The Man Outside

Well, what does one do when returning home from war, no longer knowing his purpose in life? Whom death, despair and hunger cling to like a second skin? How can he continue living? Six years of war have left their mark on him. Meanwhile at home, life went on - just without him. Now, his wife has someone else to warm her bed. His parents are dead. So what's left for someone nobody cares for anymore? Nothing, young Beckmann thinks to himself and tries to drown himself. However, what if the river doesn't want him and spits him back out? "Find another bed if yours is occupied. I don't want your miserable little life. You're not enough for me," says the Elbe. Lo and behold, he is back on the shore. Suddenly, however, there is The Other not willing to leave his side from now on, to ensure he no longer throws his life away. “Perhaps”, Beckmann thinks to himself, "I am also a ghost. One of yesterday which nobody wants to see anymore. A ghost from the war, provisionally repaired for peace." However, he doesn't get away from life that easily. A ghost, he realises, he certainly is not.
Draußen vor der Tür is a linguistic and poetic masterpiece, perceived as the "outcry of an entire generation" at its premiere in 1947. The author had been eighteen years old when the war broke out and twenty-four once it was over. Two years remained to him to write against the lies, false pathos and heroism before he died of the consequences of the war at the age of only twenty-six.