THE Oppermanns by Lion Feuchtwanger
German fiction
Original title Die Geschwister Oppermann
Translator – James Cleugh
Source – Personal copy
Now, when I saw it was German lit month coming up I hadn’t seen or brought much German lit tjhe last couple of years. I have a lot on my shelves to read. But a trip to Matlock and I have an eye for Persephone books I can spot them on a shelf that grey cover just makes them jump out, and I had missed they had republished this book. I had recently seem my American friends posting the Mcnally edition of this book online. I saw this in the Oxfam in Matlock and thought this be a perfect choice for German lit month. As Feutchwanger was a fierce critic of the rise of Nazis in his homeland, he was Jewish and a good friend and inspiration for his fellow writer Bertolt Brecht. They had written against the rise of Hitler together in the book. His house had been raided and stripped of things by Nazis agents. he managed to escape to the US. This book is the middle book of a trilogy but it stands alone as a novel that follows the years up to 1933 of a Jewish family in Berlin as the world closes in around them.
On the wall above his desk hung, as in all the Oppermann business offices, the portrait of old Immanuel. He felt a slight pang at the thought that it was no longer the original, but a copy. It was, of course, fundamentally a matter of indifference whether the original hung here or at Gustav’s. Gustav had, no doubt, more appreciation of it. He certainly had more time to look at it, and it was hung in a better position in his house.
Ultimately, too, Gustav really had a better right to it. Still, it was annoying to feel that from now on he, Martin, would no longer have the original before his eyes.
The past of the buisness the grandfaather that bstarted it but now that world had shrunk.
The book follows the family we learn that the grandfather of one of the main characters started the furniture business started by Emanuel Opper, a merchant who settled in Berlin and started the furniture business by selling to the German army. Now a successful business, we meet his grandson Gustav, a writer in the middle of writing a biography of Gotthold Lessing this comes up throughout the book as he is working and reworking the book, His two other brothers, Martin he is the ones running the family business and it is his world we see changing a lot and the other brother Edgar a doctor is suffering by the rise of antisemitism and lose of patients then the loss of his job at the hospital. We see this happening as it is heading to 1933 the family and friends around them in the Jewish community as others decide to go abroad to Switzerland. Other friends think it will not get worse; others, like the Oppermanns, try their best to get by in this shrinking world of freedoms and chances. First, they changed the name of the business to a German name then they had to merge with a business. Their house is raided, and things are taken. This finally makes them think of escape.
The question of transferring Oppermann’s FurnitureStores to Jaques Lavendel, who was a naturalised American citizen, had been under consideration several times; but the idea had been abandoned for various reasons. Curiously enough, Martin did not now advance any one of the many practical objections but said rather spitefully, ‘Lavendel would not be a good name for our stores.’ ‘I know that,’ replied Jaques quietly. ‘As far as I know there never was any question of it,’ he added, smiling.
The transformation of the two branches into the GermanFurniture Company was really not quite as simple as it appeared. There was a mass of details to be discussed; Jaques Lavendel had many useful suggestions to offer. Martin had to admit that Jaques was the more resourceful of the two of them.He expressed his thanks. Jagues stood up and took his leave with a firm, hearty handshake. ‘I, too, thank you sincerely,’ said Liselotte warmly in her strong, deep voice.
The having to change name and the owner of the buisnees to avoid losing it fully.
Originally he had worked this as a film script to be made into a film in the UK about the rise nazism and how easy it is to see the world shrink and people change, but then the film was dropped, and he reworked it into a novel, I loved how it drew you into their world and how you see the slowly the darkness and hate to draw in around them. It is a family saga of a family being slowly pulled apart, and that is the beauty of this book it is subtle. The things happening around them come bit by bit, always feeling this is it, and then the next thing happens to them, but no. His books were burned by the Nazis at the time he was one of the best-known German writers alive. His work had been translated into English, but his book had dropped out of print until Persephone brought him back into print I hope the other two books in this trilogy come out for me this is an important book it was on the Deutsch Welle top 100 German books as the choice for 1933 (a great list for anyone wanting some new books in German to read). So this is my second book for this year, German lit month and a great discovery. Have you read this book ?
Winston score – +A Powerful yet subtle look at one Jewish family as Fascism rises in Berlin
I read this novel early in the year, during a pretty bad reading slump. It was so great, it actually helped me get going again! I read the McNally edition, which (I think) is basically the same translation as the Persephone, but “updated/revised” by Joshua Cohen, who also supplied a superb introduction (he largely repeated this in his review of the book, published in the New York Times on Oct 6, 2022 if you’re interested).
As you discuss in your review, this novel works on so many levels. Aside from being a great family saga (think Buddenbrooks) it also does a superb job in showing how darkness descends, and how desperately we try to deny what’s happening in front of our eyes. Such an impressive feat, particularly when you realize Feuchtwanger was writing in “real time,” with the horrors of the concentration camps yet to come.
Although I don’t read a great deal of it, I’m very fond of German lit. I’ll have to check out the Deutsch Welle list!