The German lesson
Siegfried Lenz
 Siggi Jepsen (the first-person narrator), an inmate of a juvenile detention center, is forced to write an essay themed The Joy of Duty. In the essay, Siggi Jepsen describes his youth in Nazi Germany where his father, the "most northerly police officer in Germany" does his duty, even as his task is to debar an old childhood friend, the painter Max Nansen, from his profession. Siggi feels compelled by Nansen's paintings, "the green faces, the Mongol eyes, these deformed bodies ... " and, without the knowledge of his father, manages to hide some of the confiscated paintings. Following the end of WWII, Jepsen is interned for a short time and later reinstalled into his position. When his father then nonetheless continues to carry out his former orders, Siggi brings paintings that he believes to be in danger to safety. His father discovers his doings and dutifully turns him in for art theft. While forced to write the essay on "The Joy of Duty" during his term in the juvenile detention center in Hamburg, the memories of his childhood come to the surface and he goes far beyond the "duty" of writing his essay by filling several notebooks, the makings of this novel. * Siggi Jepsen * Jens Ole Jepsen : Siggi's father, a police officer * Max Nansen : a painter, pursued by the Nazis, whom Lenz based on the expressionist painter Emil Nolde * Gudrun Jepsen : Siggi's mother * Klaas : Siggi's brother * Hilke : Siggi's sister