The death of the bespoke tailor

Die Tod des Maßschneider is a historical detective novel by Hilal Sezgin , which was first published by Hoffmann and Campe in 1999 . It is the first and so far only independent fiction book publication by the author Sezgin, who later became known mainly in the journalistic and journalistic field.

content

The novel is set in the summer of 1885, when the tailor and city councilor Karl Lübbe is found murdered in the ramparts of Frankfurt. Commissioner Staben, who originally came from Berlin, does not believe in the motive for revenge that appears so plausible to his Frankfurt colleagues: they identify a socialist apprentice tailor Lübbes as responsible for the murder because he had received the dismissal from his employer the day before. As a “Prussian”, as his Frankfurt colleagues call him, Staben has to struggle with prejudices that prevent him from collaborating with his colleagues in this regard. Only in the Jewish lawyer daughter Karoline Stern, who is currently trying to break out of the life path mapped out for her as a higher daughter, does he find a partner, with whom he can research a number of other possible motives for the crime, which both the city parliament and the local tailoring rivals Bringing the focus of the investigation. Ultimately, however, it is also Commissioner Chance that finally resolves the murder.

In addition to the criminal act, Sezgin describes in detail the social and political upheaval in the timeframe in which the act takes place. The investigations into the murder of the master tailor let the Jewish lawyer daughter “see the morals of the Frankfurt citizens in a new light. The acquaintance with some Social Democrats also calls into question their previous view of the world ”.

reception

The work of the then completely unknown author, which can be classified as a historical novel, nevertheless evoked a certain echo. The Hamburger Abendblatt reviewed The Death of the Bespoke Tailor as a crime novel that "seldom succeeds (...) so funny and smart". Christoph Braendle described the work in the Viennese weekly newspaper Falter as "a crime thriller (...) that comes across as cheerful and light-footed and shows the extent to which society has changed since then". Tom Cheesman viewed the novel in a literary essay ( Juggling Burdens of Representation: Black, Red, Gold and Turquoise , 2006) as a work of German-Turkish literature .

In 2000, one year after the first paperback edition was published, Heyne Verlag published a paperback edition of Der Tod des Maßschneider .

expenditure

• The death of the bespoke tailor. Novel. Hoffmann and Campe, 1999 (EA), ISBN 978-3455103922
• The death of the bespoke tailor. Novel. Heyne, Munich 2000 (TB), ISBN 978-3453177178

Single receipts

1. ↑ Hannelore M. Spence: 16th Annual Bibliography  ( 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. , Max Kade Center for Contemporary German Literature, Spring 2000  
2. ↑ Christoph Braendle in Falter: Vienna 49/1999 of December 8, 1999, page 66
3. ↑ German Life and Letters Volume 59 Issue 4, Pages 471 - 487, 2006