the welder

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The welder is a short story by Ingeborg Bachmann that was written around 1959. The text from the author's estate was only given a title by the editors of the edition used.

Within a quarter of a year, a Viennese craftsman was driven to his death by reading Nietzsche, among other things .

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The 35-year-old Andreas Reiter from Floridsdorf works as a welder for the municipal utilities and repairs the tram rails. Reiter's misfortune begins when he finds a book with the title “ The Happy Science ” in his regular coffee and reads it. Reiter had never read before. After reading it, he wants more. Reiter spends the last of his money on books. He has to read, can no longer work and is laid off. He urgently needs money for his wife Rosi, who has a lung disease, and for the maintenance of the two young children they share.

The woman dies of tuberculosis . Reiter commits suicide.

Paul Speiser-Hof in Floridsdorf

time and place

Vienna: The Floridsdorfer Bridge , from which Andreas Reiter throws himself to his death, is a place steeped in history. Here in the late winter of 1934 the workers fought against the overwhelming state.

Reiter probably lived with his small family in the Paul-Speiser-Hof .

interpretation

In order to explain Reiters' suicide, Geesen takes Rosis, the attending physician, into account. The doctor tries in vain to make the welder understand - there is a world of difference between philosophy and life. But because Reiter did not want to hear and took the books too seriously, he ran into ruin.

Geesen sees the dialogical argument between the two protagonists Reiter and the doctor at the core of the short story. In this bitter dispute, the narrator is closer to the position of the doctor than the rider. The uneducated welder appears to be superior to the doctor - a student - from his philosophical point of view. Finally, Reiter asked about the meaning of life and philosophy. When Reiter recognizes the pointlessness, only death remains for him.

After reading the philosophical reading, Reiter came to discoveries that made him forget his job and family. Reiter failed in the search for the "connection" between book wisdom and the demands of family and society.

Schneider calls Nietzsche's above-mentioned aphorisms, to which Reiter ultimately succumbs, "escape fantasies". Schneider initially portrays Ingeborg Bachmann as a Nietzsche critic. In particular, the author indirectly condemns Nietzsche's elitist distance from democracy. But Schneider made it unmistakably clear that Ingeborg Bachmann was not generally against Nietzsche.

In search of the meaning of life, Reiter found paradoxes. Schmaus quotes Höller , after the rider in "holy madness" - something like Hölderlin - end.

literature

Text output

First publication and edition used
  • Christine Koschel (Ed.), Inge von Weidenbaum (Ed.), Clemens Münster (Ed.): Ingeborg Bachmann. Works. Volume two: Stories . 609 pages. Piper, Munich 1978 (5th edition 1993), ISBN 3-492-11702-3 , pp. 59-75

Secondary literature

  • Peter Beicken : Ingeborg Bachmann. Beck, Munich 1988. ISBN 3-406-32277-8 (Beck'sche series: authors' books, vol. 605)
  • Kurt Bartsch : Ingeborg Bachmann. Metzler, Stuttgart 1997 (2nd edition, Metzler Collection. Volume 242). ISBN 3-476-12242-5
  • Mechthild Geesen: The destruction of the individual in the context of the loss of experience and language in the modern age. Figure conception and narrative perspective Ingeborg Bachmanns. Schäuble, Rheinfelden 1998. ISBN 3-87718-836-2 (Diss. Munich 1998)
  • Monika Albrecht (Hrsg.), Dirk Göttsche (Hrsg.): Bachmann-Handbuch. Life - work - effect . Metzler, Stuttgart 2002. ISBN 3-476-01810-5
  • Joachim Eberhardt: “There are no quotations for me”: Intertextuality in Ingeborg Bachmann's poetic work. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2002 (Diss. Göttingen 2001). ISBN 3-484-18165-6 , pp. 173-184


Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edition used, p. 604, last entry and p. 600
  2. ↑ Geesen, p. 103, 9. Zvo
  3. ↑ Beicken, p. 164, 8. Zvo
  4. ↑ Beicken, p. 163, 20. Zvo
  5. ↑ Geesen, pp. 102–111
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 72, 5th Zvu
  7. ↑ Bartsch, p. 110, 12. Zvo
  8. ↑ Jost Schneider in: Albrecht and Göttsche, p. 123, right column
  9. ↑ Jost Schneider in: Albrecht and Göttsche, p. 123, right column, 21st Zvu
  10. ↑ Jost Schneider in: Albrecht and Göttsche, p. 124, left column, center
  11. ↑ Eberhardt, p. 184 above
  12. ^ Marion Schmaus in: Albrecht and Göttsche, p. 260, right column, middle