Third class express train
D-Zug third class is the second exile novel by the German writer Irmgard Keun , written in 1937 and published by Querido in Amsterdam in 1938 .
Magdalene from Godesberg , called Lenchen, finally finds the right man on a train trip with Albert from Berlin, of whom she does not have to be a bit afraid.
action
On a summer afternoon in June 1937, Lenchen and her friend Dr. med. Karl Bornwasser took the express train to Paris. In the third-class compartment, in addition to four strangers, there is also Lenchen's aunt Camilla, who is considered crazy . Lenchen is supposed to "deliver" her aunt to the Parisian relatives on behalf of her Potsdam uncle. The young woman let her uncle persuade her to take the trip because she wants to help Karl smuggle 9,000 Reichsmarks in nine notes across the border. According to German foreign exchange legislation, this export is prohibited. Karl got the money from his Berlin uncle and might want to use it to open a practice in Switzerland. The doctor is already the third man in Lenchen's life. She wasn't lucky with anyone. Karl pretends to Lenchen, is jealous on top of that, and recently threw a vase at her in Berlin. Karl and Lenchen crumpled up the money and hid it in a thermos flask filled with hot coffee. Lenchen rescheduled the train ride. She goes to the toilet with her aunt and deposits the soaking wet bills on Camilla's body under her clothes. The "living savings bank" Camilla brings the money to France. However, the aunt is checked at the border by a German officer for forbidden cash, but overcomes this hurdle brilliantly with foolish talk. Shortly before the Gare du Nord , Camilla suddenly proves to be very normal and practical. She leaves the train with her suitcases and wants to use the money to relax a little from the exhausting relatives in the south of France. Karl hurries after her. Lenchen is finally "alone" with Albert, the young man from the express train compartment. It looks like something will happen with the two of them in Paris. Albert, the first man Lenchen is not afraid of, only has a cardboard box with shriveled apples in it for all his luggage.
shape
The plot outlined above is not the essence of the book. The “short biographies” of the seven passengers in the express train compartment are more significant than that story: Berta, a 53-year-old sedate woman, is on her way to Cologne to see her brother, the executioner . The lady shows herself merciless and supports the prevailing conditions in Germany . The fat fruit seller from Cologne killed a street girl in Berlin . The older retired government councilor from Berlin is on the run from his family with 300 marks. He can no longer stand it with his wife and sister. Albert is the son of a privy councilor in Berlin and a convicted jewelry thief. Camilla got through her life in the widely ramified family, wants to distinguish herself as an inventor and, in principle, never gives back any money she has received. Karl drowns his professional failures in alcohol, and the protagonist Lenchen is constantly afraid of men.
As Blume aptly points out, fear and depression are the dominant emotions of the seven passengers in the train compartment. The reading voltage also follows from this. At the same time, Irmgard Keun's “résumés” have been juxtaposed too suddenly and the reader is amazed. Nevertheless - every incident seems believable, however outrageous it may be.
From a narrative point of view, one of the best things about the work is the unique way in which Irmgard Keun brings the seven passengers out of their anonymity one after the other. The author succeeded in doing this particularly well with the secondary characters, i.e. with Berta, Albert and the councilor. Sometimes the sentence structure is quite idiosyncratic. In at least two places in the novel, the reader has to read two consecutive nontrivial sentences again and in context in order to recognize: The second “sentence” only makes sense with the first.
reception
- By telling Lenchen's story, Irmgard Keun articulates her own “unfulfilled longing for love”.
- The humorist Keun does not have any pathos.
- The book is a showpiece of the comic . The reader experiences this directly when z. B. is told about Aunt Camilla. It is also worth studying the history of reception. Flower has z. B. found that Irmgard Keun Shakespeare and Goethe satirised .
literature
source
- Irmgard Keun : Third-class express train. Novel. Claassen Verlag, Düsseldorf 1983, ISBN 3-546-45368-9 .
Secondary literature
- Gero von Wilpert : Lexicon of world literature . Volume 1: German Authors A - Z . 4th, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-520-83704-8 , p. 331.
- Gesche Blume: Irmgard Keun. Writing in a game with modernity. (= Work on recent German literature. 23). Thelem bei web, Dresden 2005, ISBN 3-937672-38-9 . (At the same time: Dresden, Techn. Univ., Diss., 2004)