A Stranger in My Own Country Read Online Free PDF Page A

between the lines again, this time in Sütterlin script, until he reaches page 241.
    The last 14 pages – 228 to 241 – each contain three sets of handwritten lines, amounting to at least 72 lines on each page. The highly compromising notes became a kind of secret code or cryptograph, the minuscule handwriting zigzagging back and forth for up to eighty lines a page. The text ends with a final entry dated 7 October 1944.
    The editors would like to thank the staff of the Archive Collection at the Academy of Arts in Berlin for their kind assistance in making the manuscript available, as well as the Hans Fallada Archive in Carwitz forthe opportunity to examine the later typescript version. The School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies at Dublin City University, Ireland, facilitated the completion of the edition by granting Jenny Williams a period of sabbatical leave.

Chronology
1893
21 July: Rudolf Ditzen, alias Hans Fallada, is born in Greifswald.
1899
The family moves to Berlin.
1911
Attempts suicide in a pact with his friend Hanns Dietrich von Necker.
1912
Committed to Tannenfeld sanatorium (until 15 September 1913).
1919
Meets the publisher Ernst Rowohlt. First course of treatment for morphine addiction in Tannenfeld.
1920
Debut novel Der junge Goedeschal [ Young Goedeschal ].
1922
Employed as a bookkeeper on the Neuschönfeld estate near Bunzlau (present-day Bolesławiec in Poland).
1923
Sentenced to six months in prison for embezzlement; the novel Anton und Gerda is published.
1924
Imprisonment in Greifswald.
1925
Arrested again for embezzlement; sentenced to a prison term of two and a half years.
1928
Released in the spring from the Central Prison in Neumünster.
1929
5 April: marriage to Anna (Suse) Issel.
1930
Joins the staff of the Rowohlt publishing house – Rowohlt Verlag – in Berlin. Birth of first son Ulrich (Uli).
1931
Publication of Bauern, Bonzen und Bomben [ A Small Circus ].
1932
Kleiner Mann – was nun? [ Little Man – What Now? ] is published and becomes an international best-seller. The family moves to Berkenbrück.
1933
7–22 April: held in protective custody in Fürstenwalde.
18 July: birth of twins, of whom only one, the daughter Lore (Mücke), survives.
Purchase of the smallholding in Carwitz.
1934
Publication of Wer einmal aus dem Blechnapf frisst [ Once a Jailbird ] and Wir hatten mal ein Kind [ Once We Had a Child ].
1935
May: suffers nervous breakdown as a result of attacks in the Nazi press and money worries.
September: following the publication of Altes Herz geht auf die Reise [ Old Heart Goes on a Journey ], Fallada is declared an ‘undesirable author’.
October: finishes writing Das Märchen vom Stadtschreiber, der aufs Land flog [ Sparrow Farm ].
November: another nervous breakdown.
Early December: his status as an ‘undesirable author’ is revoked.
1936
Publication of Hoppelpoppel, wo bist du? [ Hoppelpoppel, Where Are You? ].
1937
Wolf unter Wölfen [ Wolf among Wolves ] is published, and is an unexpected success. Signs a contract with the Tobis Klang Film Company to write ‘the story of a German family from 1914 to 1933 or thereabouts’. The project secures the backing of Joseph Goebbels, Emil Jannings is lined up to play the leading role.
1938
Goebbels insists that the story of the family in the film be continued into the Nazi period. Fallada agrees, but the project is shelved anyway. The material is published as a novel, Der eiserne Gustav [ Iron Gustav ], with a revised ending approved by the powers that be. Renewed attacks in the Nazi press. Publication of Die Geschichten aus der Murkelei [ Stories from a Childhood ].
1939
The Rowohlt publishing house is incorporated into the Nazi-controlled Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt. Writes Kleiner Mann, grosser Mann – alles vertauscht [ Little Man – Big Man, Roles Reversed ].
1940
3 April: birth of son Achim.
October–December: hospitalized