Stig Dagerman (1923–1954) was an author of novels, plays, poems, and short stories, and a beloved figure for an entire generation of Scandinavians. His novels "The Snake" (1945) and "Island of the Doomed" (1946) established the young writer as a significant figure in Swedish literature.

However, Dagerman also worked throughout his life as a journalist, creating articles, reports, reviews, and topical poems for the syndicalist newspaper "Worker." In 1946, the newspaper "Expressen" invited Dagerman to travel to Germany and write travel notes about the country's post-war life. These notes generated such interest that they were published as a separate book in 1947.

This edition is supplemented with several programmatic texts by Stig Dagerman from the wartime and post-war periods.