Sebastian Haffner’s Lost Novel Hits Shelves: Discover the Masterpiece Unveiled

A newly discovered novel by one of Europe’s most impactful postwar journalists, depicting the intense yet delicate atmosphere of the Weimar Republic’s latter days, has been released in Germany. The handwritten manuscript was found by his children in his desk.

Written over nine decades ago, Sebastian Haffner’s novel, titled “Abschied” or “Parting,” quickly climbed to the top of the Spiegel bestseller list following its introduction this month.

Haffner, who escaped Nazi Berlin in 1938 with his Jewish fiancée, first gained fame in 1940 with his incisive prewar analysis in “Germany: Jekyll and Hyde.” Winston Churchill reportedly recommended his cabinet to read it to understand the Nazi menace.

After changing his name from Raimund Pretzel to protect his family still in Germany, Haffner moved to the UK and became a prominent journalist for the Observer in London. He was known for his authoritative analysis of Nazism and the factors that led to Hitler’s rise to power. He returned to Berlin in 1954 as a correspondent for the Observer and later became a noted columnist for the news magazine Stern.

His son, Oliver Pretzel, 86, mentioned that the family had hesitated for years about publishing “Parting” after Haffner’s death in Berlin at the age of 91 in 1999. They worried that the romantic narrative might be perceived as insignificant compared to his more serious commentary.

“My sister initially thought the novel wasn’t very impressive,” Oliver, a mathematics professor in London, shared with the Süddeutsche Zeitung. “I somewhat agreed at first, but upon re-reading and translating it into English, I discovered its brilliant structure.”

Fortunately, German critics have lauded the 181-page novel, describing it as “a literary treasure,” an “incredibly engaging, lively text,” and “a beautifully youthful and emotionally powerful book.”

Set during a two-week stay in Paris with his romantic interest, Teddy, before returning to a politically tense and fearful Berlin, the novel was praised by Marie Schmidt in the Süddeutsche as “shockingly clear-sighted.”

Schmidt noted that the novel mirrors the “sharp historical insight that captivated and amazed the world” found in Haffner’s other posthumous work, “History of a German.” Written in 1939 but only published in 2000 in German and in 2002 in English as “Defying Hitler,” this book was acclaimed for its lucid critique and helped dispel the common claim among Haffner’s contemporaries that they were unaware of Nazi atrocities.

“Jekyll and Hyde” was first published in Germany in 1996 under the title: 1939 – Deutschland von innen betrachtet (Germany observed from within). Both books achieved bestseller status in Germany upon their respective releases.

Haffner was 24 when he penned “Parting” within just a few weeks in October and November 1932, mere months before the Nazis seized power. His efforts to publish the novel during his lifetime were unsuccessful.

The novel’s narrator, Raimund, is a trainee lawyer who smokes Gitanes Rouge and reads Aldous Huxley. In the spring of 1931 in Paris, he meets Teddy, who has fled Berlin, a city where the term “crisis” had not yet been coined.

Teddy is believed to have been inspired by Gertrude Joseph, a Jewish woman from Vienna whom Haffner loved. In his autobiographical “History of a German,” he recounted how she returned to Nazi Berlin from Paris for the last time in the summer of 1933, bringing with her “an air that one could breathe, and which one breathed in greedily”. In the novel, Raimund expresses a growing dread about returning to a “cold Berlin.”

Haffner and Joseph maintained their connection until their deaths. Twenty letters from Haffner to her were discovered after her passing.

In an epilogue to the novel, literary critic Volker Weidermann reassures that the family’s concerns about its publication were baseless.

“’Parting’ enriches the historical narrative that Haffner has laid out in his historical works, as it reveals the underlying sorrow of a lost good Germany—characterized by cosmopolitanism, tolerance, and humanity. Haffner often emphasized that history is made up of private micro-stories that collectively form the broader world history. In ‘Parting,’ he effectively explores this fundamental idea,” Weidermann writes.

An English version of “Parting,” translated by Oliver Pretzel, is slated for publication by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.