One of my brothers and I have gotten into the habit of buying each other books that we think are excellent. The Oppermanns was his Christmas present to me, and I just got around to reading it.
The novel is astounding because it was written concurrently with the events it describes, That is, it begins late in 1932 and ends in the summer of 1933 and was written during that time period. It tells the story of a wealthy German Jewish family. It’s considered the last masterpiece of the German-Jewish literary movement.
The Oppermanns are wealthy well-known residents of Berlin whose family owns a chain of furniture stores. Martin runs the stores. Gustav is an intellectual who spends most of his time enjoying art, literature, and music. Edgar is a world-famous scientist and surgeon. At the beginning of the novel, all three are happy with their lives, and although Martin has half-heartedly sought a merger with a competitor to mask the Jewish ownership of the family store, he has muffed it and doesn’t much care. The Nationalists, as the Nazis are referred to throughout the novel, seem to be on the wane.
However, within weeks the Leader (his name is never mentioned) has been made Chancellor because foolish landowners and big business, having drained the country dry, think they can use the Nationalists. Things begin to turn bad. One of Gustav’s friends emigrates to Palestine, but Gustav thinks he is being alarmist. After all, this kind of thing has happened before, and it always dies down.
This novel documents the slow horror of the Nationalist take-over (not so slow, really) and shows how easy it is to fool oneself and stay in one’s comfort zone even when it becomes uncomfortable.
The novel is all the more chilling because of how early it is written, because readers today know more about what will happen than Feuchtwanger did. It has a slightly optimistic ending, implying that the German people—whom he always differentiates from the Nazis—would not put up with brutality forever, but of course we know the German people didn’t stop anything.
whatmeread 
This sounds intriguing. I have found that I really enjoy reading fiction that was written in the years immediately prior to and/or during WWII. It’s fascinating to see the thoughts of the authors through the characters at a point when they didn’t yet know which side would be victorious. This book sounds like a similar perspective, just a bit earlier. I added it to my TBR. Thanks for the suggestion!
You’re welcome!
Sounds very interesting!!
Thanks for sharing your review with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge!