70s, West Berlin. I. Mlechina – a young journalist from Literaturnaya Gazeta; Germanist and literary critic, travels to Germany, where he meets with many West German writers, editors of famous European publications and prominent political figures. Later, the most vivid impressions from these meetings will form the basis of this book. But not only. The author devoted a significant part of her work to the study of the works of German novelists of the 20th century - G. Böll, G. Grass, A. Andersch, Z. Lenz, M. Walser, G. E. Nossack, etc., whose main motives were war and guilt, Nazism and individual responsibility, human choice, indifference and retribution. Warning about the “fatal danger” of ideas of racial superiority and the violent mechanisms of totalitarian power, “transforming a person first into a “fellow traveler” and then into an accomplice in bloody crimes,” about the catastrophic consequences of “blind faith in dogmas and utopias” and thoughtless execution of “orders,” the author comes to the conclusion that it is the duty of every person to subject to critical reflection any word or action imposed from the outside, and to make an individual decision that resists violence, which indicates a very clear and terrible parallel with modernity. The leitmotif of the book may well be the words of G. Böll: “ ...man exists not only to be controlled." Recommended reading for everyone, especially the younger generation.