The novel 'Kaiserwetter' was the narrative debut of the Hanoverian author Karl Jakob Hirsch (1892-1952), who had previously emerged as an essayist and expressionist poet, but was primarily known as a draftsman, graphic artist, and set designer. In his novel, largely set in the Prussian provincial capital of Hanover, he provides a vivid retrospective portrayal of the waning Wilhelmine era, where, despite all outward splendor and glory, the 'crackling in the beams' cannot be ignored – and the partly politely concealed, partly openly demonstrated anti-Semitism is impossible to overlook. At the center of this immensely character-rich book, composed according to the principle of 'juxtaposition,' are two Hanoverian families – that of the petty-bourgeois German nationalist postmaster Emanuel Tölle and.