While Thomas Mann covered four generations of a German bourgeois family from the 1830s to the 1870s in Buddenbrooks, Gabriele Tergit (1894-1982) did the same for a Jewish industrial family from the 1870s to the 1940s. After reading it, I find it hard to believe the novel receives so little attention nowadays: it is nothing short of a masterpiece.

The Effinger and Oppner families are set against the backdrop of German history, spanning from the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War to the rise of the Nazis and the Second World War. Mathias Effinger is the last in a line of watchmakers in a Bavarian village where time seems to stand still, despite the unification of the German Empire. His eldest son emigrates to England, fascinated by its industrialisation, while two others head to Berlin. An interesting scene depicts his son Paul attempting to invest his money in Bavaria, only to be sidelined by the local nobility, who are resistant to change. The author then shifts focus to the capital, where the new generations try to make their fortune against the backdrop of historic events such as the tensions in Tsarist Russia and the Balkans, the First World War, the Spanish flu, the formation of the Weimar Republic, the Great Depression, and finally, the rise of National Socialism. Over the course of events, ideas about socialism, feminism, and antisemitism take hold of society.

Tergit offers much to reflect on. While her protagonists are thoroughly German, moving along with the currents of time, she brilliantly captures how society gradually forces them to identify as Jewish. The novel features some excellent dialogues, and I enjoyed the author’s focus on philosophy in the second half. Many other books came to mind while reading: The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig, especially in Tergit’s observations of societal changes after the First World War; The Origins Of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt, who describes antisemitism so well; The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischwili, due to the emphasis on family relationships; and The Seventh Cross by Anna Seghers, as Tergit also chooses the perspective of ordinary citizens. Tergit, in turn, seems drawn to the theatre, with particular references to Henrik Ibsen and Alexandre Dumas fils (The Lady of the Camellias).

A downside of the novel – and perhaps an inherent aspect of the genre – is that some sections can be a bit tedious. The Dutch translation also contains several annoying errors.