of his arms and one of his legs are missing. The narrator recognizes the firemanwho was looking after him while waiting for the doctor to cometo be Mr. Birgeler, the custodian of his old school, with whom the narrator drank his milk during the breaks between classes. The story ends with the arrival of the doctor and the narrator whispering "Milk..." to Birgeler. Although the story is written in the first person past tense, it is left uncertain if the narrator survives his injuries. Title The title is directly taken from Schiller's translation of the famous Epitaph of Simonides, commemorating the heroic Battle of Thermopylae. In German, the full distich reads: Wanderer, kommst du nach Sparta, verkündige dorten, du habestUns hier liegen gesehn, wie das Gesetz es befahl." The historic context thus praises death while defending the Vaterland and had in fact therefore been specially selected to prepare the young men for war. Böll uses it to demonstrate that even the "humanities-oriented" Gymnasium had their curricula adapted to Nazi propaganda. At the same time, the German title cuts the word Sparta short to Spa..., bringing up thoughts about the municipality of Spa, Belgium, site of the German Headquarters during the previous Great War. The current World War II is thereby shown as history repeating itself. References Secondary literature Klaus Jeziorkowski: Die Ermordung der Novelle. Zu Heinrich Bölls Erzählung "Wanderer, kommst Du nach Spa..." In: Heinrich Böll. Zeitschrift der koreanischen Heinrich Böll-Gesellschaft. 1st ed. (2001), pp. 5–19. David J. Parent: Böll’s "Wanderer, kommst du nach Spa". A Reply to Schiller’s "Der Spaziergang". In: Essays in Literature 1 (1974), pp. 109–117. Albrecht Weber: "Wanderer, kommst du nach Spa...". In: Interpretationen zu Heinrich Böll verfaßt von einem Arbeitskreis. Kurzgeschichten I. 6th ed. Munich 1976, pp. 42–65. German short stories 20th-century German literature Trümmerliteratur World War II fiction