In December 1932, Musil had the first part of the second book printed. In May 1933, he left Berlin, "finally simply held back by the state of Germany, which changed every day, while I became increasingly paralyzed." In Vienna, he continued to write under difficult circumstances. He hoped to "finally be able to carry through to the end," he informed his patron Klaus Pinkus in March 1934. In the spring of 1936, he even began to outline the twelve chapters of the final part of the novel. What Musil conceived between 1933 and 1936 can be regarded as the first version of the posthumous continuation; the material for the action-packed narrative had been established for ten years. These chapters differ fundamentally from the second version (1936-1942). They have not yet been published or have been published in a poorly readable form. In the present edition, they are brought together for the first time.