Der Zimmerspringbrunnen

Hinrich Lobek, a former employee of the East Berlin Municipal Housing Administration for three years, senses a new beginning. The weekly horoscope from "Hallo Berlin" urges him to take initiative. Boldly, Lobek applies to a West German company that specializes in fountain decorations, and he removes the well-worn phrase "a convinced representative of the socialist order" from his old application. Instead, he writes: "Many years of experience in the sales sector." Thus begins the unstoppable rise of Hinrich Lobek to become a successful East German representative for fountain decorations, all while his working wife Julia and their somewhat unruly German Shepherd, Freitag, look on in amazement. Like a modern-day Schwejk of the sales industry, Lobek stumbles cluelessly from one success to another. With this burlesque novel about a sales representative, Sparschuh has managed to highlight all the comedic and tragic aspects of the East-West divide.