Samuel Beckett’s newly published German diaries reveal that, during a six-month journey through pre-war Germany in 1936–37, he closely observed and was disturbed by the growth of Nazism. The notebooks challenge the view that the future author of Waiting for Godot was detached from contemporary politics, showing instead his private resistance to Nazi language, rituals and propaganda.

Beckett travelled through around 30 towns and cities, including Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden and Munich, principally to see art and improve his German. He recorded Nazi slogans and the prevalence of the “Hitler coat”, mocked the Nazi salute by raising the wrong arm, and predicted after seeing Hitler’s effect on crowds that Germans would “need to fight soon (or burst)”. Editors say he was necessarily cautious because the diaries could have been confiscated, while his journey also followed the deaths of his cousin Peggy Sinclair in 1933 and his father.