The Novel “On Call: A Report on the Epidemic” by Hans Erich Nossack from 1973: A Dystrophic World Similar to the Coronavirus Pandemic Almost 50 Years Later

The German author Hans Erich Nossack (1901–1977) wrote the novel “On Call: A Report on the Epidemic” four years before his death. This fascinating novel has yet to be translated into English. It depicts a bleak future in which a mysterious global epidemic erupts. The focus is on an unnamed first-person narrator, a chemist in a so-called on-call unit. His task is to recover the numerous bodies left behind by the epidemic. In a matter-of-fact, almost emotionless tone, he reconstructs the course of the catastrophe in retrospect. The disease is an anomaly: it is a kind of ‘suicide epidemic’ in which people apparently die or take their own lives for no apparent reason. The reasons for this remain unclear, intensifying uncertainty and a sense of helplessness within society. The novel describes in great detail fundamental changes in individual psychology and global society, revealing striking parallels nearly 50 years later during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. This paper seeks to compare the suicide pandemic described in the novel with today’s COVID-19 pandemic. To the best of my knowledge, this association has not been previously described. Similarities between the novel and the pandemic will be analysed. Nevertheless, there are also fundamental differences between the novel’s plot and the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, some basic information about the author Nossack (a rather complex personality), likely not well-known to non-German-speaking readers, will be provided. The goal of this contribution is to familiarise non-German-speaking readers with this novel and its author. Finally, I will briefly mention Aaron Antonovsky’s concept of salutogenesis, which focuses on building resilience, resources, and supportive environments to manage disease. Nossack’s “Bereitschaftsdienst” anticipates key questions in salutogenesis—particularly the importance of finding meaning, comprehensibility, and coping strategies in the face of existential threats—but explores them within a far darker and more sceptical framework.