Little Man, What Now?

The "little" man is Pinneberg, who, together with his wife Emma, tries with all his might – yet in vain – to lead a middle-class life. Fallada describes the daily struggle for survival, living from hand to mouth, and the anxieties faced in the face of a changing era, shifting values, brutalisation and populism – parallels between the Weimar era and our own are striking, and the question posed by the title arises once more.