The funeral (short story)

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The funeral is a short story by the German writer Wolfdietrich Schnurre . It was written in the immediate post-war period after the Second World War and first appeared in 1948 in the February issue of Ja magazine . Young generation newspaper . In 1960 Schnurre added a revised version to the prose collection One should be against . The Burial also has a significance for the history of literature as the first text to be read at a meeting of the group 47 writers' association .

The short story describes the burial of God , whose death receives hardly any attention in the world and is indifferently commented on by people. Even the priest knows little what to do with the name of the deceased, and the funeral is attended by the few people present without sympathy. The funeral is a typical example of rubble literature and magical realism .

content

The doorbell interrupts the manual work of a nameless narrator, but nobody is at the door. He only hears a voice and finds a letter that smells of incense and in which there is an obituary : “ Loved by no one, hated by no one, died today after long suffering endured with heavenly patience: God. "

Despite his wife's suspicion that he just wanted to play skat, the narrator, unsurprised, makes his way to St. Zebedee's cemetery, where the burial is to take place that night. The people he meets on the way react indifferently to the news. The newspapers do not report either, only the obituary is printed on the last page of an advertising paper. Not even the name of the deceased tells the pastor something that he remembers as “Klott or God or something like that”.

In addition to the narrator and the pastor, there are only two grave diggers, a smock wearer reminiscent of a street sweeper, two war returnees and the inspector. The funeral takes place in the pouring rain under the illumination of carbide lamps and general indifference. There is even an incident in which the dead person falls out of the coffin. After the first few words, the pastor broke off the funeral speech amid the busyness of the gravedigger. After they have all thrown damp clay into the open grave, they are already thinking of the amusements of the following night. At the cemetery fence the narrator finds God's obituary again; the pastor limps when he leaves.

shape

The short story The Funeral begins with an abrupt introduction; there are no introductory descriptions. Any linguistic embellishment is also dispensed with in the further course; the story makes use of "an absolutely unpretentious language that is closely approximated to everyday life", as Schnurre himself programmatically formulated in the 1950s. The sentences are simple, formed from colloquial language , often consist of incomplete ellipses and are arranged paratactically . The numerous line breaks in the printed image create a textual staccato and a fragmentary impression. The tense of the present tense ensures the immediacy of the narrative as do the written phrases of the spoken language . The narrative style hides all emotions behind a sober and factual notation, often without any verb.

Manfred Durzak saw the short story in a very formal way, as is typical of Schnurre's texts. He contrasts the emphatically naturalistic style with “pseudometaphyical” elements, contrasts the striking with the inexplicable and the surreal . The naturalistic jargon of the characters determines not only the dialogues, but also the speech of the first-person narrator . In the obituary notice, a meaningful statement disappears behind linguistic clichés . The satirical game with the romantic expectations of the reader repeatedly evokes comedy . Mathias Adelhoefer spoke of a “realistic- grotesque ” short story. In the post-war years, in which literary pathos often prevailed, it was precisely the casualness and boldness of tone that had the effect of provocation.

interpretation

Heinz Ludwig Arnold summarized: "Schnurre describes here in allegorical form the loss of faith without the - worn out - word 'faith' being used." God was forsaken by people who, before the existential problems of survival in the Standing after the war, no longer finding space for faith. Heinz Friedrich put it: “God has lost the people who forgot everything that made them human.” According to Iris Bauer, the suffering of the previous war had already destroyed people's hope and faith: “If God does not prevent this suffering then - according to Schnurres balance sheet - this god can confidently be buried. "

Günter Helmes emphasized that people never doubt the existence of God, but their reactions to the report of his death range from ignorance, indifference, malice, compassion to the surprised “Nanu; Today? ”The only one who feels obliged by the news to at least attend the funeral remains the narrator. After all, he is so stuck in tradition that he recognizes God as an authority and is amazed at the low response that his death news triggers among passers-by and in the media. In contrast, the other figures have fallen out of tradition. They are characterized by a lack of drive, orientation and personal identity, are like the policeman "in the fog" and are only oriented towards superficialities such as money, amusement and spectacle.

Over the whole scene there is a mood of desolation and lovelessness, which is shown again and again in the behavior of people towards one another. The large number of military references that stretch from the street names to the tenements and are expressed in the tone of command of the gravedigger is also striking . They demonstrate how much post-war society is still determined by the past war. While people's everyday lives seem damaged, the only thing working at high pressure is a factory that produces nitrogen compounds . It is not stated whether this is a question of fertilizers - as a sign of civil construction - or explosives - as a sign of renewed destruction. Within the text, in which the characters only pursue short-term self-interest, nobody is interested in the production of the factory. On the other hand, according to Helmes, this question touches the reader all the more, since it sets the course for the future in an uprooted post-war society in which beliefs and convictions have been lost.

The story offered no consolation for Manfred Durzak, but there was also no displeasure against the pastor, who was even allowed to carry the coffin: the earthly representative of God was just as little loved as hated. In contrast, Jürgen Engler perceived a special criticism of the church as an institution in his description, an allusion to the devil's foot in the pastor's final limp. But it also stands in a figurative sense for the limp of all traditional values. For Manfred Karnick, The Burial consisted of a double deception of the reader's expectation: neither did the death of God trigger horror or triumph in people - depending on their point of view - nor was it presented in a tone of horror or triumph. Schnurre took up motifs of Friedrich Nietzsche with nothing, the rule of night and the grave diggers who bury God, but translated them into completely unpathetic literature: "Not the belated declaration of God, but its complete insignificance is the contemporary teaching."

History of origin

In a conversation with Karl-Josef Kuschel , Schnurre gave information about his atheism, which had grown during World War II : “The gas stoves in the concentration camps prove to me that God is powerless.” After the experiences of the war, where “rejoicing over every summer battlefield in Russia the larks rose ”, he had wanted to take revenge on God,“ to avenge his disinterest. Logically, in one of my first stories after the war I made tabula rasa and spontaneously carried 'God' to the grave. "

The burial took place in 1945 or 1946. According to Schnurre, he wrote the story "at night on an upside-down crib", with revisions resulting in a total of twelve to thirteen different versions. Günter Helmes suspected the influences of Schnurre's arguments with Manfred Hausmann on the subject of guilt and responsibility during the Third Reich and with Walter Kolbenhoff , who convinced Schnurre of the need to exert social influence as a writer.

In Ilse Schneider-Lengyel's house, Schnurre read The Funeral to Group 47 .

On September 6th and 7th, 1947, Hans Werner Richter invited a total of 16 writers, including Wolfdietrich Schnurre, to a meeting at the Bannwaldsee near Füssen in Ilse Schneider-Lengyel's house . An editorial and working meeting was planned for the journal Der Skorpion, which was to be founded . In fact, the meeting gave birth to Group 47 , which in the following 20 years shaped the literary development in the Federal Republic of Germany. The first author to read from the manuscripts he had brought with him was Schnurre, who read his short story The Burial . Richter then called for people to speak, and that form of open and directly expressed group criticism of the text read out spontaneously emerged that shaped the later meetings of the writers' association.

Von Schnurre had originally planned the funeral for a print in the Neue Zeitung , but this did not take place. Hans Werner Richter reported that " Erich Kästner liked the story very much, but it was rejected as too nihilistic by all other sources ." This was the first time it was published in the February issue of Ja. Young generation newspaper published in 1948. The editors preceded the text with a statement in defense of it: “With the present work, which has also provoked heated debates in the editors, Wolfdietrich Schnurre undertakes to use an extreme example to illustrate the desperation of this time. His story is not a negation, but a literary attempt to shake up the readers. "

reception

Schnurre's short story was first publicly received in a report on the first meeting of Group 47 . The verdict read: “His short story The Burial of the Dear God , written in concise language, is based on reality and at the same time made transparent through the metaphysical chain. A work of importance, perhaps a textbook example of magical realism. ”According to Heinz Ludwig Arnold, the funeral was next to Günter Eich's inventory “ the showpiece of the early Gruppe 47 literature program ”and characteristic of the clear-cut literature after the Second World War, a realistic and committed writing against the false pathos of the time of National Socialism . Heinz Friedrich saw the story as “one of the most shocking testimonies to that zero hour of the first post-war years in Germany.” For René Wintzen, Das Funeral marked “the beginnings of new German literature” after 1945.

However, the public did not always respond with understanding. At a first public reading by the group members in Jugenheim in April 1948 , large parts of the audience left the hall during Schnurres funeral . Toni Richter explained: “Most of the listeners expected something constructive and non-binding from poetry.” Georg Hensel recognized a “deeper misunderstanding. They sensed cynicism where there was no cynicism. They believed God offended when someone testified, shouted out how God was offended and how he was offended. They left just then when they should have stayed. " The Neue Zeitung described:" The story breathes black grief; she is a capriccio of hopelessness. The majority of the audience, touched by the seriousness and the unspoken moral demands of the young author, applauded, but some, visibly hurt in their religious feelings, left the hall in protest. ”Schnurre even accused Schnurre of blasphemy .

The reaction was different at a reading in the Berlin Consistory in 1947 before Protestant pastors. Schnurre described: “A confessional canal broke out afterwards. Each of the ecclesiastical gentlemen wanted to be complicit in the passing of my dummy. Nobody had the thought (underlying the story) that the cause of this god's death was probably his insignificance. ”In a letter he explained to a schoolgirl:“ Haven't people often buried God? Didn't they bury him in every war, including the last one, for example? ”If he writes a story“ in which God is dead, even buried by men ”, every reader must draw his own conclusion as to how it can succeed to still live in such a world.

In 1966 Schnurre completely translated his story into the Berlin dialect under the title t Bejräbnis . Thirty years after his first lecture at Group 47, Schnurre read Das Funeral again in September 1977 at the end of a re-encounter of the already inactive group. As a result, Schnurre formed, in the words of Hans Werner Richter, "with its history the beginning and end of 'Group 47'". Marcel Reich-Ranicki assessed: “That was a stylish and happy idea. Because this story, a highly characteristic prose piece shortly after 1945, is still good. ”In 1993, Katharina Blencke spoke of a“ short story that is now almost legendary ”. The funeral is considered to be “representative post-war literature” and has become “mandatory reading of the history of literature for students and German scholars”.

literature

Text output

  • Wolfdietrich Schnurre: The funeral . In: Yes. Newspaper of the Young Generation 2 (1948) 1st February issue, p. 5.
  • Wolfdietrich Schnurre: The funeral . In: One should be against it . Walter, Olten 1960, pp. 23-34.

Secondary literature

  • Günter Helmes: Wolfdietrich Schnurre: The funeral . In: Werner Bellmann (Hrsg.): Classic German short stories. Interpretations . Reclam, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 978-3-15-017525-5 , pp. 13-22.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfdietrich Schnurre: The funeral . In: One should be against it . Walter, Olten 1960, p. 25.
  2. ↑ Wolfdietrich Schnurre: Criticism and weapon. On the problem of the short story . In: Stories 1945–1965 . List, Munich 1977, ISBN 3-471-78729-1 , p. 390.
  3. ↑ Günter Helmes: Wolfdietrich Schnurre: The Burial , p. 17.
  4. ^ A b Heinz Ludwig Arnold : The group 47. A critical ground plan . Edition text + kritik, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-88377-022-1 , p. 81.
  5. ↑ Urs Widmer : 1945 or the “New Language”. Studies on the prose of the "young generation" . Pedagogical Publishing House, Düsseldorf 1966, p. 154.
  6. ↑ a b Manfred Durzak: The German literature of the present . Reclam, Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-15-010198-0 , pp. 44-45.
  7. ↑ Mathias Adel Hoefer: Wolf Dietrich Schnurre - a German post-war author . Centaurus, Pfaffenweiler 1990, ISBN 3-89085-441-9 , p. 7.
  8. ↑ a b Jürgen Engler: The "schizophrenia" of the beginning. Wolfdietrich Schnurre - an author of the "rubble literature" . In: Ursula Heukenkamp (ed.): Under the emergency roof. Post-war literature in Berlin 1945–1949 . Erich Schmidt, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-503-03736-5 , p. 428.
  9. ↑ a b Heinz Friedrich : Epilogue to Wolfdietrich Schnurre: The funeral . In: Maria Friedrich (Ed.): Odd stories from today . Dtv junior, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-423-07909-6 , p. 158.
  10. ↑ a b Iris Bauer: “There is no such thing as a guiltless life.” The subject of “guilt” in Wolfdietrich Schnurre's work . Igel, Paderborn 1996, ISBN 3-89621-041-6 , p. 61.
  11. ↑ Günter Helmes: Wolfdietrich Schnurre: The Burial , pp. 18-19.
  12. ↑ Günter Helmes: Wolfdietrich Schnurre: The Burial , pp. 19-21.
  13. ↑ Wilfried Barner (Ed.): History of German literature from 1945 to the present . Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-406-54220-6 , p. 61.
  14. ↑ Karl-Josef Kuschel : Because we don't feel completely at home on this earth . Piper, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-492-10414-2 , pp. 93-94.
  15. ↑ Günter Helmes: Wolfdietrich Schnurre: The Burial , p. 14.
  16. ↑ Mathias Adel Hoefer and Andrea Wendt: An interview with Wolf Dietrich Schnurre - Berlin 1986 .
  17. ↑ Günter Helmes: Wolfdietrich Schnurre: The Burial , pp. 14-16.
  18. ^ Heinz Ludwig Arnold: The group 47 . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2004, ISBN 3-499-50667-X , pp. 37-38.
  19. ↑ Heinz Ludwig Arnold (ed.): The scorpion. Wallstein, Göttingen 1991, ISBN 3-89244-027-1 , p. 65.
  20. ^ Heinz Ludwig Arnold: Die Gruppe 47 , pp. 135-136.
  21. ^ Maria Eibach (pseudonym): A meaningful meeting . In: Die Epoche , Frankfurt am Main, September 28, 1947. Reprinted in: Reinhard Lettau (Ed.): Die Gruppe 47 - Report Critique Polemik . A manual. Luchterhand, Neuwied and Berlin 1967, p. 22.
  22. ^ Heinz Ludwig Arnold: Die Gruppe 47 , p. 36.
  23. ^ René Wintzen: The German literature after 1945 . In: Paul Schallück (Ed.): Germany. Cultural developments are 1945. Hueber, Munich 1969, p. 206.
  24. ^ Toni Richter: Group 47 in pictures and texts . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-462-02630-5 , p. 23.
  25. ↑ Georg Hensel : Group 47 does not make closed jumps . In: Darmstädter Echo of April 8, 1948. Reprinted in: Reinhard Lettau (Ed.): Die Gruppe 47 - Report Criticism Polemik , p. 29.
  26. ↑ FM: Excitement about young poets . In: Die Neue Zeitung of April 13, 1948, p. 3. Quoted from: Jürgen Engler: The “schizophrenia” of the beginning. Wolfdietrich Schnurre - an author of "Trümmerliteratur" , p. 428.
  27. ↑ Heinz Friedrich: Epilogue to Wolfdietrich Schnurre: The Burial , p. 159.
  28. ↑ Wolfdietrich Schnurre: The shadow photographer . List, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-471-78726-7 , p. 412.
  29. ↑ Wolfdietrich Schnurre: Letter to a schoolgirl . In: desk in the open air . Walter, Olten 1964, pp. 254-255.
  30. ↑ Wolfdietrich Schnurre: t Bejräbnis . In: On diving station . Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main 1973, ISBN 3-548-02939-6 , pp. 28-37.
  31. ↑ Marcel Reich-Ranicki : The end of group 47 . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of September 21, 1977.
  32. ↑ Katharina Blencke: Wolfdietrich Schnurres estate. Cataloging, systematising and presenting the factory history . Igel, Paderborn 1993, ISBN 3-927104-51-5 , p. 10.
  33. ↑ Keiichi Aizawa: Between the "post-war literature" and the "death of literature". The difficulty of telling a story, using Alfred Andersch as an example . In: Japanese Society for German Studies (Hrsg.): Language problems and aesthetic productivity in literary modernity. Contributions to the Tateshina Symposia in 1992 and 1993 . Iudicum, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-89129-427-1 , p. 109.