The campus

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The campus is a university novel by Dietrich Schwanitz published in 1995 . The author paints a satirically exaggerated picture of intrigue and nepotism at Hamburg University and of the destruction of the career of a respected Hamburg sociology professor through accusations of sexual abuse in the workplace.

The university satire was the first fiction work by the Anglicist Schwanitz and made him known to a wider public. The novel became a bestseller, especially after the film adaptation of the same name, The Campus , directed by Sönke Wortmann, was released in 1998. Also in 1998, Schwanitz published the crime comedy Der Zirkel as a kind of sequel .

action

From the conception to a multitude of details and ideas, the plot corresponds to the model of Purgatory of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe , which Schwanitz transposed for Der Campus into the Hamburg university environment - with certain abbreviations and summaries:

Hanno Hackmann, professor of cultural sociology, has an affair with Barbara Clauditz, one of his students. The relationship becomes too delicate for him as he fears he will be prosecuted for "fornication with addicts" and he decides to end it. Hackmann lets himself be carried away to one last coit in his office, with the couple being watched by workers on scaffolding.

Some time later - in the meantime Barbara has broken off her studies and now wants to become an actress - the head of the theater and acting course calls the university’s women's representative and reports about a student who, after playing a rape scene on the stage, submits to her I said in tears that she had actually already experienced this situation. Now she is lying in the psychiatric department of the hospital after a nervous breakdown. Thereupon Bernd Weskamp, ​​the chairman of the disciplinary committee, is asked by the women's representative to investigate this matter.

Weskamp is forced by the university president, who is under political pressure, to interview the alleged victim. When questioned, Barbara Clauditz denies that there was a rape, which is why Weskamp decides to close the case.

Martin Sommer, a young employee of the newspaper JOURNAL, learns of the "rape case" through another internal university story. In order to give substance to the matter, the protocol of Barbara's questioning is falsified. A corresponding article appears, a demonstration controlled by university circles is exaggerated by television, further reports follow, fed with material from the same university circles, which means that the president of the university and thus Weskamp are increasingly coming under pressure from the public and the media.

When Hackmann incidentally learns from Weskamp in a conversation that Barbara had mentioned the name of the perpetrator, he reacts in panic and thus draws Weskamp's suspicions on himself. He learns that there are witnesses for the rape and decides to take decisive action against Hackmann to promote his own career.

Weskamp invites Hackmann to a hearing before the large disciplinary committee, where the initiation of proceedings will be discussed. The president had requested a public hearing to raise his profile as a fighter against sexual harassment and assault. A signed statement from Barbara is presented at the hearing, in which she states that it was only an affair and that no rape took place. But due to the wrong conclusions of Barbara's doctor and the statements of the construction workers, who now want to have observed an unequivocal rape, Hackmann no longer has a chance. At the end of the hearing, since everything is already lost, Hackmann explains to those present about the corruption at the university and his role as a victim in this entire political campaign.

reception

The novel developed into a bestseller in German-speaking countries with over 500,000 copies sold in the first 14 years after its publication and was also successfully filmed.

In the features section , the novel was largely judged positively, emphasizing in particular that it was written in a witty and entertaining manner and that it captivates with its precise knowledge of the environment. In the literary quartet , all four literary critics rated the book as worth reading. The knowledgeable satirical presentation of the university environment and the entertaining and witty style were also praised here. The novel was compared with the works of the British author David Lodge and viewed as a successful translation of the English genre of the campus novel into German. However, it was also criticized that the satirical representation appeared excessive in some places, especially when describing the female characters.

The social scientist and political scientist Simon Möller sees Schwanitz's novel as part of an anti-feminist backlash , more precisely as part of a wave of works directed against “ political correctness ” and feminism with the aim of stigmatizing feminism and ridiculing emancipatory aspirations or making them dangerous . In Der Campus , “political correctness” and what Schwanitz understands by it, namely feminism and emancipation in particular , are presented as a central problem (not only) for universities. The campus constructs the enemy image of an overpowering, sex- hostile and “politically correct” feminism at the universities, whereby a women's representative is equipped with all the common anti-feminist clichés. Hackmann, the professor from Der Campus , feels himself a victim of a hegemonic feminism and at the end of the novel draws the conclusion that the university is governed by “shackles of the opinion police” and a “bunch of feminists and fundamentalists”.

expenditure

In addition, book club licensed editions of the Gutenberg Book Guild and the Bertelsmann Club were published .

  • Audiobook: The Campus. Read by Christian Baumann . The Hörverlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-89584-473-X
  • Filming: The Campus. 123 min. Germany 1998. Director: Sönke Wortmann, screenplay: Dietrich Schwanitz, production: Bernd Eichinger , distributor: Constantin Film. Starlight Video 22588.

literature

Reviews

  • Friedmar Apel: Released from horror. World first: a funny novel from the German university. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. March 31, 1995
  • Franziska Frank: Saatgrund. Dietrich Schwanitz: The campus. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. 15./16./17. April 1995
  • Eva Leipprand: Blazing madness. Dietrich Schwanitz's campus novel. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. 11./12. March 1995
  • Christine Pries: Mr. Hackmann's pants. Dietrich Schwanitz makes his debut novel: “The Campus”. In: Frankfurter Rundschau. June 8, 1995
  • The campus . Hamburger Abendblatt, August 26, 2009

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stachowicz 2001, p. 28
  2. ↑ The campus . Hamburger Abendblatt, August 26, 2009
  3. ↑ Alexander Košenina: The learned fool: learned satire since the Enlightenment . Wallstein Verlag, 2003, ISBN 9783892445319 , p. 395 ff
  4. ↑ Marcel Reich-Ranicki , Sigrid Löffler , Hellmuth Karasek , Karl Corino : The Literary Quartet 38th , ZDF, August 24, 1995, (Video. 53:25 to 65:06 min. )
  5. ↑ Simon Möller: Sexual Correctness: The Modernization of Anti-Feminist Debates in the Media. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1999, ISBN 3-8100-2301-9 . Simon Möller: Successful operation . In: Friday , 2003, accessed on December 27, 2010. Rolf Löchel: Freedom or Feminism: Antifeminism in the Print Media . Retrieved December 27, 2010.