Feuchtwanger, a German Jew[1] who was already well known for his criticism of the NSDAP, that year was stripped of his citizenship, his property in Berlin was seized, his works were included in the lists of "Un-German" literature that was burned in May, and he was forever banned from publishing in the newly established Third Reich.

According to Maik Grote, this happened because when the novel was about to be printed, Feuchtwanger's brother received a threatening letter, in which a professor whose name was also Oppermann, also an SA leader, wrote that there had never been a Jewish family with that surname, and that he could prove that by his genealogy which goes back to the 13th century.

The main characters are his grandson Gustav Oppermann, a writer who is working on a biography of Gotthold Lessing, and his brothers Martin - owner of the family furniture business - and Edgar - a well-known doctor.

While the Nazis are quickly establishing their dictatorship, many Germans that do not share their views, as well as some Jews, insist that things will eventually turn around and thus prefer to wait passively or ignore what is happening around them.

Meanwhile, Martin's 17-year-old son Berthold is expelled from his soccer club despite his talent for the sport, and in class, he is abused by a Nazi teacher for refusing to express his loyalty to the new regime - eventually leading to his suicide.

Gustav decides to leave Germany and move to Switzerland, but later comes back under a false passport to become an anti-Nazi political activist and to document Nazi crimes.

[3] Fred T. March wrote in 1934 in The New York Times that the novel "is addressed to the German people, who will not be allowed to read it, urging them to open their eyes.

"[2] In 1983, Frederick S. Roffman said of the novel in The New York Times that since Hitler's rise to power, no other "historical or fictional work has more tellingly or insightfully depicted the relentless disintegration of German humanism.

"[6] In 2018, Deutsche Welle placed the book in their "100 German Must-Reads" list and wrote that today it is "considered one of the most important literary works documenting the downfall of a democracy" and became "Feutchwanger's most recognized novel".

[3]In contrast to Paul's essay, Gal Beckerman wrote in The Atlantic in December 2022: "Feuchtwanger himself doesn't seem to be offering a template for how democracy dies.