(CHCl=CH)3As (Levisite); oder, Der einzig gerechte Krieg : Roman by Becher
"(CHCl=CH)3As (Levisite); oder, Der einzig gerechte Krieg" by Johannes Robert Becher is a novel written in the early 20th century. It is a fierce, politically charged anti-war work that indicts German militarism and bourgeois hypocrisy after World War I, with chemical warfare as a central symbol of modern barbarism. The story follows Peter Friedjung, a young veteran whose disillusionment grows as he confronts reactionary elites and the rise of workers’ councils amid
the 1918–1919 upheavals. Expect agitational prose fused with stark, reportorial scenes of war’s aftermath and social crisis. The opening of the novel begins with a manifesto-like preface that rejects complacent readers and declares allegiance to a coming social revolution. It then moves to November 1918: bedraggled troops retreat across the Rhine, briefly lifted by “Deutschland über alles,” while Peter returns to a homeland roiled by workers’ and soldiers’ councils and his own confusion and anger. A salon “Trio” of notables reveals elite plans to preserve authority—legal tactics, covert violence, and pious rhetoric—set grotesquely against Beethoven and hushed patriot songs, deepening Peter’s disgust. At home, his mother urges him to go his own way; a flashback to his father’s role in a death-penalty case exposes long-standing moral fissures. War memories surface—gas attacks, a humane encounter with an American prisoner abruptly shot by a German NCO—and a hospital stint shows narcotics, botched care, and the ravages of gas victims, from which Peter claws back by recalling a hardy mountain childhood. A reunion with ex-classmates, now swaggering and vengeful, finally severs his faith in patriotic platitudes; he departs for Berlin as his father demands “purity” and his mother trusts his path. The next chapter opens with a coal-mine explosion at “Königin Luise,” triggering citywide panic, sirens, and a rush to the site, signaling that catastrophe and class tension will drive the story. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Read or download for free
For an overview of the different reading options, see our Reading Guide
| Reading Options | Url | Size | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read now! | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78251.html.images | 741 kB | |||
| EPUB3 (E-readers incl. Send-to-Kindle) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78251.epub3.images | 572 kB | |||
| EPUB (older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78251.epub.images | 570 kB | |||
| EPUB (no images, older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78251.epub.noimages | 550 kB | |||
| Kindle | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78251.kf8.images | 1.3 MB | |||
| older Kindles | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78251.kindle.images | 1.2 MB | |||
| Plain Text UTF-8 | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78251.txt.utf-8 | 666 kB | |||
| Download HTML (zip) | https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/78251/pg78251-h.zip | 839 kB | |||
| There may be more files related to this item. | |||||
Similar Books
About this eBook
| Author | Becher, Johannes Robert, 1891-1958 |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Heartfield, John, 1891-1968 |
| Title | (CHCl=CH)3As (Levisite); oder, Der einzig gerechte Krieg : Roman |
| Original Publication | Wien: Agis, 1926. |
| Credits | Jens Sadowski and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net. This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library. |
| Language | German |
| LoC Class | PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures |
| Subject | Imaginary wars and battles -- Fiction |
| Subject | Gases, Asphyxiating and poisonous -- War use -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 78251 |
| Release Date | Mar 20, 2026 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 354 downloads in the last 30 days. |
| Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free! | |