The Tin Drum - Main Characters

Main Characters

The novel is divided into three 'books'. The main characters in each book are:

Book One:

• Oskar Matzerath - Writes his memoirs from 1952 to 1954, age 28 to 30, appearing as a zeitgeist throughout historic milestones. He is the novel's main protagonist and unreliable narrator.
• Bruno Munsterberg - Oskar's keeper, who watches him through a peep hole. He makes knot sculptures inspired by Oskar's stories.
• Anna Koljaiczek Bronski - Oskar's grandmother, conceives Oscar's mother in 1899, which is when his memoir begins.
• Joseph Koljaiczek ("Bang Bang Jop") - Oskar's grandfather.
• Agnes Koljaiczek - Kashubian Oskar's mother.
• Jan Bronski - Agnes' cousin and lover. Oskar's presumptive father. Politically sided with the Poles.
• Alfred Matzerath - Agnes' husband. Oskar's other presumptive father. Politically sided with the Nazi Party.
• Sigismund Markus - A Jewish toy store owner who commits suicide during Kristallnacht.

Book Two:

• Maria Truczinski - Girl hired by Alfred to help run his store after Agnes dies and whom Oskar has his first sexual experience with. She becomes pregnant and marries Alfred, but both Alfred and Oskar believe that they are Maria's child's father. She remains Oskar's family throughout the post-war years.
• Bebra - Runs the theatrical troupe of dwarfs which Oskar joins to escape Danzig. He is later the paraplegic owner of Oskar's record company.
• Roswitha Raguna - Bebra's mistress, then Oskar's.
• "The Dusters" - Danzig street children gang, which Oskar joins, then leads, after an abandoned factory encounter.

Book Three:

• Dorothea - A nurse from Düsseldorf and Oskar's love after Maria rejects him.
• Egon Münzer (Klepp) - Oskar's friend. Self-proclaimed communist and jazz floutist.
• Gottfried Vittlar - Traveled with and then testified against Oskar in the Ring Finger case.