The German lesson is a novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by the German writer Siegfried Lenz

Siegfried Lenz

Siegfried Lenz is a German writer, who has written novels and produced several collections of short stories, essays, and plays for radio and the theatre. He was awarded the Goethe Prize in Frankfurt-am-Main on the 250th Anniversary of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's birth...

, published in 1968 in Germany. English edition The German lesson was published in 1986 by New Directions Publishing, New York City. Deutschstunde was translated in several languages.

Plot

Siggi Jepsen (the first-person narrator), an inmate of a juvenile detention center, is forced to write an article themed The joys of duty. Siggi Jepsen describes his youth in Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 where his father, the "most northerly police officer in Germany" does his duty, even as his task is to debar an old childhood friend, the painter Max Nansen from his profession. Siggi feels compelled with Nansen's paintings, "the green faces, the Mongol eyes, these deformed bodies ... ", so he steals them. After 1945 Jepsen is interned for a short time and later reinstalled into his position.

Characters

• Siggi Jepsen
• Jens Ole Jepsen – Siggi's father, a police officer
• Max Nansen – a painter, pursued by the Nazis, whom Lenz based on the expressionist painter Emil Nolde
  Emil Nolde
  Emil Nolde was a German painter and printmaker. He was one of the first Expressionists, a member of Die Brücke, and is considered to be one of the great oil painting and watercolour painters of the 20th century. He is known for his vigorous brushwork and expressive choice of colors...
  
  
• Gudrun Jepsen – Siggi's mother
• Klaas – Siggi's brother
• Hilke – Siggi's sister

Adaptations

In 1971 Peter Beauvais filmed Die Deutschstunde for the German TV-broadcaster ARD

ARD (broadcaster)

ARD is a joint organization of Germany's regional public-service broadcasters...

 section SFB

Sender Freies Berlin

Sender Freies Berlin was the ARD public radio and television service for West Berlin from 1 June 1954 until 1990 and for Berlin as a whole from German reunification until 30 April 2003...

.

Releases details

• German: Deutschstunde (1968). Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe, (First edition)
  • German: Deutschstunde (2006). Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe, ISBN 9783455042115 (20th ed., hardcover)
  • German: Deutschstunde (2006). Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, ISBN 9783423134118 (37th ed., pocket book)
• Chinese: De yu ke. (2008) Taibei Shi: Yuan liu chu ban shi ye gu fen you xian gong si, ISBN 9789573260004
• French: La leçon d'allemand (2001). Paris: R. Laffont, ISBN 9782221094600
• Korean: Togirŏ sigan (2000). Sŏul Tʻŭkpyŏlsi : Minŭmsa, ISBN 9788937460401
• Danish: Tysktime (1996). København: Gyldendal, ISBN 9788700255067
• Portuguese: A lição de alemão (1991) Lisboa: Publ. Dom Quixote, ISBN 9789722008419
• Spanish: Lección de alemán (1990) Madrid: Debate, ISBN 9788474443622
• Finnish: Saksantunti (1974). Helsinki: Uusi kirjakerho, ISBN 9789516380448
• Russian: Urok nemeckogo (1970). Moskva: Progress,
• Slovak: Hodina nemčiny (1972). Bratislava: Slovenský Spisovatel',
• Czech: Hodina němčiny (1974). Praha: Odeon,