Bucking man

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Gabriele Wohmann (1992)

Bucklicht Männlein is a short story by Gabriele Wohmann that appeared in 1983 in the short story collection The Shortest Day of the Year at Luchterhand in Darmstadt .

The little story reminds us: "Don't forget to pray in the cozy bed in the evening before you go to sleep!"

content

Venice is not the right place for Arno, think his parents. He is allowed to spend the holidays with Aunt Patrizia - called Pat - again. When Arno's mother calls her sister Pat - a painter - about the matter, the twelve-year-old boy overhears and is happy.

However, the joy of the visit is not always on Pat's side. Because Arno is like the hunchbacked little man. Pat's friend, an American , asks who the hunchback is. One, he gets the answer, who is always there wherever you go.

Arno, who overhears this, is offended. How can he make it clear to his aunt that there is a difference between him and the hunchbacked man? When it comes to going to bed, the boy is waiting for his aunt in Pat's bedroom and after a while thinks: How improper!

When the aunt is falling asleep, she bumps into a cigarette case under the covers. It says on a piece of paper in Arno's handwriting: “Bet for the humpbacked man!” Pat stands up again, goes into the nephew's bedroom and kisses the boy on the cheek.

Literary references

The narrative takes the title and the quote at the end with respect to the children's song The hunchback dwarf from the collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1808).

literature

First edition

  • Gabriele Wohmann: The shortest day of the year. Narratives . 144 pages. Luchterhand, Darmstadt 1983, ISBN 978-3-472-61531-6

Used edition

  • Gabriele Wohmann: Bucklicht men. Stories. 151 pages. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1984, without ISBN (still contains: Two women in the mirror. The best friend is in heaven. Five to twelve . The glory of life. Frida's friend. Great love. White cardigans. On the ferry. Still water are deep. The illusion. On the sunny side. Penalty postage. That's it then. Infectious diseases. The mean misery. No future )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Magirius, p. 23
  2. ↑ http://www.zeno.org/nid/20004470567
  3. ↑ Tobias Widmaier: If I want to go to my garden (The hunchbacked little man) (2008). In: Popular and Traditional Songs. Historical-critical song lexicon of the German Folk Song Archive