On the ruins of the empire

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On the ruins of the empire is a novel by Ludwig Renn , which was first published in 1961 .

The action takes place against the backdrop of the November Revolution during the collapse of the German Empire in 1918 and in the spring of 1919 . The location of the action is predominantly Berlin . Important events referred to in the novel are the signing of the Armistice of Compiègne , the forced abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II , the appointment of the Social Democrat Friedrich Ebert as Chancellor, the proclamation of the Republic by Philipp Scheidemann and the Socialist Republic by Karl Liebknecht , Ebert's alliance with the Supreme Army Command a . v. a.

The main focus of the novel is the description of the revolutionary activities of the Spartacists under their spokesmen Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg as well as the other socialist groups: the meetings of the workers 'and soldiers' councils , the founding of the Spartakusbund and later the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), the political and military struggle of the People's Naval Division and the demonstrations and street fights in Berlin.

The event is described from the perspective of several people involved: First there is the sailor Hein, who deserted after the Kiel sailors' uprising , who finds shelter with a Berlin working class family and, after the end of the war, finds his place in the People's Navy division in the Berlin stables . The 13-year-old daughter of the family, Ilse, helps Hein and the revolutionary workers and soldiers with small messenger and reconnaissance services and is thus taken for the great cause of socialism.

Count Budislaw von der Duba is a captain in the front troops in France. He experienced the end of the war with an armistice in France, participated in the withdrawal of his regiment to Potsdam and had to watch the disintegration of the command within the German army in Berlin . His brother Gero fought in one of the notorious free corps in the Baltic States and was relocated to Berlin with his troops to reinforce the army.

The novel is in the tradition of socialist realism . He presents the events as events of the historical development that is taking place, which finds its expression in the class struggle, in the power struggles between antagonistic social groups. Stylistically, the novel is characterized by an emphatically factual and unpretentious language and thus corresponds to the stylistic ideal of New Objectivity . The narrative mode is focussed externally, so it hardly penetrates the inner world of the characters involved, but also does not provide any personal comments from a personal narrator who is above the events, but rather shows the events as a documentary like in a film.

expenditure

  • Ludwig Renn: Collected Works in Individual Editions , Vol. 7. Berlin: Aufbau-Verl., 1969.
  • Ludwig Renn: On the ruins of the empire. Berlin: Kinderbuchverl., 1961. 2nd edition 1969.