''Anton Sittinger'' is a satirical novel by

Oskar Maria Graf Oskar Maria Graf (22 July 1894 – 28 June 1967) was a German-American writer who wrote several narratives about life in Bavaria, mostly autobiographical. In the beginning, Graf wrote under his real name Oskar Graf. After 1918, his works for ne ...

, first published in

1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Feb ...

by the German publisher-in-exile Malik-Verlag in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. The novel was filmed for TV in

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

by Rainer Wolffhardt for

Bayerischer Rundfunk (; "Bavarian Broadcasting"), shortened to BR (), is a public broadcasting, public-service radio and television broadcaster, based in Munich, capital city of the Bavaria, Free State of Bavaria in Germany. BR is a member organization of the ARD (b ...

with Walter Sedlmayr in the title role. In 2024 the first English language translation of the novel appeared, translated by Ed Walker.

Plot

Anton Sittinger is a petty-bourgeois postal inspector in Munich. He reads only "the most serious philosophers with absolute substance" such as Schopenhauer but considers himself apolitical. By contrast his wife Malwine, her brother Herbert, and her attractive sister-in-law Anna are all strongly attracted to the "national" movement. Following the struggles of the

Bavarian Soviet Republic The Bavarian Soviet Republic (or Bavarian Council Republic), also known as the Munich Soviet Republic (), was a short-lived unrecognised socialist state in Bavaria during the German revolution of 1918–1919. A group of communists and anarchist ...

in 1919 and the Hitler Putsch of 1923, Anton takes early retirement and the Sittingers flee to the countryside, where the locals give them the cold shoulder. Sittinger protects himself from complete ruin during the

hyperinflation In economics, hyperinflation is a very high and typically accelerating inflation. It quickly erodes the real versus nominal value (economics), real value of the local currency, as the prices of all goods increase. This causes people to minimiz ...

by converting his money into gold coins and then into dollars, against the advice of Herbert, who is a senior bank manager. But there is no escape from politics, which lurks around every corner; the ideology of the National Socialists is spreading and everyone must take sides. Sittinger finds solace only with his drinking companions, who include the eccentric Prussian aristocrat, Baron Gustav Heinrich von Ravél. Sittinger's middle-class drinking companions, by contrast, while initially not active supporters of the Nazi Party, also "believe Germany's problems are caused by the Reds, the Jews, France and lack of discipline".https://www.themodernnovel.org/europe/w-europe/germany/graf/anton/ Life in the Sittinger household is disrupted when a social-democratic newspaper reveals that Anna is having an affair with Malwine's former beau, Franz Eibenthaler, who has risen in the ranks of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

. Led by Captain Schlicht, the SA crush opposition in Sittinger's village during violent clashes following a

carnival Carnival (known as Shrovetide in certain localities) is a festive season that occurs at the close of the Christian pre-Lenten period, consisting of Quinquagesima or Shrove Sunday, Shrove Monday, and Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras. Carnival typi ...

procession. As Hitler takes power, Malwine reveals that she has secretly registered her husband as a member of the Nazi Party. Sittinger is safe - for now.

Interpretation

In a key passage of the novel, Graf writes: "There are thousands upon thousands of people like Sittinger in every country. Their number is legion. All the cleverness and cunning, all the faithlessness and wretchedness of a declining class is united in them. From time to time they are called ‘you’ and ‘me’…" The novel may therefore be understood as a satire on lower middle-class attitudes as a universal phenomenon, not specifically in Weimar Germany. It demonstrates how easily any democracy can slide into dictatorship.

External links

References

{{reflist 1937 German novels Novels set in Germany German novels adapted into films