SOURCE: "The Short Stories of Heinrich Böll," in Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. 3, No. 1, Fall, 1965-66, pp. 89-103.

In the following essay, Baacke provides a thematic analysis of Böll's short fiction.

The principal theme of Böll's short stories up until approximately 1951 is the war. Only very rarely, however, does he show actual fighting; his stories take place in areas where the battle has not yet begun or has just ended: at the station where soldiers board a train for the front; in the dugout or infirmary where the wounded prepare to die. That the narrator is himself involved is shown most clearly by his usually appearing as "Ich." He not only portrays the horror but takes part in it himself. In the story "Wiedersehen mit Drüng," he awakens critically wounded "in einer niedrigen Bauernstube, deren Decke wie der Deckel eines Grabes aus grünem...