 Fallada's book was one of the first anti-Nazi novels to be published by a German after World War II.Otto and Elise Hampel, a working class couple in Berlin, were not interested in politics, but after Elise Hampel learned that her son had fallen in France, she and her husband began committing acts of civil disobedience.They began writing leaflets on postcards, urging people to resist and overthrow the Nazis.