The Sleepwalkers (Broch novel)

1888: Joachim von Pasenow

The first part, set mostly in Berlin and an unnamed eastern province of Prussia, concerns an unsure young aristocrat and army officer, Joachim von Pasenow. He wavers between his romantic devotion to a Czech prostitute Ruzena Hruska and his duty which is to court Elisabeth von Baddensen, the heiress of a neighbouring landowner and his social equal. In his secret liaison with the earthy Ruzena he finds emotional and sexual fulfilment, while Elisabeth is delicate and distant. Adrift among doubts and hesitation, he finds refuge in symbols from the past, such as the honour code of the nobility and the teaching of the Lutheran church. Adhering to these leads him into a loveless marriage with Elisabeth. On their wedding night, the hesitations both feel lead them to postpone consummation.

Almost all the decisions and actions of Joachim, Ruzena and Elisabeth are manipulated by his diabolical friend, a successful worldly businessman called Eduard von Bertrand who, for his evident lack of comprehension for old values, Joachim never trusts fully.

1903: August Esch

Set along the River Rhine, mainly in the cities of Cologne and Mannheim, this part is centred on August Esch, an able bookkeeper but restless with every job that he takes and every friend he makes. He eats at the bar of the widow Gertrud Hentjen, who keeps all men at a distance, and drinks there with Martin Geyring, a socialist trade union organiser.

When Geyring is unjustly imprisoned, Esch ascribes this to the owner of a large local business (Eduard von Bertrand from the first part), whom he scorns as an exploiter and a homosexual. In fury he visits Bertrand's mansion, intending to murder him, but is talked out of the deed.

A visit to a variety theatre enthuses him with possibilities, meeting the producer and some of the artistes. He links up with an impresario, backing him in a venture to show female wrestlers in revealing costumes. Initially a sensation, the public tires of the act and takings fall. Esch dreams of emigrating to the USA, a land of opportunities, but his partner absconds with the assets.

Like von Pasenow in the first part, Esch feels insecure in the world of decaying old values (here the values of business and middle-class life) and tries to find a guilty party to blame. In the end, he marries Gertrud and returns to Luxembourg, where he goes back to accounting.

1918: Wilhelm Huguenau

Characters from the first two parts are united in a little (fictional) town on the River Moselle during the last months of World War I, with many new characters introduced.

The now elderly Major von Pasenow is the military commandant of the town, striving to maintain order and dignity as the population succumbs to starvation and disease. A military hospital is full of victims of the war in various stages of mental and physical decay. Esch has moved there with his wife to run the modest local newspaper, finding an outlet for his restless search for meaning in an informal religious sect, which von Pasenow joins.

A deserter, Wilhelm Huguenau, cheats Esch out of control of his newspaper and attempts to insinuate himself into the favour of the Major. Hanna Wiedling, withdrawn young wife of a lawyer serving at the front, tries to cope with life on her own. Shell-shocked and mutilated soldiers interact with hospital doctors, nurses and townsfolk. Sometimes the narrative loops back to Berlin where Marie, a former whore who is now a Salvation Army worker, has befriended Nuchem, a young Jewish man who is a refugee from the East. At other times the illusion of fiction is abandoned and the author launches into philosophical analysis of the deterioration of values in Europe generally and in Germany in particular.

The finale takes place during the closing days of the war, as the town sinks into chaos. The Major is wounded by rioters, perhaps fatally, while Huguenau bayonets Esch and rapes his wife Gertrud. In a postscript, Huguenau has become a respectable businessman in France, but finds his life entirely empty.

Closing reflections from the author predict that the destruction of values in Germany has left the way open for an amoral and ruthless new Leader to emerge, who will prophesy a new future for the disoriented nation.