14 h 35 minAudiobook11 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when conformity becomes a path to power?
In The Subject, Heinrich Mann turns a sharp satirical eye on power and conformity in Imperial Germany. His subject is the making of the authoritarian personality: the relationship between obedience and authority, and the troubling questions that relationship raises.
This classic novel brings humour to a dark subject. Mann’s biting satire invites you to examine conformity rather than take it for granted. The tension between submitting to power and seeking it gives the book its central challenge: what does authority encourage people to become?
What you’ll discover
- Power under scrutiny Explore a satire that makes authority a subject for questioning rather than automatic respect.
- The pull of conformity Consider what it means to conform within the world of Imperial Germany.
- An authoritarian personality Follow Mann’s exploration of how a personality takes shape around power and obedience.
- Humour with a bite Encounter a comic approach to serious questions about authority and the people drawn to it.
- A demanding central question Look closely at the connection between the wish to obey and the desire for power.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy biting social comedy, political satire, and the study of how ordinary people drift into obedience. It suits anyone curious about imperial Germany, small-town intrigue, or the roots of the twentieth century.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A boy who loves what he fears
- Berlin, a fraternity, and a lost girl
- The Kaiser on horseback and a love betrayed
- A small town, a sentry, and a telegram
- Lauer on trial, and the courtroom as theatre
- Marriages, deals, and a place in the sun
- Election plots, business bargains, and family life
- What the story is really about
- How the book is told
Who’s who
- Diederich HesslingA timid paper manufacturer's son who learns to bow to power and bully those below him, and wants to rise in the world.
- Agnes GoeppelA gentle, sickly young woman in Berlin who loves Diederich deeply and hopes for a life with him.
- Old BuckThe respected old Forty-Eighter of Netzig, a liberal who believes in the human spirit and civic duty.
- Wolfgang BuckOld Buck's clever, ironic son, a lawyer and would-be actor who sees through Diederich and the age.
- Napoleon FischerThe mill's black-bearded foreman and Social Democrat, who matches Diederich in cunning and wants a seat in the Reichstag.
- JadassohnA sharp, ambitious young prosecutor with large ears, eager to rise by serving the authorities.
- WulckowThe loud, bearlike regional governor who rules the district for the Kaiser and uses Diederich for his own ends.
- Guste DaimchenA plump, shrewd young woman with a large inheritance, who weighs her options and ends up Diederich's wife.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 14 h 35 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 11 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Der Untertan in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Der Untertan
by Heinrich Mann · 1918
Diederich Hessling shivers before every power he meets, then learns to shout in its name.
10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Subject is a satirical novel by Heinrich Mann, completed in early July 1914, just before the First World War. It follows Diederich Hessling, the son of a paper manufacturer in the small town of Netzig, from a frightened childhood to the head of a large company.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A boy who loves what he fears
The story opens with Diederich Hessling as a soft, dreamy child who is afraid of nearly everything. He fears the toads and gnomes of his fairy tale book, but more than these he fears his father, a veteran who runs a paper mill in Netzig and keeps a cane on the wall. Diederich loves him anyway. When his father falls down the stairs, the boy claps his hands and then runs away in terror of his own joy.
He learns early how to live between powers. He bullies the mill workers by threatening to tell tales about them, because they are too small to be worth his father's beating. He steals buttons from the rags and trades them for sweets, then confesses in a panic. His mother prays with him from the heart, but he feels no respect for her, since she is so much like himself. He pities her and uses her, and he cannot admire her.
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What is The Subject by Heinrich Mann about?
It follows Diederich Hessling, a timid paper manufacturer's son in imperial Germany, from childhood through student days, army service, and business success. The book shows how he learns to fear and then serve power, and how that training shapes a whole society.
What does the title The Subject mean?
The German title is Der Untertan, which means a subject in the sense of someone who submits to a ruler. It points to a man who bows to those above him and expects others to bow to him.
When was The Subject written, and is it a true story?
Heinrich Mann completed the novel in early July 1914, just before the First World War. The story and characters are fictional, but the Kaiser, his speeches, and the political climate are drawn from real German life of the time.
The author
Heinrich Mann
1871–1950 · German novelist
Heinrich Mann was a German writer born in Lübeck in 1871. He wrote novels and essays, including Professor Unrat (1905) and Der Untertan (1918). He left Germany in 1933 and lived in France before moving to the United States in 1940. He died in Santa Monica, California, in 1950.
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