The railway accident

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The railway accident is a novella by Thomas Mann . It first appeared on January 6, 1909 in the Neue Freie Presse , Vienna . The first book was published in the same year in Der kleine Herr Friedemann and other novels (= Fischer's library of contemporary novels, vol. 1, vol. 6). 1922 was the railway accident in novels, Vol. I and in 1958 was added to the Stockholm edition of the works of Thomas Mann. There are also sound recordings of this story, among others by Thomas Mann himself and Loriot .

content

The narrator, a writer, tells of a train accident that he witnessed two years earlier. From Munich he took the night train to Dresden for a lecture - first class , because he was reimbursed for the travel expenses . As he got in, he noticed a smug monocle with gaiters and a defiant mustache . Unlike the narrator, he is “far removed from the travel bug, you can see that clearly, for him something as ordinary as a departure is not an adventure. He is at home in life and not afraid of his institutions and powers, he himself belongs to these powers, in a word: a master. I can't get enough of him. ”In an unobserved moment, he promptly takes the liberty of illegally taking his dog, a pretty little mastiff with a silver collar and colored braided leash, into the sleeping car compartment . The conductor , a martial man with a mighty sergeant-major mustache and an unruly watchful look - one “doesn't like to socialize with him, he's strict, he's probably very rough, but you can rely on him” - treats the gentleman with great submission. An old mother, however, who “almost got into second grade” is ruled by him and roughly reprimanded.

The night train starts moving. Most of the passengers have retired. The narrator reads a little more in his travel book, then he too wants to get ready for bed, and then it happens: a huge bump, a wild dangling of the wagon , then a crash, and the train stops . After a moment of shocked silence, panic breaks out. The previously self-confident mastiff owner can be heard screaming for help, then “he breaks out of his compartment in silk pajamas and stands there with crazy eyes. ´Great God! ´ he says. 'Almighty God!' And in order to humiliate himself completely and thus perhaps avert its destruction, he also says in a bitter tone: 'Dear God ...' ". Then he tries to help himself, first tries to reach the rescue tools in the car and, when this does not succeed immediately, jumps onto the embankment . The other passengers crowd around the sleeping car conductor, seeking help. But he lets “his official objectivity go” and is just as stunned as the travelers. Eventually everyone gets out of the sleeping car and tries to get an idea of ​​the situation. The train ran into a freight train because of an incorrectly set point . There are no human losses to complain about, but, it is said, “the big Maffei express train machine in Munich” was “in two parts” and the baggage car , which also contains the author's irreplaceable manuscript, on which he has been working, has also been smashed Years of work.

A young man who allegedly saw the baggage cart makes statements that lead to fears for the worst. “There I was,” reports the narrator. "All to myself, I stood between the rails at night and tested my heart." What would he do if his writing were lost forever? For better or worse, he would have to start all over again. Now that the traveler has come back to himself and thinks of a new beginning, the official bodies also begin to function again. The fire department arrives; it turns out that everything is half as bad, and neither is the manuscript destroyed or the baggage cart. Passengers can continue their journey on a replacement train. The "majesty of misfortune" has provided for a "great situation", namely for " communism ", as the gentleman with the little mastiff laments. The division into classes is temporarily lifted. The old mother, who still ruled in Munich, now drives like a monocle in first class. You will arrive safely in Dresden with a three-hour delay. Only the little lap dog sits, "contrary to all gentlemen's rights, in a dark dungeon right behind the locomotive and howls."

shape

"Tell something? But i don't know Well, I'll tell something. ”- This introduction already shows the narrator's tendency to downplay his own role. Later he will try to console himself with self-irony for the extremely painful loss of his supposedly destroyed manuscript: “There I was. All to myself, I stood between the rails at night and tested my heart. Clearance work. Clearance work was to be done with my manuscript. So destroyed, shredded, probably crushed. My beehive, my web of art, my clever burrow, my pride and [sic] hardship, the best of me. ”At the same time, on the other hand, Thomas Mann also hints at the irony of the authoritarian state that runs through the entire text and the actual tenor of the History determines: “An art and virtuoso journey that I do not reluctantly do from time to time. You represent, you appear, you show yourself to the cheering crowd; it is not for nothing that one is subject to Wilhelm II . "

Even before departure, some typical representatives of this Wilhelmine Germany are targeted. In addition to the so-called “gentleman” with a dog, this includes above all the person of the conductor, as is immediately evident when this personification of the state is ruled by an old woman who “almost got into second class.” And after the accident happened, not only the narrator feels defeated. “Father State” and his representatives are also at their lowest point: “An officer walks along the train without a cap [...] and wildly and tearfully he gives orders to the passengers to keep them under control [...] But Nobody pays attention to him because he is without a cap and posture. ”And the gruff conductor also complains self-pityingly to himself. "He limps down, one hand on his knee, and cares about nothing but this knee of his."

Even where the state officials do something positive, the praise is not without irony. The train driver had "behaved well" and prevented major accidents by pulling the emergency brake at the last moment: "Prize-worthy train driver!" When you can finally change to the replacement train, it is said that the "majesty of misfortune" is for provided a “great compensation”, namely for “communism”, as the gentleman with the dog laments. The division into classes is temporarily lifted.

In a light and ironic tone, Thomas Mann tells of this “derailment” that briefly cost the face of Wilhelm II. At the end the narrator picks up the purring, pretended unprofessional tone of the introduction: “Yes, that was the train accident that I experienced. It had to be once. And although the logicians object, I now believe I have a good chance that I won't come across something like that again anytime soon. "

background

The narrative is based on a true story. Thomas Mann witnessed the Regenstauf railway accident on May 1, 1906 as a passenger. As predicted at the end, he was spared another railway accident. However , a few years later in Der Zauberberg he described the dissolution of the Wilhelmine order on the eve of the First World War . In 1933, Thomas Mann lived through fear of losing manuscripts a second time as a result of his abrupt emigration. His diaries and other manuscripts remained in Munich. But Golo Mann was able to send her into exile in Switzerland.

literature

  • Rainer Ehm: Thomas Mann's railway accident: Not a fictional story, but reality . in: Mittelbayerische Zeitung 101, 28./29. April 1990
  • Rolf Füllmann: Railway accidents: Technology as fate on rails in novellas by Wilhelm Schäfer, Paul Ernst and Thomas Mann. - In: Inklings yearbook for literature and aesthetics, ed. Dieter Petzold, Vol. 25 (2007), pp. 185-211
  • Rudolf Chancellor, Thomas Mann: The railway accident. In: Rudolf Kanzler, Interpretations of Contemporary Short Stories, Vol. 7, Hollfeld 1978, pp. 39–46
  • Paul Ludwig Sauer, The "limping state". About a “rubbish” by Thomas Mann, called Das Eisenbahnunlück, in: Heinz Röllecke and Lothar Bluhm (eds.), “Because I think that one shouldn't 'withdraw'”. Collected essays on Thomas Mann and his work (active word, special volume), ISBN 3-88476-451-9
  • Thomas Rütten, Thomas Mann and the modern disease stigma. The railway accident of 1906 and the railway accident of 1909. - In: Writings of the local association BonnKöln of the German Thomas Mann Society. 8, 2013, pp. 5-41

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Digitized version of the Neue Freie Presse from January 6, 1909 in the Austrian National Library .
  2. In Thomas Mann's time there were not only first and second class wagons, but also third and fourth class. In the latter, for example, Felix Krull drives from Frankfurt to Wiesbaden for a draft.
  3. If the traveler is identified with the author Thomas Mann, then this is the manuscript of the novel Royal Highness .
  4. ^ Digitized version of the Neue Freie Presse from May 3, 1906 in the Austrian National Library .
  5. ^ Digitized version of the Prager Tagblatt dated May 4, 1906 in the Austrian National Library .