The bought exam

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The purchased exam is a radio play by Günter Eich , which was broadcast on December 20, 1950 under the direction of Fritz Schröder-Jahn in the NWDR . On March 18, 1952, the SWF brought a new production (director: Gerd Beermann ).

Forgivable sins in the struggle for survival after the war are targeted by an author who does not want to take categories such as "conscience, duty, truth and honor" lightly.

content

At the beginning of 1948 in West Germany : The high school student Fritz Weber haggles much more successfully on the black market than he is studying at high school for the upcoming high school diploma. So he wants to buy his high school diploma from his two teachers. With Dr. Balfrin he gets into business quickly. The teacher can easily be bribed for five kilograms of coffee beans, five kilograms of fat and a couple of packets of ami cigarettes. However, Dr. Martin Wolburg, the other teacher, turns out to be tough at first. However, Mrs. Luise Wolburg reproached her husband that the honorable resistance made the three children together starve. Dr. Wolburg gives in. Ten kilograms of food are the price for the delivery of information that allows Fritz Weber to pass the Abitur hurdle.

After the currency reform - nobody in the country who works has to go hungry anymore - Wolburg's conscience plagues so much that he wants to accuse himself. Balfrin, who has meanwhile been promoted to director of the grammar school, doesn't want to know anything about it. The director receives a day to think about it from his colleague Wolburg and asks Fritz Weber's mother to talk to the stubborn Wolburg. The son's ongoing studies should not be endangered. Wolburg is visited by the worried mother and after her lecture puts the woman off for the next day. With this, the audio piece ends without a solution, according to Günter Eich's will. The listener has to find the end himself.

The producing broadcaster nevertheless managed to let the listener choose between three solutions. Eich's version, which was finally delivered with reluctance and displeasure, is said to have been the latter below. The first two solutions are from other authors.

  • Wolburg presses Balfrin to report in writing to the superior authority.
  • Wolburg listens to his director Balfrin and his wife Luise. History fizzles out. Wolburg wants to wash his conscience clean. Doing good in silence is the motto.
  • Wolburg commits suicide.

Original broadcast

December 20, 1950 on NWDR, directed by Fritz Schröder-Jahn . It spoke Gerd Martienzen Fritz Weber, Hans Paetsch the Balfrin, Eduard Marks the Wolburg, Annemarie Schradiek the woman Wolburg and Lotte Klein 's wife Weber (Fritz's mother).

Self-testimony

On February 21, 1950 in a letter to Erhard Göpel : "The radio play for Munich is finished - in my opinion, completely unsuccessful."

reception

  • In 1949, Günter Eich freely processed bribes that had become known during diploma exams at the University of Hamburg.
  • The author deals with the "post-war reality".
  • Details and references to reviews of the audio piece can be found at Wagner.

literature

Used edition

  • Günter Eich: The Bought Exam (1950). P. 269–302 in: Karl Karst (Ed.): Günter Eich. The radio plays I. in: Collected works in four volumes. Revised edition. Volume II . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1991, without ISBN

Secondary literature

  • Michael Oppermann: Inner and outer reality in Günter Eich's radio play. Diss. University of Hamburg 1989, Reinhard Fischer publishing house, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-88927-070-0
  • Wilfried Barner (ed.): History of German literature. Volume 12: History of German Literature from 1945 to the Present . CH Beck, Munich 1994,
    ISBN 3-406-38660-1
  • Hans-Ulrich Wagner: Günter Eich and the radio. Essay and documentation. Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam 1999, ISBN 3-932981-46-4 (publications of the German Broadcasting Archive ; Vol. 27)
  • Axel Vieregg: Game and seriousness with Günter Eich. On the history of a tension field In: Peter Walther (Ed.): Günter Eich 1907–1972. After the end of the biography. Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-931836-40-1 , pp. 75-89.

annotation

  1. ↑ The work was written on behalf of Bayerischer Rundfunk, but not produced there (Wagner, p. 225, left column, 4th Zvo).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edition used, p. 798, first entry
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 798, 22. Zvo
  3. ↑ Barner, p. 94, 5. Zvo
  4. ↑ Edition used, p. 798, 22. Zvo
  5. ↑ Edition used, p. 300 above
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 301 above
  7. ↑ Edition used, p. 302
  8. ↑ Wagner, p. 223, right column, 7th Zvu
  9. ^ Günter Eich, quoted in Vieregg, p. 77, 15. Zvo
  10. ↑ Edition used, p. 798, 4th Zvo
  11. ↑ Oppermann, p. 28, 4. Zvo
  12. ↑ Wagner, p. 224, bottom right column: "Commentary" and p. 226, bottom left column: "Literature".