46 pages • 1 hour read
Hans FalladaLittle Man, What Now?
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1932A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “The Small Town”
Part 1, Chapters 1-4 Summary
Now married, Johannes and Emma ride on the train. They are leaving Platz to move to a small apartment in Johannes’s hometown, Ducherow, which is “practically in the countryside” (30). They worry about money, the size of their new home, and their landlord. At the station, Johannes reveals that he has ordered a cab to take them and their luggage to their new home. Emma balks at the expense. They drive past the business where Johannes works, a “dealer in grain, animal feed and fertilizer” (35). They eventually arrive on an ugly street that borders a “fenced in meadow with a few cows in it and a horse” (36). The smell of the countryside invigorates Emma, who effuses about their son Markel growing up in such a healthy place. Inside the apartment, however, she is less pleased. The cramped, dusty interior brings tears to her eyes. She insists that she will find them a new place soon. Johannes is shocked by her negative reaction.
After a small supper, Emma tells Johannes that their future meals must be more cost-efficient. She also tells him that neither of them will drink alcohol during the pregnancy. He says nothing. On Emma’s insistence, they go to give their landlord notice that they will be leaving as soon as possible. Mrs. Scharrenhofer is having “a bit of a cry” as she does most evenings (42). She is weeping because she has lost a large sum of money. Emma tries to explain that Mrs. Scharrenhofer lost this money due to the extreme inflation in Germany, but the old woman will not listen. As the young couple tries to leave, Mrs. Scharrenhofer complains that “everything is looking to leave [her]” (44).
The two depart like “frightened children,” and Emma tells Johannes that they cannot remain in this house, as she is scared to be alone all day with the old woman next door. As Johannes urges her to endure for just a little longer, Emma demands to know why he is so keen to keep their marriage a secret in this town. Johannes reluctantly explains. He begins by describing his previous job at a menswear store owned by a Jewish man named Bergmann. Johannes was the senior salesperson and the only person capable of selling suits to a customer with an alcohol use disorder named Kleinholz, who tried to recruit Johannes for his grain supply business. When Johannes had a petty argument with Bergmann’s wife, he resigned from his position and was immediately hired by Kleinholz, even though he had no relevant experience. Johannes soon discovered that Kleinholz was seeking a husband for his daughter. Now Johannes fears that he will lose his job if his boss discovers that he is already married. Emma begs him to return to Bergmann’s store, but Johannes has resolved never to do so. She promises to “give [living in the apartment] a try” (53).
Part 1, Chapters 5-8 Summary
The next Monday, the newlyweds eat breakfast. As Johannes prepares to go to work and leave Emma alone for the first time, she asks what he would like for lunch. He has no answer. On the way to work, he frets about his wedding ring.
The previous evening, Emilie Kleinholz woke up in the middle of the night to find her husband missing. She ventured out in her dressing gown and found him drunkenly dancing with a woman in a bar. She dragged him home in front of everyone. Though she loves her husband, she resents his drinking, even though she knows it is an important part of his job as he must meet with clients and customers. That morning, she warns her disgraced husband to “apply the thumbscrews” to Johannes and pressure him to marry their daughter, Maria (59).
Johannes works alongside two men in the same position. Lauterbach is an unintelligent man who joined the Nazi Party out of boredom and now spends most weekends fighting alongside fellow members of the SA. Schulz is a “pitiless debauchee, a womanizer” (61). The three men gossip about their boss being dragged out of a bar by his wife, only to be interrupted by Kleinholz himself. He chastises his employees and then has a private word with Johannes, in which he mentions that Maria is “not a looker, but she’s a good girl” and reminds Johannes that he could be fired at any time (64).
At home, Emma decides to make pea soup for Johannes’s lunch. Since she has little experience in the kitchen, however, she is apprehensive about cooking. After cleaning the house, she writes a letter to Johannes’s estranged mother, informing her of their marriage. When Johannes returns home, the pea soup is not properly cooked. Johannes suggests that they leave it to cook a little longer and then eat it for dinner. He confides in her about his boss’s threats, and she urges him to forge an alliance with his co-workers, as she is “a believer in the solidarity of labor” (70). At the Kleinholz grain loft, Kleinholz is making his employees pack grain to meet a deadline. He is rude and demanding, threatening to sack one of them the following Monday. When he leaves the room, Johannes turns to Schulz and Lauterbach. He reveals his private conversation with Kleinholz and they agree that, if Kleinholz “sacks any one of [them], the others will take their hats” and resign in solidarity (75). Johannes is kept late at work. He returns home to find Emma fast asleep and the pea soup overcooked and spoiled. They must spend more money on food.
Part 1, Chapters 9-12 Summary
Emma and Johannes plan a weekend trip to the country. At work, however, Johannes is pressured by Kleinholz and Lauterbach to cover a shift. Kleinholz urges him to “be sensible,” as everyone else has plans. Johannes is reluctant to tell people about Emma but continues to refuse.
The countryside is busy. When they finally have a moment alone together, Emma and Johannes kiss. At that moment, a car appears and nearly runs them down. Inside is the Kleinholz family. Emma comforts a fretful Johannes. The following Monday, Johannes is the first to arrive at work. Schulz arrives and complains that a previous romantic partner is claiming to be pregnant with his child. Lauterbach arrives, seriously wounded after a bad fight. Kleinholz enters, reminding the workers that “today’s sacking day” (85). He leaves them unsure who will be fired, raising Johannes’s hopes. After an argumentative run-in with Maria later in the afternoon, Johannes meets with Kleinholz. He criticizes Johannes for kissing a woman in public. Johannes is sacked and must work the remainder of the month.
Three weeks pass and Johannes struggles to find work. At the union office, the representative pities him but has nothing to offer. When he returns home, he thinks about his dwindling money. He and Emma are bad at money management. On one occasion, she has a strong craving for expensive salmon. She goes to the shop but eats the full half-pound portion on the way home. She returns in tears, blaming her “condition.” Johannes comforts her. The next day, he goes to Bergmann to beg for his job back. The storekeeper refuses him, however, as his “wife won’t allow it” (99). As Johannes works out his final days in his job, Emma receives a letter from Berlin. She eventually opens the letter, which is from Johannes’s mother. She explains that she has secured Johannes a job at Mandel’s department store. Emma rushes to tell Johannes the good news, while his co-workers worry that Mandel “sounds Jewish.”
Part 1 Analysis
Little Man, What Now? is set during The Rise of the Nazi Party in Germany. As the Weimar Republic falls apart, the Nazis emerge to occupy the power vacuum. Throughout the novel, Johannes has little contact with actual members of the Nazi Party, but the narrative nonetheless provides insight into why and how the Nazi Party flourished. Johannes’s primary understanding of the Nazis comes through his interactions with his co-worker Lauterbach. Much like Johannes, Lauterbach is apolitical. He grew up in a small town in postwar Germany and has little ambition and little hope for the future. Bored and aimless, he looks to the Nazis to give him a purpose in life, even if that purpose is hateful and violent. He spends his weekends getting into fights with Communists and anti-Nazi protestors, which gives some shape to his formless existence. Lauterbach’s character shows how the Nazis prey on the visceral disaffection of young men who seek an outlet for an anger that they cannot comprehend. Furthermore, the spread of the Nazis has an accelerating effect, in which the wider the network of Nazis grows, the more ingrained they become in society. Lauterbach is valued by his firm because, as a member of the Nazi Party, he can use his connections to make sales.
If Lauterbach represents how the young men of Germany are reacting to Economic Collapse and Societal Breakdown, then Mrs. Scharrenhofer illustrates the response of an older generation. As an elderly widow, Mrs. Scharrenhofer is left alone in a society that is rapidly becoming very different from the one she used to know. In particular, hyperinflation takes a drastic toll on her mental health. Fixed prices, such as rents, can no longer be relied upon, and for a woman who relies on her renters’ payments to survive, this represents an existential threat. Hyperinflation is changing Mrs. Scharrenhofer’s world at a rate she cannot comprehend. She is driven to irrationality by a world that no longer seems rational. She seeks a rational explanation for these changes, which only becomes further evidence of her decline.
The collapsing economy also poses challenges for the young couple. They are recently married with a child on the way. As well as preparing to become parents and becoming acquainted with one another, they must learn to be financially responsible. They have only Johannes’s wages to live on, which do not go far, and their attempts at living frugally underline their naivety and immaturity. When Emma has a craving for salmon, for example, they immediately agree to ignore their strict budget. Emma goes to the store and buys the expensive salmon, only to eat all of it before she gets home. She does not understand budgets and she is unfamiliar with pregnancy cravings, meaning that she and Johannes cannot effectively plan their lives. Their ignorance creates a vicious circle of poverty.
Johannes’s immaturity is also evident in his understanding of Class Identity, Rivalry, and Solidarity. Emma, who was raised in a left-wing household, advises him to join with his immediate colleagues in an expression of worker solidarity. Johannes lacks her nuanced understanding of politics, and he only follows her advice on the surface level, forming a pact with his colleagues in which they agree to collectively quit if any one of them is fired. Almost as soon as he makes this deal, however, Johannes realizes that he cannot afford to quit and begins to plot ways to get out of his promise. Ironically, Johannes is the worker who is fired. He is then incensed when his fellow workers weasel out of their commitment in the same way that Johannes had planned to do. Johannes’s shallow understanding of worker solidarity is yet another way in which he shows his naivety and his foolishness.
