Hans Fallada

Hans Fallada (July 21, 1893 - February 5, 1947), born Rudolf Wilhelm Adolf Ditzen in Berlin, was one of the most famous German writers of the 20th century. His novel, "Little Man, What Now?" is generally considered his most famous work and is a classic of German literature. Fallada's pseudoynm derives from a combination of characters found in the Grimm fairy tales: The protagonist of "Lucky Hans" and a horse named Falada in "The Goose Girl".

Biography

He was the child of an ambitious ladder-climbing judge and a mother from a middle-class background, both who shared an enthusiasm for music and to a lesser extent, literature. Jenny Williams notes in her autobiography, "More Lives than One" that Fallada's father would often read aloud to his children works authors including Shakespeare and Schiller (Williams, 5).

In 1899 at the age of 6, Fallada's father relocated the family to Berlin following the first of several promotions he would receive. Fallada had a very difficult time upon first entering school in 1901. As a result, he immersed himself in books, eschewing literature more in line with his age for authors including Flaubert, Dostoevsky, and Dickens. In 1909 the family again relocated to Leipzig following his father's appointment to the Imperial Supreme Court.

A rather severe road accident in 1909 and the contraction of typhoid in 1910 seem to mark a turning point in Fallada's life and the end of his relatively care-free youth. His adolescent years were characterized by increasing isolation and self-doubt, compounded by the lingering effects of these health ailments. These issues manifested themselves in multiple suicide attempts. In 1911 he made a suicide pact with his close friend, Hanns Dietrich. Because of both boys' inexperience with weapons, Fallada ultimately survived, but the death of his friend ensured his status as an outcast from society. From this point on he would serve multiple stints in mental institutions.

While in a sanatorium Fallada took to translation and poetry, albeit unsuccessfully, before finally breaking ground as a novelist in 1920 with the publication of his first book "Young Goedeschal". During this period he also struggled with morphine addiction, a problem that would come to plague him throughout his life, and the death of his younger brother in the first World War.

In the wake of the war, Fallada worked several farmhand and other agricultural jobs in order to support himself and finance his growing drug addictions. While before the war Fallada relied on his father for financial support while writing, after the German defeat he was no longer able, nor willing, to depend on him. Shortly after the publication of "Anton and Gerda" Fallada reported to prison in Greiswald to serve a 6 month sentence for stealing grain from his employer and selling it to support his drug habit. Less than 3 years later in 1926 Fallada again found himself imprisoned as a result of a drug and alcohol-fueled string of crimes. In February 1928 he finally emerged free of addiction.

Fallada married Suse Issel in 1929 and maintained a string of respectable jobs in journalism, newspaper, and eventually for his own publisher. It is around this time that his novels became noticeably political and started to comment on the social and economic woes of Germany. Williams notes that Fallada's 1931 novel "Farmers, Functionaries, and Fireworks" established [him] as a promising literary talent as well as an author not afraid to tackle controversial issues" (109).

The great success of "Little Man, What Now?" in 1932, while immediately easing his financial straits, was overshadowed by his anxiety over the rise of Nazism and a subsequent nervous breakdown. Although none of his work was subversive enough to warrant action by the Nazis, many of his peers were arrested and interned and his future as an author under the Nazi regime looked bleak. These anxieties were compounded by the loss of a baby only a few hours after childbirth.

As the careers, and in some cases the lives, of many of Ditzen's contemporaries were rapidly drawing to a halt, he himself began to draw some scrutiny from the government in the form of denunciations of his work by Nazi authors and publications. Although his 1934 novel, "Once We Had a Child" met with initially positive reviews, the official Nazi publication, "Volkischer Beobachter" disapproved. In the same year, the Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda "recommended the removal of "Little Man - What Now?" from all public libraries" (164). Meanwhile, the official campaign against Fallada was beginning to take a toll on the sales of his books, landing him in financial straits that precipitated another nervous breakdown in 1934.

In September 1935 Fallada was officially declared an "undesirable author", a designation which banned his work from being translated and published abroad. Although this order was repealed a few months later, it was as this point that his writing shifted from an artistic endeavor to merely a much needed source of income, writing "children's stories and harmless fairy tales" that would also conveniently avoid the unwanted attention of the Nazis. During this time the prospect of emigration held a constant place in Fallada's mind, although he was reluctant because of his intense love of Germany.

In 1937 the publication and success of "Wolf Among Wolves" marked Fallada's temporary return to his serious, realistic style. The Nazis read the book as a sharp criticism of the Weimar Republic, and thus naturally approved. Notably, Joseph Goebbels called it "a super book" (186). His praise indirectly resulted in Fallada's commission to write a novel that would be the basis for a state-sponsored film charting the life of a German family until 1933.

Although he initially omitted the family's rise to prosperity under Nazism in the final few years, naturally the most crucial segment to the Nazis, he eventually capitulated without much resistance under the pressure of a written contract. Other evidence of his surrender to Nazi intimidation came in the form of forewords he wrote for some of his more politically ambiguous works "designed to placate the Nazi authorities" (197). By the end of 1938, despite the deaths of several colleagues at the hands of the Nazis, Fallada reversed his decision to finally emigrate and once again dedicated himself to writing children stories and other fluff material suitable for the sensitive times. Nevertheless, with the German invasion of Poland in 1939 and the subsequent outbreak of war, life became difficult for Fallada and his family. War rations were the basis for several squabbles between his family and other members of his village. On multiple occasions neighbors reported his supposed drug addiction to authorities, threatening to reveal his history of psychological disturbances, a dangerous record indeed under the Nazi regime. The rationing of paper, which prioritized state-promoted works was also an impediment to his career. Nevertheless he continued to publish in a limited role, even enjoying a very brief window of official approval. This window came to a screeching halt near the end of the year 1943 with the loss of his 25-year publisher Rowohlt. It was also at this time that he turned to alcohol and affairs to cope with his increasingly strained relationship with his wife, among other things.

In 1944, although their divorce was already finalized, a drunk Fallada and his wife were involved in an altercation in which a shot was fired by Fallada. Police confined him to a psychiatric prison. Throughout this period Fallada had one thing to cling to: He had been working on a novelization of "a famous fraud case involving two Jewish financiers in the nineteen twenties" which, because of its potential as propaganda, was supported by the government (216). He used this project as a pretext for obtaining paper and writing materials while institutionalized, which he actually used to write "The Drinker" as well as a deeply critical autobiographical account of life under the Nazis, an act easily punishable by death. He was released in December of 1944.

Despite a seemingly successful reconciliation with his first wife while confined, he married the young, wealthy and attractive widow Ulla Losch only a few months after his release and moved in with her in Feldberg. Shortly after, the Soviets invaded and began to restore order. Fallada, despite some of his questionable behavior in the face of Nazism, was asked to give a speech at a ceremony to celebrate the end of the war. Following this speech, he was appointed interim mayor of Feldberg for 18 months.

Deeply depressed by the seemingly impossible task of eradicating the vestiges of fascism that were now so deeply ingrained in society from the Nazi regime, he once again turned to morphine with his wife, and both were hospitalized in short order. The rest of his life was spent in and out of hospitals and wards. In addition to his own morphine addiction, Ulla's appears to have been even worse, and her constantly mounting debts were also a source of concern.

At the time of Fallada's death in February 1947 he had recently completed "Every Man Dies Alone", an anti-fascist novel based on a true story of a couple who were executed for producing and distributing anti-fascist material (254).

After Fallada's death, due to possible neglect and continuing addiction on the part of his second wife and sole heir, many of his unpublished works were lost or sold.

As of today eight Fallada novels have been translated into English. Although "Little Man - What Now" was a great success in the United States Fallada has faded into obscurity over the past decades. Several of his works have been adapted for the cinema both in Germany and abroad, including the U.S. Nearly all of Fallada's works contain some autobiographical details, although none do so in a completely accurate manner.

Melville House Publishing has announced plans to publish a series of previously untranslated works by Fallada, starting with his last novel "Every Man Dies Alone" ("Jeder stirbt für sich allein") in early 2009.

Articles and Interviews

cite news
author=
title=Movies: Biography for Hans Fallada
date=
work=New York Times
url=http://movies.nytimes.com/person/309334/Hans-Fallada/biography
accessdate=2008-08-14

Works

In English translation:

*Every Man Dies Alone (Melville House Publishing, Q1 2009).

In the original German:

* Der junge Goedeschal, 1920
* Anton und Gerda, 1923
* Bauern, Bonzen und Bomben, 1931
* Kleiner Mann, was nun?, 1932 (English: "Little Man, What Now?")
* Wer einmal aus dem Blechnapf frißt, 1932
* Wir hatten mal ein Kind, 1934
* Märchen vom Stadtschreiber, der aufs Land flog, 1935
* Altes Herz geht auf die Reise, 1936
* Hoppelpoppel - wo bist du?, Kindergeschichten, 1936
* Wolf unter Wölfen, 1937
* Geschichten aus der Murkelei, Märchen, 1938
* Der eiserne Gustav, 1938
* Süßmilch spricht, 1938
* Kleiner Mann - großer Mann, alles vertauscht, 1939
* Süßmilch spricht. Ein Abenteuer von Murr und Maxe, Erzählung, 1939
* Der ungeliebte Mann, 1940
* Das Abenteuer des Werner Quabs, Erzählung, 1941
* Damals bei uns daheim, Erinnerungen, 1942
* Heute bei uns zu Haus, Erinnerungen, 1943
* Fridolin der freche Dachs, 1944
* Jeder stirbt für sich allein, 1947
* Der Alpdruck, 1947
* Der Trinker, 1950
* Ein Mann will nach oben, 1953
* Die Stunde, eh´du schlafen gehst, 1954
* Junger Herr - ganz groß, 1965

References

"More Lives than One: A Biography of Hans Fallada" by Jenny Williams (Libris: London, 1998). ISBN 1 870352 50 5