The Girls' War (novel)

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The Girls' War is a novel by Manfred Bieler that was published by Hoffmann and Campe in 1975 and filmed in 1977 by Bernhard Sinkel and Alf Brustellin .

action

The novel begins in the 1930s and ends with the end of the Second World War. The German Sellmann family moves from Dessau to Prague , where Anton Sellmann, up to now an aspiring employee of the “Saxonia”, takes over the management of the Böhmische Landesbank. In addition to career opportunities, Prague also offers the youngest son of the family Heinrich, who has gone blind after suffering from measles , to heal . In the foreground of the plot, however, is the development of the three very different daughters Christine, Sophie and Katharina, who come to Prague as teenagers and whose growing up the novel describes in detail. The youngest daughter, the red-haired, uncompromisingly intelligent Katharina falls in love with the son of a Slovak communist, with whom she later runs away and ultimately fights against the German occupiers. The black-haired Sophie trained as a singer and, after a passionate affair with her brother-in-law, entered a Catholic monastery, which she left as a result of the war and moved in with a Slovak music student. The eldest sister, the blonde Christine, marries a wealthy Czech porcelain dealer and turns out to be an ambitious businesswoman who puts power and economic success above private happiness. The novel links the fate of the three women with the political and social development of the first half of the 20th century in Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. At the end of the ten or so years, after their dreams and ambitions have shattered, the three women are about to return to Germany.

The author Manfred Bieler himself came from Zerbst , went to school in Dessau and initially lived as a writer in the GDR before moving to the CSSR in 1964 , which he left in 1968 in favor of the Federal Republic of Germany. These biographical stations are echoed in the novel in the detailed descriptions of downtown Prague, the romantic memories of Betty Sellmann's home, Zerbst, and Anton Sellmann's preference for furniture from the Dessau Bauhaus environment .

Narrative technique

In a review of the book in 2010, eight years after Bieler's death, Michael Kleeberg compared Bieler's narrative in the Girls' War with Uwe Tellkamp's novel "The Tower" :

"A similar technique of applying numerous layers of paint to create a luminous varnish of narrative density, the scattering of short comic chapters to amuse the dark material, the exact knowledge of various professional milieus, the ability not to trace an urban space but to create it literarily The difference lies in the fact that Tellkamp prefers metaphor as a stylistic device, whereas Bieler prefers the sentence, the aphorism, the pointed exaggeration. "

What excited the reviewer of the world 35 years after the book was published, the Spiegel reviewer saw rather critically shortly after the book was published: "That a lot of comments, small observations and conversational contributions can be seen and heard, but that the whole thing does not stick together badly. " Der Spiegel also accused the author of sliding into kitsch and only apparently ingenious gestures, but ultimately senseless pomposity and a "penchant for great opera".

reception

The novel was published in eight editions as well as several licensed editions and sold very well immediately after publication. It has been translated into English, Dutch and Czech. In 1977 the bestseller was filmed by Bernhard Sinkel and Alf Brustellin .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c BOOKS: Three sisters . In: Der Spiegel . tape 39 , September 22, 1975 ( spiegel.de [accessed July 31, 2018]).
  2. ↑ Michael Kleeberg: Kleebergs Canon: Swan song on old Prague . In: THE WORLD . February 20, 2010 ( welt.de [accessed July 31, 2018]).
  3. ↑ Bieler, Manfred. In: Biographical Databases. Federal Foundation for Work-Up, accessed on August 1, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Manfred Bieler. Retrieved July 31, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Michael Kleeberg: Kleebergs Canon: Swan song on old Prague . In: THE WORLD . February 20, 2010 ( welt.de [accessed July 31, 2018]).
  6. ^ Catalog of the German National Library. Retrieved August 1, 2018 .
  7. ↑ FILM: Cabbage and Turnips . In: Der Spiegel . tape 38 , September 12, 1977 ( spiegel.de [accessed August 1, 2018]).