Lion Feuchtwanger: Der falsche Nero (The Pretender, 1936)
Lion Feuchtwanger: Der falsche Nero (The Pretender, 1936)
Schuld an der Mißstimmung sei ein kleiner Haufen von Niederlingen und Verkleinerern. […] Es seien dieser Hetzer nicht sehr viele, doch sie hätten Ämter, Einfluß, Stimme, Geld. Wären sie erst beseitigt, dann sei die Luft rein. Nach den schlechten Erfahrungen, die man mit den Christen gemacht habe, sei es ratsam, diesmal rasch zuzugreifen und die Gegner und Verkleinerer ohne langes Gerichtsverfahren von einem Tag zum anderen, in einer bestimmten Nacht, abzutun.
[To blame for the discord is a small group of petty individuals and detractors. [...] There are not very many of these agitators but they hold offices, they have a voice, influence, money. The air will be cleared once these are disposed of. After the bad experiences with the Christians, it is advisable to act quickly and dismiss these opponents and detractors without lengthy court proceedings from one day to another in a particular night. (ed. trans.)]
Excerpt from Lion Feuchtwanger’s novel Der falsche Nero, 1936
Lion Feuchtwanger's novel Der falsche Nero (published in English as The Pretender), was first published in 1936 by the Querido Verlag in Amsterdam. It was published for the first time in Germany in 1947 by the Aufbau Verlag. The novel is a satirical caricature of Hitler set against the backdrop of the Reichstag fire in 1933. The cover was designed by Eva Herrmann. Next to the title is a coin with two male profiles, layered on top of each other, depicting the Roman Emperor Nero.
The play takes place in the Syrian provinces of Rome, a few years after Nero's death. In order to achieve his political goals, the former Senator Varro has the potter Maximus Terres pretend to be Nero, as if the emperor has been “resurrected”. The belief takes hold among the people that Nero is not dead and, because they fared better under Nero, the return of the Roman ruler is a success. As a mass movement around the supposed Nero arises, Varro loses control of his puppet. The false Nero (Hitler) establishes his own system of rule with the help of von Trebon (Göring) and Knop (Goebbels).
Feuchtwanger wrote in 1935 on the genre of the historical novel in Das Neue Tage-Buch: “A good legend, a good historical novel is, in most cases, more credible, truer in its imagery, livelier and a better testament to life than a clean, accurate representation of historical facts”.
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