‘Ein Mann seiner Zeit’ by Roswitha Quadflieg

In August 2020, a month before his 75th birthday, Paul Gärtner is reliant on a wheelchair and outpatient nursing care, following a severe cancer diagnosis, gruelling chemotherapy, and additional health issues. Confined to his home due to the COVID-19 pandemic—where he remains throughout the entire novel—, he begins documenting his life story on an audio recorder. Gärtner recounts his difficult childhood in post-war Germany, his formation through the 68er movement, his studies to become an educator, and his professional journey, which led him to establish several facilities for young people with challenging backgrounds in Germany and Portugal. His life story, which is also marked by multiple marriages and an alluded-to pederastic relationship as a teenager with a man 40 years older than him, is consistently intertwined with pivotal moments in German and global history. Gärtner is portrayed as a nonconformist with a strong sense of justice, for whom freedom and autonomy have always been central values. A key theme of his later life is his advocacy for the right to ‘self-determined dying.’ Gärtner is certain that, should the cancer return, he will not want to endure the burden of chemotherapy again and plans to take his own life. To this end, he fights alongside his lawyer for legal access to sodium pentobarbital—a drug that is only legal in Germany for veterinary use—for all those wishing to end their lives, pushing for a change in the Narcotics Act. He criticises politicians, the medical profession, churches, and the pharmaceutical industry, which, in his view, deny people this right due to outdated attitudes and/or economic interests. Half a year later, Gärtner’s health improves noticeably; he is able to walk again, regains his independence, and terminates the nursing service. At the end of the novel—after another six months have passed—five years have elapsed since the onset of his cancer, statistically increasing the chance of a disease-free final phase of life. Gärtner has settled his affairs in Germany and is going to emigrate to the Cape Verdean Island of Boa Vista, having the sodium pentobarbital prepared for ‘Day X.’ In a brief epilogue, he does not disclose how he obtained the medication and, in light of the ongoing debate, predicts that it will be a long time before legal access for those wishing to die is granted.

Ein Mann seiner Zeit was published within the liberal legal context in Germany that has existed since the landmark ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court on February 26, 2020. In this ruling, the Court overturned the 2015 legal ban on repeated assisted suicide, which had prevented doctors and organisations from assisting individuals in ending their lives, declaring the ban unconstitutional. Quadflieg’s novel makes this legal backdrop explicit from the outset by placing an excerpt from the first section of the judgment’s headnotes before the main text. The novel then supports the sentiment of the judgement through its contents and narrative. In line with the Court’s decision, Gärtner views the right to suicide as a fundamental expression of personal freedom and autonomy for everyone, regardless of health status (as is suggested in his situation, where ‘Day X’ can refer not only to the recurrence of cancer but also to when he no longer sees meaning in life). Gärtner’s fight to obtain sodium pentobarbital for the purpose of assisted suicide is inspired by real-life cases of plaintiffs who, like him, have been denied by the courts. He argues that since it is legal for individuals to seek help in ending their lives at a time of their choosing, it follows that they should also be provided with the means to die safely through appropriate medication. Through the surname of the main character, the novel also makes an intertextual connection to Ferdinand von Schirach’s widely debated 2020 play and film Gott, whose protagonist Richard Gärtner similarly advocates for the right to assisted suicide. Paul Gärtner continues this fight within the realm of fiction, so to speak, echoing Schirach’s argument that the right and facilitation of making decisions about one’s own life should be an inherent part of an enlightened society. Quadflieg’s novel has been well-received by advocacy groups in Germany and Switzerland. The German Society for Humane Dying, for which Quadflieg serves as an ambassador, reviewed the novel favourably in its member magazine and organised a reading with the author. The Swiss assisted suicide organisation Exit Deutsche Schweiz also positively reviewed the novel in its member magazine.