Der Zug war pünktlich Add a review

The Train Was on Time (German: Der Zug war pünktlich) is a novella by German author Heinrich Böll. It was published by Friedrich Middelhauve Verlag in Cologne in 1949. The book is about a German soldier, Andreas, taking a train to Przemyśl in Poland. It was translated into English by Leila Vennewitz.

The story addresses the experience of German soldiers during the Second World War on the Eastern Front, where fighting was particularly vicious and unforgiving. Böll had explored the same issue in A Soldier's Legacy, which was written in 1948 but published later. The Train Was on Time was his first published novel. Theodore Ziolkowski called it "an artistic tour de force.