All in vain
The last novel by Walter Kempowski , published in 2006, is all for nothing .
Subject
The story takes place mainly on the von Globig family estate in East Prussia in January 1945, shortly before the Red Army marched in and the flight and expulsion began . The novel describes how very different people deal with the impending danger of an approaching enemy army and how the external circumstances of hardship and threat affect the relationships between people according to their characters.
action
Katharina von Globig live on the estate with her twelve-year-old son Peter and an older relative of her husband, called "Auntie". Her husband Eberhardt is an officer in Italy and works behind the front in the military administration. The household also includes three foreign workers : the Pole Vladimir and the Ukrainians Vera and Sonja.
While Katharina lives dreamy and withdrawn in her own room, reading and making paper cuttings, Auntie takes care of the household. Peter is supported by the retired college teacher Dr. Wagner, who platonically adores the landlady, but otherwise thinks more of young men. Peter plays in his tree house and is released from service in the Hitler Youth because of frequent colds . Opposite the manor is a new settlement in which Oberwart Drygalski is keeping order on behalf of the NSDAP . He observes the Globig family suspiciously because they show him too little Nazi sentiment.
As the front draws closer and closer, the road that leads past the Hofgut gradually revives with refugees. More and more often strangers stop by the von Globigs and ask for food and accommodation for one night: a dodgy business man who describes himself as an economist; a violinist who plays in hospitals for wounded soldiers; a painter who advises his auntie to take down her picture of Hitler; a Baltic baron and his wife and a village school teacher with his family. The thunder of the guns and the red firelight from the approaching front became ever clearer. In the meantime, there are not only individual travelers on the way, but a trek of covered wagons pulls across the country road, people who want to get to safety from the Russians. The von Globigs have also prepared their field wagon and coach for the escape, but they still want to wait and cannot leave without Drygalski's permission.
One day Pastor Brahms asks Katharina to hide a man with her for one night. For motives which she herself cannot understand, possibly to give her meaningless and monotonous existence a meaning, she goes into it without knowing anything more precise about the man. The man, a Jew on the run, secretly sleeps with her and leaves her the next day. However, he is captured and Katharina arrested the following day.
The aunty then decides to join the refugee trek with the whole household and leave Katharina behind. She and Peter drive with the carriage, Vladimir and Vera follow her in the field wagon, on which the belongings and the groceries are stowed. When Vladimir and Vera disappeared in the field truck the next morning, the auntie reports to the nearest police station. Shortly afterwards, the aunty is killed in a low-flying attack.
The end of the novel is told from the personal perspective of Peter, who continues on foot alone and looks to Dr. Wagner meets, whom he joins, but who is run over by a truck. Vladimir and Vera's bodies are hanging on a tree. They were hanged for looting. When a column of prisoners is led by, Peter takes a closer look to see whether his mother could be among them. However, he does not see her even though she is in the group, and the reader learns that he will never see her again. Finally, Peter and the other refugees reach the lagoon , from where they want to escape to Denmark. But there are no more ships for the crossing. On the last launch that casts off is Drygalski, whom Peter had always been hostile to. At the last moment, Drygalski jumps ashore and leaves his place to Peter, who sets off into the unknown.
reception
- “This book shows that literature can do something that historians cannot.” Andreas Isenschmid , Neue Zürcher Zeitung
- “(...) Walter Kempowski has once again achieved the almost impossible, the almost never successful: a completely convincing historical novel." Gustav Seibt , Süddeutsche Zeitung
expenditure
- First edition: Albrecht Knaus Verlag , Munich 2006
- Paperback edition: btb Verlag , Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-442-73756-7
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cover text of the btb paperback edition