The third book about Achim

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The third book about Achim is a novel that Uwe Johnson published in 1961 shortly before the Wall was built near Suhrkamp in Frankfurt am Main. In this fiction, an uncertainly narrating West German author fails in the journalistic attempt to get closer to an East German "victim offender" who is burdened in some respects.

content

Around 1960, the well-known East German actress Karin sometimes lives in Leipzig with the 30-year-old famous racing cyclist Achim T. She told him about her former boyfriend, the six-year-old journalist Karsch. Karsch lives near Hamburg. Karin had lived with Karsch in West Berlin, left him in 1952 and then attended drama school in East Germany. Achim suggests that Karin invite Karsch. Said and done. Karsch arrives by car. The journalist doesn't want to make a book out of this trip as he usually does, but wants to return soon. East Germany is alien to him. Karsch doesn't understand the country's newspaper jargon. "Domestic political posters" irritate him.

Karsch lives as a subtenant with the widow Liebenreuth and satisfies their curiosity with the remark that he is writing a book about a cyclist. Achim is not enthusiastic about this idea because two books about him are already on the market. But a Ms. Ammann, editor in a publishing house for young literature, and a Mr. Fleisg, editor at a government-affiliated district newspaper and advisor to that publishing house, persuade Karsch to write a third book about Achim. Karsch accepts an advance payment from the publisher in East German currency for this project and signs a publishing contract. Karin doesn't understand that. She wants to pay back the money from her pocket.

Work on the book begins. Achim reports most precisely about his childhood. His mother realized early on that Achim would become just like his father. He, a former member of the banned SPD, who rose to his position as a designer in the aircraft industry on his own, gave his son the bike after he was allowed to swap the locksmith's suit for the white coat. Because as a designer, the father is driven to work every morning in a collection bus. The mother and little sister are killed in an Allied air strike. Achim now lives alone with his father. He once asked his father why two men had ransacked the apartment. The father replies that they were looking for two saboteurs. Both designers were discovered and executed. One of them had to construct in prison until his death. Achim's father recognized the drafts by the man's handwriting. Asked by Achim why he did not sabotage, the father replies that a second designer would have been necessary. Besides, everything would always have come out anyway. For fear of denunciation, the father - who secretly listens to the London radio - does not tell Achim about the real events of 1944/45 on the incoming fronts.

The mother is right. Achim's character develops in a similar way to that of his father. First Achim Hitler Youth and later in East Germany a draftsman, bricklayer and - after initial rejection - joins the FDJ . He was made a training instructor and eventually graduated from sports college.

The racing cyclist cannot approve of the passages about his life after 1945 in the planned third book. Achim has come to terms with the East German state and is sponsored by it. It doesn't fit Achim's picture of the model athlete, who was “unanimously” elected as a comrade in the country's parliament, when Karsch digs out a photo from June 1953 showing Achim shoulder to shoulder with the rebels . Achim denies taking part in the demonstration. Achim had already argued with Karsch about which parts of the extensive biographical material should fall victim to the red pen. Achim and Karsch don't come up with a common denominator. Achim feels offended and yells at the journalist. By mutual agreement, Karsch breaks off the book project and travels back to Hamburg without having achieved anything. Previously, he had been suspected of helping to escape by the security forces on his journeys through East Germany. Before Karsch left, Karin had left Achim without saying goodbye. She recognized him in the photo.

Self-testimony

Karsch often speaks to people who remain anonymous. This narrative attitude would remain a mystery to the reader if Uwe Johnson had not "explained" it to the intrepid, insistent interviewer Horst Bienek. The solution to the riddle is hidden in the last sentence of the novel: “How was it?” Ask the West German people who stayed at home after Karsch returned and still made a book out of his trip with Uwe Johnson's help. Karsch is always talking to the West Germans (and not Karin, as the naive reader might assume). And the West Germans keep talking to the narrator in the form of numerous headings in italics. The first one is: “How was it?” In that informative interview, a lot comes to light. Achim T. had to be an athlete and by no means an intellectual. An athlete is a mediator between the people and the rulers. The book is the description of a description. Sometimes - as in the chapter It's not that exciting at all! - allow Uwe Johnson a joke.

shape

The book is not built simply. According to Post-Adams, three narrative levels can be distinguished - that of the biographer Karsch, that of the narrator and that of the author Uwe Johnson. Born distinguishes four instances. Strehlow discusses reflection in this context . Jahn analyzes the structure.

With his idiosyncratic prose, Uwe Johnson has made friends and enemies. For example, Strehlow shows understanding for the construct and praises the “high level of coherence” of the fable. Jahn does not withhold Johnson's satirizing and says that the fragmentary is intentional. The strength of the reader to synthesize is required. Karlheinz Deschner calls the language of the work "idiot German" hostile and is thus in line with Hermann Kesten , Ernst Kreuder and Robert Neumann . Some “sentences” really aren't. For example, “Later when first what he told Karsch:…” leaves a perplexed reader. It also seems confusing: "The looting past but the streets are still unsafe at night." The Suhrkamp editor must have been quite tolerant at the time. Whoever dismisses what has just been chalked up as Beckmesserei cannot avoid Grambow, who asks Johnson unpleasant questions about the factual basis of the historical material. For example, the stories of the three protagonists are presented vaguely. Grambow scoffs at the " stave rhymes Karin and Karsch".

The punctuation is novel. The verbatim speech gets along with a leading hyphen: "- Why is Germany waging war." Quotation marks are less common than question marks. Strehlow comments on the puzzling "disparate aspects" of syntax in the novel.

The unspeakable comes up sardonically - for example "ovens for burning victims and know-it-alls".

reception

  • The more recent historiography classifies this “epic research” in the “Cold War literature and approximations: The sixties”. Barner reads “ Thinking about Christa T. ” as Christa Wolf's East German answer to the novel Johnson's published in West Germany.
  • According to Pestalozzi's understanding, Achim becomes guilty by distancing himself from his past. But Uwe Johnson is about more. He questions the suitability of “fixed images of man”.
  • Jens has a lot of praise ready. In contrast to other authors, Johnson treated the problem of the division of Germany "convincingly". According to Neumann, the NS past is dealt with.
  • Achim and Karsch are already exercising German reunification three decades before 1989, or so it seems at first. But in the end the novel documents the divergence.
  • Before writing the novel, Uwe Johnson was inspired by two Täve-Schur biographies. In retrospect, however, Johnson turned off parallels between Achim T. and Schur. Johnson - like Brecht - is interested in athletes. It doesn't matter - the novel is not about sport, but about the war and its consequences. Achim and Karsch accuse themselves of the policies of their two post-war German states. People are not named. Hanuschek has found out that once it was about Globke , the head of the Federal Chancellery under Adenauer . The paraphrase of the names of people of contemporary history is a trick for concretizing. Over time, however, the constant paraphrase of Ulbricht as "administrator" seems silly to the reader .
  • Along with Mr. Fleisg and Mrs. Ammann, Uwe Johnson criticized the publishing industry in the GDR; deal with socialist realism and the Marxist Lukács .
  • Neumann reveals the background to Achim's childhood in Thuringia. What is meant is Uwe Johnson's friendship with Hann Trier and Renate Mayntz .

Award

In 1962, Uwe Johnson was awarded the Prix ​​International de la Littérature , a publisher's prize, for the book . Translation into seven languages ​​is associated with this award.

radio play

In July 2009, a radio version of the text, edited by Norbert Schaeffer and Dietmar Mues , became radio play of the month .

literature

Text output

First edition
  • The third book about Achim. Novel. 338 pages. edition suhrkamp 100.Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1961
Used edition
  • The third book about Achim. Roman Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1992 (edition suhrkamp 1819 (new series volume 819)), ISBN 3-518-11819-6
Editions in foreign languages

Secondary literature

  • Horst Bienek : workshop talk with Uwe Johnson . Pp. 143–146 (from: Bienek: workshop talks. Hanser, Munich 1962) in: Rainer Gerlach (ed.), Matthias Richter (ed.): Uwe Johnson . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1984 (Suhrkamp Taschenbuch 2061), ISBN 3-518-38561-5
  • Walter Jens : Johnson on the threshold of championship . Pp. 147–151 (from: “ Die Zeit ” of October 6, 1961) in: ibid
  • Karl Pestalozzi: Achim alias Täve Schur. Uwe Johnson's second novel and its original . Pp. 152–164 (from: “Language in the Technical Age” 6 (1963)) in: ibid
  • Ree Post-Adams: Explicit narrative reflection: The third book on Achim . Pp. 165–179 (from: Post-Adams: "Representation problematics as romantic theme", Bonn 1977) in: ibid
  • Peter Lorson : Uwe Johnson's “The Third Book About Achim” in class . Pp. 180–197 (from: Lorson: “Learning Object Literature”, Göttingen 1977) in: ibid
  • Wolfgang Strehlow: Aesthetics of Contradiction. Attempts on Uwe Johnson's dialectical spelling . Akademie Verlag Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-05-002407-0
  • Wilfried Barner (ed.): History of German literature. Volume 12: History of German Literature from 1945 to the Present . CH Beck, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-406-38660-1
  • Sven Hanuschek: Uwe Johnson . Morgenbuch Verlag, Berlin 1994 (1st edition, Heads of the 20th Century, Vol. 124), ISBN 3-371-00391-4
  • Bernd Neumann: Uwe Johnson. European Publishing House, Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-434-50051-0
  • Arne Born: As Uwe Johnson says. Artistry and realism of the early work . Revonnah Verlag, Hannover 1997, ISBN 3-927715-94-8
  • Jürgen Grambow : Uwe Johnson . Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1997 (2000 edition), ISBN 3-499-50445-6
  • Kristin Jahn: “Vertell, vertell. You smile so beautifully. ”Uwe Johnson's poetics between claim and reality . Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 2006, ISBN 3-8253-5146-7

Remarks

  1. ↑ Leipzig is not mentioned in the text, but several facts point to the city; For example on p. 50, 10. Zvu of the edition used there is talk of the bombing of the west hall of the main station in July by the US Air Force.
  2. ↑ The output used contains printing errors (for example on p. 143, 7th Zvu or on p. 155, 12th Zvo).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edition used, p. 2, 1. Zvo
  2. ^ Born, p. 147, 2. Zvo
  3. ↑ Strehlow, p. 195, 6. Zvo
  4. ↑ Strehlow quotes the Tagesspiegel (Strehlow, p. 212, 11. Zvu)
  5. ↑ Bienek in: Gerlach and Richter
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 10
  7. ^ Post-Adams, pp. 166-176
  8. ↑ Born, p. 120, 4. Zvo
  9. ↑ Strehlow, pp. 198-203
  10. ↑ Jahn, pp. 128-162
  11. ↑ Strehlow, pp. 203-204
  12. ↑ Jahn, p. 178 and p. 181
  13. ↑ see also Neumann, pp. 431–441
  14. ↑ Grambow, p. 80, 3rd Zvu
  15. ↑ Edition used, p. 79, 13. Zvu
  16. ↑ Edition used, p. 156, 13. Zvu
  17. ↑ Grambow, p. 79, 18. Zvo - p. 80, 22. Zvo
  18. ↑ Grambow, p. 79, 22. Zvo
  19. ↑ Edition used, p. 90, 7. Zvo
  20. ↑ Strehlow, pp. 208-210
  21. ↑ Edition used, p. 129, 18. Zvo
  22. ↑ Barner, p. 409, 10th Zvu
  23. ↑ Barner, p. 339
  24. ↑ Barner, p. 530, 2. Zvo
  25. ↑ Pestalozzi, p. 161, 5th Zvu
  26. ↑ Jens, p. 147 and p. 151
  27. ↑ Neumann, pp 421-426
  28. ↑ Lorson, p. 182 above
  29. ↑ quoted in Hanuschek, p. 38, 10. Zvo: Adolf Klimanschewsky: “Täve”. Sportverlag, Berlin 1955 and Klaus Ullrich: “Our Täve. A book about Gustav Adolf Schur ”. Sportverlag, Berlin 1959 (see also Neumann, pp. 405–413)
  30. ↑ Hanuschek, p. 44
  31. ↑ Strehlow, p. 214, 7. Zvo
  32. ↑ Hanuschek writes (on p. 42, center) about a passage in the edition used, p. 279 below
  33. ↑ Hanuschek, p. 45, 19. Zvo
  34. ↑ Hanuschek, p. 43, 10th Zvu
  35. ↑ Strehlow, p. 228
  36. ↑ Jahn, p. 175 above
  37. ^ Neumann, p. 398
  38. ↑ Hanuschek, p. 49, 13. Zvu