The German Lesson

　　在易北河的一座孤島上，少年西吉被關在感化院的單人囚室裡罰寫作文，題目是〈履行職責的快樂〉。這個題目讓西吉回憶起父親（德國最北邊一個偏僻小農村的警察）盡忠職守、履行職責的一段往事。

　　二次大戰期間，他的父親受命監控一位世界知名畫家的言行，並禁止他作畫。儘管這位畫家是他們親近的好朋友、曾經救過他父親的性命，但他父親仍然選擇盡忠職守，甚至還要當時才十歲的西吉也幫忙監視畫家，但西吉同情這位畫家，主動把這些畫藏起來。戰後，對於畫家的禁令都解除了，但他父親仍堅持繼續監視畫家。

　　警察父親的偏執，使西吉得了恐懼症，而他偷藏畫作的行為，也終於被父親發現，把他當作難以管教的少年犯送進感化院。西吉在感化院中，不斷回憶起往事，作文越寫越多，甚至不願跨出囚室。他希望能一直寫下去，繼續體會履行職責的快樂……

　　藍茨在書中鋪陳出一段宛如成長小說的心路歷程，審視瘋狂時代中被扭曲的人性、對立的父子關係，並分析批判了長久以來被視為德意志最高品質的「履行職責」思想。《德語課》是藍茨的成名作，名列世界50大小說，也是德國中學生的指定讀物、每本德國文學史認定必讀的經典。
　　In writing this novel, one of the major works of German fiction to appear since the Second World War, Siegfried Lenz has written, 'I was trying to find out where the joys of duty could lead a people.' His exploration is a disturbing triumph. Siggi Jepsen, the protagonist, is embroiled in the conflict between the totalitarian Nazi government and a creative artist. As a young boy he watched his father, constable of the northernmost police station in Germany, doggedly carry out orders from Berlin to stop a well-known Expressionist, their neighbour, from painting and to seize all his 'degenerate' work. Soon Siggi is hiding the paintings to keep them safe from his father. Against the great brooding landscape of the Danish borderland, Siggi recounts the clash of father and son, of duty and personal loyalty in wartime Germany.

　　'The German Lesson has the virtue of being a novel about the War and about persecution which deliberately avoids violence and obvious horrors. To this . . . are added the . . . merits of lucidity, elegance, a brilliant organizing skill.' The Sunday Times

　　'Visually the wary folk and bitter landscape of the Danish borderland comes over as potently as Grass's East Prussia.' The Guardian

　　'The timeless conflict . . . ''duty'' versus individual conscience and morality is given bizarre, complex form in Lenz's powerful tale. . . Mordantly witty, despairing, impassioned, this is one of the most deeply imagined and thought-provoking novels from Germany in years.' Library Journal

　　'The German Lesson marks a double triumph - a book of rare depth and brilliance, to begin with, presented in an English version that succeeds against improbable odds in conveying the full power of the original.' Ernst Pawel, The New York Times Book Review

　　'The German Lesson is, quite simply, the book I have been waiting ever since the end of World War 11 for a German to write. 'Kaye Boyle

　　'A remarkable, earnest and important novel. Lenz moves toward realizing new dimensions and perspectives on the German sensibility that must contribute to our eventual understanding of the madness of the times.' Robert K. Morris, The Nation

　　'If ever the Third Reich was pictured in microcosm, with its prejudices against people not rooted in the land, and its tiny spasms of nationalistic fervour that added up to an irrational howl in final sum, then Lenz has done it . . . has surpassed it.' Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times