And Never Said a Word
by Heinrich Boll |
The Blue Angel
by Heinrich Mann | 
Castle Gripsholm
by Kurt Tucholsky |
Elective Affinities
by Johann Wolfgang Goethe |
Lotte in Weimar
by Thomas Mann |
Royal Highness
by Thomas Mann |
Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship
by Johann Wolfgang Goethe | 
Pigeons on the Grass
by Wolfgang Koeppen | 
Effi Briest
by Theodor Fontane | 
Billiards at Half-Past Nine
by Heinrich Boll | 
The Meeting at Telgte
by Gunter Grass | 
The German Lesson
by Siegfried Lenz | 
The Clown
by Heinrich Boll |
Youth Without God
by Odon von Horvath | 
The Guiltless
by Hermann Broch | 
Buddenbrooks
by Thomas Mann | 
Woodcutters
by Thomas Bernhard | 
The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum
by Heinrich Boll | 
Little Man, What Now?
by Hans Fallada | 
Berlin Alexanderplatz
by Alfred Doblin |
First published in 1918, "Man of Straw" is a sharp indictment of the Wilhelmine regime and a chilling warning against the joint elevation of militarism and commercial values. The "Man of Straw" is Diederich Hessling, embodiment of the corrupt society in which he moves; his brutish progression through life forms the central theme of the book.