Die Geschwister Oppermann (The Oppermanns)

At the moment the Nazis seized power Lion Feuchtwanger – who was born in Munich in 1884 as the son of a Jewish factory owner and became, along with Thomas Mann, one of the most internationally successful writers of his time – was on a lecture tour of the USA and would never return to Germany in his lifetime. 

Within a few months in exile he wrote »The Oppermanns« – originally commissioned by the British government as the script for an antifascist film – as Feuchtwanger was concerned »to enlighten the reading public as quickly as possible as to the true face of Nazi rule«. It was the first German novel to present an almost photographically accurate description of the radical changes in everyday life in Germany between November 1932 and the summer of 1933: based on newspaper and eyewitness accounts, Lion Feuchtwanger uses an analytical eye and literary skills to relate how the Nazi regime, its criminals and followers went about systematically reorganising all levels of society and in doing so undermined step by step everything that one dynasty of an assimilated Jewish family have built their lives on. Klaus Mann described the novel as »the most effective, most widely read narrative representation of the German calamity«. 

Following his production of »Success«, Stefan Bachmann now tackles the second volume in Lion Feuchtwanger’s »Waiting Room« trilogy, which – according to the author – describes »barbarism’s return to Germany and its temporary victory over reason«.