He is back

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It's back is the debut novel by the German journalist and writer Timur Vermes . The hardcover edition was published in 2012 by Eichborn Verlag in Cologne , the paperback by Bastei Lübbe . The film adaptation of the same name was released in 2015 . The novel is a satire in which Adolf Hitler comes back to life on a green meadow in the middle of Berlin in 2011 .

Table of contents

The novel begins with Adolf Hitler waking up in a Berlin meadow. At first he is confused and thinks he has a break in the film . A group of boys playing discovers him but does not recognize him. Hitler goes into town believing that the war is still going on , and looking at the town he believes that the situation of the German Reich has improved. At a kiosk he looks for newspapers like the Völkischer Beobachter and sees that the current date is August 30, 2011. The kiosk owner starts a conversation with Hitler, but believes he is looking at an actor and not the Führer . He offers Hitler to spend the night in the kiosk, and with the help of the newspapers there, Hitler tries to keep up to date with world politics and current affairs.

Because his uniform smells like gasoline, the kiosk owner lends him clothes. The following day the Führer took his uniform to a dry cleaner. The owner's son thinks he is Stromberg from the Switch parody. Back at the kiosk, Hitler meets Joachim Sensenbrink and Frank Sawatzki from the Flashlight agency . They enthusiastically take Hitler's description of the attack on Poland as well-prepared and rehearsed comedy ; they definitely want to keep in touch with him.

Hitler moves into a hotel where the television arouses his interest, but the programs are strange and disturbing for him. Dressed in uniform again, Hitler visits the Flashlight agency and meets Carmen Bellini, Executive Vice President of the agency. The agency wanted to put Hitler on television, and Vera Krömeier was assigned to him as secretary. Even she cannot believe that he is the real Adolf Hitler, but thinks it is convincing method acting . Hitler, on the other hand, is irritated by her dark make-up and black clothing, and he is also amazed by the modern environment and the changed way of life. However, technical achievements such as the PC or the Internet inspire him.

Finally, Hitler got an appearance on the comedy show Krass, Age of Comedian Ali Wizgür of Turkish origin. After Hitler's appearance, Wizgür furiously accuses him of ruining his show, but the agency is enthusiastic.

Back at the kiosk, he reads the reports and reviews of his appearance on the show in various newspapers. His appearance at Wizgür is meanwhile a hit on YouTube , and Hitler sees YouTube as a suitable means of propaganda . Although Wizgür doesn’t like Hitler, other short video clips from the “Führer” on various topics become an integral part of the program.

In the meantime he is becoming more and more well-known, he compares the situation with the time after his release from prison in 1924. Politicians such as Markus Söder , Karl Lauterbach , Claudia Roth and Dieter Graumann comment on the YouTube video. Ms. Bellini fears that Hitler could come into focus from pictures that would report negatively about him. In fact, Bild reports that Hitler had a relationship with his secretary. After the report, Ms. Krömeier received harassing and insulting emails, but she still wants to continue working for Hitler. The agency creates its own homepage for the "Führer", and he is enthusiastic about its functions. Together with Sensenbrink and Sawatzki, Hitler gives an interview for Bild in the Hotel Adlon . However, the interview is broken off by the editor after a short time.

Together with a camera team, Hitler visits the party headquarters of the NPD in Berlin-Koepenick and meets party chairman Holger Apfel there . The leader is disappointed and angry with the state of the party and also with the members. Ms. Bellini is enthusiastic about the material and would like to make a special broadcast out of it. Bild prints the interview with Hitler with the aim of harming him, but the agency manages a rematch. In the meantime, merchandising products are also being manufactured, and Hitler, who continues to be mistaken for a parodying cabaret artist, receives positive reviews for another appearance at Krass, Alter . Thereupon the head of the Flashlight agency, Mr. Kärrner, announced the news that Hitler had been awarded the Grimme Prize .

Ms. Krömeier no longer wants to work for Hitler after her grandmother, a Jew whose family was murdered during the Nazi era , told her what kind of person Hitler probably was and how she experienced the time in the Third Reich . Hitler appeases her and visits the old lady personally to tell her how indispensable her granddaughter is for his work. Meanwhile, the agency is producing its own show for Hitler; the studio is similar to Wolfsschanze . The first guest on the show is Renate Künast . The show is a complete success.

While visiting the Oktoberfest in Munich , Hitler meets various celebrities. In the marquee he gives a busty lady an autograph on her dirndl and paints a swastika next to it, which causes the lady to shout loudly.

Back in Berlin, Hitler plans to move into his own apartment and soon finds a suitable property in Prenzlauer Berg . That evening Hitler has an appointment to meet Frau Bellini at the opera ; a work by Richard Wagner is performed, but he is beaten up by right-wing extremist skinheads on the way there . He loses consciousness and only wakes up in the clinic. Hitler suffered several fractures and has to stay in the clinic for a few days. In the hospital he receives calls from various parties and politicians, all of which ask him to join the respective party. A publisher asks Hitler to write a book. He accepts the offer. Ms. Krömeier and Mr. Sawatzki have married and are expecting their first child together. They visit Hitler and send greetings from the agency's employees. Hitler is planning a new propaganda offensive with the book publication and his own show.

success

After its presentation at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2012, the novel rose to number 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list and stayed there for 20 weeks. The audio book, read by Christoph Maria Herbst , also reached first place. Herbst uses the style of the narrator Adolf Hitler throughout and other people also speak in their own style, with an unpolished Berlin accent in bored, aggressive, submissive or snappy, for example Art is used. In 2012 the audiobook version of He's Back won the LovelyBooks Readers Award .

In total, over 2,000,000 German copies and over 300,000 audio books had been sold by August 2015. The foreign rights were granted to over 41 countries and the filming had been filming since autumn 2014.

Reviews

  • In the bilious political satire, Adolf Hitler awoke to new life in the summer of 2011 and began a television career as a demagogue, which is shockingly plausible in its individual steps and details.
    Ursula March , Die Zeit
  • The literary quality of the novel, that much is clear quickly, can hardly be responsible for the enormous sales success of “He is back.” […] This focus on Hitler - either as a comic figure or as the incarnation of evil - runs the risk of To make the historical facts fade. [...] All too often, the author lets himself be carried away to portray his Hitler as a humorous fellow and that ultimately has a trivializing effect.
    Cornelia Fiedler, Süddeutsche Zeitung
  • ... for an "alternate history" à la Robert Harris ( "fatherland" ) or at least an action-packed farce there is a lack of narrated time ... a slap that is based solely on the fact that the Führer applies his vocabulary to our here and now ... becomes on four hundred pages then a bit stale.
    Marc Reichwein, Die Welt
  • The best thing about the book is the cover ... after 50 pages I started to get bored. Then you know the grammar of the book. I also didn't really like it because the story is too absurd.
    Sönke Neitzel , historian at the University of Potsdam

filming

Filming He's Back ; November 2014 at the Berlin East Side Gallery

He is back was filmed in 2015 under the direction of David Wnendt , the role of Hitler is played by Oliver Masucci . Other roles include Fabian Busch , Christoph Maria Herbst , Katja Riemann , Franziska Wulf , Fred Aaron Blake in three different roles, Lars Rudolph and Michael Kessler . The German theatrical release was October 8, 2015.

Dramatic adaptation

The author and director Uwe Hoppe wrote a dramatic adaptation of the novel for the Theater der Altstadt in Stuttgart . The piece premiered on February 12, 2016.

Trivia

The white book cover shows the author and the publisher as an illustration in black, the typical Hitler parting and the title in justified at the place of his mustache .

expenditure

Web links

Commons : It's back  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The man for the long haul Zeit.de of October 15, 2012, accessed on May 11, 2013
  2. ↑ Ha, ha, Hitler , sueddeutsche.de of January 9, 2013, accessed on July 17, 2013
  3. ↑ Marc Reichwein: The bestseller: A Hitler satire with excess length , Literary World , July 20, 2013, p. 3
  4. ↑ Frankfurter Allgemeine magazin November 2015, interview with Eckart Lohse, p. 67.
  5. ↑ Movie releases: He's back . In: FILMSTARTS.de . October 8, 2015.