Work and pursuit

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Arbeit und Streben is a social novel by the German writer Holger Siemann , which was published in 2006 by the Munich publisher C. Bertelsmann . The novel is set in Görlitz on the German-Polish border in spring 2004 . The focus of the action is the Schöne family and their company, once VEB Metallverarbeitung, today "Schöne Plastik". The story is told from the perspective of family members of several generations, employees and neighbors, with flashbacks to the years of the Second World War.

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Before the fall of the Wall, grandmother Johanna Schöne ran a “slightly different” kindergarten in the family villa and since then has been putting all of her energy into restoring the villa in accordance with its heritage and status. Preparing for the re-opening party was so overwhelming that she was hit by a stroke.

Her husband Friedrich, as a former director, saved the company from being dismantled by the Russians, transformed the private company into a VEB and switched production to plastics in the 1960s. Deposed by his own employees, he has been looking for explanations for his and socialism's failure since the fall of the Wall.

Daughter Christa took the plunge into the deep end of the market economy and bought the company (back) from the trust . Difficult years followed, in which she wallowed in worries on sleepless nights and her private life fell by the wayside. Now she believes the worst is over and the company is dry. After years of being alone, she doesn't really trust her feelings for the soccer coach Kalle, who, as a dry alcoholic, grapples with his own problems.

Granddaughter or daughter Cornelia studied politics in the United States and wants to become mayor of her hometown. The time seems right: Görlitz is applying as the “ European Capital of Culture ”, the Polish-German border region faces a great future after joining the EU. Cornelia takes a proactive approach to the past and sheds light on the darkest chapter in the company's history, the forced labor camp on the company's premises during the Nazi era. However, it is clinging to the city's current political feel. Christa's brother Gerhard was an officer in the NVA and, after the fall of the Wall, made a new start in the company as his sister's partner and accountant. With adventurous financial tricks, he has circumvented cliffs and saved the company from bankruptcy more than once. The most recent speculation in stocks, however, goes completely wrong and forces him to take the oath of disclosure. The family has to accept the help of a distant relative from South Africa, Transe Eugenia, the black sheep of the family.

Marek is the company's system administrator, gay and from Poland. His invention of biodegradable computer keyboards is not recognized by the Schöne family as the great future prospect that they believe it is. Already about to quit, he falls in love with Cornelia's friend Sebastian and stays, not without further confusing the family's delicate network of relationships.

The different perspectives offer readers different interpretations of current affairs and illustrate the difficult learning processes involved in coping with the system change, which also meant “learning capitalism” for the new entrepreneurial family. Despite the supposed hero stories, the narrative is emphatically unheroic. The motto on the back of the book is "They are not hip, they are not cool, they are from the East and they are trying hard."

reception

The novel was received largely positively by the critics. Meike Schnitzler praised the Brigitte as "three generations of the beautiful lurch in a tragicomic manner through the period after the reunification". While Alexander U. Mertens in FOCUS calls the threads of the plot "dramaturgically skillful and exciting" knotted, the reviewer of New Germany criticizes that the "individual stories and episodes ... fall through the holes of a sieve". Paul Schulz, on the other hand, sums it up in the Victory Column : "A thick, wonderful, ornate book about the East as it was and has become over the past hundred years."

expenditure

Individual evidence

  1. Brigitte (magazine) 09/2006
  2. FOCUS 46/2006
  3. ^ New Germany April 13, 2007
  4. Siegessäule (magazine) 12/2006

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