Anna Seghers’ novel
Überfahrt. Eine Liebesgeschichte[
Crossing: A Love Story, 1971] chronicles the life story of Ernst Triebel. Triebel left Germany for Brazil with his mother and father shortly before the so-called “Kristallnacht” (Night of the Long Knives), when the Nazis destroyed many Jewish shops, homes, and synagogues, and organized a brutal pogrom against Jews on 9 November 1938. He returned to East Germany with his father in 1946 where he studied internal medicine, a career that has situated him in the present narrative context of leaving Germany for a conference in Bahia and returning to Rostock by ship.
The title labels the book as a love story, and much of the narrative indeed devotes itself to Triebel’s childhood sweetheart Maria. Triebel relates his history with and
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Citation: Boney, Kristy. "Überfahrt: Eine Liebesgeschichte". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 August 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=19322, accessed 23 November 2024.]
