Heinrich Mann

"My novel Der Untertan, finished in 1914, only seemingly exaggerated the Germans of that time, and a comical figure was prepared to be the tragedy of the present. His revolution, the only and sole war, doesn’t mean anything at all, doesn’t begin with Hitler, but rather 19 years earlier—even these things are laughable. Only the abominations which they account for demand seriousness. " (Heinrich Mann, 1939)