17 August 2026
Samuel Beckett’s ‘German Diaries’, which describe the Irish writer’s journey through Nazi Germany from October 1936 to March 1937, are set to be published for the first time.
Beckett’s account of his six-month stay in Hitler's Germany represents the last major unpublished text by the Nobel Prize winner in Literature.
The book, entitled German Diaries, has been edited by Professor Mark Nixon, a Beckett expert at the University of Reading, and the literary scholar Professor Oliver Lubrich at the University of Berne, and will be published by Suhrkamp Verlag in Berlin.
Professor Mark Nixon said: “Beckett’s ‘German Diaries’ have been eagerly awaited worldwide. They are extraordinary literary and historical documents that give a unique insight into the way the Nazi dictatorship affected everyday life, and in particular cultural life in Germany in 1936 and 1937.
“Beckett was an outsider looking in, and his diaries show us what it was like to witness a country changing for the worse. The publication of Beckett’s diaries shows why the fields of literature, history and humanities are of crucial importance, as they offer insights into the way we understand society today.”
The ‘German Diaries’ are the only diaries that Samuel Beckett ever kept. After Beckett’s death, his nephew found them in the cellar of his Paris apartment. They consist of six notebooks comprising 550 closely written pages.
This edition publishes this extraordinary literary and historical document in its entirety for the first time in English and a German translation, together with an extensive commentary. The volume runs to 1,352 pages and will be published on 20 August 2026 by Suhrkamp Verlag in Berlin.
Notes to editors: Professor Mark Nixon is available for interview. Contact the University of Reading Press Office on 0118 378 5757 or pressoffice@reading.ac.uk.
Title: German Diaries
28 September 1936 – 1 April 1937
In English and German. Text and commentary. Translated from the English by Gaby Hartel. Edited by Mark Nixon and Oliver Lubrich.
With illustrations
Publication date: 20 August 2026
Hardcover with dust jacket, 1,352 pages
ISBN: 978-3-518-42943-3
Suhrkamp Verlag, 1st edition
€78.00 (Germany), €80.20 (Austria), CHF 105.00 (Switzerland)
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