My mother's life
The Life of My Mother is an autobiographical novel by the Bavarian writer Oskar Maria Graf (1894–1967).
General
The novel was first published in English in 1940 and in German in 1946 . It covers the time from the birth of Therese (Resl) Heimrath, Count's mother, in 1857 to Resl's death in 1934.
The novel essentially tells the life of Graf's parents, his mother Resl and his father Max Graf, as well as Graf himself and his siblings. He wrote the first part in Brno ( Czechoslovakia ) and the second in New York City and in Yaddo / Sarasoga Springs, NY He ends the one-page foreword from the year of publication 1940 with the statement that it could be that with this book “ the life of mothers in all countries has been told ”. In addition, the novel is also a precise representation of village life around Berg am Starnberger See and its social structure in Upper Bavaria at that time.
Formal structure
The novel consists of two parts of about the same length: the first part is called People of the Homeland , the second part Mother and Son . The first part again consists of 16 chapters, the second part of 18. There is also a foreword by Graf himself before the first part . As is typical for Graf, the basic form of the novel is a series of tales of various kinds of incidents a few more historical digressions, especially on King Ludwig II of Bavaria .
content
First part: people from home
The first part essentially contains the biographies of Graf's parents up to his own birth and thus the time frame from 1857 to 1894.
Chapter 1: Tangled Threads
Here Oskar Maria Graf tells the story of Resl Heimrath's birth. He describes the area around her place of birth Aufhausen near Aufkirchen in the area around Berg and also the situation of the court and the Heimrath family. He also looks back into the past of the area, around the time of the Thirty Years War .
Chapter 2: Events
In the second chapter Graf describes the daily routines of the Heimraths and the work on the Heimrathhof. He tells the episode of the death of Resl's father Ferdinand and how Jani Hans is hired as a so-called master builder to replace the deceased father at work in the field . Graf also reports on the outbreak of war against France .
Chapter 3: An Unsolved Riddle
Here Graf goes into detail about Berg Castle and its owner, King Ludwig II . He also describes how all men fit for military service, i.e. a large part of those able to work , have to be sent to war .
Chapter 4: Difficult Times
Because of the war, the work becomes harder, the strongest horses, for example, are retired for the war in addition to the men. Graf then describes how the farmers experience the founding of the Empire and the election of Wilhelm I. Graf also tells of how Jani Hans gives up the master builder position at the Heimraths after Resl's mother refuses to marry him.
Chapter 5: Changes
Graf introduces the reader to the Graf family, who at that time still lived poorly in Berg, because Graf's grandfather's job as wheelwright is not particularly profitable. Graf also describes von Kastenjakl, an uncle of Oskar Maria Graf's father, and his construction plans.
Chapter 6: The Old and the Young
Here Graf tells about how his father Max Graf set up a bakery against all odds, including that of his own family . He describes the lack of understanding of the villagers, who are convinced that there is no need for a bakery because everyone bakes their own bread anyway. Nevertheless, Max is surprisingly well received with his baked goods.
Chapter 7: Painful Incidents
Chapter 8: The old dies
Chapter 9 ebb and flow
Chapter 10: The blessed delusion and the robust reality
Chapter 11: Some things cause a stir
Chapter 12: Loss and Profit
Chapter 13: Marriage
Chapter 14: Recalling or The Unknown Cause and an Eternal Effect
Chapter 15: The story draws to a close
Chapter 16: End and Beginning
Part two: mother and son
The second part of the book is then the autobiography of Oskar Maria Graf himself, but he also tells at least some of the biographies of his siblings. Of course, he also makes special reference to his mother and his relationship with her. The time frame extends from 1894 to 1934.
Chapter 1: The discovery of the mother
In the first chapter of the second part of the novel, Graf first describes the murder of Empress Elisabeth of Austria . He then tells of the death of his parents' eleventh child and the illness of his mother Resl. Finally he reports that his eldest brother Maxl is getting an apprenticeship in Munich . His father is also planning to build a new house and a new and larger bakery.
Chapter 2: A Murder, a Dwarf and the Gypsies
Here Graf reports on the expansion of the house and the murder of the cattle dealer Schlesinger, who is popular among farmers. In addition, he describes the episode as dwarf , a disabled sister of Max Graf, stolen by "gypsies" and then brought back again.
Chapter 3: The dollar on the wall or shadow of the past
Graf talks about how the house is being finished and how he started his own bakery. He tells of the invention of electric light and the murder of the neighbor, Diaper, and notices how well his father's bakery is going.
Chapter 4: Everyday Life and Celebrations
Here Oskar Maria Graf tells the story of how the Bader buys a rope at Resl's bakery and then hangs himself with it, and also tells of how his brother Maxl had to join the military.
Chapter 5: Farewell to the Father
In Chapter 5 Graf describes the invention of the automobile and his father's aversion to it, which is expressed in the fact that he also insults empty vehicles and calls them the devil's cart. Because the converted house is too small, Kathl, a sister of the father's, has to move out.
Chapter 6: A soldier comes home - a man dies
Oskar Maria Graf reports here on his brother Maxl's return home from military service. He has changed for the worse due to the military, speaks only in a commanding tone and wants to determine everything. He also develops plans for a pastry shop , in addition to the bakery. Then Kathl dies, and finally father Max Graf, whereupon his eldest son, Maxl, takes over the running of the family.
Chapter 7: The family falls apart
Maxl's military behavior turns the other older siblings against him. However, they cannot defend themselves against him and so they move out one after the other. Eugene, for example, is going to America, like many people at that time . Maxl also drives away a journeyman through his behavior.
Chapter 8: Leni, the maid
Graf describes the good relationship between the maid Leni and his mother Resl because they have similar traits. He himself shows Leni his love for her, albeit unsuccessfully. Maxl's secret affair with Moni, because of which he has repeatedly traveled to Munich, is exposed. Oskar developed the desire to become a veterinarian and threw himself into specialist literature, through his brother Maurus he discovered books for himself and practically drowned in them. Through a journeyman baker, Oskar also develops an interest in social democracy. However, he has to hide his books from Maxl, who is an opponent of books. When Maxl discovered his books, Oskar was brutally beaten and fled to Munich at the age of seventeen.
Chapter 9: Pointless Years
Graf found it difficult to find his way around in Munich, he made contact with the Schwabing bohemian community and made various attempts to find work, although he often had to keep himself afloat with odd jobs like working as a lift boy . Meanwhile, Maxl takes over the Graf house in Berg after his wedding to Moni.
Chapter 10: ... and believe that is greatness!
Oskar befriends the painter Georg (Georg Schrimpf) in Munich and travels with him for a few months to an anarchist colony in Italian-speaking Switzerland near Monte Verità . He begins to write his first poems and to publish them, albeit mostly in vain. After the beginning of the First World War , Graf was drafted involuntarily. Through a letter from his sister he learns of the death of his hated brother Maxl in the war.
Chapter 11: It crackles in the silence
In the military, Graf quickly begins to ridicule the existence of a soldier, he only breaks out into loud laughter when given orders and finally refuses them, and so he spends time in a cell again and again. After a visit at home, Oskar begins to simulate a mental illness, is therefore sent to a madhouse, goes on a hunger strike and is then discharged from the military as unfit.
Chapter 12: The Great Error
Here Graf describes the emerging revolutionary mood among the Munich population. He also describes the death of his beloved sister Emma after her long illness.
Chapter 13: The Invaders
The farmers in the country are getting rich from the increasing inflation . They are unpopular with inflationary urban populations. His sister Nanndl (Anna) goes to the USA, and Oskar argues about his future with his brother Eugen, who is at home on a visit from the USA.
Chapter 14: Bad seeds and bitter harvests
During a visit to his hometown of Berg, Graf noticed many changes, most notably the advanced presence of National Socialism . Meanwhile, the bakery is leased . He then describes how he experienced the Hitler coup and its consequences in Munich, and after a long time he meets again with the former maid Leni.
Chapter 15: What Remains? ... The chickens
Oskar Maria Graf reports here about his mother's operation, about her recovery and about the proclamation of the Holy Year by the Pope.
Chapter 16: USA visits us
Here he relates the episode of how she and Eugen, who is visiting with his family, go to Rome to see the Pope , in whom his mother is disappointed because of his poor appearance. Graf's brother Maurus sets up a café in Berg . Oskar also learns that he is on a National Socialist search list.
Chapter 17: A Farewell
Graf describes the increasingly frequent bloody clashes with the National Socialists in Munich, which is why he finally fled to Austria after the Nazis came to power . Then he gets one last letter from his mother.
Chapter 18: Epilogue and Transfiguration
In the epilogue, Oskar Maria Graf describes the situation after his escape, he describes his trip to the Soviet Union . Then he tells of how he learned of his mother's death through a letter from Maurus, and how he himself thinks of his mother all the time while he is in Tbilisi .
reception
The criticism reacted mostly positively to the novel:
"His gaze is on people and things, folksy dull, it seems, astute in truth, mischievous, in disguised stupidity and nothing can be fooled, from either side."
“As far as the American reader is concerned, I am convinced that those critics are right who say that no other work in recent years has shed a clearer and more penetrating light on recent German history and on what is good and in German essence is real than Graf's work. "
literature
- Oskar Maria Graf: My mother's life. Berlin 2009.
- Gerhard Bauer: Oskar Maria Graf. A ruthless life. Munich 1987.
- Joachim Mohr: Dogs like me. Self-image and worldview in the autobiographical writings of Oskar Maria Graf. Würzburg 1999.
- Rolf Recknagel: A Bavarian in America: Oskar Maria Graf: Life and Work. Berlin 1984.
- Wilfried F. Schoeller: Editorial afterword in Oskar Maria Graf: The life of my mother. (Unabridged) paperback edition, Munich 1982, ISBN 978-3-423-10044-1 , pp. 658-671.
Web links
- "My Mother's Life", reviewed as a work of world literature, accessed on September 22, 2014
- Notes on reception at lesekost.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Oskar Maria Graf: The life of my mother . DTV Munich 1982, ISBN 978-3-423-10044-1 , p. 7.
- ^ Gerhard Bauer: Oskar Maria Graf. A ruthless life. Munich 1987, p. 157 f.
- ^ Oskar Maria Graf: The life of my mother , Berlin 2009, p. 384
- ↑ to the English-language edition The Life of Mother, assembly 6.47 (1940), p. 7
- ↑ From the review of the USA first edition: Aufbau 6.47 (1940), p. 7