Dog Years by Günter Grass
"Dog Years" is a novel by Nobel laureate Günter Grass, first published in 1963, that explores the complexities of friendship, identity, and the impacts of societal change in pre-World War II and post-war Germany. The narrative centers on two childhood friends, Walter Matern and Eduard "Eddi" Amsel, who grow up along the Vistula River, sharing a bond that is tested by the sociopolitical upheaval around them. Walter, a Roman Catholic, and Eddi, who is half-Jewish, navigate their friendship against a backdrop of rising nationalism and anti-Semitism, which ultimately leads to their divergent paths during the war.
The story is interwoven with the characters' experiences, including Walter's involvement with the Nazi regime and Eddi's creative endeavors, including the construction of intricate scarecrows that reflect his artistic sensibilities. The narrative also introduces figures like Harry Liebenau, who documents the ominous changes in society through letters that remain unsent. As the war progresses, personal tragedies and transformations unfold, culminating in Walter's return from his military service and the reestablishment of connections that are both nostalgic and fraught with tension.
Through a blend of dark humor and poignant reflection on friendship and betrayal, "Dog Years" delves into the psychological scars left by war and the complexities of personal and collective identity in a rapidly changing world. The novel ultimately invites readers to consider the lasting effects of history on individual lives and relationships.
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Dog Years by Günter Grass
First published:Hundejahre, 1963 (English translation, 1965)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Social realism
Time of plot: Mid-1920’s to mid-1950’s
Locale: Free City of Danzig
Principal characters
Eduard “Eddi” Amsel , a scarecrow builderWalter Matern , his “blood” brother and sometime protectorHarry Liebenau , a poet and playwrightUrsula “Tulla” Pokriefke , his cruel and promiscuous cousinJenny Brunies , an orphan who becomes a ballerinaAnton Matern , Walter’s fatherHerr Brauxel , a mine ownerSenta , a black dogHarras , Senta’s offspringPrinz , Harras’s offspring, given to Adolf Hitler
The Story:
Herr Brauxel operates a mine in which no ore is processed, yet Brauxel’s employees report for work daily. During morning shifts, Brauxel creates a map of the Vistula, Poland’s longest river, which empties into the Baltic Sea in Gdansk. As he shapes the course of the river on his desk out of various objects, Brauxel relates the story of two young friends, Walter Matern and Eduard “Eddi” Amsel, growing up along the Vistula from the mid-1920’s to mid-1930’s.
Walter is Roman Catholic and the son of a local miller with clairvoyant powers gained from listening to flour mealworms. Eddi is half-Jewish and the son of a prosperous merchant. The boys have exchanged oaths as blood brothers, and Walter, known as the Grinder for his habit of grinding his teeth, acts as protector of pudgy Eddi. The two comrades often play with Walter’s black dog, Senta—a German shepherd who is also part wolf—alongside the river where Eddi salvages debris to build lifelike, incredibly effective scarecrows that he rents or sells to local farmers. He invests the money he earns to make even more elaborate and grotesque scarecrows.
Poet-playwright Harry Liebenau, son of a carpenter, writes letters to his cousin Ursula “Tulla” Pokriefke, but he never sends them. Harry’s missives relate his memories from the mid-1930’s until the end of World War II in 1945. Like the older boys, Harry also has a black dog, Harras, the offspring of Senta.
Harry’s letters detail ominous signs of change: Germany has absorbed Danzig, flags with swastikas have blossomed, and Hitler Youth groups are beginning to appear. Harras sires a pup named Prinz, who is presented as a gift to Adolf Hitler. Meanwhile, Walter, after a stint with the communists and a fling as an actor, joins the paramilitary Nazi brown shirts. In disguise, Walter and his comrades attack Eddi, who has been making mechanical figures that mock the Nazis, and knock out all of his teeth.
Eddi, grown wealthy from an inheritance, moves to Berlin under the name Hermann Haseloff and has his teeth replaced with gold dentures (earning him the nickname Goldmouth). As Hermann, he becomes a ballet impresario while coaching his star performer, Jenny Brunies. Walter marches with the German army in the invasion of Poland that begins World War II. He is later wounded, after which he is assigned to an artillery unit in Danzig, where he encounters teenager Harry, an auxiliary.
Harry’s cousin Tulla sleeps around, hoping to become pregnant; she eventually does, but has a miscarriage. Jenny’s feet are crushed during an Allied air raid, ending her ballet career. Walter deserts to the Allies, while Harry joins the armored infantry and is wounded while participating in many battles. With the war in its final throes, Prinz deserts the doomed Hitler.
Walter is released from a prisoner-of-war camp and wends his way home, intending to settle old scores. A black dog (a disheveled Prinz) follows him, and Walter names him Pluto. Walter, with Pluto, visits former acquaintances, upon whom Walter wreaks revenge. He spreads gonorrhea and fathers a child while sleeping with erstwhile friends’ wives and daughters. Meantime, Goldmouth sets up Walter’s father, Anton, as a fortune teller. Germany’s most important postwar businessmen visit Anton and receive advice that makes them successful. Walter reunites with his father in 1949 and builds an enterprise around the fortune-telling business. In 1953, Anton is kidnapped.
Walter, now unemployed, takes to the road again with Pluto. Not long after Brauxel & Co. introduces miracle glasses that allow youngsters to see adults as they really are, Walter lands a job as an actor on radio. He runs into Harry, who publicly subjects him to a humiliating confession of his sins. Walter deserts Pluto and flees to East Germany by rail. As he travels, he passes scarecrows in Eddi’s distinctive style and sees a black dog racing the train.
When Walter arrives in East Berlin, he is met by the dog and a slim chain-smoker called Goldmouth. The two men go barhopping, and Goldmouth eventually reveals himself as Eddi. Walter and Eddi go to Brauxel & Co., where Eddi turns out to be Brauxel as well. The former mine is now a factory where Eddi creates mechanized scarecrows—representing the entire gamut of human emotions—to be released upon the world.
Bibliography
Mews, Siegfried. Günter Grass and His Critics: From “The Tin Drum” to “Crabwalk.” New York: Camden House, 2008. A study of the 1999 Nobel laureate’s body of work from 1959 to 2005, including Dog Years. Criticism of Grass’s fiction and politics, particularly in the United States and Germany, has been both vehement and contradictory.
Preece, Julian. The Life and Work of Günter Grass: Literature, History, Politics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. This biography relates the life of Grass to his fiction, showing how his experiences with the German SS had affected his thought processes first as a writer and later as a social critic and an active political campaigner.
Reddick, John. The Danzig Trilogy of Günter Grass: A Study of “The Tin Drum,” “Cat and Mouse,” and “Dog Years.” Geneva, Ill.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1987. This critical examination of Grass’s first three long-fiction works compares central characters, thematic approaches, and symbols and shows how, as a trilogy, the works constitute Grass’s unified vision of the causes and effects of the war years and the Holocaust.
Sax, Boria. Animals in the Third Reich: Pets, Scapegoats, and the Holocaust. London: Continuum International, 2000. An interesting study that relates directly to Dog Years. This book delves into the ways animals have been used in both German myth and Nazi philosophy and practice. Argues that animals helped to shape German culture and politics during the 1930’s and 1940’s, including the literature of Grass and others.
Taberner, Stuart, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Günter Grass. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. This overview of Grass and his work was released in the wake of his revelations of his wartime duties with the notorious Waffen SS. Examines both the subsequent critical denunciation of Grass as a hypocrite and his defense by supporters who believe he is a true humanitarian and agitator for human rights.