SOURCE: Jackman, Graham. “‘Nur wo er spielt, ganz Mensch?’ Christoph Hein's Das Napoleon-Spiel.” German Quarterly (winter 1999): 17–32.

In the following essay, Jackman examines the character Wörle in Das Napoleon-Spiel, and the psychological reasons behind his obsessions.

On its appearance in 1993 Christoph Hein's novel Das Napoleon-Spiel was on the whole not well received. In part, the critics' lack of enthusiasm was the result of disappointed expectations: Hein had not produced the awaited Wende-Roman. However, this did not prevent many reviewers from reading the novel in terms of immediate post-Wende concerns: “Das Napoleon-Spiel ist eine literarische Umsetzung der deutschen Vereinigung,” wrote Helmut Böttiger.¹ A similar view was heard two years later in an essay by Ulrike Böhmel Fichera, who claims that “Der Bezug der gesamten Erzählung auf die Gegenwart ist eindeutig, programmatisch …”² She argues, as many had done before her, that the locating of the killing of...