The order or From observing the observer the observer

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The order or From the observation of the observer the observer is a novella by Friedrich Dürrenmatt . The book is written in 24 separate sentences, each making up a chapter. It was published in 1986, making it one of the author's late works. Dürrenmatt tells the story of the filmmaker F., who is commissioned to investigate a murder and, in her search for the truth, gets caught up in the insane story herself.

main characters

The filmmaker F. is the main character of the story, which is told from her perspective. She is a well-known portrait filmmaker and follows the secret of a murdered woman in a red fur coat into the desert.

Otto von Lambert instructs F. to investigate the murder of his wife. He is a psychiatrist and believes he was complicit in his wife's death because he observed her and treated her more like a patient than his wife.

Tina von Lambert , his wife, was apparently raped and murdered in the desert near the Al-Hakim ruins. According to her husband's statements, she suffered from depression and was therefore treated and observed by him.

Polyphem is a cameraman and war correspondent who lives in a bunker in the desert and observes the filmmaker F. after he had already filmed and observed the rape victim.

The logician D. is an acquaintance of F., from whom she seeks advice before flying into the desert. D. could be Dürrenmatt himself.

action

The well-known portrait filmmaker F. receives the order from the psychologist Otto von Lambert to film the murder of his wife Tina von Lambert and to find out the truth about her death. She accepts the job out of curiosity, although she doesn't have a good feeling about it. The body of Lambert's wife was found in the desert near a ruin, raped, the body defaced by jackals. With this information, the notes that her husband made about his wife, and Tina's diary , F. sets out to search for clues, initially in Switzerland .

Among other things, she finds the address of a painter who has not lived in the city for a long time and recently died in her diary. In his studio, which she finds unlocked and in a condition as if the painter was still living there, she finds a picture that looks very similar to the murdered woman. While she is still looking at the portrait, she hears footsteps moving away, but can no longer see the person. When she comes back in the afternoon, a film team is there to report on the painter, but the picture is missing.

Despite concerns that the portrait is the right track, she then sets off for the desert state where the woman was murdered. But she and her film team have no chance against the higher powers of the country who are watching over them all the time; an apparently uninvolved Scandinavian is shot.

The chief of intelligence tells her that he wants to prevent a coup by the chief of police. In order to show his inability, he will enable F. to clarify the case. While the film team is being brought to the airport, he takes her to a hotel where the murdered woman was also. He tells her that Tina von Lambert gave her passport to a Danish journalist . So this was the murdered woman.

In search of traces of the journalist, F. meets a cameraman who initially thinks she is the woman, since the murdered woman lived in the same hotel. After the mistake has cleared up, the man continues. After that, she only finds his body; he was killed. Another cameraman, who goes by the name of Polyphemus , filmed him. She can later be taken from this to an underground bunker, in view of material about the journalist.

Furthermore, it turns out that a bomber pilot, called Achilles and formerly a Greek professor, was with Polyphemus in the Vietnam War , the machine, which was hit by the defense during a joint mission, flew back to the base, seriously wounded and thus saved both lives. Polyphem feels that he has become insane and empty after the head injury, who has already raped several women, to let the last remaining feelings experience. For this reason he got him the journalist as a victim; F. is intended to serve the same purpose.

expenditure

• Friedrich Dürrenmatt: The order or the observation of the observer of the observer. Novella in 24 sentences . Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 1988, ISBN 3-257-21662-9 .
• Friedrich Dürrenmatt: The order or the observation of the observer of the observer. Novella in 24 sentences . Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-257-01730-8 .
• Friedrich Dürrenmatt: Minotaur. A ballad / The order or From the observation of the observer the observer / Midas or The black canvas . Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-257-23066-4 .