Was soll aus dem Jungen bloss werden?, oder, Irgendwas mit Büchern

Like the previous volumes in this series, the present one is designed to introduce students, at sixth-form and undergraduate level, to a text which may be treated both as literature and as the basis for topic discussion. The text is Heinrich Boll's account of his school days under Hitler. It is followed by explanatory notes in English and an "arbeitsteil" in German, which contains both questions on the text and supplementary material to illustrate some of the themes touched on by Boll and experiences of the Third Reich which differ from his. One piece included is the considerably shortened version of Boll's text which appeared in the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung". Although in no way an alternative to Boll's original text, it may, if the teacher feels it appropriate, serve as an introduction to the letter. "Was soil aus dem Jungen bloss werden?" originated in a series in which contemporary writers were invited to describe their schooldays in the Third Reich for the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung", which published them in its weekend pages between January 1981 and August 1982. The youngest of these authors were Peter Ruhmkorf and Gunter Kunert, both born in 1929 and just old enough to remember the closing years of Nazi rule. The oldest was Heinrich Boll, born in 1917 and already a politically aware teenager when Hitler came to power in 1933.