The muzzle

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The Muzzle is a comedic novel by Heinrich Spoerl published in 1936 .

action

The story takes place in a Rhenish town during the imperial era. The sovereign is said to have given a speech about which nothing can be found in the newspaper. Soon the rumors about the content increase. The emperor is said to have ranted about the eternal complainers and quoted Goethe - which quote is not known exactly. At the regulars' table, at which the public prosecutor Treskow also sits, the citizens are indignant about it when they consume plenty of wine. The next morning, the sovereign's monument wears a muzzle .

The case is transferred to the hungover public prosecutor von Treskow; is determined for lese majesty. Soon there is a witness in the young painter Rabanus who observed the crime. To an officer he gives an exact description of the perpetrator, which he turns into the opposite towards von Treskow and to whom he later no longer wants to make any statements. Because none other than the public prosecutor personally had been busy with the memorial that night while drunk. The public prosecutor's family has long since understood this fact and has covered the tracks - and Rabanus falls in love with von Treskow's daughter Trude. The prosecutor has no idea of ​​this and continues to search for the perpetrator. The reward for relevant information is increased from 300 to 3000 Marks and suddenly the day laborers Bätes and Wimm call in. Bätes be the perpetrator and Wimm the witness for it - but both are only after the reward they want to share.

Although von Treskow now suspects that he could be the perpetrator himself, he sets a court hearing in which the defendant Bätes in particular becomes entangled in contradictions and denies the offense for fear of a long prison sentence. When Rabanus is questioned again at the beginning about his strange testimony, he constructs a possible case: What if the perpetrator in a drunkenness had not been aware that he was denigrating the monument to the father of the country? Bätes takes up this hint and thinks that he thought the monument was a statue of Goethe. For gross mischief, he is therefore only sentenced to a small fine, which he has already served with his pre-trial detention. Rabanus can now finally openly confess his love for Trude. In the end it also turns out that the father of the country was very amused by the farce because he never gave the speech that so outraged the residents.

Film adaptations

Heinrich Spoerl's novel has been filmed several times. In the first film adaptation from 1938 , Ralph Arthur Roberts took over the main role of the prosecutor von Treskow. Supporting roles included Will Quadflieg as Rabanus and Paul Henckels and Ludwig Schmitz as Wimm and Bätes. Directed by Erich Engel . In the remake by Wolfgang Staudte from 1958, OE Hasse played the leading role. Further film adaptations for television appeared in 1963 (director: Hans Quest ), 1979 (director: Karl Wesseler ) with Willy Millowitsch and 1997 (director: Erich Neureuther ).

The novel was also dramatized as a play.

expenditure

  • First edition: Neff, Berlin 1936.
  • In: Heinrich Spoerl's Collected Works. R. Piper & Co., Munich 1963, pp. 293-399.
  • Paperback: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-423-00299-9 .