The head wage

The Head Wage is Anna Seghers ' second novel , published in Amsterdam in 1933.

Brandes writes: "The novel ... is today a unique literary document for the successfully established National Socialism in the country."

content

In the summer of 1932, Johann Schulz knocked on his distant relatives in Oberweilerbach, a farming village in Rheinhessen . The 20-year-old Leipzig unemployed foundry -Hilfsarbeiter is a warrant searched. He is said to have stabbed a police officer to death on April 3 during a hunger rally .

Of course, Johann didn’t tie his relatives, a farmer’s family of seven, to his escape. The impoverished landlord Andreas Bastian cannot use an additional eater at the table. But he doesn't show Johann the door. Andreas Bastian also doesn't ask where from and why. The wife Margarete, however, gives the farmer and the reader information. Her “deceased” - Andreas Bastian had married the widow Margarete Altmeier - had a sister in the neighboring village of Botzenbach. She had moved to Saxony with a certain Schulz .

The hard-working Johann makes himself useful in the house and yard. At the behest of Andreas Bastian, he reluctantly, obediently and with a pounding heart entered the office. The office is the living room of the rich farmer Merz. Old Merz is the bailiff in Oberweilerbach. Johann holds his breath. The old man stamps the registration slip and does not ask where from and why.

The old farmer Algeier was the first to discover the profile; a red poster on the wall with a photo of Johann. Algeier got lost in the Billingen town hall. The farmer had previously visited the agricultural machinery shop in the nearby district town. Mr. Kastrizius, the shopkeeper, had Algeier take away the new centrifuge because the payment was not made on schedule. If Algeier reported Johann Schulz, a stranger to the village, and received the 500 Mark reward , he would be out of the woods. Then the unemployment of the daughter Marie would be acceptable if necessary. Frau Struwe in Billingen had given notice to her maid Marie because her husband, the bank clerk Struwe, had been fired. The 25 marks that Marie had sent every month are missing from the Algeier household budget. Algeier does not display Johann. He forbids his son Paul to join the group of eight of SA group leader Kunkel. Kunkel owns a flourishing gardening business in Oberweilerbach and exploits the gardener Kößlin, a young SA man, who was previously unemployed in Billingen.

Marie and Johann fall in love and finally separate out of reasons. Johann Schulz, who left the SPD, sympathizes with the communists. Occasionally he meets with his comrades in Billingen.

The farmer Jakob Schüchlin was the second to discover the profile. Schüchlin had been summoned to Billingen. At the office, the photo of his dead wife Susann was presented to him for identification. The tyrannical farmer had given birth to the woman one child after the other and, on top of that, made the unfortunate woman work hard all the time. The hard-hearted Schüchlin had driven Susann to death in order to get her inheritance. Shortly after giving birth, the woman drowned herself in a remote place in the village stream. Schüchlin, deeply satisfied with the death of his wife, does not report Johann.

Third, Naphtel and old Merz discover the profile almost at the same time. The Jew Naphtel wants to sell a property for Merz in Billingen and takes the opportunity to meet the old rich farmer in the district town. Naphthel's gaze falls first on the red poster. He instinctively hides his new knowledge from his counterpart, the old business customer. The farmer's gaze falls on the poster. Neither Naphtel nor old Merz report Johann, but Merz prepares a thunderous report of what happened in his “office” at home.

Kößlin, as hard-working as Johann, made friends with the Leipzig worker. Johann is well aware of which political corner the friend comes from. Johann suspects that Kößlin could be dangerous to him and puts his little knack together. Then he stays. This is a mistake. The gardener gets the ball rolling. When confronted by Kunkel, he betrays his new friend. Kößlin does not want the 500 marks. Kunkel has nothing more urgent to do than report Johann to the bailiff Merz. The old farmer is terribly sorry for that. He reaches into the drawer and shows the disappointed nursery owner the finished, stamped advertisement. Case done. Old Merz will collect the 500 marks.

interpretation

Sentences like “Kößlin betrays Johann” above in the summary of the novel are true, but pure conclusions. The reader has to figure this truth together from the incomplete lecture of the by no means omniscient author: Kunkel says to his subordinate Kößlin: “But you've been in town for a long time.” Then the person addressed thinks: 'This man is my group leader. I have to go through something difficult right now. And if Johann takes me a thousand times. ' Then he concludes the self-torture with the words: "You, Kunkel, the following happened to me earlier ..." Anna Seghers scores three points. The reader should most likely think that Kößlin was the last to see the poster. Because the following, succinctly described “arrest” does not allow any other conclusion with the best will.

The novel is more than the criminal plot outlined above under "content". It contains a meticulous picture of village life with haunting character studies. These include, for example, the story of the ten-year-old tall Dora Bastian and her exploitation by hostile relatives, the description of the wedding of the laid-back Luise Merz with the village teacher, the bitter stories of the very young bride Sophie Bastian, the suicide Susann Schüchlin and the unhappy couple Rendel. The abundance of described misdeeds of the SA must be mentioned. Sturmführer Zillich from Botzenbach beats Johann up with "unimaginable brutality". Margarete Bastian fetches cold water at home and puts a pillow under the head of the seriously injured man. Johann is led away by two gendarmes who have been summoned. Schüchlin cannot forgive himself for his neglect and has to get over the damage caused by inattention. Algeier is frightened and takes off his hat to Johann as if it were a dead person or a baptized person. Andreas Bastian feels guilty. He should have asked.

It is not just this briefly indicated psychological underpinning of human behavior that appears excellent. As a city dweller, Anna Seghers knows astonishingly well about everyday work processes in the village.

reception

Schrade praises Anna Seghers describing the needs of the smallholders shortly before 1933 in a cool, unbiased manner and without propaganda. The text “still has its great charisma today” from this writing attitude. Schrade is also astonished by the dominance of the subliminal in the sense that decisions in peasant action (apart from the SA men) are less the result of a struggle. Algeier's and Schüchlin's behavior is rather rooted in centuries-old peasant resentment. Johann is therefore neither betrayed nor protected by the small farmers.

In terms of design, Johann Schulz and Kößlin are the two complementary figures. Algeier, who has never heard the word class struggle , instinctively acts in solidarity. On the other hand, Schüchlin did not report Johann out of dullness. Neugebauer cannot follow Sigrid Bock's apostrophication of the novel as gloomy and hopeless.

The reader learns next to nothing about Johann's political motives. Anna Seghers mostly remains in her narrative presence and if possible avoids looking back. Using Zillichs, it will be shown how the endangerment of smallholder property through capitalization of agriculture makes people susceptible to National Socialism. Batt regrets the lack of "historical-philosophical sovereignty and epic composure" of the novel in view of the severe defeat of the German communists in 1933, when it was written and published.

Neugebauer notices that the author has turned away from the spontaneous fighter that sometimes appeared in earlier works. When, for example, Johann seeks understanding from the comrades in Billingen, they hold up his Leipzig stabbing and whistle back: “You ... stabbed wildly. Well, now shut up, now learn something. "

literature

Text output

First edition

• The head wage. Novel from a German village in the late summer of 1932. Querido Verlag , Amsterdam 1933, linen. 265 pages

Used edition

• The head wage. Novel from a German village in the late summer of 1932. P. 5–170 in: Anna Seghers: Der Kopflohn. The way through February . Volume II of the collected works in separate editions . 410 pages. Aufbau-Verlag GmbH, Berlin 1952

Secondary literature

• Heinz Neugebauer: Anna Seghers. Life and work. With illustrations (research assistant: Irmgard Neugebauer, editorial deadline September 20, 1977). 238 pages. Series “Writers of the Present” (Ed. Kurt Böttcher). People and Knowledge, Berlin 1980, without ISBN
• Kurt Batt : Anna Seghers. Trial over development and works. With illustrations. 283 pages. Reclam, Leipzig 1973 (2nd edition 1980). Licensor: Röderberg, Frankfurt am Main (Röderberg-Taschenbuch vol. 15), ISBN 3-87682-470-2
• Ute Brandes: Anna Seghers . Colloquium Verlag, Berlin 1992. Volume 117 of the series “Heads of the 20th Century”, ISBN 3-7678-0803-X
• Andreas Schrade: Anna Seghers . Metzler, Stuttgart 1993 (Metzler Collection, Vol. 275 (Authors)), ISBN 3-476-10275-0
• Sonja Hilzinger: Anna Seghers. With 12 illustrations. Series of Literature Studies. Reclam, Stuttgart 2000, RUB 17623, ISBN 3-15-017623-9
• Günter Helmes : "Some are happy about the rain, they still have grain from last year, they don't need any." Country life, agriculture and capitalism in Adam Scharrer's farmer's novel Moles (1933). With introductory references to Anna Seghers' Der Kopflohn (1933) In: Jahrbuch zur Kultur und Literatur der Weimarer Republik, Vol. 15, 2011/12, pp. 147–176.

Remarks

1. ↑ The poetic prose is sparsely interspersed and therefore all the more remarkable. Shortly before the bride Sophie has to go to bed with young Merz on her wedding night, she goes to the open window and wanted to "fly away over the brown and colorful garden, over the forest behind which the sun went down." (Edition used, p. 168, 11th Zvu)
2. ↑ Reference should also be made to the struggles of the NSDAP against the SPD and the KPD before the Reichstag elections on July 31, 1932 (Hilzinger, p. 167, 18. Zvo). When counting the votes after the election, the bailiff Merz practices a procedure according to which it is verified in detail who has voted whom: Algeier has voted invalid. (Edition Used, pp. 146–147). The opportunism of old Merz (edition used, p. 130, center) also sheds light on human weakness.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hilzinger, p. 204, 4. Zvo
2. ↑ Brandes, p. 42, 2nd Zvu
3. ↑ Edition used, p. 163, 10th Zvu
4. ^ Schrade, p. 42, 6th Zvu
5. ↑ Schrade, p. 41, middle
6. ↑ Schrade, p. 42, 15. Zvu
7. ↑ Hilzinger, p. 169, 6th Zvu
8. ↑ Neugebauer, p. 46, 18. Zvo
9. ^ Batt, p. 83, 3rd Zvu
10. ↑ Neugebauer, p. 46, 8th Zvu
11. ^ Batt, p. 84, 17. Zvo
12. ^ Batt, p. 86, 19. Zvo
13. ^ Batt, p. 89, 6th Zvu
14. ↑ Neugebauer, p. 46, 12th line below.
15. ↑ Edition used, p. 123, 10. Zvo