The Loyal Subject
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Editor’s note Heinrich Mann, Thomas Mann’s elder brother, finished this satire of the Wilhelmine Empire in 1914; its magazine serialisation was stopped when the First World War broke out, and it appeared as a book only in 1918. Diederich Heßling, a paper manufacturer in the small town of Netzig, bows to everyone above him and tramples on everyone below, worships Kaiser Wilhelm II and rises by informing on others and marrying money. The term Untertan, the obedient subject, stuck to the type. Wolfgang Staudte’s film version came out in 1951.
About the book
Der Untertan is one of the best known novels of German author Heinrich Mann. The title character, Diederich Hessling, a dedicated 'Untertan' in the sense of a person subservient to a monarch or prince, is an immoral man who is meant to serve as an allegory of both the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II and German society of his time.
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