stereotypical 'ditzy' young woman, but it's cover for her discerning observations, sometimes delivered with droll sarcasm. At one stage when she's in a bar with her friend, she starts up a prattling conversation in an effort to distract attention from Gerti's imprudent opinions that could get them both into trouble among the people wearing party badges. She'd seen for herself how eager some were to inform on others when she was in Cologne. So the reader is made aware that even at this stage of the Nazi regime, it's not just the obvious signs of authority such as the Blackshirts that are to be feared... there are show more also people among her social crowd who would report any signs of dissent.
And when she reports on the enthusiasm for Hitler's visit to her city, her thoughts show that she sees through the empty spectacle. She's very much the outsider, the one who is observing, not joining in, not unless it's necessary to avoid attracting attention. So when the Nazi anthem is sung to the accompaniment of the compulsory Nazi salute, she does it too, to avoid the wrath of the crowd. The implication is obvious: how many others were paying lip service too?
Authoritarianism is everywhere: from Gerti's friend Kurt in his SA uniform, making her sit down almost forcibly so that everyone would think she was his property. But Gerti's in love with Dieter, who's a Jew, which brings forth Sanna's private refusal to engage with labels such a person of mixed race, first class or maybe third class — though she's not naïve about what Dieter really wants from Gerti even if he is polite, and nice, and young, with soft, brown, round, velvety eyes.
It's painful to read about Dieter's father's quarrels with Algin (another young friend) who objects to the Nazis. Dieter's father — who is exempt from the restrictions on Jewish business because he runs an export company — thinks that they've put the German mentality in order and saved him from the communists. In 1937 Irmgard Keun could not have known what this man's fate was to be.
But it's also painful to realise that while Sanna thinks she's very clever at seeing through propaganda which seduces others like her Aunt Adelheid, subverting the regime on the sly so that only those who agree with her know about it, achieves nothing. It turns out that her boyfriend Franz has been in Gestapo custody and the novel ends with the pair in flight because he has murdered the informer. Her abrupt coming-of-age and loss of innocence ends as it did for so many with escape rather than resistance — and, as foreshadowed early in the book, what else could we expect under the circumstances?
We are living in the time of the greatest German denunciation movement ever, you see. Everyone has to keep an eye on everyone else. Everyone’s got power over everyone else. Everyone can get everyone else locked up. There aren’t many can withstand the temptation to make use of that kind of power. (p.100)
And when she reports on the enthusiasm for Hitler's visit to her city, her thoughts show that she sees through the empty spectacle. She's very much the outsider, the one who is observing, not joining in, not unless it's necessary to avoid attracting attention. So when the Nazi anthem is sung to the accompaniment of the compulsory Nazi salute, she does it too, to avoid the wrath of the crowd. The implication is obvious: how many others were paying lip service too?
Authoritarianism is everywhere: from Gerti's friend Kurt in his SA uniform, making her sit down almost forcibly so that everyone would think she was his property. But Gerti's in love with Dieter, who's a Jew, which brings forth Sanna's private refusal to engage with labels such a person of mixed race, first class or maybe third class — though she's not naïve about what Dieter really wants from Gerti even if he is polite, and nice, and young, with soft, brown, round, velvety eyes.
Dieter is what they call a person of mixed race, first class or maybe third class—I can never get the hang of these labels. But anyway, Gerti’s not supposed to have anything to do with him because of the race laws. If all Gerti does is simply sit in the corner of a café with Dieter, holding hands, they can get punished severely for offending against national feeling. Still, what does a girl care about the law when she wants a man? And if a man wants a girl, it’s all the same to him if the executioner’s standing right behind him with his axe, so long as he gets one thing. Once he’s had it, of course, it is not all the same to him any more. (p.17)
It's painful to read about Dieter's father's quarrels with Algin (another young friend) who objects to the Nazis. Dieter's father — who is exempt from the restrictions on Jewish business because he runs an export company — thinks that they've put the German mentality in order and saved him from the communists. In 1937 Irmgard Keun could not have known what this man's fate was to be.
But it's also painful to realise that while Sanna thinks she's very clever at seeing through propaganda which seduces others like her Aunt Adelheid, subverting the regime on the sly so that only those who agree with her know about it, achieves nothing. It turns out that her boyfriend Franz has been in Gestapo custody and the novel ends with the pair in flight because he has murdered the informer. Her abrupt coming-of-age and loss of innocence ends as it did for so many with escape rather than resistance — and, as foreshadowed early in the book, what else could we expect under the circumstances?
My heart always stands still when I hear those speeches, because how do I know I’m not one of the sort who are going to be smashed? And the worst of it is that I just don’t understand what’s really going on. I’m only gradually getting the hang of the things you must be careful not to do. (p.63)show less
TO read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/04/18/after-midnight-1937-by-irmgard-keun-translat...
Nach Mitternacht was Keun's fourth novel, her second to be published in Amsterdam after the Nazis banned her books in Germany, and the first she wrote in exile.
Sanna, the 19-year-old narrator, is an unremarkable, prudent, sane, young woman whose modest, conventional aims in life - to marry her boyfriend and set up in business with him in a small shop - are clearly not going to work out the way she hoped, as the world they live in seems to have gone mad around them. The action of the book takes place in Frankfurt over two days in 1936, with a series of scenes set in various prominent Frankfurt drinking-establishments and at a private party. (Maybe the extreme booziness of this novel has something to do with the collaboration with her show more lover Joseph Roth?) Hitler himself makes a brief cameo appearance, as his motorcade arrives at the opera house for him to give a speech, and Sanna watches him from a balcony of the pub.
The main aim of the book seems to be to explain and to satirise the effect of the Nazi dictatorship on ordinary Germans. There is a lot about the absurdities of the racial laws, the climate of fear and the enthusiastic way ordinary people took to the possibilities of denunciation (of neighbours, annoying family-members, business rivals...), the suppression of open criticism that left everyone bubbling over with dangerous political jokes they could hardly resist sharing, the suppression of any literature except uplifting Heimat-fiction and odes to the Führer, etc.
Tellingly, Sanna's drinking companion, the cynical journalist Heini, tells her that there's no point in literature in an authoritarian society. By definition, everything the authorities do is perfect, so there's no reason to write about it, any more than you would want to write articles about the sizes of wings the angels are wearing this year if you were in Paradise...
As we would expect, there are plenty of jokes, but also plenty that is very black indeed. In the final chapters we meet three British journalists who have come to Germany for a couple of days to interview Sanna's brother, a novelist who has tried to accommodate himself to the new régime. Their brief experience has left them impressed with how hospitable, cheerful and optimistic their German hosts are under their new leaders: Keun is making very sure that the reader won't fall into the same error. And we don't.
As a novel, it's a quick and lively read: Keun was a pro, and she knew she had something important to say and had a clear idea how to say it. Factually, it probably doesn't tell you anything about Nazi society that isn't in all the history books, but that's not really the point. There are very few direct contemporary accounts like this of what it felt like to be living in Nazi Germany as a German, written whilst it was still going on. Keun had only been away for a few months when she wrote this, and there are lots of really telling little details that stop you and make you think about things in a new way. show less
Sanna, the 19-year-old narrator, is an unremarkable, prudent, sane, young woman whose modest, conventional aims in life - to marry her boyfriend and set up in business with him in a small shop - are clearly not going to work out the way she hoped, as the world they live in seems to have gone mad around them. The action of the book takes place in Frankfurt over two days in 1936, with a series of scenes set in various prominent Frankfurt drinking-establishments and at a private party. (Maybe the extreme booziness of this novel has something to do with the collaboration with her show more lover Joseph Roth?) Hitler himself makes a brief cameo appearance, as his motorcade arrives at the opera house for him to give a speech, and Sanna watches him from a balcony of the pub.
The main aim of the book seems to be to explain and to satirise the effect of the Nazi dictatorship on ordinary Germans. There is a lot about the absurdities of the racial laws, the climate of fear and the enthusiastic way ordinary people took to the possibilities of denunciation (of neighbours, annoying family-members, business rivals...), the suppression of open criticism that left everyone bubbling over with dangerous political jokes they could hardly resist sharing, the suppression of any literature except uplifting Heimat-fiction and odes to the Führer, etc.
Tellingly, Sanna's drinking companion, the cynical journalist Heini, tells her that there's no point in literature in an authoritarian society. By definition, everything the authorities do is perfect, so there's no reason to write about it, any more than you would want to write articles about the sizes of wings the angels are wearing this year if you were in Paradise...
As we would expect, there are plenty of jokes, but also plenty that is very black indeed. In the final chapters we meet three British journalists who have come to Germany for a couple of days to interview Sanna's brother, a novelist who has tried to accommodate himself to the new régime. Their brief experience has left them impressed with how hospitable, cheerful and optimistic their German hosts are under their new leaders: Keun is making very sure that the reader won't fall into the same error. And we don't.
As a novel, it's a quick and lively read: Keun was a pro, and she knew she had something important to say and had a clear idea how to say it. Factually, it probably doesn't tell you anything about Nazi society that isn't in all the history books, but that's not really the point. There are very few direct contemporary accounts like this of what it felt like to be living in Nazi Germany as a German, written whilst it was still going on. Keun had only been away for a few months when she wrote this, and there are lots of really telling little details that stop you and make you think about things in a new way. show less
I read this during Dewey's Reverse Readathon, which I decided to turn into a Women in Translation Month readathon, and I just couldn't resist making this the first book I started after midnight. This had been on my TBR shelves for a very long time, but for even longer than that I've been resisting books set in Europe "between the wars." I've only recently started relaxing that resistance, so it was finally time to read this.
I was bowled over by this book. I didn't expect how clever it would be. Sanna is young woman preoccupied by the usual things -- love, the love lives of her friends, the injustices she has been dealt -- and she "doesn't understand politics very well." But her supposed naivety becomes an even more effective position show more from which to skewer the hypocrisies and cruelties of the Nazi party.
I expected to be devastated by this book, but I was actually delighted. Not that the book is light-hearted, by any means, but there is a thread of hope and goodness that remains throughout. Deserves wider acclaim. show less
I was bowled over by this book. I didn't expect how clever it would be. Sanna is young woman preoccupied by the usual things -- love, the love lives of her friends, the injustices she has been dealt -- and she "doesn't understand politics very well." But her supposed naivety becomes an even more effective position show more from which to skewer the hypocrisies and cruelties of the Nazi party.
I expected to be devastated by this book, but I was actually delighted. Not that the book is light-hearted, by any means, but there is a thread of hope and goodness that remains throughout. Deserves wider acclaim. show less
After Midnight was originally published in German in Amsterdam in 1937. Keun was by this time on the Nazi's black list and it was by no means easy to get her book published in Holland. It is not a political book in that it is written in the first person by a nineteen year old girl who has little interest in politics. It tells the story of Sanna; a pretty girl living amongst middle class German citizens of Frankfurt, who are by this time all politicised by the Third Reich led by Hitler. He has become a god-like figure and all life centres around him highlighted by his cavalcades through German towns and his speeches broadcast everywhere on the Radio.
It is a love story; Sanna is in love with Franz who has had to leave the city to escape show more possible arrest after being denounced by a rival shopkeeper and now his letters have stopped arriving. Her friend Liska is married to Algin, but Liska has set her cap at Heini who is a member of the SA. Gerti is in love with Dieter Aaron, who has been designated as a third class citizen due to his being of mixed race and Gerti must be careful not to show him affection in public. Sanna is not a well educated girl, but has learnt after being denounced for making off hand remarks about Hitler, that it is not a pleasant experience to be summoned to the local offices of the Gestapo, she was lucky in getting away with a caution. Many of her friends and acquaintances belong to the National Socialist party and she knows now to be careful about what she says. She is disparaging about some of them, who try to be super patriotic by claiming to have read Mein Kampf; Sanna says they are probably all like her; having a copy in the house, but rarely opening it. It is a world of intrigue that ordinary citizens have by and large accepted.
"Everyone has got power over everyone else. Everyone can get everyone else locked up. There are not many who can withstand the temptation to make use of that kind of power."
Sanna is one of the few who does not use this power, she has her own set of values and she tries to do good by others.
The adulation towards Hitler is demonstrated, when he makes a visit to Frankfurt and Sanna describes the event. She is annoyed that she cannot cross the square, but a friend takes her in hand and she is led up to a crowded balcony with a good view of the cavalcade. The book builds towards a climax with a party organised by Liska; who is desperate to attract the attentions of Heini, Sanna helps her with the preparations and her lover Frantz arrives unexpectedly.
The circle of people milling around the young women, Sanna, Liska, Gerti and others spend much of their leisure time in the local beer halls, there are always Party members, soldiers belonging to the SA or the SS in abundance willing to spend their money. There are a few Jewish people who are still tolerated, because of their usefulness, but they tend to congregate in one of the few beer halls designated for them. Some are making preparations to leave Germany; all are living a ghost like lifestyle, trying not to get noticed. It is a warped and crazy world, but many have adapted and are using it to their own advantage. Sanna is slowly being suffocated.
Sanna's easy going telling of her story, skates over the difficulties for many people at that time, but they are there, under the surface. The patriotism generated by Hitler and the National Socialist Party has swept many people along and changed their view of the world, those that criticise are denounced and become collateral damage. If you ever wondered what it would be like living in a fascist state, then this book would give you a glimpse into the reality.
This is a book from the LRB's list of books to read and it was recommended by Ali Smith - 4 stars. show less
It is a love story; Sanna is in love with Franz who has had to leave the city to escape show more possible arrest after being denounced by a rival shopkeeper and now his letters have stopped arriving. Her friend Liska is married to Algin, but Liska has set her cap at Heini who is a member of the SA. Gerti is in love with Dieter Aaron, who has been designated as a third class citizen due to his being of mixed race and Gerti must be careful not to show him affection in public. Sanna is not a well educated girl, but has learnt after being denounced for making off hand remarks about Hitler, that it is not a pleasant experience to be summoned to the local offices of the Gestapo, she was lucky in getting away with a caution. Many of her friends and acquaintances belong to the National Socialist party and she knows now to be careful about what she says. She is disparaging about some of them, who try to be super patriotic by claiming to have read Mein Kampf; Sanna says they are probably all like her; having a copy in the house, but rarely opening it. It is a world of intrigue that ordinary citizens have by and large accepted.
"Everyone has got power over everyone else. Everyone can get everyone else locked up. There are not many who can withstand the temptation to make use of that kind of power."
Sanna is one of the few who does not use this power, she has her own set of values and she tries to do good by others.
The adulation towards Hitler is demonstrated, when he makes a visit to Frankfurt and Sanna describes the event. She is annoyed that she cannot cross the square, but a friend takes her in hand and she is led up to a crowded balcony with a good view of the cavalcade. The book builds towards a climax with a party organised by Liska; who is desperate to attract the attentions of Heini, Sanna helps her with the preparations and her lover Frantz arrives unexpectedly.
The circle of people milling around the young women, Sanna, Liska, Gerti and others spend much of their leisure time in the local beer halls, there are always Party members, soldiers belonging to the SA or the SS in abundance willing to spend their money. There are a few Jewish people who are still tolerated, because of their usefulness, but they tend to congregate in one of the few beer halls designated for them. Some are making preparations to leave Germany; all are living a ghost like lifestyle, trying not to get noticed. It is a warped and crazy world, but many have adapted and are using it to their own advantage. Sanna is slowly being suffocated.
Sanna's easy going telling of her story, skates over the difficulties for many people at that time, but they are there, under the surface. The patriotism generated by Hitler and the National Socialist Party has swept many people along and changed their view of the world, those that criticise are denounced and become collateral damage. If you ever wondered what it would be like living in a fascist state, then this book would give you a glimpse into the reality.
This is a book from the LRB's list of books to read and it was recommended by Ali Smith - 4 stars. show less
Nachdem sie aus ihren Eifeldorf zur Tante nach Köln gezogen war und von selbiger mehr als schlecht behandelt wurde, lebt Sanna im Winter 1937 schließlich bei ihrem älteren Bruder Algin in Frankfurt. Am Nachmittag hat sie nach Monaten der Stille einen Brief von Franz erhalten, dem Cousin, den sie in Köln zurückließ und heiraten will. Am Abend werde er kommen, er müsse mit ihr reden. Bis dahin durchstreift Sanna mit ihrer Freundin Gerti Kneipen, wohnt dem Besuch des Führers bei und erlebt eine ausufernde Party bei ihrer Schwägerin. Ihre Gedanken springen zwischen Erinnerung und Gegenwart und dokumentieren das Leben in der Großstadt in der dunkelsten Zeit Deutschlands.
Anlässlich des Lesefests „Frankfurt liest ein Buch“ wurde show more Irmgard Keuns Exilroman „Nach Mitternacht“ neu aufgelegt. Der Erscheinungstermin fiel sicher nicht zufällig mit dem Holocaust-Gedenktag zusammen, gilt der Roman als eines der wichtigsten Dokumente des Alltags in der Naziherrschaft und gibt wie nur wenige andere literarische Werke Einblick in das bürgerliche Leben der Zeit. Keun verfasste weite Teile der Geschichte noch in Deutschland, veröffentlichen musste sie den Roman jedoch zunächst in den Niederlanden und Frankreich.
Die Handlung um Sanna, die auf die Ankunft von Franz wartet, ist dicht und tritt hinter die viel beeindruckenderen dokumentarischen Aspekte des Romans zurück. Getragen werden diese von den Figuren, die die ganze Bandbreite des Lebens repräsentieren. Sannas Freundin Gerti ist naiv und jung und nutzt das Begehren der Männer ohne etwas zu hinterfragen. Ihr loses Mundwerk ist gefährlich, doch immer wieder kommt sie damit durch. Sannas Bruder Algin spürt die Repressalien deutlich, als Autor kann er nicht mehr schreiben, was er möchte, die Zensur ist streng und von dem einst pompösen Leben nach seinen Erfolgen ist wenig geblieben. Tante Adelheid wiederum hat sich bestens mit den neuen Zeiten arrangiert und wacht in ihrem Haus wie eine Bulldogge über die Einhaltung der Nazi Ideologie.
Durch Augen des 18-jährigen Mädchens erlebt man den offenen Judenhass - man mag ja gar nicht glauben, dass die sogar ganz adrett aussehen und nett sein können - SA und SS Männer erscheinen mehr als trinkfreudige Dummköpfe, die man jedoch nicht unterschätzen sollte, wie sich im Laufe des Romans herausstellt.
Absurd geradezu die Inszenierung des Besuchs Hitlers - und dann offenbart sich, dass es eben nicht nur eine Angelegenheit von einigen wenigen Verblendeten war, die aktiv unterstützten, sondern dass sich die Ideologie mit ihrer Doktrin dessen, was gesagt und gedacht werden durfte, bis in die letzte Ecke des Privatlebens hineingeschlichen hatte. In ihren eigenen Wohnungen können sie nicht vor der Politik flüchten und auch wenn sie sich scheinbar teilen in die, die offen unterstützen, und diejenigen, die sich wegducken und wegschauen und nur ihr Leben in Frieden leben wollen, gemeinsam bleibt ihnen jedoch, dass sie sehen und genau wissen, was geschieht.
Ein beeindruckendes Zeitzeugnis, in dem unsagbare Dinge gesagt werden, die man heute plötzlich auch wieder hören kann. Hinter der Aktion „Frankfurt liest ein Buch“ steht die Idee, Literatur zum Gesprächsthema zu machen. Wenn dem Roman dieses Ansinnen auch nur ansatzweise gelingt, ist im Jahr 2022 schon sehr viel erreicht. Dass er zur Pflichtlektüre werden sollte, steht dabei völlig außer Frage. show less
Anlässlich des Lesefests „Frankfurt liest ein Buch“ wurde show more Irmgard Keuns Exilroman „Nach Mitternacht“ neu aufgelegt. Der Erscheinungstermin fiel sicher nicht zufällig mit dem Holocaust-Gedenktag zusammen, gilt der Roman als eines der wichtigsten Dokumente des Alltags in der Naziherrschaft und gibt wie nur wenige andere literarische Werke Einblick in das bürgerliche Leben der Zeit. Keun verfasste weite Teile der Geschichte noch in Deutschland, veröffentlichen musste sie den Roman jedoch zunächst in den Niederlanden und Frankreich.
Die Handlung um Sanna, die auf die Ankunft von Franz wartet, ist dicht und tritt hinter die viel beeindruckenderen dokumentarischen Aspekte des Romans zurück. Getragen werden diese von den Figuren, die die ganze Bandbreite des Lebens repräsentieren. Sannas Freundin Gerti ist naiv und jung und nutzt das Begehren der Männer ohne etwas zu hinterfragen. Ihr loses Mundwerk ist gefährlich, doch immer wieder kommt sie damit durch. Sannas Bruder Algin spürt die Repressalien deutlich, als Autor kann er nicht mehr schreiben, was er möchte, die Zensur ist streng und von dem einst pompösen Leben nach seinen Erfolgen ist wenig geblieben. Tante Adelheid wiederum hat sich bestens mit den neuen Zeiten arrangiert und wacht in ihrem Haus wie eine Bulldogge über die Einhaltung der Nazi Ideologie.
Durch Augen des 18-jährigen Mädchens erlebt man den offenen Judenhass - man mag ja gar nicht glauben, dass die sogar ganz adrett aussehen und nett sein können - SA und SS Männer erscheinen mehr als trinkfreudige Dummköpfe, die man jedoch nicht unterschätzen sollte, wie sich im Laufe des Romans herausstellt.
Absurd geradezu die Inszenierung des Besuchs Hitlers - und dann offenbart sich, dass es eben nicht nur eine Angelegenheit von einigen wenigen Verblendeten war, die aktiv unterstützten, sondern dass sich die Ideologie mit ihrer Doktrin dessen, was gesagt und gedacht werden durfte, bis in die letzte Ecke des Privatlebens hineingeschlichen hatte. In ihren eigenen Wohnungen können sie nicht vor der Politik flüchten und auch wenn sie sich scheinbar teilen in die, die offen unterstützen, und diejenigen, die sich wegducken und wegschauen und nur ihr Leben in Frieden leben wollen, gemeinsam bleibt ihnen jedoch, dass sie sehen und genau wissen, was geschieht.
Ein beeindruckendes Zeitzeugnis, in dem unsagbare Dinge gesagt werden, die man heute plötzlich auch wieder hören kann. Hinter der Aktion „Frankfurt liest ein Buch“ steht die Idee, Literatur zum Gesprächsthema zu machen. Wenn dem Roman dieses Ansinnen auch nur ansatzweise gelingt, ist im Jahr 2022 schon sehr viel erreicht. Dass er zur Pflichtlektüre werden sollte, steht dabei völlig außer Frage. show less
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- After Midnight
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