The lieutenant and his judge
The Lieutenant and His Judge (1970: The Devil's Lieutenant ) is a historical novel by the Hungarian-American writer Maria Fagyas , which takes place in the officers' society of the Austrian Austro-Hungarian monarchy at the beginning of the 20th century.
content
Ten officers from one year of military school in the Joint Army received a mail item containing a sample pack of a sexual enhancer. The sender of the sample is a certain Charles Francis. Captain Richard Mader takes these pills before meeting Anna Gabriel and dies of their effects. The doctors found that the dead man was poisoned with hydrogen cyanide. The officers regard the appointment to the Vienna General Staff as an important and coveted step in their career in order to avoid a desolate service in a provincial town. The Neue Freie Presse reports that a first lieutenant of the 14th Infantry Regiment stationed in Linz was arrested in connection with the murder. The case, which very soon takes on political dimensions and thus also reaches the Austrian Emperor Franz Josef and his designated heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand, is the sole responsibility of the military judiciary; the police and the civil prosecutor are excluded from it. Lieutenant Peter Dorfrichter, also a participant in the 1909 war school class, is suspected of having committed this act by Captain Kunze, who is assigned to deal with this criminal case. Satisfaction is assumed as the motif , as the village judge did not appear on the 1909 advance list due to a new regulation. The perpetrator is arrested and convicted and serves a sentence of several years.
subjects
In addition to the criminal case described, the themes of the novel are comradeship among officers, adultery, betrayal and the supreme authority. The Dorfrichter case takes place against the background of the Danube monarchy and its society, its decadence with opulent officers' balls, extravagant drinking parties in the casino, sophisticated pastime, the upkeep of expensive mistresses , gambling addiction and the resulting debts, secret affairs, adulteries as well as sophisticated military and Court intrigue finds expression.
people
The protagonists are the two profoundly depicted characters Oberleutnant Peter Dorfrichter and investigating magistrate Hauptmann (official name “Hauptmann-Auditor”) Emil Kunze. The book describes the conflict between the two in search of the truth. While Kunze is still traditionally arrested and sees himself more as a lawyer than a soldier and a village judge, who is an aspiring careerist who is committed to “modern warfare”. The village judge is highly intelligent but internally cold and eaten away by excessive ambition. Based on the logic of the time, the judgment of an officer is regarded as almost “infallible” and so Kunze combines the functions of examining magistrate , prosecutor and defense attorney in one position. Other characters are General Wenzel as the village judge's superior, his daughter Lily Wenzel, who had an affair with the murdered Captain Mader, Ana Gabriel, with whom he wanted to meet shortly before his death, Dr. Weinberger, Colonel von Instadt and Emperor Franz Joseph.
Participant in the 1909 advancement list
- 1. Robert Stefan Ahrens, 2nd Infantry Regiment, Eger
- 2. Ludwig Alexander Einthofen, 30th Infantry Regiment, Budapest
- 3. Karl-Heinz Schönhals, 13th Mountain Infantry Brigade, Mostar
- 4. Johann Paul von Gersten, 31st Infantry Brigade, Brasso
- 5. Franz August Widder, 3rd Infantry Regiment, Graz
- 6th Rudolf Prince Hohenstein, 5th Dragoon Regiment, Wiener Neustadt
- 7th Titus Milan Dugonich, 5th Dragoon Regiment, Wiener Neustadt
- 8th Richard Emmerich Mader (†), 8th Uhlan Regiment, Cracow
- 9th Baron Otto Ernst Landsberg-Löwy, 4th Dragoon Regiment, Enns
- 10. Waclaw Jas Hrasko, 5th Infantry Regiment, Sarajevo
- 11. Georg Trautmannsdorf, 28th Infantry Regiment, Nagykanizsa
- 12. Karl Günther Moll, 13th Landwehr Division, Vienna
- 13. Gustav Johann Messemer, 65th Infantry Brigade, Győr
- 14th Zygmunt Géza Oblonsky, 3rd Uhlan Regiment, Bruck
- 15th Zoltán Géza Hódossy, 13th Hussar Regiment, Kecskemét
linguistic style
“ On November 17th, the last day of his life, Captain Richard Mader left his office at the War Department an hour earlier than usual in the afternoon. Anna Gabriel had promised to be in his apartment by six, and he needed time because he would Before she came I wanted to move and take a rest. Behind the joy of seeing Anna again lurked an air of concern. Several times during the day he had been tempted to send a servant with a message to Anna, but then feared that the letter might fall into the hands of a man. "
“ In November she visited him twice. Her lovemaking was as sophisticated as ever, albeit a lot more exhausting now. She had an insatiability that Mader first flattered and then troubled. It pained him to find that he was no longer up to her. This discovery came as a nasty shock for him, especially because it was not the first time that he was no longer able to fulfill his role as a lover as he had before. "
reception
Maria Fagya's book The Lieutenant and His Judge is described as a kind of "time travel into the past" because of its strong expressiveness. In the book, historical events are linked to the social norms of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in a criminal case. The factual novel deals with the inner workings of the Austrian military on the eve of the First World War . The authentic backdrops and characters of the general staff officers, in particular that of the murder victim Captain Mader, are reproduced realistically and in a meticulous manner, creating a lively and exciting plot. The main characters are the main suspect, first lieutenant, village judge, and the investigator, Captain Kunze. Kunze finds himself at odds with his feelings, whether he wishes the charming and dutiful suspect the firing squad or freedom. The content of the story alone is predestined for a film adaptation of a novel. DER SPIEGEL speaks of “ A murder affair from old Austria is solved without wild coincidences and without superfluous meditations. Numerous references to the social impulses or hardening of the Danube Monarchy are clearly visible, but not intrusive, by the local officer's daughter Fagyas. The art of remaining discreet without becoming indistinct also benefits the investigating judge's violent and secret passion for the alleged poisoner. "
German text editions
- Maria Fagyas: The lieutenant and his judge. Translation by Isabella Nadolny, first published in 1971 by Rowohlt-Verlag, Reinbek, also Wunderlich Verlag, 2000, ISBN 3-499-26191-X . (The novel was preprinted as a weekly serial in the magazine “ Stern ”.)
filming
The novel was published in 1974 under the direction of Jörg A. Eggers as a template for the feature film “Verdict in 1910”, which was broadcast by ZDF in 1983. In 1983 the book was made into a film again under the direction of John Goldschmidt . The two-part television film entitled Der Leutnant und seine Richter was shown on ZDF in April 1984 . Helmut Griem as captain Kunze and Ian Charleson as first lieutenant village judge were seen in the main roles .
Web links
- Reviews on Goodreads
Individual evidence
- ↑ Review on Booklooker ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Unusual crime literature: The lieutenant and his judge - Maria Fagyas, reader review on Dooyoo ( Memento of the original from April 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Discreetly cleared up. In: Der Spiegel. 43/1971.
- ↑ Convicted 1910. on: IMDB.com
