The meeting point
The meeting point is a story by Anna Seghers from 1971, which appeared in the Collection Weird Encounters in 1972 .
Erwin shies away from resisting National Socialism . In this late story the author left the time of her martyr chronicles behind. Erwin has to deal with his fear and his bad conscience. In this context, Hilzinger calls the text a story of “losing yourself and finding yourself again”: In 1945, childhood friend Klaus gave Erwin a chance to start over.
content
Between 1928 and 1933 the two youngsters Erwin Wagner and Klaus Rautenberg became friends in the hiking section of the “ Fichte ” workers ' sports club . The Gotha art locksmith Rautenberg is warned about this leisure contact of his son Klaus. Because Erwin's father, a pipe fitter, hang out the red flag at every opportunity. The art locksmith is more of a paying than an active member of the Social Democrats . He wants Klaus to interact differently. In vain - the childhood friendship holds up.
Klaus learns to be a printer . The handicapped Erwin becomes a typesetter in Erfurt . After his apprenticeship, Klaus turns into an opponent of Hitler . Erwin is active in the Erfurt “Youth Association” and secretly prints leaflets at night in the late winter of 1933 with the heading Hitler means war! After Klaus distributed leaflets, he was arrested without incriminating material and imprisoned for a year and a half. After imprisonment, he only finds employment as an unskilled worker.
Erwin is supposed to deliver the text of a new leaflet to Klaus around 1937 during a German Christian service in Naumburg Cathedral . In the event of a failure, the friends arrange replacement appointments; one in Fulda and the following on the fifth of the month at five o'clock in the afternoon in the post office in Gellhausen. Erwin backs down in Naumburg.
Soon after, he procured new papers and survived the Nazi era as Erwin Schuster under the roof of the printing house owner Schulze in Luckau . The Wehrmacht did not call him up because of his disability. Erwin marries Schulze's elderly, very bony daughter Elfriede, a busy member of the Nazi women's group . You print the local news and swastikas in abundance. The bombers arrive at the end of the war . A direct hit razes Schulze's print shop to the ground. Erwin is sitting in the pub with his father-in-law during the air raid. The two bombed out find shelter in Glogenau. As luck would have it, the village is not too far from Gellhausen. Coincidentally, on October 5, 1945, Erwin met his friend at the Gellhausen post office.
At the time, Klaus had been to the agreed meeting in Naumburg Cathedral. He later managed to escape from Hitler's Germany. He fought against National Socialism until the end of the war . Erwin wants to admit his failure to Klaus. He starts a couple of times against his friend's flood of speech. Klaus forgives everything. The quintessence of his repeated acquittal: Erwin did the right thing because he couldn't have done otherwise.
Thus Erwin's long-awaited atonement will not come to pass. Relegated to himself by friends, he has to cope with the guilt that has been placed on him without outside help.
literature
expenditure
- The meeting point . P. 49–106 in: Anna Seghers: Weird Encounters. (also contains: sagas of the unearthly . The travel encounter ). 149 pages. Aufbau-Verlag Berlin 1972 (2nd edition 1974), without ISBN (edition used)
- The meeting point . P. 450–496 in: Anna Seghers: Erzählungen 1963-1977 . ( The strength of the weak (Agathe Schweigert. The Führer. The Prophet. The reed. Bye. The duel. Susi. Tuomas presents the Sorsa peninsula. The homecoming of the lost people) The real blue . Crossing . Strange encounters ( legends of the unearthly . The meeting point. The travel encounter ). Stone Age. Re-encounter ) Volume XII. Collected works in individual editions. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1981 (2nd edition), 663 pages, without ISBN
Secondary literature
- Heinz Neugebauer: Anna Seghers. Life and work. With illustrations (research assistant: Irmgard Neugebauer, editorial deadline September 20, 1977). 238 pages. Series “Writers of the Present” (Ed. Kurt Böttcher). People and Knowledge, Berlin 1980, without ISBN
- Ute Brandes: Anna Seghers . Colloquium Verlag, Berlin 1992. Volume 117 of the series “Heads of the 20th Century”, ISBN 3-7678-0803-X
- Andreas Schrade: Anna Seghers . Metzler, Stuttgart 1993 (Metzler Collection, Vol. 275 (Authors)), ISBN 3-476-10275-0
- Sonja Hilzinger: Anna Seghers. With 12 illustrations. Series of Literature Studies. Reclam, Stuttgart 2000, RUB 17623, ISBN 3-15-017623-9
Remarks
- ↑ Anna Seghers probably means a communist youth association (edition used, p. 62, 9. Zvo and p. 63, 1. Zvu and Neugebauer, p. 202, 13. Zvo).
- ↑ Around 1937: After the Naumburg episode, events related to the Munich Agreement are mentioned (edition used, p. 86).
- ↑ Sometimes Anna Seghers uses a less common, colloquial verb: "Klaus was somehow swept through." (Edition used, p. 88, 7. Zvo: witschen for hatching and wiping)
- ↑ Anna Seghers explained to the interviewer of the weekly magazine Sonntag : “As you know, I like to leave some decisions to the reader.” (Quoted in Brandes, p. 87, 7. Zvo)