The tunnel

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First edition, Fischer Verlag, Berlin 1913 with the cover by Hans Baluschek

The tunnel is the most important book by the writer Bernhard Kellermann . It was published in April 1913 by S. Fischer Verlag , Berlin. After just six months, 100,000 copies had been sold; the work became one of the most successful books of the first half of the 20th century. By 1939 it had a total print run of millions and was translated into more than 20 languages.

content

The eponymous tunnel is a transatlantic tunnel that is built with great sacrifice and despite a catastrophic accident.

The protagonist of the novel is the engineer Mac Allen, known as “Mac”, who worked his way up from a simple miner and half-orphan to an engineer and made a fortune by inventing a tool steel known as “Allanite”. This new steel should make it possible to build a tunnel under the Atlantic. Allen plans to reach the American coast 100 km south of New York from Great Britain via northern Spain, the Azores and Bermuda . The project is to be realized within 15 years.

Through his friend, the architect Frank Hobby, Allen came into contact with the American industrialist Charles Horace Lloyd and convinced him of the feasibility of the project. Lloyd ensures the necessary publicity so that an Atlantic Tunnel Syndicate can be founded, which raises the necessary capital by selling shares. In addition to Lloyd and other billionaires, many stocks are also sold to retail investors around the world.

Shortly after the plans were announced, Allen bought the necessary land for the five major construction sites, employed 180,000 workers and became a hero in the world press. However, he neglects his wife Maud and their daughter Edith, as the work on the tunnel takes up all his work. Over the course of several years, huge tidal power plants were built to supply the pumps and the planned trains with energy, while large cities were growing on the construction sites for workers and their families. Tunnel construction is progressing rapidly, although accidents occur again and again and deaths occur almost every day.

In the sixth year of construction, during the shift change, when there are a particularly large number of workers in the tunnel, there is a large explosion that kills several thousand. Panic breaks out, strikes break out on all construction sites. Maud Allen, who runs several social projects for the women of the workers in Mac City , the working class town at the American end of the tunnel, and Edith Allen are lynched. All workers are laid off, which leads to massive misery. The tunnel construction site is poorly maintained by the 8000 engineers, but the work cannot be continued.

A year later it turns out that S. Woolf, the head of the Atlantic Tunnel Syndicate, has embezzled a large sum. Share prices plummet, the company can no longer pay its dividends and has to file for bankruptcy. Anyone who has to admit that the figure of 15 years of construction is based on overly optimistic assumptions will be convicted of fraud and spend several years in prison, but will later be rehabilitated. Everyone who sees himself as a failure personally and professionally withdraws from the world.

Ethel Lloyd, the daughter of CH Lloyd, takes care of everyone and arranges a conversation with her father, who wants to finance the further construction of the tunnel. Allen marries Ethel even though he doesn't love her, and eventually completes the tunnel. Lloyd and Allen are the first passengers to drive through the new tunnel.

reception

Film adaptations

Radio plays

In 1975 the then Südwestfunk (today: SWR) produced a 214-minute radio play version in 12 parts (arrangement: Hans Werner Knobloch , director: Lothar Schluck ). The Bavarian broadcasting produced under the direction of Wolf Euba 1985, a radio version of Helmut Swoboda with a duration of 75 min.

literature

Primary:

Secondary:

  • Werner Fuld: Up to the ankles in the money , about Bernhard Kellermann's Der Tunnel . In: Marcel Reich-Ranicki (Hrsg.): Novels from yesterday - read today , Vol. I 1900–1918, pp. 180–186, S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1989, ISBN 3-10-062910-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Battle Under the Sea , Klaus Bellin in Neues Deutschland , April 20, 2013, accessed January 6, 2020
  2. ^ Bernhard Kellermann: The tunnel (1st part). In: ARD audio play database. Retrieved October 24, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Bernhard Kellermann: The tunnel. In: ARD audio play database. Retrieved October 24, 2018 .

Web links