›The Father of a Murderer‹ takes place in a classroom of the Wittelsbach Gymnasium in 1920s Munich over the course of a single Greek lesson. Headmaster Himmler (the father of Heinrich Himmler) enters the classroom, apparently to observe the students' progress. However, he soon takes over the lesson himself. Himmler mercilessly tests the boys, but his real purpose is to teach a political lesson to the German youths, and through them to settle accounts with their fathers. In the venerable tradition of German school novels (Musil's ›Young Törless‹ and Heinrich Mann's ›Professor Garbage‹), this tale can be read as an account of routine academic sadism, but the essence of the story lies in the fine nuances of speech, thought, and behaviour that illustrate, in the most sophisticated way, how the rise of Hitler was possible. This chilling novel was Andersch's final work. It is considered by many to be his masterpiece.