The Stoker (Wolfgang Hilbig)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Der Heizer is an autobiographical tale by Wolfgang Hilbig , written in 1980 and published in West Germany in 1982. The proximity of the text to Kafka is obvious.

Towards the end of the 1970s in the GDR : the stoker H. from M. no longer wants to belong to the working class, but finally wants to become a writer. That fails because the superiors corrupt him in his VEB .

content

After a night shift on a Tuesday in February, H., a stoker in the boiler house of Plant 6 in the machine tool combine, accepts a detour by company bus. He collects the year-end bonus in another part of the VEB . H. expects 600 marks. Fortunately, the list on which he has to confirm receipt of the amount contains 650 marks. H. is asked to count the money outside. When he is politely encouraged by the foreman to add himself to the donation list with a two percent solidarity contribution, he says no. The donation is voluntary. Nevertheless, the master thinks, 26 marks is a stick. But H. sticks to his no. Because he wants to quit. The reader is introduced to two solid reasons for termination. The first has to do with the insurmountable obstacles in the implementation of the socialist planned economy in the combine. The ultra-modern new foundry ruined the combine economically. In particular, there are no funds available in the financial plan for the new boiler house. So H., who has been a stoker in his run-down Plant 6 for seven years, has to continue trimming coal and carting ash. The second reason was mentioned above. H. wants to write. During the breaks at the stove he laid the foundation stone in his exercise books.

H. thinks that the “broken bones” will probably withstand the fourteen-day notice period. Coughing fits shake H's "exhausted, fragile body". H. finally wants to put an end to his "slave status". Because no one can stand the constant alternation of heat in front of the stove and winter cold on a clogged pile when transporting smoking ashes.

Outside on the bus, H. counts. But there are 1,300 marks in the envelope. H. only takes 650 marks. He wants to give back the excess money. The reader does not find out whether the 650 marks remaining in the envelope will really be returned. H. falls into bed at home. A nightmare concludes the text. H. wants to write the notice. He doesn't make it, because the brief writing becomes something like a novel. Exhausted, H. lets go and sleeps off for the next night shift.

shape

Experienced speech and inner monologue break up the narration in the third person.

The text contains many sentences that are longer than average. Orthography does not play the main role for Wolfgang Hilbig: “Why did he still go along with it?” For example, there is no question mark. The literal upscale speech of the stoker sometimes gives a screwy impression. For example, the "now" is probably not interwoven by any budding writer among the stokers in his statements: "I've been working now ..."

reception

  • April 1, 1982: Hans-Jürgen Schmitt : Who is a stoker and a poet . Southgerman newspaper
  • The texts in the anthology under the Neomond listed below are also influenced by post-structuralism from France. On the subject of stokers who write, the editor in Barner's literary history notes that Hilbig writes in the stoker from a perspective from below - whereby the discrepancy between the “world of work” and writing becomes evident.
  • Kafka's frightening joyless gloomy world comes to life again - as in the text of the same name .
  • Bordaux expresses himself about the sensitivities of the stoker, his view of the world of work and the constellation of figures in texts such as The Stoker .
  • March 3, 2003: a certain mb in the " Berliner Zeitung ": Der Heizer
  • A detailed interpretation can be found in Winnen. Regarding the “revolutionary potential” in history: The stoker as a representative of the “lower classes” is increasingly refusing to accept the doctrines from above.
  • June 20, 2009: Kurt Drawert in the " Frankfurter Allgemeine ": Wolfgang Hilbig's collected stories. The prisoner cannot imagine

literature

Text output

  • Wolfgang Hilbig: Under the neo moon. Stories (Aufbruch. Bungalows. Idyll. The thirst. The reader. He. Half of autumn. The end of the night. Midsummer. The stoker). S. Fischer Taschenbuch (Collection S. Fischer Vol. 22), Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-596-22308-3 . 137 pages.
  • Wolfgang Hilbig: The stoker. Pp. 104-137 in Jörg Bong (Ed.), Jürgen Hosemann (Ed.), Oliver Vogel (Ed.): Wolfgang Hilbig. Works . Volume stories and short prose. With an afterword by Katja Lange-Müller . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-10-033642-2 .

Secondary literature

  • 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
  • Helmut Böttiger : Monstrous sensuality, negative utopia. Wolfgang Hilbig's GDR Modernism. P. 52–61 in Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Hrsg.): Text + criticism. Issue 123. Wolfgang Hilbig. Munich 1994, ISBN 3-88377-470-7
  • Jan Strümpel: Bibliography on Wolfgang Hilbig. S. 93–97 in Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Hrsg.): Text + criticism. Issue 123. Wolfgang Hilbig. Munich 1994, ISBN 3-88377-470-7
  • Gabriele Eckart : Speech trauma in the texts of Wolfgang Hilbig. in Richard Zipser (Ed.): DDR Studies , Vol. 10. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 0-8204-2645-8
  • Sylvie Marie Bordaux: Literature as Subversion. An examination of the prose work by Wolfgang Hilbig. Cuvillier, Göttingen 2000 (Diss. Berlin 2000), ISBN 3-89712-859-4
  • Angelika Winnen: Kafka reception in the literature of the GDR. Productive readings from Anna Seghers , Klaus Schlesinger , Gert Neumann and Wolfgang Hilbig. P. 223–279: Wolfgang Hilbig: Der Heizer. Literary Studies series, vol. 527. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2006. ISBN 3-8260-2969-0 , 317 pages
  • André Steiner: The narrative self - studies on Wolfgang Hilbig's narrative work. Short stories 1979–1991. Novels 1989–2000. In it pp. 113–129: “Der Heizer” (1980) - The knot as a metaphor for storytelling and memory . Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2008 (Diss. Bremen 2007), ISBN 978-3-631-57960-2
  • Birgit Dahlke : Wolfgang Hilbig. In it pp. 60–65 The Stoker . Meteore Vol. 8. Wehrhahn Verlag, Hannover 2011, ISBN 978-3-86525-238-8

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ The author means himself, the stoker Hilbig from Meuselwitz in Altenburger Land . Until 1978 he worked in part 6 of VEB Maschinenfabrik John Schehr Meuselwitz in Wuitz - Mumsdorf (Dahlke, p. 62 middle).
  2. ↑ Eckart finds in the collection Unterm Neomond a "withdrawn, guilt-laden esthete" (Eckart, p. 147, 8th Zvu).
  3. ↑ Edition used.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edition used, pp. 763 and 765
  2. ↑ Winnen, p. 227 middle
  3. ↑ Steiner, p. 13 middle and p. 101 middle
  4. ↑ Steiner, p. 127, 3. Zvo
  5. ↑ Winnen, p. 229 above
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 125, 3. Zvo
  7. ↑ Edition used, p. 128, 6. Zvo
  8. ↑ quoted in Jan Strümpel, p. 95, left column, point 4, third entry
  9. ↑ Barner, p. 882
  10. ↑ Barner, p. 891, 12. Zvu (see also Wolfgang Hilbig: The view from below . Neue Rundschau 1/1989, p. 42–44)
  11. ↑ Barner, p. 892, 8. Zvo
  12. ↑ Böttiger, p. 56, above
  13. ↑ Bordaux, p. 39 middle
  14. ^ Bordaux, p. 41, 8. Zvo
  15. ^ Bordaux, p. 66, 11th Zvu
  16. ↑ Winnen, from p. 228, 11. Zvo
  17. ↑ Winnen, p. 277