Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Goodbye to Berlin, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Friendship
Storytelling
Antisemitism in Germany
Money as Security
Decadence
Summary
Analysis
Sometime after he returns to Berlin, Christopher goes to visit Otto’s family, the Nowaks. Frau Nowak, Otto’s mother, answers the door. Christopher asks after her lungs, as she has been unwell. The purpose of Christopher’s visit was to ask if Frau Nowak knows of any cheap rooms. Otto comes into the room asking about dinner. His mother criticizes his laziness. When Otto sees Christopher, he greets him warmly. Christopher asks Otto to come look for a room with him. After speaking privately with his mother, Otto asks Christopher if he would like to board with his family.
In the first scene featuring the Nowaks, Christopher establishes the central struggles and conflicts within their family: Frau Nowak’s declining health, and Otto’s argument with his mother over his life choices. The Nowaks live in poverty, and Christopher’s choice to move into their two-room attic apartment demonstrates his financial desperation, too.
Themes
Christopher moves in with the Nowaks. Aside from Otto and Frau Nowak, the family consists of Otto’s father, Herr Nowak; his 12-year-old sister, Grete; and his 20-year-old brother, Lothar. They have dinner to celebrate Christopher’s moving in. The Nowak household is a chaotic environment, full of fighting. Much of this conflict comes from the Nowak parents comparing Otto to Lothar, whom they view as more hardworking and a better son. Herr Nowak, often drunk, enjoys talking to Christopher about his beliefs and time in the army. When Lothar joins them for dinner, he is quiet and businesslike. Christopher learns that he is involved in a Nazi group.
Though Otto and Peter could not be more different in personality, Otto’s conflict with his family reveals a similar alienation from his upbringing that Peter also experienced in his own life. Otto’s contrast in personality and lifestyle from his brother Lothar hints at the fact that Nazism had the power to divide families. Furthermore, Lothar’s serious and hardworking personality found a home in Nazism, which promoted rigid social and labor structures.
Themes
Christopher spends his afternoons giving English lessons and his mornings with Otto. Otto tells him about his struggles within his family. He feels that his family does not understand him and does not want him around. He shows Christopher his collection of photographs and letters from his suitors, both women and men. Christopher asks him if he is in touch with Peter. In response, Otto asks him to never mention Peter’s name again. He says that Peter hurt him very much by leaving him.
Though the reader does not know much about Christopher’s upbringing, it would not be far off to assume (based on his friendships with outsiders and decision to live his life in Berlin) that he himself feels like an outsider from his family and upbringing. Furthermore, Otto’s collection of admirers mirrors Sally’s, with both characters constantly seeking validation, financial security, and pleasure from lovers. Also similarly to Sally, Otto stretches the truth (both to Christopher and to himself) about his history: though Otto was the one who left Peter, he has clearly rewritten the events in his own mind to believe that Peter is the one who left him.
Themes
Once in a while, a nurse comes to see Frau Nowak. She disapproves of the Nowaks’ living conditions: the entire family is crowded into a couple of attic rooms. The housing inspector also tells Frau Nowak that the living conditions are unacceptable, though the Nowaks are unable to do anything to change them. Another frequent visitor is a Jewish tailor, to whom the whole neighborhood owes money. Christopher notes that he allows people to buy more clothes on credit, even when they have not paid their outstanding views. When discussing Hitler, Frau Nowak insists that their neighborhood would never turn on the Jews.
Though the Nowaks’ living conditions are actively harming Frau Nowak’s health, they are unable to afford anything better. Their poverty reminds the reader of the economic devastation that hyperinflation inflicted on Germans in the 1930s. Frau Nowak’s denial of the rising antisemitism in Germany provides the knowledge that many average Berliners at the time disregarded or did not recognize the signs of what was to come in German history, underestimating the historical impact of antisemitism.
Themes
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Every night, Otto goes out dancing. He spends hours getting ready, picking out just the right outfit. Christopher also goes out. He often spends his time at the Alexander Casino, a dive bar where he meets interesting characters. One of these characters is Pieps, a teenage boy who has travelled Europe by himself after fleeing his abusive father. Pieps lives with his two friends Gerhardt and Kurt, who often fight with each other. Upon returning to the Nowaks’ apartment, Christopher reflects on the poor conditions and says that sleeping at the Nowaks is like “sleeping out in the jungle alone.”
Otto continues to chase the decadent nightlife culture of Berlin. Meanwhile Christopher continues to spend his time meeting Berliners and observing the culture around him. His comparison of the Nowaks’ apartment to the jungle hints at the idea that poverty creates an uncivilized, difficult environment to live within, and thus affects human behavior.
Themes
Christopher describes one specific Sunday at the Nowak apartment. On that day, everyone is stuck inside due to inclement weather. As Christopher tries to work on his novel, the Nowak family fights around him. As per usual, Frau Nowak criticizes Otto for not being like his more industrious brother, and they get into a massive fight. By dinnertime, though, all is well, and the family laughs together.
As Christopher writes through the conflict all around him in the Nowak household, he mirrors his mission to write through the fraught political and economic conditions of Berlin. The Nowaks’ constant fighting shows that strife is the norm for a family struggling with poverty.
Themes
Frau Nowak’s health worsens, and she consults doctors. As she and Otto continue to fight, he tells Christopher that he fears he will have a nervous breakdown. Christopher’s patience with the Nowak household wears thin, and he spends his evenings at the Alexander Casino with Pieps, Kurt, and Gerhardt, who amuse themselves by imitating the pretentious foreigners that come in on the weekends. Eventually, the doctors decide that Frau Nowak must spend time at a sanatorium to heal.
As Frau Nowak’s physical health worsens as a result of their poor living conditions, Otto’s mental health follows suit. Though Christopher has tolerated the chaos thus far, his frustration shows that the conditions of the Nowak household are unsustainable for himself and the members of the Nowak family.
Themes
After the doctors prescribe time in the sanatorium to Frau Nowak, Christopher leaves the Nowak household. Otto begs Christopher to take him with him as his servant. Frau Nowak begins cooking Christopher’s farewell meal. She fights with Otto, who storms out of the room. When Christopher goes to check on him, he finds that Otto has slashed his wrist with a razor blade. Christopher is frustrated with him, but he comforts him.
As Frau Nowak leaves the apartment for the sanatorium, she marks the final moment of the dissolution of the Nowak family at the hands of poverty. Otto’s self-harm is a physical expression of his frustration at his lack of mobility and poor living conditions. It also calls Peter’s struggle with mental health to mind, suggesting that maybe Peter and Otto have more in common than was obviously apparent.
Themes
One day, after Frau Nowak goes to the sanatorium, Christopher drops in on the Nowak apartment. He reflects to himself that he cannot believe he ever lived in such poor conditions. There, he finds only Herr Nowak and Grete about to light the Christmas tree. They are giddy in a way that seems unstable to Christopher, singing and laughing uncontrollably. A little while later, Otto calls on Christopher. Otto asks him to accompany him on a visit to Frau Nowak. Otto is wearing a fancy new suit, which one of his girlfriends bought him.
With the loss of Frau Nowak as a homemaker to the sanatorium, Grete and Herr Nowak succumb to the madness that poor conditions can bring unto those living within them. By contrast, Otto seems to have improved mentally and financially with the dissolution of his family, continuing to seek out wealth through his lovers with some success.
Themes
When Christopher and Otto arrive at the sanatorium, Otto and Frau Nowak greet each other excitedly. Christopher notices that she looks years younger. Frau Nowak introduces Otto and Christopher to her roommates, 35-year-old Erna and 18-year-old Erika. Christopher notes the dynamic of the women, whom he thinks act like overgrown schoolgirls. While Frau Nowak rests after lunch, Erna and Erika show Otto and Christopher around the facility. They have a snowball fight and laugh. Erna tells Christopher that she’s not really a consumptive, like Frau Nowak—she just needed a bit of looking after. She also tells him that as soon as she leaves the sanatorium, she will divorce her abusive husband and marry a new one.
Christopher’s observation that the dynamic of the women is similar to that of overgrown schoolgirls speaks to the idea that institutions can infantilize women. Erna’s history with her abusive husband calls to attention the violence that many women experience in a patriarchal society. Even though Erna has the power to divorce her husband, her plan after that is to find a new husband: in this way, she depends on men for her livelihood.
Themes
After tea, they all dance in the ward. As Frau Nowak talks about her childhood, Erna kisses Christopher. Christopher has the sensation that he is living in a dream. He hears Otto and Erika scuffling and giggling on the other bed. A few minutes later, the bus arrives to take Otto and Christopher back into the city. Frau Nowak and Otto have a tearful goodbye during which Frau Nowak struggles against the arms of the nuns. Frau Nowak tells Christopher to write to her, even if it’s only a postcard. As the bus pulls away, Christopher has the sudden fear that the patients will attack the bus. However, the bus drives peacefully back to the city.
Christopher’s kiss with Erna is the only moment in the novel in which he experiences sexual or romantic contact with anybody. However, the fact that Christopher feels as though the kiss is part of a dream separates it from his true self and desires, signaling that it is not what Christopher (who is assumedly gay) really wants. Christopher’s fear as the bus pulls away speaks to the lack of stability of the patients in the sanatorium.
Themes
