The novel follows the principles of the naturalist movement in its detailed portraying of the life of Thiel, a good decent and humble railway signalman.

The novel relies on symbolic and impressionist techniques and goes beyond the scientific naturalist approach to explore and portray Thiel's inner life with its many complex interaction of suppressed social, psychological, and religious impulses.

Thiel was first published in German as "Bahnwärter Thiel" or "Signalman Thiel".