Becher, Johannes Robert
"(CHCl=CH)3As (Levisite); oder, Der einzig gerechte Krieg" by Johannes Robert Becher is a novel written in the early 20th century. It is a fierce, politically charged anti-war work that indicts German militarism and bourgeois hypocrisy after World War I, with chemical warfare as a central symbol of modern barbarism. The story follows Peter Friedjung, a young veteran whose disillusionment grows as he confronts reactionary elites and the rise of workers’ councils amid the 1918–1919 upheavals. Expect agitational prose fused with stark, reportorial scenes of war’s aftermath and social crisis.The opening of the novel begins with a manifesto-like preface that rejects complacent readers and declares allegiance to a coming social revolution. It then moves to November 1918: bedraggled troops retreat across the Rhine, briefly lifted by “Deutschland über alles,” while Peter returns to a homeland roiled by workers’ and soldiers’ councils and his own confusion and anger. A salon “Trio” of notables reveals elite plans to preserve authority—legal tactics, covert violence, and pious rhetoric—set grotesquely against Beethoven and hushed patriot songs, deepening Peter’s disgust. At home, his mother urges him to go his own way; a flashback to his father’s role in a death-penalty case exposes long-standing moral fissures. War memories surface—gas attacks, a humane encounter with an American prisoner abruptly shot by a German NCO—and a hospital stint shows narcotics, botched care, and the ravages…
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