The father of a murderer

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The father of a murderer is the last story of the German writer Alfred Andersch and was published in 1980 , the year he died. Andersch writes about a lesson from high school student Franz Kien. The story has autobiographical traits.

structure

The full title of the story is “The father of a murderer. A school story ”. The actual narrative is followed by an “epilogue for readers” in which Andersch explains why he did not write the description of the school lesson - which he experienced himself - from a first-person perspective, but allows himself to be represented by his alter ego Franz Kien. In the afterword, Andersch also gives reasons why he transferred individual episodes of the reported school lesson that had occurred on other occasions here.

Andersch dedicated his book to the German writer Arno Schmidt , who died on June 3, 1979. Andersch was friends with Schmidt and deeply mourned Schmidt's death. As a motto , Andersch placed two quotes from Bertolt Brecht and Fritz Mauthner in front of his story .

content

In “The Father of a Murderer” Andersch tells of a Greek lesson at the Wittelsbacher Gymnasium in Munich in May 1928:

Even before the class teacher, Dr. Kandlbinder can begin his lesson in lower secondary school B (the eighth grade), Head of Studies Himmler (called "Rex") surprisingly enters the classroom. Although he immediately explains that the teacher shouldn't let himself be disturbed in class, the headmaster takes over after Kandlbinder has asked the best of the class to come to the blackboard. It turns out that the rector is astonishingly well informed about the achievements of individual students and that he cannot be fooled about the level of teaching achieved by Kandlbinder. Franz Kien's assessment of the rector fluctuates between admiration and disgust when Himmler and the next called-up pupil, the aristocratic Konrad von Greiff, come to an argument that ends with the rector being humiliated, but also with Greiff's relegation .

Finally, Franz Kien himself is called by Himmler and ordered to the board. Kien is not prepared, in fact, out of disinterest, he hardly followed the lessons of the last few weeks at all. Himmler exposes Kien's inadequate knowledge to the whole class and ultimately forces the student to admit to being lazy. The rector finally crowns the humiliation of Kien by announcing the withdrawal of the school fee waiver granted to the pupil and thereby revealing the unfortunate financial situation of the family to all those present.

The last part of the story takes place in the Kien house and shows the increasing physical decline and resignation of the father, once a war wounded and bearer of the Iron Cross . The Kiens talk about Rector Himmler and his family. As a die-hard German national and as a Ludendorff supporter, the father is a political opponent of the Catholic-conservative Rector Himmler, but not his son Heinrich ; Heinrich Himmler has broken away from his father's political views and can often be found at meetings of Ludendorff supporters. Because he fell out with his father, the rector, Franz Kien secretly sympathized with the young Himmler, although he rejects his anti-Semitic attitude.

Emergence

Alfred Andersch began writing his story in May 1979 in Berzona in Ticino, Switzerland.

At that time, Andersch's health was already severely impaired. A weakening of the eyes made writing almost impossible for him. Nevertheless, he laboriously completed his story with pencil on extra soft paper. In addition, a typewriter was made available to him, the keys and the font were disproportionately large. He wrote about this to his publisher Daniel Keel :

"With the help of this device I can now work again, and so I hope to be able to give you the script for a new book at some point, so that you may enjoy it if it is more than well-typed ..."

Andersch finished his work in January 1980. He then handed it over to his publisher. Shortly afterwards, on February 21, 1980, Alfred Andersch died in Berzona.

reception

The story can certainly be seen as Andersch's political and literary legacy. The book generated a great response from the media, critics and readers. Hostile reactions and polemics against the posthumously published book were largely absent, unlike in earlier writings by Andersch. The title made it onto the Spiegel bestseller list and the SWR best list . Heinrich Vormweg from Hessischer Rundfunk commented:

“The unusual response (...) is by no means a product of piety, by no means a kind of thanksgiving shortly after the death of an important writer. (…) A school story that still tells the readers something about themselves. Because she says something about how Hitler and Himmler came about. "

In addition to other - also approving - comments from contemporary witnesses, Andersch's book sparked protests, especially from one of Andersch's classmates, the legal historian and lawyer Otto Gritschneder . Gritschneder turned sharply against the portrayal of Himmler's person in the book. Facts in "Anderschen's fairy tales" - as Gritschneder calls the book - are misrepresented; Himmler is not a “pedago sadist”, rather Andersch himself deserves to be called a “literary (reputation) murderer of a father”. The Himmlers were "highly decent" and "completely normal", except for Heinrich, "the black sheep".

Shortly after its publication, the story became widespread school reading that deals with the preconditions of National Socialism .

filming

Text output

  • Alfred Andersch: The father of a murderer. A school story. Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 1980, ISBN 3-257-01597-6 (first edition).
  • Alfred Andersch: The father of a murderer. A school story. Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 2002, ISBN 3-257-05601-X .
  • Alfred Andersch: The father of a murderer and other stories. Read by Alfred Andersch, Werner Kreindl , Hans Korte , Peter Lieck a. a., mOceanOTonVerlag, distribution: Grosser + Stein, 2007, ISBN 978-3-86735-211-6 , from the series HörEdition der Weltliteratur .

literature

  • Gunter E. Grimm: Alfred Andersch: The father of a murderer. In: Stories of the 20th Century. Interpretations Volume 2 . Reclam, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-15-009463-1 , pp. 224-251.
  • Karl Hotz: Alfred Andersch: The father of a murderer. Text and comment. Buchner, Bamberg 1995, ISBN 3-7661-4352-2 .
  • Stefan Schallenberger: Alfred Andersch: The father of a murderer. Reading key. Reclam, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-15-015377-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Der Spiegel : Character assassination on the Rex? In: Der Spiegel . No. 34 , 2008, p. 167 ( online ).