The tobacconist (novel)

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The Trafikant is a novel by the Austrian author Robert Seethaler from 2012 .

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The novel describes a year in the life of Franz Huchel against the historical background of events in Austria from late summer 1937 to June 1938.

The seventeen-year-old Franz Huchel from Nussdorf am Attersee has been leading a quiet life so far. Unlike his peers, he doesn't have to work in a salt tunnel in the Salzkammergut or on a farm, but has plenty of time for his daydreams, as his single mother received regular cash donations from the wealthy sawmill and wood factory owner Alois Preininger, his lover. During a thunderstorm in late summer 1937, Preiniger drowns in the lake. Ms. Huchel can no longer support her son from her wages as a waitress and sends him to Vienna to work . There she found him an apprenticeship with a childhood friend, the war invalid from the First World War Otto Trsnjek, in his newspaper and tobacco shop . A completely new phase of life begins for Franz. It is the time of National Socialism before and after the annexation of Austria .

One of his tasks in the tobacco shop on Währinger Straße in the 9th district is to read all the newspapers that are sold here every day. They reflect more and more clearly the change in mood and the restriction of freedom of thought in the country. Otto Trsnjek became his political role model in this context, especially since his neighboring butcher Roßhuber was a Nazi sympathizer. One night Roßhuber smeared the tobacco shop with chicken blood and the slogan "Here the Jew is buying". One of these regular Jewish customers mentioned is Sigmund Freud , whom Franz carries the Neue Freie Presse and a packet of Virginia cigars to his apartment.

Franz falls in love with Böhmin Anezka, who is three years his senior , and whom he meets in Vienna's Prater . He experiences happy hours with her and makes his first sexual experiences. Anezka works as a housekeeper during the day and dances in the evening as the naked Indian beauty N'Tschina in the backyard cabaret Zur Grotte . For them, Franz is the “Burschi” and no solid relationship develops.

Freud becomes an important reference person for Franz, which is why he visits him several times in Berggasse 19 and also accompanies him on a walk to the Volksgarten . When he hoped for help with his lovesickness from the “dork doctor”, as the famous psychoanalyst is commonly called, the professor advises him: “We feel our way through the darkness, at least here and there, to come across something useful. “In the best case scenario, these are dreams, and he recommends that Franz write down his dreams. Otherwise he could not help him: “In the decisive things we are on our own from the start. [...] You have to try your own head. And if he doesn't give you any answers, ask your heart! "

After the annexation of Austria in March 1938, Trsnjek was arrested by the Gestapo in front of his tobacco shop, which the butcher saw and locked up in the Hotel Metropol , the Gestapo headquarters in Vienna . First, Franz calls in to the Gestapo every day to find out how Trsnjek is doing, but is expelled from the Gestapo headquarters under threat of being arrested and receives the news of Trsnjek's alleged cardiac death a few weeks later and the order to continue the tobacco shop. Franz visits the butcher Roßhuber, brings him the news of Trsnjek's death and then gives him a slap in the face, to which Roßhuber does not react.

After Franz von Anezka was only visited for sexual experiences in the meantime, it was only when he proposed to marry and proposed to leave Vienna together that it finally became clear to him that she viewed him as just one of her affairs, when she preferred an SS man to him . Franz is extremely disappointed, especially since he is already familiar with the brutality of the SS officers.

Following Freud's advice, he notes his dreams and, after repairing the tobacco shop, begins to hang his notes of his dreams on the outside of the window almost every day. Persistent passers-by read these notes, which gives the tobacconist some customers. Franz's dreams are mostly confused processing of current events. For example, after an exchange of letters with his mother, in which she tells him about the changes in Franz's home village as a result of the annexation of Austria to the German Reich, he notes about a girl in a white dress standing over a big Ferris wheel under flashing swastikas the city is rolling and everything is rolling down.

Freud's family was allowed to emigrate to London on June 4, 1938. On the day before departure, despite Gestapo surveillance, Franz managed to sneak into Freud's apartment to bid him farewell and slice him his favorite cigar, Hoyo de Monterrey . Franz observes Freud's departure from a distance from Vienna Central Station.

After that, Franz remains alone in the city and decides to protest. On the night of June 7th, he removed the Nazi flag from one of the three flagpoles in front of the Gestapo headquarters in Vienna and hoisted Trsnjek's one-legged trousers, which wafted up in the air like a pointer. The next morning the Gestapo officers, who also arrested Trsnjek, show up at the tobacco shop. Franz hangs up his last dream note and is arrested immediately afterwards. His further fate remains open.

After a leap in time of seven years, the novel ends on March 12, 1945. Anezka looks for Franz Huchel in vain in the closed tobacco shop. Only a yellowed note with the beginning of his last dream is still stuck to the window. It is the note that Franz attached to the tobacco shop shortly before his arrest. Anezka tears off the slip of paper and, as she walks past the Votive Church , hears the roar of the Allied bomber units, which are carrying out the heaviest attack on Vienna that day .

expenditure

filming

The book was in October and November 2017 by director Nicholas Leytner filmed , with Simon Morzé as Franz Huchel and Bruno Ganz as Sigmund Freud.

Stage / theater

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Location of the Steyrtalbahn: Simon Morzé and Bruno Ganz in the film adaptation of "Trafikanten". Oberösterreichische Nachrichten from September 20, 2017, accessed on September 20, 2017.
  2. ↑ Christof Lampart: Hanspeter Müller-Drossaart tells a story of growing up in Steckborn. St. Galler Tagblatt , November 8, 2019.