After the Revolution: Hans Marchwitza, The Kumiaks

Already largely completed when Hans Marchwitza crossed into Switzerland in March 1933,Die Kumiakswas rewritten over the next months to reflect the extent of the fascist catastrophe in Germany.¹ Following the KPD line, Marchwitza expected Hitler’s rule to quickly topple and give way to a renewed revolutionary wave.² As the regime consolidated, Marchwitza’s book became more ambitious in its scope. Marchwitza’s letters to the International Union of Revolutionary Writers in Moscow in 1933 bemoan the situation of political exiles in Switzerland and provide updates on the progress of the novel, which he initially expected to complete in September but