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Blood Brothers (1932) - Simon - 12-14-2025
Originally published in 1932 and banned by the Nazis one year later, Blood Brothers follows a gang of young boys bound together by unwritten rules and mutual loyalty.
Blood Brothers is the only known novel by German social worker and journalist Ernst Haffner, of whom nearly all traces were lost during the course of World War II. Told in stark, unsparing detail, Haffner’s story delves into the illicit underworld of Berlin on the eve of Hitler’s rise to power, describing how these blood brothers move from one petty crime to the next, spending their nights in underground bars and makeshift hostels, struggling together to survive the harsh realities of gang life, and finding in one another the legitimacy denied them by society.
Willi and Ludwig, our main characters, grow uncomfortable with stealing from others in the community who also have nothing, separate from the gang and try to go legitimate in another part of town. This is when the reader gets a glimpse of the wealthier parts of the city as our protagonists are picked up by a couple of wealthy gay men for the evening. After this experience, they decide they don't want to go down the road of prostitution but form a bond of mutual support outside of the gang.