The city coat of arms

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The city arms of Prague

The city coat of arms is a short story by Franz Kafka . It was probably made in 1920 and published posthumously. Your report on the construction of a gigantic tower corresponds to the story of the building of the Great Wall of China .

content

The story is about the construction of the Babylonian tower . Before the start of construction, the workers' quarters are first set up extensively. The prevailing opinion is that the actual construction cannot be started slowly enough. On the one hand, the thought of the sky-reaching tower can no longer be removed from general thinking anyway. On the other hand, every future generation will develop an even higher level of architecture. The architecture of the future is therefore better suited for the actual construction of the tower.

So people prefer to deal with the design of the workers' city. But this leads to disputes among the various country teams of the workers. There are bloody fights, followed by phases of calm, in which the foundation stone for new fights is laid again. The second and third generation of workers recognize the futility of building the tower, but they do not want to leave the workers' city, they are already too closely connected to one another.

All of the city's legends are fulfilled by a prophesied day when a giant fist crushes the city in five blows. Therefore the city has the fist in the coat of arms.

Text analysis

The story is not told by a single narrator, rather the narrative perspective changes several times . The initial discomfort about the hesitant approach to construction turns into disgust for the project, which can only be satisfied by a longed-for total annihilation. The city has a fist in its coat of arms. The choice of this coat of arms, the symbolic meaning of which only becomes apparent at the end of the story, seems to reveal the long-cherished desire of the people for annihilation. Or is this just the interpretation of the anonymous narrator suffering from failure? Wouldn't it be more obvious that the fist was the symbol of the actively building hand for the common workforce. Perhaps this is what the coat of arms was originally intended to be, but as the progressive disastrous development has progressed, it has turned its meaning into something negative but actually liberating.

Interpretative approaches

Philosophical interpretation

As is often the case with Kafka, this is again a story of failure. In fact, it is a double failure. At first, the actual construction is not carried out actively. One gets lost in insignificant side activities and in human incompatibilities and struggles. Then, when one realizes the pointlessness, one fails again by remaining in an agonizing uncreative situation out of comfort and waiting for the final bang from outside. It is an allegory of the impossible. The hectic hustle and bustle with which the people have been pursuing an architectural project that cannot be locked for generations under ever-changing guidelines from their superiors contains nonsense and hubris . Kafka's conviction is that whoever wishes to move closer to God must sink into the depths of the world, not try to escape it on airy paths.

The linguistic confusion, which according to the Bible came from God because of the infinite tower, corresponds with Kafka to the human inadequacies. And without the direct influence of a punishing God, the same thing happens, namely the building of the tower does not take place. But isn't the hesitation and intolerance of people just as much the work of a god?

Historical-sociological interpretation

A historical-sociological interpretation says that this is a parable of the structure up to the fall of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy . Parallels to the structure of the multi-ethnic state are the different languages ​​and the high level of civil servants. Likewise, the number of generations (three correspond to the time span from Franz Kafka's grandfather to himself) and the “five blows” (five years of war) are indications that this is a parable of the history of Austria-Hungary.

The coat of arms of the city of Prague with a fist around the sword could have been the inspiration for the present story (see example interpretation by D. Rettig).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter-André Alt: Franz Kafka: The Eternal Son. A biography . Munich: Verlag CH Beck, 2005, ISBN 3-406-53441-4 . P. 581
  2. ↑ Interpretations of the city arms

expenditure

  • The stories. Published by Roger Hermes, S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M., 1997, ISBN 3-596-13270-3 .
  • All the stories. Published by Paul Raabe , Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main and Hamburg 1970, ISBN 3-596-21078-X .
  • Legacy writings and fragments 2. Edited by Jost Schillemeit, Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 1992, p. 318 and 323.

Secondary literature

Web links

Wikisource: The city arms  - sources and full texts