Hans Fallada's novel "Kleiner Mann - was nun?" was published in 1932. The consequences of the global economic crisis at the time, such as high unemployment, poverty, loss of values and political disorientation, are described using the example of clerk Johannes Pinneberg and his wife Emma, known as Lämmchen. The story takes place between 1930 and 1932 and is set in the small town of Ducherow on the Baltic Sea and Berlin.
Part 1 shows the history up to Berlin:
When Lämmchen and Pinneberg find out that they are expecting a child, they decide to get married. Happily in love, they prepare for a life in modest circumstances. The white-collar worker Pinneberg is not welcome in the working-class family from which Lämmchen comes; he has no contact with his mother, Mia, a life-lady in Berlin.
After the wedding, the couple moved into a furnished room outside Ducherow. In a letter to Pinneberg's mother, Lämmchen introduces herself as her daughter-in-law. Pinneberg tries to conceal his marriage in the village. His boss, the grain merchant Kleinholz, wants to set him up with his daughter Marie. When Kleinholz catches Pinneberg and Lämmchen in flagrante delicto, he fires his accountant. Mia lures the couple to Berlin with the prospect of work.
Fallada's 1932 novel explores the possibilities of solidarity and individual happiness in the face of a society dominated by economic constraints.