"Views of a clown" was published for the first time in 1967, even though
society has changed superficially until today, the
basic principle Heinrich Böll demanded from it has yet to be fulfilled:
Honesty. This honesty is portrayed by the clown Hans, who is left by his girlfriend Marie because he doesn't want to have a civil marriage and doesn't want to raise their future kids strictly Catholic. Hans was a great clown until he was left by the devout Marie. He becomes an alcoholic and a beggar. He undignifiedly begs his family, his friends, people who know him, he criticizes the stupidity of our
society, the belief in flowery phrases made especially by Catholics and Chrstians. In the end of the novel, Hans, now a busker, is sitting at the Bonn train station and is waiting for Marie to return from her honeymoon.