I should perhaps note here that in the German text of the novel, Otto’s ‘properly’, Eva’s ‘self-respect’ and Reichhardt’s ‘decently’ are all expressed by the adjective-cum-adverb ‘anständig’, which refers primarily to what is ‘decent’ or done ‘decently’ in a moral sense, and moreover that ‘anständig’ and its related forms are key words in many of Fallada’s novels.
