The strange friend

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The Foreign Friend is a novella by Christoph Hein , which was published in the GDR in 1982 and appeared in the Federal Republic in 1983 as the Dragon's Blood due to the title protection .

main characters

Claudia, the protagonist of the novella, is a rather cold-blooded and distant doctor in her late 30s. She lives in Berlin, loves to photograph landscapes in her free time and has few social contacts.

Henry, Claudia's neighbor and “foreign friend”, is an architect for nuclear power plants. He has a wife and two children, from whom he lives separately.

content

The novella is a first-person narration. It is about the single doctor Claudia, who feels strong alienation in her life in the GDR. She often appears apathetic and disinterested in the social circumstances. It describes the time with her neighbor Henry. The relationship between the two, however, remains distant and cool, a "foreign friendship". But it is precisely this circumstance that triggers a pleasant confidentiality in her and so the relationship between them, by their means, becomes very intimate. The book documents a profound self-denial. Claudia is inwardly consumed by problems and fears, but cannot admit this to other people or to herself, but hides behind the mask of numbness. Claudia's alienation from life is also symbolized by her passion for photography, as she only photographs inanimate subjects such as ruins or landscapes. In the 9th chapter, which describes Claudia's journey to her hometown G., the reasons for Claudia's principle of life of "foreign friendship" become clear. As a child, she loved her best friend Katharina unconditionally. The friendship broke up and Claudia could never again love someone like that, for fear of being abandoned again. For this reason, her later marriage to Hinner, a Berlin surgeon, failed. In the last chapter, in the presence of the narrative, Claudia breaks out for a brief moment and admits that she will die of longing for Katharina. But already in the next sentence she asserts "I'm fine". In truth, however, she only tries to suppress and cover up her loneliness and resignation through this affirmation.

title

Dragon's Blood , the title of the issue in the Federal Republic of Germany, comes from a metaphor from the last chapter. Claudia's insensitivity towards other people is described as a resistant "protective cover" made of dragon blood (probably based on the famous legend ).

literature

  • Hein, Christoph: The strange friend. Construction Publishing House: Berlin and Weimar 1982. (first edition)
  • Hein, Christoph: Dragon blood. Luchterhand Verlag: Darmstadt and Neuwied 1983. (155 pages) (First edition in the Federal Republic of Germany)
  • Bernhardt, Rüdiger: Christoph Hein - The Strange Friend / Dragon's Blood. King's explanations and materials (vol. 439), Hollfeld: Bange Verlag 2006. ISBN 978-3-8044-1824-0

Audio book

  • The Stranger Friend / Dragon's Blood , unabridged author reading, 322 min. 1 mp3 CD / Saarländischer Rundfunk / Der Audio Verlag, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86231-713-4