Hans Fallada
Hans Fallada, born Rudolf Ditzen on July 21, 1893, in Greifswald, Germany, was a prominent German author recognized for his depictions of the struggles of ordinary people. Despite facing numerous personal challenges, including poor health and mental instability, his literary career began to flourish in the early 1930s with the publication of "Little Man, What Now?", which garnered widespread acclaim. Fallada's writing often reflected themes of social criticism and the plight of the "little man" in a turbulent society, particularly during the rise of the Nazi regime. His life was marked by cycles of addiction, mental health issues, and multiple incarcerations, yet he managed to produce notable works, including "Wolf Among Wolves" and "Once We Had a Child." Fallada's personal experiences greatly influenced his storytelling, offering insights into human vulnerability and resilience. He passed away on February 5, 1947, in Berlin, leaving behind a legacy as one of the most significant German writers of the twentieth century, with his works continuing to resonate with readers today.
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Subject Terms
Hans Fallada
Writer
- Born: July 21, 1893
- Birthplace: Greifswald, Germany
- Died: February 5, 1947
- Place of death: Berlin, Germany
Biography
Hans Fallada was born Rudolf Ditzen in Greifswald, Germany, on July 21, 1893, the third of four children of Wilhelm and Elisabeth Lorenz Ditzen. He took his pseudonym to avoid embarrassing his parents. From boyhood, life was a constant challenge: Developmentally slow, he had poor health, was accident-prone and mentally unstable. His father’s frequent career moves, his own disappointing academic attainment, and a near-fatal bicycle accident contributed to Fallada’s incomplete formal education. He suffered from depression and often sought escape in books, especially adventure and fantasy stories. Throughout his life he was in and out of institutions for suicidal tendencies and treatment of drug addiction. Twice he was imprisoned for embezzling funds to support his drug habit. Fallada worked at various jobs, including agricultural positions, and became an authority on seed potatoes. He had literary aspirations, but his first two attempts at writing produced unsuccessful novels.
He drifted from one job to another, unable to overcome his drug addiction. Fallada moved to Hamburg where he met and, on June 5, 1929, married a working-class girl, Anna Issel, who proved to be a stabilizing influence for a time. He worked for a right-wing newspaper and did various chores for the chamber of commerce and the office of tourism. He published the novel that established his reputation, Bauern, Bonzen, und Bomben (farmers, bigwigs, and bombs) in 1931. A son was born in 1930. The next year, he lost his job, which caused economic hardship, but 1933, he had produced his most famous novel, Little Man, What Now? The book was instantly successful, and Fallada was able to buy a house, but during the following year, when Hitler assumed power, he was arrested and detained briefly for an alleged connection with a “Jewish conspirator.” Since Fallada had not considered himself to be politically questionable, he had not feared a problem with the Nazis.
After another breakdown, he went to a farm he had acquired in Carwitz, where he wrote what he considered his best novel, Once We Had a Child. After another period of treatment, he tried children’s stories and nonpolitical, light novels, one of which was later made into a movie. In 1937, however, Fallada published a substantial novel of social criticism which was considered the finest one in Germany at that time, Wolf Among Wolves. By the mid-1940’s, Fallada’s marriage was deteriorating, and after several months in a psychiatric treatment facility, he married an unstable woman he had met in Carwitz, Ursula Losch. Following another mental breakdown, he wrote his last novel, Jeder stirbt für Sich allein before his death in Berlin on February 5, 1947; the novel was published posthumously. Thematically, Fallada identified with the “little man,” and with the problem of man’s helplessness amid overpowering problems that seemed unsolvable. Notwithstanding his many problems, he was one of the most popular German writers of the twentieth century.