The Wanderer between the Two Worlds: An Experience of War

One of the first novellas to be published in German during World War I, Walter Flex's "The Wanderer between the Two Worlds" should be better known. A story of romantic idealism and homoerotic friendship set against the backdrop of Germany's war on the Eastern front, the book was an instant best-seller when it was published in 1916. In the post-War years the book's reputation grew both among the German student movement and among the Nazi party; so much so that a poem from the novella was read on German radio on 30 April 1945 at the announcement of Adolf Hitler's death. Published in English for the first time, "The Wanderer between the Two Worlds" has been translated by Brian Murdoch, the acclaimed translator of Erich Maria Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front".