The nealry fifty years between the end of World War II and the reunification of Germany represent a period of intense self-reflectionfor the German people. Emanating from the literature fo this period are the motif of sucidie and its ideation of self-destruction. An examination of the motif of suicide in novels from East and West reveals the depth of and reasons for the psychic turmoil. From the colective suicidal alienation exsperienced in both the individual alienation experienced in both the Federal REpublic oif Germany and the German Democratic Republic, the particular circumstances of suicide as depicted in each novel and uniquely German. Contents: Suicide in the German Novel 1945-49–Suicide in the Novel of the German Democratic Republic–Suicide in the Novel of the Federal Republic of Germany.