Thirty-six hours
Thirty-six hours, the story of Miss Pollinger is a novel by Ödön von Horváth . Completed in 1928 but only published posthumously , the socially critical novel, like many other works by v. Horváths the situation of the impoverished population of Germany in the world economic crisis .
Emergence
From 1927 Ödön von Horváth worked on the "Spießer-Prose", from which Der etwige Spießer 1930 emerged. In 1927/1928 he wrote the “Novel of a Waitress”, in 1929 he completed “Thirty-six Hours”. In 1929 he signed a contract with the Propylaen publishing house about the publication, which however did not materialize. Together with another unpublished novel "Mr. Kobler Becomes Pan-European", the concept of which was completely left in a notebook, both were processed in "The Eternal Spitcher".
action
The story is told from the perspective of Agnes Pollinger, who meets Eugen Reithofer in the first chapter of the book at the social welfare office. Reithofer is an impoverished waiter from Austria who, before the First World War , dreamed of earning enough money by working in an African hotel to be able to afford his own small hotel. The two finally spend the following afternoon and half the night together, talking, getting closer and making an appointment for the next afternoon to go to the Oberwiesenfeld .
In the second chapter, Kastner puts her aunt's tenant in contact with an artist AML for whom she is supposed to pose naked. There she met the butcher's son and amateur ice hockey player Harry Priegler, with whom she took a car trip to Lake Starnberg . While eating together in a nearby café, Harry decides to "approach her" in a dark alley on the way back and, if she doesn't participate, to expose her there. Even though she gives in to his urge and has sex with him, he feels like she is not getting involved as requested and throws her out of his car. From there she has to walk back to Munich, but on the way falls asleep on a bench in a forest at night.
Eugen Reithofer, transferred by Fraulein Pollinger, waits a long time for her and finally walks through the stations that Agnes also visited that morning: her apartment, the antiquarian bookshop in which her aunt works, and finally the studio in which they pose should. Finally he goes to a café where he meets a widow of his comrade who is now working as a prostitute and hears from the pianist that he could find a job for a seamstress. He accepts the offer, goes to Agnes Pollinger's house the next morning, who is arriving at home at the time, and explains the situation to her. She accepts with pleasure.
In addition to this plot, the fates of people who Agnes Pollinger or Eugen Reithofer meet or who are connected to them are repeatedly described. What these accounts have in common is that they tell of an unhappy life in poverty and desperation, and they are also permeated by critical observations of the economic and social system as well as religion.
expenditure
- Ödön von Horvath: Viennese edition of all works , Volume 14.1, edited by Klaus Kastberger , Berlin, New York 2010.
- Ödön von Horváth: 36 hours. The story of Miss Pollinger . Read by Ulrich Tukur . 2 CDs, Tacheles / Roof Music, 2005, 118 minutes
Web links
- Wolfgang Schneider: Likeable losers. Ödön von Horvath's "36 Hours" as an audio book . Review by Deutschlandradio Kultur , December 2, 2005