The white horse from Perbal

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Der Schimmel von Perbal is the fourth literary travelogue by the Swiss Hans Schwarz and describes his ride through Czechoslovakia and neighboring Polish and Hungarian regions in 1937.

In the year of its publication in 1938, the book was put on the list of harmful and undesirable literature by the National Socialists and was therefore banned in Germany.

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In search of an army horse that he would like to buy privately, Schwarz first came to Hungary. His previous travel horse "Arbalète" is now 16 years old and therefore no longer suitable for trips of this kind. After some searching, Schwarz finds his dream horse in Perbál on the Czechoslovak-Hungarian border. Since the villagers insist on giving the horse its own name, the gelding is simply christened "Kedves" (= darling).

While still on the spot, the “white horse from Perbal” will be broken into by Schwarz during the next few weeks and only then will the actual journey begin. Schwarz is accompanied by a comrade, Lieutenant Rub, who drives ahead with the car and prepares the daily stops for rest. Finally, the Entlebuch male Chüeri is back again, who accompanied Schwarz on his last year's ride to Istanbul and Athens.

Favorite topics

As in his previous books, Schwarz mainly devotes himself to the description of the ride. Under this surface, he keeps turning the reader's gaze to the most varied of peculiarities that he encounters. Sometimes these are supplemented by historical or cultural reminiscences. A special feature of the author are his observations and reflections on horse breeding and keeping animals in the respective regions.

People and culture

Schwarz 'attitude to the current political situation is particularly evident in his encounters with the inhabitants of the villages and towns. As a Swiss and native democrat, he describes the living conditions of the people impartially, but cannot completely escape his own position. Although he repeatedly replies to the question "whether he thinks that there will be war" with the assurance that he knows just as little as the people themselves, he takes a position against the background of the political situation at least insofar as he does highlights technical and technological innovations in the young country.

His praise for the up-and-coming Czech industry and the successful expansion of trunk roads after the country broke away from the Danube Monarchy after gaining independence in 1919 is striking . On the other hand, he is skeptical about the capitalization of people by what was once a small craft shoemaker's business, which has now grown into a nationwide group. Basically, however, Schwarz strives for a moderate stance:

“Without our doing anything, the conversation soon slips into political territory, and we have to maintain our neutrality by abstaining from all judgment. It is true that one often exposes oneself to incorrect judgment, is considered to be lukewarm and disinterested. But it may be better to accept this; our unqualified arbitration judgment would not change anything in the conditions, as much as this judgment is often demanded. "

Typical of Hans Schwarz are his observations on the new, fast-moving times, which make a big difference between life in the country and life in the cities. Again and again he sketches people in whose gestures and behavior he believes to recognize a blissful form of inner calm. He finds this mainly in the features of the elderly and those who live in the country. Even if they be poor and stooped, Black does not hide his sympathy for the people of the province. In the cities, on the other hand, people appear to him as harried and sorrowful. When he saw a young seamstress in Königgrätz , he wondered about her supposedly rural origins and suspected that she believed “to find happiness in the city. Now she is banished to this sunless back alley and lives her sorrowful life to the end like thousands of her sisters in every city " but " somehow she seems to have already broken life " .

Historical

In order to underline the historical rank of the country that Schwarz rides through, he sprinkles explanatory sections into the text and in this way also makes subtle statements about contemporary politics. To the right to the independence of Bohemia resp. Underlining Czechoslovakia, he describes in short words the struggle for supremacy in the Old Kingdom in the Battle of Marchfeld in 1278 , in which both Bohemian and Hungarian troops took part, and whose peoples repeatedly found themselves to be the plaything of great politics in the following centuries .

Hippological

Schwarz admires and values ​​the Puszta people's feeling for their horses. He extensively describes the development of his white horse from foal to riding horse. As a horse connoisseur, he attaches great importance to the presentation of the living conditions under which the horses of the Puszta are raised and trained by their farmers, as it should be for people who are born with horses and who will also die with horses .

shape

The travel report is divided into several chapters, which reflect the chronological progress of the trip. At the beginning of each chapter, the author sends a brief summary to prepare the reader for what is to come.

Although the course of the descriptions implies a certain randomness, Schwarz is by no means aimless on his journey, but rather heads for the next planned location without naming it in advance. In retrospect, the course of the action reveals the chosen structure and the course of the journey.

Schwarz cleverly connects the various topics with one another, so that the reader has to follow the course of events in a sometimes breathtaking way until another lengthy description or an expanded train of thought by the author as a retarding moment calms the flow of reading.

The text is written in High German, which indicates the expected readership. Other books and texts, which he wrote mainly for his Swiss confederates, are largely written in Swiss German .

Text output

  • Schwarz, Hans: The white horse from Perbal. A ride through Czechoslovakia . Zurich 1938.
  • Brief summary on hans-schwarz.ch, Militia Helvetica, Volume III, pp. 105–106.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry on www.berlin.de
  2. ↑ See Schwarz, Hans: Four horses, a dog and three soldiers. Zurich, 1937.
  3. ↑ Schimmel von Perbal, p. 124.
  4. ↑ Schimmel von Perbal, pp. 122–123.
  5. ↑ Schimmel von Perbal, p. 78.

Web links