The ice skater

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The Ice Skater brings together four stories by Georg Britting , published in 1948 ( Wilpert ). A number in round brackets indicates the page in the source.

action

The French horn

The civil servant (23) hunter Anton , who moved to Rossöd a few years ago , steps out of the forest ravine (9) - unexpectedly for the local Xaver . Xaver, under the Bschöllwand (4), lifts the nozzle against the hunter. Anton shoots first. The high office recognizes in writing that the hunter has fulfilled his duties. On the other hand, most Rossöder punish the shooter with contempt. The Rossöder cemetery is under Anton's room window in the forester's house. Anton's gaze falls directly on Xaver's grave. The forester in charge offers Anton another room and also talks about Anton's transfer. The hunter rejects both. He wants to hold out. On the first anniversary after the fatal shot, Rossöder farm boys visit the grave. Anton observes through the open window how one of the boys gesticulates up to him provocatively and then blows the dead man's favorite song on his French horn . Anton shoots the instrument out of the hand of the wind player and runs away. The hunter is released without a pension entitlement (23) and was never seen again.

The ice skater

The 13-year-old first-person narrator is allowed to accompany his father on a business trip in winter. While the father negotiates during the day, the boy passes the time as a skater. Near the Dutch border, in an old town, he finds a long winding road that is wonderful for ice skating. The winter sun means well that morning when the ice skater, together with other children, tried the long ice rink extensively. The young ice skater is puzzled for the first time when a small fish frozen in the ice becomes visible under his "street" (34). The runner makes his way back. In the vicinity of the city, an old woman chases children from the ice cream, which is not very good (35). The ice skater sees the river rushing under the ice. The ice begins to break. The ice skater lies down on his stomach and is scared to death. A school of fish below him is constantly getting bigger, awaits him. The father rushing to save the boy; courageously prevents the ice skater's journey with the fish into the depths.

The fall into the Wolfsschlucht

Reluctantly, the adolescent first-person narrator goes on his parents' Sunday excursion to the shady Wolfsschlucht beer garden outside the city gates in the summer heat . He thinks sullenly about the geometry work that is coming up the next morning and distracts himself by picking flowers. He dares to go too far and falls into the gorge. Luckily for him, he gets away with a broken arm and the next day - lying comfortably in the white bed (56) - he can avoid geometry.

The fish

During a dry summer thunderstorm, the first-person narrator, a schoolboy, collects a bucket full of chestnuts. The storm tore off the fruit. The boy meets the fisherman Jakl. The boy teased this old hermit several times and must fear punishment. So he inevitably gives the old man the chestnuts, gets a big fish for it, but has to let his ears pull hard (63). The boy runs away, meets his friend Martin, exchanges the fish for a pipe and has to be scolded by his father at home.

shape

  • The French horn: It is impressively demonstrated that a stranger has no chance against the village community. The narrator Britting asks in the text, why was Xaver wearing a neck? And why did he raise him against Anton? (9) However, neither question is answered.
  • The ice skater: The story thrives on a process of recognition. Ice skaters and readers suddenly notice that the ice-covered "street" is a river in which death by drowning lurks for the ice skater. The death threat is illustrated in a heart-oppressive way by the school of fish.
  • The fall into the Wolfsschlucht: The author gets a little problem when his first-person narrator passes out at the end of his fall into the Wolfsschlucht. Without further ado, he continues to tell about the boy himself, only to have the happily reawakened tell the end a little later.
  • The fish: The father of the first-person narrator asks himself, what is Fischer-Jakl doing with a bucket full of chestnuts? The reader asks himself that as well.
  • Pictures: The poet Britting digs pictures into the head of the reader with his short prose.
    • The French horn: Anton's master shot at the French horn surprises the reader, as does the grave-shameful storm of the dozen or so boys that immediately followed, straight across the well-tended cemetery to lynch the shooter on the spot (20). In addition, that image is permanent: the wind player returns to Xaver's tomb and conceals his shot musical instrument (21, 22).
    • The ice skater: The countless fish that collect under the brittle ice cover and - with blunt mouths on the treacherous ice - wait for the final break-in of the ice skater lying on his stomach (38), cause horror.
    • The fall into the Wolfsschlucht: The rain of picked blue bluebells from the dense canopy on the fallen and the confused beer garden guests sitting around is the impressive picture. A second turns out to be almost humorous: When the continuous horse shies away from a stuffed horse , his likeness, in the shop window of a saddler in the city (54).
    • The fish: The description of the thunderstorm over the Bavarian Danube landscape is only surpassed by the description of the great feast that the narrator and his school friend Martin organize on the edge of a wedding (65 to 68).

reception

  • Sometimes, when the reader is delighted with the poetic language of Britting, he asks himself one sentence: Was it High German except for the icing on the cake? Curt Hohoff calls the style , which always remains clear, artfully screwed together and a South German-Baroque inheritance ( Mohler , 74).
  • Mohler (74) noticed a vulnerable easy that as silvery miracle suddenly in the middle of text Begins to glow and certainly the aforementioned, images generating language says the poet.

literature

source

  • Georg Britting: The ice skater. Narratives . With an afterword by Armin Mohler. 79 pages. Reclam No. 7829. Stuttgart 1957

expenditure

Secondary literature