Der Überläufer (The Turncoat, 2016) waited for sixty-five years before being published, two years after the death of its author, Siegfried Lenz. The novel had been submitted to the Hoffmann und Campe publishing house as early as 1951, but its content was considered unsuitable for post-war Germany, which was attempting to rise again from the ruins of more recent history by erasing its most controversial aspects. Particularly problematic were the issues related to the double desertion of the protagonist, who betrays his German comrades at the end of World War II and then refuses to yield to the oppressive system of Soviet rule in the GDR. As a member of the Group 47, which fell under American censorship in 1967, Lenz shared the Frankfurt School’s admonition to reflect on history and individual and community responsibilities in the reconstruction of a freer and more democratic Germany, refusing to give in to the publisher’s demands and preferring, on the contrary, to forego publication.
