by Hans Fallada
Manfred Kuhnke’s study of the factual Hampels and the fictional Quangels is Die Hampels und die Quangels: Authentisches und Erfundenes in Hans Falladas letztem Roman. Neubrandenburg: Literaturzentrum Neubrandenburg, 2001.
Geoff Wilkes
University of Queensland
Brisbane, Australia
THE TRUE STORY BEHIND
EVERY MAN DIES ALONE
Every Man Dies Alone is based upon the case of Elise and Otto Hampel, a poorly educated working-class couple living in Berlin with no history, prior to this case, of political activity. After Elise’s brother was killed early in the war, the couple commenced a nearly three-year propaganda campaign that baffled—and enraged—the Berlin police, who eventually handed the case over to the Gestapo. The Hampels’ campaign consisted, quite simply, of leaving hundreds of postcards calling for civil disobedience and workplace sabotage all over Berlin. They were particularly insistent in urging people not to give to the Winter Fund, which was essentially a false-front charity the Nazis pressured citizens to contribute to, but which was actually used to fund the war.
Many of the cards were quickly turned in to police, but the Hampels blanketed the city so thoroughly, and eluded capture so successfully, that the Gestapo and other units of the Nazi police forces came to assume that they were dealing with a large, sophisticated underground resistance.
Hans Fallada was given their Gestapo file by Johannes R. Becher, a poet friend of his who had become what was essentially the cultural minister in the post-war government set up by the Soviets in Eastern Germany. Fallada had barely survived the war after a long stint in a Nazi insane asylum (in most instances, a death sentence), which, upon his release, had in turn contributed to a relapse of his drug and alcohol problems. At war’s end he was a shattered man, and in an effort to get him back on his feet, Becher gave him the Hampels’ Gestapo file and suggested he use it as the basis of a novel. Fallada wrote the book in 24 days, but did not live to see its publication.
What follows includes material from the Gestapo file given to Hans Fallada by Johannes Becher. It includes documents from the initial police investigation a well as from the Gestapo’s own investigation. It was the main basis for the case against Elise and Otto Hampel presented in the People’s Court—where the Nazis held their show trials—before the President of the Court, Roland Freisler. The Hampels were found guilty and sentenced to death, and executed by beheading in Plotenzee Prison in March, 1943.
1. The Gestapo report of a search of the Hampels’ apartment. Their final report documented the entire case from start to finish, including the investigation of not only the Hampels but their family, friends, and neighbors, and people at Otto Hampel’s employer (including a supervisor who seems to have been on the Gestapo payroll, and who denounced Hampel).
2. The investigation begins: One of the first police reports on the case, which notes, “In the last week, there have been more reports of anti-Nazi propaganda.”
3. A police report citing an eyewitness account of a man dropping a card, noting it was left in the stairwell of a residential building. A second eyewitness account would also describe a man, but the two descriptions were so different police had to discount them.
4. A police report detailing the growing list of cards turned in so far, including the dates and locations of the findings.
“Hitler’s regime will bring us no peace!”
5. A sampling of cards turned in to the police. The cards included numerous misspellings and grammatical errors, and were clearly laboriously written by someone with little education. Messages were often somewhat disjointed, too, with disconnected phrases such as “free press!” thrown in.
“Free Press! Why suffer war and death for the Hitler plutocracy?”
“Hitler’s war is the worker’s death!”
“German people wake up!”
6. The cover sheet of the arrest report for Heinz Klaus—the model for the character Enno Kluge in Every Man Dies Alone. Klaus was a gambler who left his home frequently and at odd hours, making the police suspicious. Klaus was suspected of dropping cards that were found in stairwells and hallways outside a doctor’s office, an attorney’s office, and some residences. He was arrested after a card was found outside a dentist’s office. The dentist’s nurse pointed him out to police and said he’d been acting suspiciously in the waiting room, going frequently back and forth to the rest room. He was eventually released when his description did not match that of the two eyewitnesses and police realized gambling was behind his suspicious behavior.
7. The cover sheet for the arrest report of Otto Hampel. He was arrested soon after being spotted by an eyewitness. Note the report includes information not only on Elise, but also on Otto’s parents, in an apparent attempt to determine his heritage.
8. The mug shots of Otto and Elise Hampel.
9. The signed confession of Elise Hampel: Elise made one statement after arrest, probably indicating less interrogation than Otto seems to have undergone. She explained her motivation by saying, “My soul was devastated by the losses of the war, particularly of my brother.” She also said, “My husband wrote all the cards because I cannot write in print well,” and further claimed that he delivered all the cards, although she said they shared culpability. Note the signature that appears below Elise’s of someone named “Püschel.” It is a name that appears on many of the reports, including Otto Hampel’s confession, and belongs to the chief investigating officer, Willy Püschel—the model for the character Gestapo Inspector Escherich in Every Man Dies Alone.
10. Otto Hampel’s signature on one of his three confessions, indicating that he seems to have undergone at least three interrogations. The first statement is on his motivation, which he said was inspired by the death of his brother-in-law. The second is a detailed description of how he wrote and disseminated the cards, which he says was mostly improvisational. The third goes back to motive. In it, he says he realizes his actions made him an enemy of the state, and insists he acted alone and that his wife was not involved.
The publisher wishes to thank:
Patrick Bender, Alan Furst, Diane von Furstenberg, Hannah Johnson, Kati Sprung, Riky Stock, Henry A. Turner, Geoff Wilkes, and Jenny Williams for their invaluable assistance to this project.
OTHER BOOKS BY HANS FALLADA
AVAILABLE FROM MELVILLE HOUSE
Little Man, What Now?
“Painfully true to life…. I have read nothing so engaging as Little Man, What Now for a long time.”
—THOMAS MANN
“There are chapters which pluck the nerves… there are chapters which raise the spirits like a fine day in the country The truth and variety of the characterization is superb … it recognizes that the world is not to be altered with moral fables …”
—GRAHAM GREENE
“An inspired work of a great writer hitherto neglected in the English-speaking world. Fallada is a genius at bringing his wide range of colorful characters to life. The ‘Little Man’ is Mr. Everybody.”
—BERYL BAINBRIDGE
The Drinker
“Fallada deserves high praise for having reported so realistically, so truthfully, with such closeness to life.”
—HERMAN HESSE
“Profound in its psychological insight and in language sparse yet explosive, this is a novel both shocking and original.”
—BERYL BAINBRIDGE
“…. genuinely tragic and beautiful … Fallada’s perfectly horrifying, horrifyingly perfect novel is the story of himself rejected by society and returning the insult.”
—THE NEW STATESMAN
“This is an heroic book, brave, fearless and honest. It is necessary reading.”
—SUNDAY TIMES (London)
Every Man Dies Alone
First published as Jeder stirbt für sich allein in 1947.
© Aufbau-Verlagsgruppe GmbH, Berlin 1994 (Published with Aufbau; “Aufbau” is a trademark of Aufbau Verladsgruppe GmbH)
Negotiated by Aufb
au Media GmbH, Berlin
This edition © 2009 Melville House Publishing
Translation © 2009 Michael Hofmann
Melville House Publishing
145 Plymouth Street
Brooklyn, New York 11201
www.mhpbooks.com
eISBN: 978-1-935554-05-9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fallada, Hans, 1893-1947
[Jeder stirbt für sich allein. English]
Every man dies alone / Hans Fallada ; translated by Michael
Hofmann, with an afterword by Geoff Wilkes.
p. cm.
First published in German as Jeder stirbt für sich allein. Berlin :
Aufbau, 1947.
I. Title.
PT2607.I6J413 2009
833′.912–dc22
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