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Anton Sittinger is a ‘must read’ for anyone who seeks to understand how and why Adolf Hitler came to power
It is the first English translation of the novel written in 1934-5 and first published in German in 1937. It covers the events of the Weimar Republic from the end of the First World War to Hitler’s appointment as Reichskanzler in 1933 – all viewed from the point of view of a Munich civil servant who retires to the countryside and ‘does not concern himself with politics’. Oskar Maria Graf provides a uniquely satirical insight into the mindset of the German middle classes. The eponymous antihero does not welcome Hitler, but does nothing to oppose the Nazis either, while his wife, Malwine, actively welcomes and propagandises for the ‘national’ movement. Anton Sittinger’s drinking pals likewise cover the broad spectrum of attitudes from the local busybody, a Catholic businessman who supports the mainstream bourgeois parties but eventually capitulates to the Nazis, to the enthusiastic and active support of Captain Schlicht, leader of the district SA. Only the Marxist painter Koestler offers resistance, attempting to rally villagers against Nazi terror, ultimately without success. The Nazi takeover is seen not so much as a coup or ‘seizure of power’, as had been attempted in 1923, but rather a ‘creeping to power’ made possible, and even welcomed, by the ruling class, which had grown impatient with ‘democratic’ politicians’ failure to quash unrest.
Anton Sittinger is a fictional account of people and events that took place across Germany in those fateful years, as observed by the author. Like most of Graf’s work it is set in rural Bavaria but deals with universal themes. As Graf writes, “There are thousands upon thousands of Anton Sittingers in every country”… and that is also true today. Despite its historical setting, the atmosphere may seem rather familiar to the contemporary reader.
The novel is introduced and translated by Ed Walker.
Available on Amazon and from bookshops in hard cover from December 2024; paperback planned for early in 2025.
This is a follow-up to Graf’s autobiographical work, We Are Prisoners, also translated into English by Ed Walker,
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A Revolution Summed Up: An assessment of the impact of the Russian revolution, written 50 years later (in 1967-68), reasserting the international nature of the movement that made it possible and refuting the Stalinist doctrine, still prevalent at the time, that socialism can be built in one country. The study unpicks the various false interpretations of the revolution (conservative-liberal, social democratic, anarchist and Trotskyist). In the second half it analyses the evolution of the Soviet economy through war communism, the New Economic Policy, the debates within the Party after the death of Lenin and the triumph of the counter revolution under the influence of Ustryalovism; the horrors of “dekulakization” and forced industrialization, the sham socialism of the “collective farms”, followed by the liberalization and steady adjustment to capitalist norms in the Khruschev era. Already, in 1967, the post-Stalinist reforms and the growth of foreign trade pointed to the so-called “fall of communism” in 1991, made inevitable by the USSR’s inability to keep up with the USA. The Communist Left was the only current that made such a thorough materialist analysis of the degeneration of the USSR, starting with its intervention at the Enlarged Executive Committee of the Communist International in 1926.
Available from the ICP and on Amazon.
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Factors of Race & Nation in Marxist Theory: A superb materialist exposition of human prehistory and history from primitive tribes to modern capitalist nations (and the attempts to overthrow them). And a superb piece of literature. This new translation from the Italian is produced and published by the International Communist Party.
Available from the ICP, on Amazon.
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Marxism and Darwinism: A new translation of Anton Pannekoek’s 1909 text. In very simple and accessible language, the Dutch socialist, mathematician and astronomer utterly demolishes the theories of those bourgeois Darwinists who have interpreted modern human society through the lens of evolutionary science. With notes and additional citations by the Association Archives Antonie Pannekoek (AAAP).
Published on Amazon. Also available from RedLines.
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We Are Prisoners: A translation of the autobiographical novel by Oskar Maria Graf. First published in 1927, it covers Graf’s early youth growing up in the village of Berg by Lake Starnberg, his cruel abuse by his older brother, his escape to Munich, where he worked as a baker, and then to anarchist communes in Switzerland. Graf is drafted into the army, where he reluctantly serves as a horse-groom on the supply trains. He is discharged as mentally unfit, spends a year in an asylum, then returns to Munich, working in a biscuit factory, starting his literary career and making money on the black market. We Are Prisoners (original: “Wir sind Gefangene”, first published in English with the title Prisoners All!) paints a fascinating picture of bohemian life in Schwabing and the radical politics of the time, climaxing with the struggles of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic of 1919. It is an honest and blithe account, despite the difficult challenges and momentous events, but ultimately it is an odyssey towards personal and political maturity. Graf’s quirky literary style combines a self-deprecating and anarchic sense of humour, sympathy for the downtrodden and the Heimat genre of German culture.
This new translation includes a commentary on Graf’s life and literary contribution, annotations and short biographies of the personalities appearing in the book.
You will find some extracts on the blog page.
“He behaves disgracefully and provokes laughter and disbelief, but in so doing, he wins our hearts,” wrote Thomas Mann.
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Eros in Prison: A translation of Karl Plättner’s Eros im Zuchthaus (1929). Plättner was imprisoned for his role in the March Action of 1921 and subsequent “expropriations of the expropriators”. Based on personal experience and interviews with other prisoners, Eros in Prison explores the social consequences of enforced sexual abstinence. While working on the book Plättner advised William Dieterle on the production of the sensational film, Geschlecht in Fesseln (Sex in Chains). Translated and annotated, and with an introductory biography of Karl Plättner by Ed Walker. Foreword by the pioneer of sexual science, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld.
Available from Housmans and Bookmarks or directly from RedLines.
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The German Robin Hood. A translation of Max Hoelz’s autobiography, Vom weißen Kreuz zur roten Fahne (From the “White Cross” to the Red Flag) together with his Anlagerede gegen die Bürgerliche Gesellschaft (Indictment of Bourgeois Society) and other materials. With my introduction and notes.
Available from Housmans and Bookmarks or directly from RedLines.
Red Lines 