The Malik

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The Malik is an avant-garde letter novel by Else Lasker-Schüler , written in 1913 and 1917 and illustrated by the author herself, published in 1919 by Paul Cassirer in Berlin.

The novel is about the death of a very imaginative hermaphrodite who wrote love letters and his male, silent recipient. Else Lasker-Schüler wrote it to overcome the death of the painter Franz Marc, who was drafted into the German army in 1914 and fell in early 1916 after a double shell shot off Verdun .

overview

Malik , one of the 99 names of Allah , means king .

The first part of the Malik , written in 1913 , consisting of 55 letters to the dear blue rider Franz Marc, was preprinted in the Aktion and the Brenner between 1913 and 1915. After Franz Marc died in war, in the second part, The Coronation Speech, written from 1917 onwards, the letter form was largely abandoned and told about the Malik.

The letter writer calls her "beloved half-brother" " Ruben from the Bible" or Ruben Marc von Cana. Even if she calls herself Joseph in the same breath and also Malik, King of Thebes and Prince Yussef (more precisely: Abigail Yusuf Basileus or Abigail the First of Thebes), it is easier for the reader to imagine a letter writer. Because Malik fell in love with the Nibelung King Giselheer . The Malik stumbles down the steps several times. Once Tristan catches him with his strong soldier hands. The Grail Prince is about to fall in love with Malik. In addition, the Malik is offered the prospect of marriage to Enver Pascha . Abigail also referred to "Sister of King David ".

architecture

Hammer writes that the fictional kingdom of Thebes is the author's imagination - also for playful self-styling of herself, including her circle of friends.

The blueprint of this phantasmagoria is based on at least three levels - firstly, the author's "present", i.e. the period around the First World War , secondly the Old Testament period and thirdly the rest. The latter period includes, for example, the beginning of the 13th century (Giselheer), the 18th ( Friedemann Bach ) and 19th ( Caspar Hauser , Der Grüne Heinrich ) centuries.

But actually there is a noteworthy action in " Cana times ", whereby the world war is brought in without hesitation.

content

The Malik Jussuf, as the letter writer Else Lasker-Schüler calls herself, sends love letters to his / her half-brother Ruben, who is married to Mareia , aka blue rider Marc or blue Franz. Mareia is also the name of one of the cities of Malik. The ruler appoints Daniel Jesus Paul as his governor and later makes him vice-emperor. Torn to and fro, the Malik wants to storm forward, wants to found the magazine “Die wilden Juden”, is afraid of the future and yet waits for the victory song “ Heil Dir im Siegerkranz ”. However, then - " I had a comrade " comes to mind. Nevertheless, Prince Yussef goes to war and returns home as Emperor Abigail Yussef. He can't care much about power. One day a year he allows himself and his empire to be ruled by his “loyal negro Ossman”.

Ruben falls in the ranks of the Aryans in the fight against the Romans . The Malik buries the expensive half-brother "in the royal vault near Thebes". Giselheer turns away from Malik. The subjects rebel, penetrate the throne room and do not stab the Malik, but accidentally stab one of his favorite chiefs. The Malik forgets his smile, falls into apathy and falls into a trap of his renegade chiefs. Malik hangs himself ashamed. His brother Bulus Andromeid Alicibiad the Beautiful ascends the throne.

First World War

Else Lasker-Schüler deals with the "occidental war", as she calls the First World War. One of the textual evidence for this assertion is quoted: “The emperor only asked for Ruben [alias Prince Marc of Cana alias Franz Marc], ... but he was ... gone into battle with the Aryans against the Romans and Slavs and Britten. ”The emperor, that is the inconsolable Malik Abigail Jussuf von Thebes, who was abandoned by Ruben and behind whom Else Lasker-Schüler hides insufficiently, initially wants to“ fight in the front row ”, is considered a dreaded boomerang thrower, but ultimately turns out to be In contrast to his sometimes bellicose environment, he is an outright opponent of the world war and stays away from “the bleeding country trade”: “Abigail Yussef was determined not to take part in this human battle under any conditions.” What wonder - the Malik has a soft heart .

Kaiser Wilhelm is mentioned along with this war and he and his loved ones are portrayed as hideous monsters.

Identities

There is little or no action behind the real names. First of all, the reader would like to dismiss this abundant attribution as accessories: Karl Kraus , Dr. Gottfried Benn , Peter Baum , Albert Ehrenstein - author of "Tubutsch", letter companion Wieland Herzfelde , the admirable " Poet Prince Richard Dehmel ", Franz Werfel , Daniel Jesus Paul Leppin - King of Bohemia, Ludwig Kainer , Heinrich Campendonk , John Höxter , Egon Adler , Fritz Lederer , Enver Pascha, Carl von Moor , Friedemann Bach and the Green Heinrich. Sprengel contradicts this: The Nibelunge Giselheer is Gottfried Benn. And Else Lasker-Schüler admits in her essay Kete Parsenow : "The Venus of Siam is the Kete Parsenow."

In addition, Prince Sascha of Moscow is Johannes Holzmann alias Senna Hoy and heir to the throne Bulus is Else Lasker-Schüler's son Paul (1899–1927).

Mareia points to Prague because the Malik installed Paul Leppin as governor in Mareia.

Else Lasker-Schüler brings local color from her place of birth; tells about the death of Mr. Pitter von Elberfeld and names his childhood friend Peter Baum. Both are identical. Peter is called Platt Pitter in Wuppertal .

Quote

  • Emperor Yusuf Abigail I in his coronation speech: "... he who cannot obey cannot rule ..."

shape

Carelessly, Else Lasker-Schüler blends people, places and events over the centuries - no, millennia - into a pulp and berlins “Amalie, what has been puffed for you”. The reader, attuned to the Orient, is led to the Ku'damm and the Tauentzien .

The person Franz Marc is undoubtedly split into the two characters Ruben (Malik's expensive half-brother) and Prince Marc von Cana. Because Ruben falls and is buried by Malik (see above under "Content") and then Prince Marc von Cana enters the stage of the tricky storyline a little later, lively.

Towards the end of the novel something like a plot arises, but the form appears to be jagged all in all. The text teems with aberrations tinged with contemporary history. Else Lasker-Schüler hands out envelopes; accuses her poet colleague Isidor Quartner of plagiarism, for example.

Malik Abigail the First of Thebes terminates in Islamic terms : "My coronation ceremony takes place on the third Muharam ...". The currency in Thebes is the mammoth thaler.

reception

  • After Sprengel briefly discussed the epistolary novel Mein Herz and the Peter Hille book , he aptly introduces the brief consideration of Malik : "The game of confusion is becoming more complicated ..."
  • Bänsch discovers a mannered tone in places .
  • Sigrid Bauschinger reads the Malik “as a personal, aesthetic and political testament” of the poet: “In this complex work” - this “biographical chunk” that the author throws at the reader - reality and fiction are closely intertwined. The Malik is desperate out of disappointment. He hanged himself after the last humiliation by his own entourage. Bauschinger sees the Malik as a counter-emperor designed by the author to the Kaiser Wilhelm.
  • Hammer writes that Tino von Baghdad and Prince Jussuf von Thebes were self-productions by Else Lasker-Schülers, whom Gottfried Benn considered to be “extravagant”. The fictional Kingdom of Thebes should be read as an alternative to the Reich Wilhelm II.
  • The story of Joseph enjoyed reading the author as a child.
  • Maria Marc had taken note of Else Lasker-Schüler's letters to her husband Franz Marc - to put it mildly - with astonishment.

literature

Text output

Initial release
  • The Malik. An imperial story with pictures and drawings. With a colored frontispiece “Schloss Ried” by Franz Marc and numerous drawings by the author, four of them in color on panels. Paul Cassirer, Berlin 1919. 102 pages (with a printed dedication to "my unforgettable Franz Marc the Blue Rider in eternity")
Other issues

Secondary literature

  • Dieter Bänsch : Else Lasker-Schüler. To criticize an established image. Diss. University of Marburg 1969. 271 pages
  • Else Lasker-Schüler: The Prince of Thebes and other prose. dtv 10644, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-423-10644-1
  • Friedhelm Kemp (ed.): Else Lasker-Schüler. Collected works in three volumes. Vol. 2. Prose and plays . Suhrkamp- Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-518-40838-0 ( table of contents )
  • Doerte Bischoff: Suspended Creation. Figures of sovereignty and ethics of difference in Else Lasker-Schüler's prose. (Diss. Uni Tübingen 1999) Max Niemeyer, Tübingen 2002, ISBN 3-484-15095-5
  • Sigrid Bauschinger : Else Lasker-Schüler. Biography. Suhrkamp Taschenbuch 3777, Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2006 (Licensor: Wallstein, Göttingen 2004), ISBN 3-518-45777-2
  • Almuth Hammer: Forgotten in the Jewish tradition . S. 141 in: Günter Butzer (Ed.), Manuela Günter (Ed.): Cultural forgetting. Media - rituals - places . Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-35580-7
  • Peter Sprengel : History of German-Language Literature 1900–1918. From the turn of the century to the end of the First World War. CH Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-52178-9
  • Kerstin Decker : My heart - nobody. The life of the Else Lasker students. Propylaea, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-549-07355-1

Web links

  • DNB entries
  • WorldCat entries
  • Entry on HathiTrust
  • Karl Jürgen Skrodzki in March 2001: Malik visits Prince Sascha (Senna Hoy) in Metscherskoje. See also A Wild Dog in the WOZ .
  • Karl Jürgen Skrodzki on December 20, 2014: Overview : “Contributions by Else Lasker-Schülers in almanacs, anthologies, yearbooks, catalogs and programs”.
  • Hartmut Ernst: Review on lyrikwelt.de.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Joseph and Reuben are two of the twelve sons of Jacob from Genesis .
  2. ↑ Gottfried Benn alias Giselheer (see under “Identities”) marries the actress Edith Brosin (“Editha vom Sachsenlande”, edition used, p. 96, 6. Zvu) from Dresden.
  3. ↑ Although Else Lasker-Schüler encrypts essentials too often, she writes the word World War II in the text (edition used, p. 59, 14th Zvu, p. 64, 11th Zvo).
  4. ↑ Else Lasker-Schüler writes “Daniel Jesus Paul Leppin”. The reader has to pick: Daniel Jesus is a novel by Paul Leppin.
  5. ↑ That seems consistent. For example, it is said in the text that the Prince of the Nibelungs is in Flanders (edition used, p. 63, 9th Zvo). Gottfried Benn was there during the storming of Antwerp . In addition, Benn's copy of Prince von Thebes Else Lasker-Schülers has a handwritten dedication: "To Doctor Benn, my loyal playmate Gisel, King Giselheer of the Nibelungs from his Prince Jussuf." (Else Lasker-Schüler cited in Bauschinger, p. 210, 17 . Zvo)
  6. ↑ The Venus of Siam is beautiful spoils of war that Malik keeps "like an incomparable work of art" (edition used, p. 60, center) as his moon woman at court. She finally mourns the death of Malik and blames his indifference to a Nibelungenzauber (edition used, p. 100, below).
  7. ↑ Wieland Herzfelde named his publishing house after Malik. (Decker, p. 289, 15. Zvu)

See also

Since 1983 there has been a “Café Malik” on Schlossplatz in Münster .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Decker, p. 282, 3rd Zvu
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 42
  3. ↑ Edition used, p. 11, 3rd Zvo and p. 16, 3rd Zvu
  4. ↑ Edition used, p. 44, 13. Zvo
  5. ↑ Edition used, p. 11, 10. Zvo
  6. ↑ Edition used, pp. 12, 11. Zvo and pp. 16, 6. Zvo
  7. ↑ Edition used, p. 28 above
  8. ↑ Edition used, p. 31 above
  9. ↑ Edition used, p. 14, 2. Zvo
  10. ↑ Edition used, p. 13 middle
  11. ↑ Edition used, p. 41 below
  12. ↑ Hammer, p. 141, 6th Zvu
  13. ↑ Hammer, p. 141, 3. Zvo
  14. ↑ Edition used, p. 11, 4. Zvo
  15. ↑ Edition used, p. 12, 7. Zvo, p. 27, 11. Zvu
  16. ↑ Edition used, pp. 10, 17. Zvo
  17. ↑ Edition used, p. 15, 1. Zvu
  18. ↑ Edition used, p. 28, 9. Zvo
  19. ↑ Edition used, p. 30, 1. Zvu
  20. ↑ Edition used, p. 52, 13. Zvu
  21. ↑ Edition used, p. 14, 5. Zvo
  22. ↑ Edition used, p. 59, 14. Zvu
  23. ↑ Edition used, p. 65, 1. Zvo
  24. ↑ Edition used, p. 14 middle
  25. ↑ Edition used, p. 19, 3rd Zvu
  26. ↑ Edition used, p. 23 below
  27. ↑ Edition used, p. 30 middle, p. 56, 4th Zvu, p. 62, 12th Zvo
  28. ↑ Edition used, p. 33 above
  29. ↑ Edition used, p. 37, 2nd Zvu
  30. ↑ Edition used, p. 38 below
  31. ↑ Sprengel, p. 288, 6. Zvo
  32. ↑ Lasker-Schüler: The Prince of Thebes and other prose, p. 272, 11th Zvu
  33. ^ New German biography : Kete Parsenow ; see also correspondence between Kete Parsenow and Karl Kraus
  34. ↑ see also: Kemp, p. 274, quoted in Bischoff, p. 324
  35. ↑ Edition used, p. 32, 5th Zvu
  36. ↑ Edition used, p. 101, 1. Zvu
  37. ↑ Bauschinger, p. 261
  38. ↑ Bauschinger, p. 233 middle
  39. ↑ Dat Dahler Platt: Pitter
  40. ↑ Edition used, p. 43, 14. Zvo
  41. ↑ Edition used, p. 9, 16. Zvo
  42. ↑ Edition used, p. 13, 6. Zvo
  43. ↑ Isidor Quartner
  44. ↑ Edition used, p. 29, 14. Zvo
  45. ↑ Edition used, p. 32, 8. Zvo
  46. ↑ Sprengel, p. 404, 4th Zvu
  47. ↑ Bänsch, p. 64, 17th Zvu
  48. ↑ Bauschinger, p. 262, 9. Zvu - p. 263, 5. Zvu
  49. ↑ Bauschinger, p. 232.
  50. ↑ Gottfried Benn, quoted in Hammer, p. 140 below
  51. ↑ Hammer, p. 143, 11. Zvo
  52. ↑ Decker, p. 171, 6. Zvo
  53. ↑ Decker, p. 271, 5th Zvu - p. 281
  54. ↑ see also edition used, p. 44 and p. 51
  55. ↑ cafe-malik.de