 In the first part of the trilogy , Knopp is depressed and will look for a wife . He visits his old friends and their wives who he finds in unenviable relationships . Still not convinced that the life of a bachelor is one for him , he returns home , and without further <unk> proposes to his housekeeper . The following marriage proposal is , according to Busch biographer Joseph Kraus , one of the shortest in the history of German literature : 
