Written between 1949 and 1951, The Angel was Silent is Böll's first novel set in post-war Germany. It begins on May 8, 1945, the day of the capitulation, and leads into the middle of the ruined landscape of a German city. Perhaps that was the reason why the manuscript, which had been waiting for publication for a year, did not appear after all. The publishing house at the time took the change in public taste into account: they no longer wanted to be reminded of the misery of the immediate past.