The cloud
Die Wolke is a youth novel by Gudrun Pausewang , published in 1987 , in which the fictional fate of 14-year-old Janna-Berta is told, who becomes a radiation victim in a reactor accident . The novel was published a year after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster .
background
Pausewang tried to show what could happen if there is a meltdown like the Chernobyl nuclear disaster would happen (1986) in West Germany. The “foreword” is an advertisement by a collective of seven people, which was originally published at the time , which deals with the consequences of the Chernobyl reactor accident and information policy and describes the resulting fears within the West German population.
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Completely unprepared, Janna-Berta and all the other students and teachers in the school were surprised by a disaster alarm triggered by a serious reactor accident at the Grafenrheinfeld nuclear power plant . Panic breaks out. Janna-Berta flees home ( Schlitz near Fulda ), where her brother Uli is the only one of the family waiting for her: The parents are in Schweinfurt and the grandparents who also live in the house are on vacation, so the two of them go are on their own. Her aunt Almut had called before Janna-Berta's arrival and advised Uli to settle in the basement of the house, which is also recommended by loudspeaker announcements from the police. When the two are just beginning to move into the cellar, their mother calls from the train station in Schweinfurt, where she and the youngest brother Kai are waiting for the evacuation. The mother urges Janna-Berta to leave Schlitz. They should go with the neighbors and then live with their aunt Helga in Hamburg for the near future.
But since all the neighbors have already left, the two of them flee with their bicycles. There is chaos on the streets, murder and manslaughter ensue. Uli dies while on the run when he falls on his bike and is run over by a car speeding by. The completely shocked Janna-Berta is brought by a family to the train station in Bad Hersfeld . There, in the chaos, she loses the family's children, whom she should take care of. Still traumatized and unable to act rationally, Janna wants to go back to her dead brother to bury him. She gets caught in radioactive rain and is taken by a group of hippies on her bus, but is dropped off at the border with the GDR . There she wanders through an avenue of lime trees, leans over a railing, vomits and collapses.
She finds herself in an improvised hospital in a school building in the border town of Herleshausen in northern Hesse, where she has to witness many more suffering and strokes of fate, including the death of a Turkish girl with whom she became friends. She learns the full extent of the disaster from TV reports and the stories of a nurse. After a while, her hair begins to fall out in response to the radiation to which she was exposed. When asked to investigate the fate of their relatives, the staff at the emergency hospital only answered evasively.
Finally, Janna-Berta herself is included in a search file so that her unloved aunt Helga, her father's sister, appears from Hamburg. Janna-Berta learns from her what has been kept secret from her up to now: The parents and her youngest brother Kai are dead. Janna-Berta's father probably died on the morning of the day of the disaster, the mother and Kai died a few days later in an emergency hospital. Only their grandparents are still alive, as they were on vacation in Mallorca when the worst-case scenario happened. However, the aunt refuses to tell them that no one of her son's family except Janna lives anymore and asks Janna-Berta to take part in this game. Helga wants to urge the grandparents to stay on Mallorca as long as possible and tell them for the time being that Janna-Berta's parents and brothers are currently being treated in special clinics, shielded from the outside world. After she has recovered somewhat, Janna-Berta can leave the hospital and Helga takes her to Hamburg with her. The area affected by the reactor disaster and evacuated was divided into three restricted zones - the innermost one around the reactor is contaminated for an indefinite period of time, the adjoining zone 2 must remain closed for decades. Only the residents of restricted zone 3 (to which Janna-Berta's hometown Schlitz belongs) will probably be allowed to return after a few months.
Outside the hospital, she learns directly of the indirect consequences of the accident, which she previously only knew from television: the prices for imported food that is not contaminated have risen sharply and the economy is on the floor; Some of the people evacuated from the contaminated area have to be forcibly housed in private apartments, but many live in emergency shelters. Above all, she is confronted with the fact that the people who can be identified by hair loss and who are obviously contaminated are avoided and nobody likes to deal with them.
The relationship between Janna-Berta and her aunt soon becomes increasingly difficult, as Helga demands discipline from Janna-Berta and shows little understanding for her niece's wishes. Like other relatives who have also found accommodation with her, she wants to return to normal as quickly as possible; instead of worrying about the girl's grief, she worries about her school grades. By chance, Janna-Berta meets Elmar, a former classmate who is also affected by the catastrophe: He has not only lost his hair but also his courage to face life, the budding friendship between the two comes to an abrupt end - Elmar takes his own life.
After spending some time with Helga, Almut, the youngest sister of her mother, who called Schlitz on the day of the disaster, visits Janna-Berta. She was a teacher and was pregnant at the time of the disaster, although she and her husband appear to have had no direct radiation damage, they had decided to have an abortion on the urgent advice of the doctors. She also tells Janna-Berta a shocking story that the government initially kept a secret, but which nevertheless became known: On the morning of the day of the disaster, the innermost restricted zone 1 around the reactor was cordoned off by the military in protective suits. Whoever wanted to leave the area was shot because the people there were so badly contaminated that they would have been a danger to others and would have had no chance of survival anyway. Janna's father was probably one of these people.
Shortly afterwards Janna-Berta leaves Hamburg and moves to Almut, her husband and his father in Wiesbaden . Despite the cramped apartment, Janna feels at home with the relatives who have also been affected by the disaster. While the aunt in Hamburg had always tried to persuade the bald-headed Janna-Berta to wear a cap, Almut also sees himself as a Hibakusha (based on the survivors of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ) and campaigns for the other radiation victims. Janna-Berta helps her. At an event organized by the victims of the disaster, Janna meets some former schoolmates and neighbors from Schlitz. She learns that several classmates have passed away and that many slashers will no longer want to return to the village if the area is unlocked. Janna-Berta also meets Lars there, a young man from Schlitz who took her with him in the car on the day of the disaster. He gets into a violent argument with his parents, formerly ardent proponents of nuclear power, who only complain about their material damage in Janna-Berta's presence and don't think that Janna-Berta has been hit much harder by the death of almost her entire family.
As soon as it is possible to get into the restricted zone 3, in which Schlitz is also located, Janna makes her way home. On the way she passes the rapeseed field where she had to leave her brother who had died in an accident. She checks to see if he's still there, and when she finds his remains, she buries him. Back at her family's house, the girl finds her unsuspecting grandparents, who have just come home from Mallorca, and hides her bald head under a cap so as not to spoil the joy of reunion. But when the grandfather immediately afterwards goes on about the "unnecessary excitement" about this "great disaster fairy tale", she takes off her hat and begins to tell the whole terrible truth.
Classification in the work of the author
The book, which emerged from the spirit of the anti-nuclear movement , wants to point out the problems and dangers of nuclear energy to young people . In her foreword, the author compares atomic energy with the dangers of National Socialism , calls for resistance against the "atomic mafia" and warns against an " ecocide " in society.
A similar book for young people by the author is The Last Children of Schewenborn, with the grim dangers of a nuclear weapons war. Both books use Schlitz, Pausewang's place of residence at the time, as a real model.
reception
The cloud appeared in February 1987. By September 1988 50,000 copies had been sold. In 2010 the sold circulation reached 1.5 million and the novel had become a school reading. In her review from 1987 Ute Blaich spoke of the “horror-generating openness of the author” and judged: “Pausewang's novel is the committed, courageous attempt to say goodbye to false dreams and illusions. It conjures up the image of the catastrophe as a healing shock for a repentance. ”18 years later, Ralf Husemann re-reviewed the book on the occasion of the admission to the SZ Junge Bibliothek ,“ which by no means only consists of death and ruin, but also interpersonal relationships and the Describes characters convincingly and touchingly. It is exciting right up to the end and - despite everything - still gives hope a chance. " Alwin Binder , on the other hand, criticized the literary conveyance of the topic:" The whole book is - if you ignore the seriousness of its topic - a piece of work in which the The narrator tries to use the most trivial narrative patterns to get the monstrous under the skin through thrills. "
In April 1988, the cloud was recommended by an independent jury as "literarily successful" for the German Youth Literature Prize. The prize was donated by the then Federal Ministry for Youth, Family, Women and Health and traditionally awarded by the responsible minister. However, there was resistance in the ruling CDU to the award for the book critical of nuclear power , and only after long public debates in which Walter Jens , Peter Härtling and jury chair Bettina Hurrelmann advocated the award did Rita Süssmuth award the award the will of one's own party.
The cloud reached the bestseller lists again in March 2011 as a result of the Fukushima nuclear disaster . Looking back on his youth in West Germany, Tilman Spreckelsen described: “Hardly any book is so deeply anchored in the collective memory of today's twenty to forty-five year olds as this one.” For Judith Liere it was a “shocking novel” that reflected the zeitgeist and that traumatized young readers. According to Ulli Tückmantel “Gudrun Pausewang preserved and increased the fear after the Chernobyl disaster. In her book there is “nothing to laugh about, there is right and wrong.” For Johannes Boie , “the morally acidic cloud […] has contaminated enough students' intellectual lives and dreams since it was published in 1987”.
When the Grafenrheinfeld nuclear power plant was shut down in 2015 , Hannes Vollmuth compared Gudrun Pausewang with a " Don Quixote who competed against nuclear power plants instead of windmills" and who ultimately saw her opponent surrender. Her "lifetime achievement" is a "survival achievement: at the age of 87 she survived a technology that was actually intended to last forever."
Prices
filming
The book was adapted in 2006 in the style of a disaster film under the direction of Gregor Schnitzler . The film adaptation also shows the emerging panic at the beginning, but later mainly focuses on the relationship between the two main characters Elmar (played by Franz Dinda ) and Hannah (played by Paula Kalenberg ). In the film, the nuclear power plant bears the fictional name Atomkraftwerk Markt Ebersberg .
Comic
A comic adaptation of the work by the German comic artist Anike Hage was published by Ravensburger Verlag in 2008 .
Dubbing
The book was also set to music as an audio book and a radio play , both versions have been shortened and partly differ from the original.
- The cloud. Abridged reading, approx. 138 min., audio book Hamburg , 2011, ISBN 978-3-86742-690-9 .
- The cloud. Radio play, approx. 48 min., Der Audio Verlag , 2012, ISBN 978-3-86231-130-9 .
Book editions
- Gudrun Pausewang: Die Wolke , Maier, Ravensburg 1987 (first edition), ISBN 3-473-35086-9 ; Ravensburger Taschenbuch 2006, ISBN 978-3-473-58240-2 ; Anniversary edition 2012, ISBN 978-3-473-54401-1 .
literature
- Alwin Binder : On the “misery of our youth literature”. Critical comments on books by Peter Härtling, Gudrun Pausewang and Janosch . In: Discussion German. 119. 1991. pp. 271-285.
- Bartholomäus Figatowski: Where a child has never been before ... - Childhood and youth images in science fiction for young readers, Bonn 2012, ISBN 978-3-929386-35-6 . Pp. 213-227.
- Birgitta Reddig-Korn: Materials for teaching practice - Gudrun Pausewang: Die Wolke Ravensburger, Ravensburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-473-98128-1 .
Web links
- Excerpt from the book on sueddeutsche.de
- As long as I live I will warn! Gudrun Pausewang on The Cloud on Spiegel Online
- Book review by Dieter Wunderlich
swell
- ↑ Inge Aicher-Scholl was responsible for this article in terms of press law .
- ↑ Not included in all editions.
- ↑ a b Waltraud Schoppe : How much courage does Ms. Süssmuth have? . In: Der Spiegel . 5th September 1988.
- ^ Heiko Schmitz: Pausewang advocates reading . In: Neuss-Grevenbroicher newspaper . November 24, 2010.
- ↑ Ute Blaich : Incident in the youth book idyll: With the clouds comes death . In: The time . February 6, 1987.
- ↑ Ralf Husemann: GAU in Grafenrheinfeld ( Memento of the original from April 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . November 17, 2005.
- ↑ Alwin Binder : On the “misery of our youth literature”. Critical comments on books by Peter Härtling, Gudrun Pausewang and Janosch . In: Discussion German. 119. 1991. pp. 271-285.
- ^ Incident at Rita Süssmuth . In: Der Spiegel . August 15, 1988.
- ↑ Young adult literature on a string or How loyal to the state must a price book be? In: The time . 2nd September 1988.
- ↑ Susan Tebbutt: How scandals arise and where they can lead: The scandal surrounding Gudrun Pausewang's anti-atomic novel “The Cloud” (1987). In: Stefan Neuhaus , Johann Holzner (Hrsg.): Literature as a scandal. Cases - functions - consequences . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-525-20855-7 , p. 562.
- ↑ Amazon bestseller list
- ↑ Market current bestseller list
- ↑ Tilman Spreckelsen: The cloud comes true: The fear-maker book of our school days . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . March 15, 2011.
- ^ Judith Liere: Educational horror show . In: Spiegel Online from February 27, 2014.
- ↑ Ulli Tückmantel: Will “The Cloud” become reality? . In: Rheinische Post . March 17, 2011, p. A3.
- ↑ Johannes Boie: Moraline. Gudrun Pausewang's “The Cloud” floats in the bestseller lists . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung of March 15, 2011.
- ↑ Hannes Vollmuth: Mrs. Cloud . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung of June 26, 2015.
