Work (Thorsten Nagelschmidt)

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Arbeit is a novel by the German writer Thorsten Nagelschmidt from 2020. It tells in initially loosely connected and later artfully interwoven episodes from the (work) life of around a dozen main and numerous secondary characters, condensed into the space around the Kreuzberger Schlesisches Tor and the night of March 18-19, 2022. The socially realistic work is “the first great Berlin novel of the 21st century” from the perspective of the Süddeutsche Zeitung .

Schlesisches Tor in Berlin-Kreuzberg , where many threads of action cross

intention

For Nagelschmidt, the reason for writing this book was his wish to fill an empty space in the stories about Berlin, which is also internationally celebrated as a party metropolis . What he was missing so far was a picture of the people who work there, especially at night. His focus was not on those who are looking for the nocturnal limelight, such as DJs and club operators, but rather on those who “graze the nightlife” and who work more out of social constraints at this time, such as taxi drivers, paramedics, deposit collectors, dealers , etc. - and then studied their professions or activities even more intensively than before.

characters

The novel portrays at least eleven main characters; one or two can be added. Assuming 13, six are female and seven are male. Their ages are between 16 and 60. Two of them have a GDR past; very few are “real” Berliners . Usually you only get to know them by their first or nickname ; what they do is (see title) more important in each case; Here the list in the order in which they appear in the novel: taxi drivers, drug dealers I Fahrradkurierin, Notfallsanitäterin , students Späti saleswoman, drug dealers II, police officer (and their accompanying colleague), Hostel -Vizechef, deposit collector, doorman ( City cleaning workers).

Two "types" dominate the female main characters. On the one hand, there are young “power women” who are in their early / mid-twenties at the beginning of their adult and professional life and who appear determined, committed, idealistic and energetic at the same time. The novel introduces no fewer than three of this “type”: the policewoman who was relocated to a hot spot area; the paramedic who catches up with her Abitur during the day in order to be able to realize her dream job - a doctor; the Colombian bicycle courier of a delivery service who, under the pressure of having to finance studies and living, does not take sick leave. The other “type” is the woman from a “good home” who is at least a generation older, who has climbed the social ladder to do something meaningful and one of them, after working in her less lucrative second-hand bookshop , at night Collects empties - and the other, almost around the clock, robs herself in her Späti. Finally, the sixth woman appears like an alternative to the five others, as she has what they consistently lack: children and a partner with whom she lives in a committed relationship. Is it just because it looks more stable? Her portrait is by far the shortest, her job in the morning cleaning of the city is certainly the least stressful.

Of the seven main male characters, there are only two with children. They are separated from their partner temporarily (bouncer) or permanently (policeman), but unanimously emphasize how important active fatherhood was or is for them. They also appear overall more stable than their peers. There is something in common with a negative sign between the taxi driver and the hostel deputy boss (one from the East, the other from the West): They quarrel with their "fate", feel like " loser ", the permanent comparison with the ( Success) It hurts rich people. The comparison also reveals a contradiction, namely where "two do the same", supposedly. Nagelschmidt deliberately created it in the two drug dealers who, from his point of view, “couldn't be more different”: One is a German, himself a club-goer and only responsible for himself, who sells party drugs to friends and acquaintances from the protected area of ​​his private apartment ; the other, a black African from Guinea , who came to Germany via the escape route on behalf of his family, but does not get a work permit and, in order to at least make ends meet, risks daily losing his residence permit by going to a public park Tried to get "parcel" to the man.

authenticity

Nagelschmidt designed the last and centrally placed chapter on the Guinean refugee to be formally different from the rest. While there he always dresses his story in a fiction familiar to the novelist, here he creates distance. In this chapter too, he presents the reader with the story he researched, but at the same time makes him aware of how he got it. With the very first sentence he puts in the mouth of the speaker (“Just tell him what he wants to hear”), he undermines the common expectation that a story will be delivered that is “ authentic ”. He then maintains this distance established at the beginning in the following ten-page second sentence, which repeatedly reminds the reader of the conversation situation, until the end. On a formal level, says Nagelschmidt, one could read the chapter as a comment on the authenticity claim of the socially realistic literature, which he himself strives for.

For his novel, Nagelschmidt did intensive research, (re) read numerous Berlin books, worked undercover for a month in a Kreuzberg hostel and interviewed people from the relevant professional groups, some several times. A thorough fact check by experts on the subject was also important to him. He worked on the book for a total of three and a half years. He would not attribute it to documentary literature. He feels like a "participating observer". From this attitude his kind of socially realistic literature springs. That the portraits of figures, in characteristic style and habit , as act as authentic at all possible, is extremely important to him. In the case of a drug dealer who (like him) has come to Berlin from West Germany, this is naturally easier for him than with a Colombian bicycle courier; With a refugee from Guinea he definitely comes up against his limits - and wants to make them recognizable.

subjects

Work sounds like the title of a sociology book. But it is clearly a novel. It is equally clear that the issues around which it revolves do concern core issues of work. Nagelschmidt himself names two topics in interviews. One is the question of whether a job makes sense. In this context, he refers to David Graeber's Bullshit Jobs , in which people have their say who say that the world is no worse off if it didn't exist, maybe even better. Most of his characters wouldn't say that about their work, says Nagelschmidt. The best example is his late- night saleswoman, who fled such a senseless job, even at the cost of social decline. This text passage is also indicative of the self-image, the “we” feeling (not all, but certainly more than one) of his characters: “The people who rule this city are now all nice at home, thinks [the paramedic ], just us are left, we and the sick, the broken, the helpless and the simulators , we are now on our own and have to somehow manage it, together. "

The second topic immediately makes sense, especially in view of this quote. As a connecting element in his individual portraits, according to Nagelschmidt, it emerged that many of his characters " developed a social worker feeling apart from their actual work ". This is certainly true for most of the main female characters, but on closer inspection also for the majority of the male characters. The bouncer represents principles that are certainly important for social peace (one should not also humiliate those who are rejected); the arrogant policeman maintains contacts with ex-offenders and encourages his young colleague to show moral courage; the German drug dealer ensures order in the apartment of one of his customers; The hostel deputy boss, who is by no means sympathetic, proves in a decision-making situation that he feels and acts socially, although he has previously denied this several times.

A meaningful job, plus the good feeling of being needed by other people - is that the essence of work ? The headline of the Süddeutsche Zeitung seems to confirm this: "Thorsten Nagelschmidt's novel 'Arbeit' sings a polyphonic hymn to the working people of Berlin's nightlife." However, social romanticism is just as far removed from the author as black painting. The best example of this is his late-night saleswoman. Asked by the policewoman to calm down, she starts: “How, what, CALM DOWN! I'm so fed up with it! It was the sixth attack in two years, and it's always those little pashas ! ”What follows is an angry speech that has it all and that alone is suitable to prevent the possible suspicion that the novel romanticizes work allow.

Soho House Berlin , a building with a very eventful history

Leitmotif

“She only heard about the major fire last night at breakfast in the canteen,” says the final chapter. “A hotel in Mitte, huge things, not much left and dozens of injuries.” This fire is already mentioned conspicuously often in the previous chapters; always only as a marginal note, but in its leitmotif repetition can be interpreted as a sign of a threat. The hotel is specifically named: Soho House Berlin . It shouldn't have burned first either: "First the Cuvrycampus, then the East Side Mall and now that - you are slowly wondering who is lighting the fire, who is gradually burning the city down," muses the taxi driver.

Can the leitmotif determine which night the novel is set on? The research shows that fires have indeed been reported from all three buildings in recent years. But not in the same order. And the fire in Soho House Berlin was far less severe than described in the novel. Above all, however, the historical incident - in the late morning of October 26, 2016, a Wednesday - does not fit in several points (time of day, day of the week, month) with what the novel says at the beginning.

Action time

The first page of the novel comes up with precise times: “It's Friday evening, shortly after six, the sun has just set. In twelve hours it will rise again at exactly 6:12. Today the night will be as long as the day. […] The day after tomorrow is the official beginning of spring. ”What is missing is the year. If you check for which the data fits, you will not find anything in the recent past. However, in the near future. In relation to the main location of the action, Berlin-Kreuzberg , all times are exactly correct in 2022. The novel is set on the night of March 18-19, 2022. Against this background, the fire in Soho House Berlin is revealed in a different way - than fiction .

Locations

In the course of the twelve-hour night numerous streets, squares and public buildings are passed, some several times. Since most of these are business trips, it is only natural that many of them are named. In addition to these actually existing places, there are also those that have a name in the text but are fictional. These are the Späti , the hostel and the club. These are important starting points for the naturally lively nightlife of a big city.

  • Späti in Berlin

  • Hostel in Kreuzberg

  • Club in Kreuzberg

shape

The most noticeable structural feature of the novel is the regular alternation between short and longer chapters. Each of the ten long chapters focuses on one main character (the one about the police rather two). Nine short chapters belong to the taxi driver, the last - and the novel - the city cleaning clerk. The figure of the taxi driver seems to stand out somewhat; According to Nagelschmidt, the reason for structuring the text was rather that he thought it would be more reader-friendly to be able to connect to something familiar in at least every second chapter.

The entry into the long chapters happens, like in a hard film editing , usually completely suddenly, sometimes right in the middle of the direct speech of a hitherto unknown character. An opening sentence like “Chief Inspector Thomas Schüngelmann directs the car past the cars waiting for green to the intersection”, which suggests an authorial narrator, is the absolute exception. Nagelschmidt's preferred narrative perspective is that of the “camera eye”. Regardless of whether he uses the he / she or the first person or chooses the inner monologue , in each case he takes the view of the respective main character.

Nevertheless, you get to know most of them from a different perspective. This is because those who seem to have to resign after a long chapter often get a second or third appearance. At first this is rather the exception, but quite obvious. The further the novel progresses, the more often characters believed lost reappear - and the more refined they are hidden. Discovering them is a big part of the readership of work .

Influences

Nagelschmidt expressly acknowledges the "great influence" that the New York novel Manhattan Transfer by John Dos Passos had on him. Especially at the beginning of his work, he “copied” a lot from him, for example with regard to the large number of figures and their sometimes surprising disappearance. He was also inspired by newer French literature - especially in comparison to German-language literature, in which class questions are hardly touched - such as that of Virginie Despentes ( The Life of Vernon Subutex ), Didier Eribon , Édouard Louis , Annie Ernaux or Nicolas Mathieu . The criticism, in turn, draws attention to various literary references in the works , including Alfred Döblin ( Berlin Alexanderplatz ), Rolf Dieter Brinkmann ( Westwärts ) or Rainald Goetz ( Rave ). Large cinema templates are also mentioned, such as Short Cuts , Trainspotting and Night on Earth . In one case it is even said that while reading work , one can already see the expected film.

reception

“Thorsten Nagelschmidt succeeds in something that is rare,” says Ulrich Rüdenauer . “On the one hand, he takes the prevailing clichés seriously, on the other hand, he repeatedly subverts them with his stories. One never has the feeling that the collected material would overwhelm the plot. It's the small details, the changing, often rough sounds that make his novel something special. [...] With all heroes in progress there is that tension between self-realization longing and disillusionment, hedonistic impulse and exhausted realism . […] Nagelschmidt's characters […] all have a face, a story, a shape. Now that Berlin is slumbering in Corona and we can pause, this wonderful novel shows us all the more clearly who can keep a big city going - not just in normal times. "

expenditure

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Patrick Bauer : Coming down? Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 17, 2020, accessed on June 13, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Sally-Charell Delin: Literature in conversation. Thorsten Nagelschmidt: "Work". SR2 Kulturradio , May 6, 2020, accessed on June 13, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Thorsten Nagelschmidt: Work . S. Fischer , Frankfurt am Main, 2020, p. 171.
  4. ^ A b c d Jens Uthoff: You have to be able to afford partying. Interview with Thorsten Nagelschmidt. Taz , May 10, 2020, accessed June 13, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Thorsten Nagelschmidt: Work . S. Fischer , Frankfurt am Main, 2020, pp. 104/105.
  6. ↑ Thorsten Nagelschmidt: Work . S. Fischer , Frankfurt am Main, 2020, p. 186.
  7. ↑ Thorsten Nagelschmidt: Work . S. Fischer , Frankfurt am Main, 2020, p. 331.
  8. ↑ Thorsten Nagelschmidt: Work . S. Fischer , Frankfurt am Main, 2020, p. 144.
  9. ↑ Thorsten Nagelschmidt: Work . S. Fischer , Frankfurt am Main, 2020, p. 9.
  10. ↑ Thorsten Nagelschmidt: Work . S. Fischer , Frankfurt am Main, 2020, p. 183.
  11. ↑ a b c Ulrich Rüdenauer : Book of the week. Thorsten Nagelschmidt: "Work". SWR2 , May 10, 2020, accessed June 13, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Elke Schlinsog: The shark tank called life. DLF Kultur , May 7, 2020, accessed on June 13, 2020 .