Germany Then & Now - hosted by imaginary_space

Trümmerliteratur (rubble literature) & Post-War (1945 - ca. 1959)
📌 Read a book from this genre! 📌 No contemporary non-fiction or historical fiction here.

Also called "Nachkriegsliteratur", "Hemkehrerliteratur" and "Literatur der Stunde Null" (Zero Hour), these works reflect on the reality after the capitulation of Germany in 1945.

Notable works:
  • Wolfgang Borchert: Draußen vor der Tür (🔹 The Man Outside) // Nachts schlafen die Ratten noch
  • Heinrich Böll: Und sagte kein einziges Wort (🔹 And Never Said a Word) // Wo warst du, Adam?
  • Nelly Sachs: In den Wohnungen des Todes
  • Günter Grass: Die Blechtrommel (🔹 The Tin Drum)
  • Günter Eich: Latrine // Züge im Nebel
  • Johannes R. Becher: Heimkehr
  • Hans Werner Richter: Die Geschlagenen // Deine Söhne, Europa. Gedichte deutscher Kriegsgefangener
  • Arno Schmidt: Leviathan
  • Walter Kolbenhoff: Heimkehr in die Fremde
  • Ilse Aichinger: Das Fenstertheater
  • poetry by Nelly Sachs and Paul Celan
All books added
El tren llegó puntual by Heinrich Böll

El tren llegó puntual

Heinrich Böll

143 pages • first pub 1949 (editions) user-added

fiction classics dark reflective sad slow-paced
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt

Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil

Hannah Arendt

312 pages • first pub 1963 (editions)

nonfiction history philosophy politics challenging informative reflective slow-paced
In den Wohnungen des Todes by Nelly Sachs

In den Wohnungen des Todes

Nelly Sachs

75 pages • first pub 1947 (editions)

poetry mysterious slow-paced
Collected Poems I: 1944-1949 by Nelly Sachs

Collected Poems I: 1944-1949

Nelly Sachs

329 pages • first pub 2007 (editions)

fiction poetry emotional reflective slow-paced
Leviathan und Schwarze Spiegel by Zehra A. Yılmazer, Arno Schmidt

Leviathan und Schwarze Spiegel

Zehra A. Yılmazer, Arno Schmidt

144 pages • first pub 1949 (editions)

fiction literary challenging reflective slow-paced
The Tin Drum by Günter Grass

The Tin Drum

Die Danziger Trilogie #1

Günter Grass

580 pages • first pub 1959 (editions)

fiction classics literary reflective sad slow-paced
Wo warst du, Adam? by Heinrich Böll

Wo warst du, Adam?

Heinrich Böll

140 pages • first pub 1951 (editions)

fiction classics emotional reflective medium-paced
And Never Said a Word by Heinrich Böll

And Never Said a Word

Heinrich Böll

195 pages • first pub 1953 (editions)

fiction literary emotional reflective medium-paced
Nachts schlafen die Ratten doch und andere Kurzgeschichten by Wolfgang Borchert
Nachts schlafen die Ratten doch und andere Kurzgeschichten
—
Wolfgang Borchert

Nachts schlafen die Ratten doch und andere Kurzgeschichten

Wolfgang Borchert

72 pages • first pub 1250 (editions)

classics medium-paced
The Man Outside by Wolfgang Borchert

The Man Outside

Wolfgang Borchert

270 pages • first pub 1947 (editions)

fiction classics play dark emotional sad medium-paced
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