‘Their Strength Through Joy conversation is killing me’: Samuel Beckett’s German diaries

W ar was not yet on the immediate horizon when Samuel Beckett visited the German city of Hamburg in October 1936. However, after observing the reactions to Adolf Hitler’s rhetoric, he recorded in his diary that peace could not last. ‘They’ll need to fight soon (or burst),’ he noted on 6 October 1936. The six notebooks Beckett compiled during his six-month journey across Germany (September 1936–April 1937) challenge the view that he was a purely pessimistic poet, indifferent to real-world politics. Critics previously assumed he was absorbed in his own despair, unaware of the rise of totalitarianism. However, the notebooks reveal Beckett closely studying National Socialist resentment, documenting changes in fashion (e.g., the prevalence of the ‘Hitler coat’) and collecting Nazi slogans like ‘Führer’, ‘Bewegung’, ‘Blut und Boden’, and ‘Freiheit und Ehre’, even though they repelled him. On 1 November 1936, he wrote in German: ‘Their Strength Through Joy conversation is killing me.’ Beckett kept his disgust private, instead engaging in subtle parodies of Nazi behavior, such as ‘(sticking) the wrong arm out’ when asked to salute. His tour included visits to 30 German towns, including Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden, and Munich, driven by a desire to see art and improve his German language skills. His interest in German was influenced by visits to his cousin Peggy Sinclair and her family in Kassel between 1928 and 1932. Beckett observed Germany’s descent into totalitarianism amid personal turmoil: Peggy Sinclair’s death from tuberculosis in May 1933, his father’s heart attack in June, and the forced exile of the Sinclair family in 1936. His diaries reflect deep anguish, psychosomatic symptoms, financial struggles, and writer’s block. Some entries reveal darker aspects, including misogynistic remarks and accounts of brothel visits. The diaries, found in his Paris flat after his death, are his personal witness statement, unedited and unpublished. They highlight Beckett’s reaction to Nazi Germany, influencing his later work and involvement with the French resistance. The 545-page collection was edited by Mark Nixon and Oliver Lubrich, published by Suhrkamp in 2024, with plans for an English-language edition focusing on its literary significance.