Today, LitNuts is shining a spotlight on books from Red Lines Press, a small press that is focused on publishing hard-to-find proletarian literature, defined as "work [that] advances class consciousness" while also being "a bloody good read." The two books featured in today's special edition newsletter—both translations of works by German writer Oskar Maria Graf—certainly fit the bill:
- We Are Prisoners, the autobiography of Oskar Maria Graf
- Anton Sittinger, a "must read" novel for anyone who seeks to understand how and why Adolf Hitler came to power
“He behaves disgracefully and provokes laughter and disbelief, but in so doing, he wins our hearts.” ~Thomas Mann on Oskar Maria Graf
We Are Prisoners
Genres: Autobiography, MemoirPaperback: $15.95
This autobiography of Oskar Maria Graf was first published in 1927. It was his first major work.
Graf's autobiography covers his early youth growing up in the village of Berg by Lake Starnberg, his cruel abuse by his older brother, his escape to Munich, where he worked as a baker, and then to anarchist communes in Switzerland. Graf is drafted into the army, where he reluctantly serves as a horse-groom on the supply trains. He is discharged as mentally unfit, spends a year in an asylum, then returns to Munich, working in a biscuit factory, starting his literary career, and making money on the black market.
We Are Prisoners paints a fascinating picture of bohemian life in Schwabing, the radical politics of the time, and climaxes with the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic of 1919. Many of the characters in the novel became well-known artists and writers in Weimar Germany. We Are Prisoners (A Confession) is an honest and blithe personal account of momentous events.
Graf's quirky literary style combines a self-deprecating and anarchic sense of humor, sympathy for the downtrodden, and the Heimat genre of German culture.
★★★★★ "A fascinating insight into Germany from 1900 to 1919." ~Amazon Review
Anton Sittinger
Genres: Literary Fiction, Historical FictionHardcover: $25.00
A "must read" for anyone who seeks to understand how and why Adolf Hitler came to power.
This is the first English translation of the novel written in 1934-5 and first published in German in 1937. It covers the events of the Weimar Republic from the end of the First World War to Hitler’s appointment as Reichskanzler in 1933—all viewed from the point-of-view of a Munich civil servant who retires to the countryside and "does not concern himself with politics."
Oskar Maria Graf provides a uniquely satirical insight into the mindset of the German middle classes. The eponymous antihero does not welcome Hitler, but does nothing to oppose the Nazis either, while his wife, Malwine, actively welcomes and propagandises for the "national" movement.
Anton Sittinger’s drinking pals likewise cover the broad spectrum of attitudes from the local busybody, a Catholic businessman who supports the mainstream bourgeois parties but eventually capitulates, to the enthusiastic and active support of Captain Schlicht, leader of the district SA. Only the Marxist painter Koestler offers resistance, attempting to rally villagers against Nazi terror, ultimately without success.
The Nazi takeover is seen not so much as a coup or "seizure of power," as had been attempted in 1923, but rather a "creeping to power" made possible, and even welcomed, by the ruling class, which had grown impatient with "democratic" politicians failure to quash unrest.
There are thousands upon thousands of Anton Sittingers in every country, even today. Despite its historical setting, the atmosphere may seem all too familiar to the contemporary reader.
About the Publisher
Red Lines Press is dedicated to publishing hard-to-find proletarian literature in English, including translations of previously untranslated and/or out-of-print work, first in German and subsequently other languages. Shorter texts and extracts are published on the Red Lines Press website. Longer works are available via Amazon.com. Learn more about Red Lines Press at redlines.home.blog.