Iron Gustav

Translated by
PHILIP OWENS

Completed by
NICHOLAS JACOBS
and
GARDIS CRAMER VON LAUE

Foreword by
JENNY WILLIAMS

Foreword by Jenny Williams

Note on the Translation

ONE
The Good Days of Peace

I Hackendahl Wakes Up

II Frau Hackendahl

III The Girls' Bedroom

IV The Sons' Bedroom

V The Key

VI Erich

VII The Two Sisters

VIII Otto

IX Erich in the Cellar

X The Cabs Come In

XI The Stolen Money

XII Eva's Treasure

XIII Horse Versus Car

XIV Erich is Released

XV The Jewel Theft

XVI The School

XVII Otto's Secret

XVIII Father and Son

XIX Hackendahl Goes to Bed

TWO
War Breaks Out

I The Kaiser's Policeman

II Unter den Linden

III Eva Meets Someone

IV Erich's Friend

V Supper at Home

VI Otto is Going

VII The Requisition

VIII Spy-Catching

IX Otto Leaves for the Front

X Sister Sophie Wants to Go Too

XI Eva Gets to Know Her Sister-in-Law

XII Hackendahl is Bored

XIII Conversation in the Dark

XIV A Doubter and a Believer

XV Trouble at School

XVI The Heap of Gold

XVII Mother and Daughter

XVIII Some Ponies

THREE
The Evil Days

I The Wind and the Dream

II In Front of a Butcher's Shop

III Hackendahl Becomes a Cabby Again

IV Father and Daughter

V Eva Becomes Something Else

VI In the Shell Hole

VII In the Rear

VIII ‘It Would Be Fine'

IX The Munitions Factory

X ‘Mud Will Find Mud'

XI Otto Comes Home

XII Otto's Discussion With His Father

XIII Bubi's Marriage Congratulations

XIV Going Begging

XV Doctor's Waiting Room

XVI Doctor's Check-up

XVII Off to the Trenches

XVIII Otto Hackendahl's Death

FOUR
Peace Breaks Out

I Homework

II Irma

III The Procession, and Erich

IV The Crowd at the Reichstag

V A People's Assembly Interrupted

VI The Kiss

VII Eva Calls on Tutti

VIII The War is Not Lost

IX Justice or Injustice, Knowledge or Feeling

X Inside the Reichstag

XI Why Do You Want Power?

XII Secret Conversation

XIII A Hand as an Ashtray

XIV The Two Villas

XV Hackendahl Burns a Few Things

FIVE
Tinette

I The Exam

II The Professor and the Firearms

III No Longer a Comrade Among Comrades

IV The Tailor and Tinette

V Her Minion

VI Sophie Pays a Visit

VII Ever Greater Shame

VIIII Heinz Goes Shopping

IX The Raid on the Nightclub

X A Visit to Frau Quaas

XI The Naked Dancer

XII Heinz and the Professor

XIII Home to the Comrades

XIV The Message from a Dead Man

XV The Message from a Blind Man

XVI Peace Breaks Out

XVII Heinz Moves

SIX
The Old Cabby

I The Inflation

II Hackendahl Meets a Profiteer

III His Father Says Goodbye to Erich

IV A Horse Goes Backwards

V Erich and His Friend Escape

VI Nakedness and Business

VII And Erich Knocks Him Down

VIII Visit to a Prison

IX The Arrest of Eugen Bast

X Argument About a Whip

XI A Little Whip Cracks

XII Inheritance and Disappointment

XIII Two Sulkers

XIV Erich in Amsterdam

XV Heinz in Hiddensee

XVI The Second Kiss

SEVEN
Work and No Work

I Dismissed from the Bank

II The Cabby and the Girls

III The Old Lady and the Nursing Home

IV There's Trouble Coming

V Hoppe and Co.

VI Helping the Little Man

VII Clients in a Bank

VIII The Mysterious Dr Hoppe

IX Dismissed

X Visit to the Police

XI On the Dole

XII Teacher Degener Flies a Flag

XIII Looking for Work

XIV The Three Registration Forms

XV Marriage No Marriage

EIGHT
The Journey to Paris

I The French Horsewoman

II Farewell to Sophie

III A Son Leaves Home for Good

IV The Oldest Cabby in Berlin

V Young Grundeis

VI The Notice in the Newspaper

VII Hackendahl Falls Ill

VIII Leaving the Newspaper Building

IX Leaving the Town Hall and Leaving Town

X Those Who Are Left Behind

XI The Drive Through Germany

XII The Frontier and the Gravestones

XIII Paris

XIV The Tired Traveller

XV Welcome to Berlin

THE LAST CHAPTER
The Beer Glass

Follow Penguin

PENGUIN MODERN CLASSICS

‘Every so often you come across a book so finely wrought that you have no doubt about its status as a literary classic.
Iron Gustav
is one … The writing is visual, vivid and visceral, the irony delicate, and even when it is cynical the novel doesn't sneer … Fallada's descriptions of material degradation and squalor equal those of Dickens and Dostoyevsky. He has the gift for complex narrative of Thomas Mann combined with the page-turning powers of great thriller writers such as Raymond Chandler, and the structural control of a great painter or composer … This [Penguin Modern Classics edition] is the first authentic version of not just a classic, but a masterpiece of world literature' Paul Levy,
Wall Street Journal

‘A serious cause for celebration: one of the finest German-language works of the twentieth century is now available as it was intended to be read … the book triumphs as a study of ordinary Berliners faced with dire adversity; Fallada celebrates them repeatedly, their wariness, their humour, their toughness, their blunt kindness and, above all, their conversation … This remarkable work, now complete after 76 years, could well be one of the finest novels any of us will ever read. Hans Fallada really was that most rare creature, a born novelist who was also a witness'
Irish Times

‘Fallada captures the small tragedies of family life, the loss of dignity caused by unemployment, squalid housing and the misery of seeing civilized values destroyed. This anti-war book, censored by Goebbels in the Thirties, is a gripping addition to modern German history'
Daily Mail

'A powerful portrayal of the devastating effects of the first world war on a family and a country … The project went through a tortuous journey, with rewrites ordered by Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda chief, which have been taken out of the new edition … this new edition is as close as possible to Fallada's original'
Observer

'The “hundreds of deep rifts” that tear defeated Germany apart play out in microcosm within [Iron Gustav's] family … Fallada shuffles melodrama, farce and documentary realism … This, as even Dr Goebbels must have seen, is laughter in the dark' Boyd Tonkin,
Independent

'A saga with the same reach and depth as Thomas Mann's
Buddenbrooks
… a chronicle of Berlin in those turbulent early decades of the twentieth century. Key events appear like milestones: war, Versailles, lawless street-fighting, hyperinflation, Weimar hedonism and the first dark shoots of Nazism … Fallada's voice is as beguilingly lucid as ever, his images clear to the point of stark, his blighted and resilient Berliners ringing astoundingly true'
National

Hans Fallada was born Rudolf Wilhelm Adolf Ditzen in 1893 in Greifswald, north-east Germany, and took his pen-name from a Brothers Grimm fairy tale. He spent a number of years in prison or in psychiatric care, yet produced some of the most significant German novels and documentary writing of the twentieth century, including
A Small Circus, Little Man, What Now?, Once a Jailbird, Tales From the Underworld, Wolf Among Wolves, The Drinker
and
Alone in Berlin
, the last of which was only published in English for the first time in 2009, to near-universal acclaim. He died in Berlin in 1947.