The way out

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Collected Works, Division 1, Volume 3 The Path to the Open

The way into the open is a novel by Arthur Schnitzler . The author began working on the manuscript in 1902. In June 1908 the book was published by S. Fischer in Berlin.

time and place

Thanks to two passages in the text, the action time can be set at around twelve months between 1898 and 1899. The place of action is usually Vienna.

title

The title is ambiguous. Baron Georg takes hesitant steps on his way as a freelance composer. Schnitzler also paints a picture of the Belle Époque . Jewish intellectuals hold contrary discussions about the future in the salon of the banker Ehrenberg. The ways there are Zionism , socialism and assimilation to the ruling Viennese society.

Two Christians: Georg and Anna

Baron Georg von Wergenthin's love for the Catholic petty bourgeois Anna Rosner is unhappy.

The 27-year-old Georg, "a beautiful, slim, blond man, Teuton, Christian", lives with his brother in his parents' apartment in Vienna. Mother and father have passed away. Georg composes. The Viennese Anna, the "kind, gentle, clever being" with the beautiful voice, sings his songs. Georg accompanies the 23-year-old on the piano . The talented girl gave up her stage career.

In Salon Ehrenberg, Georg not only meets Else, the daughter of the house, but also the young Jew Therese Golowski, a leading social democrat . It is whispered that this woman has already been imprisoned for lese majesty . Therese is Anna's girlfriend. Anna earns her keep with music lessons. So she occasionally makes music with the banker's daughter Else.

Georg, who wants to compose an opera, has found the lyricist in his friend, the 30-year-old Jewish writer Heinrich Bermann. The Böhme occasionally disputes quite controversially with Georg. Heinrich does not put the libretto on paper while the novel is in action. Georg, whom the Viennese consider an “amateur aristocrat” in Salon Ehrenberg, wants to leave Vienna. He is aiming for a conducting career. The Hungarian Jew Eißler would like to help Georg with this. The old man has an influential friend at the court theater in Detmold . Eißler's son Willy appears in the Salon Ehrenberg together with the hussar lieutenant Demeter Stanzides.

Georg and Anna fall in love. Georg had his eye on Else too, but turned to Anna. Anna is also the one who sincerely wishes Georg become a great artist. Ashamed, Georg, who actually only desires Anna, has to acknowledge the pure love of the young girl. When the night of the first cohabitation has passed, Georg longs for Anna, but he is just as happy to be alone again. When Anna is pregnant, she expects Georg to marry her. But the father-to-be leaves it at one point: "I will never leave you both." Else, who cannot escape the couple's happiness in the salon, reacts irritably. She lets Georg understand that her years of waiting for him are now over. Georg tells Anna's mother very clearly his ideas about the future. There is no question of marriage. Ms. Rosner sits “powerless to the noble seducer”. Georg makes a trip to Italy with Anna. The journey from hotel to hotel appears to be an escape from the Vienna Salon. Georg's funds are running out. He wants to hide Anna's pregnancy. At first, Anna sometimes still believes that she will be married. But Georg doesn't want to commit himself. Anna vacillates between the joyful expectation of the child and despair. Georg doesn't manage to hide Anna's pregnancy. In northern Italy, the couple met Demeter Stanzides, who traveled for pleasure with Anna's friend Therese Golowski.

When she returned to Vienna, towards the end of her pregnancy, Anna lived in a small villa that Georg rented outside the metropolis. The child should be looked after by strangers after its birth. Anna wants to start a music school. Anna notices Georg's turn to more attractive women and says this to her lover's face. Georg gets involved with someone else and returns remorseful to Anna. The child, a beautiful boy, is stillborn. Georg follows a call to Detmold. A bandmaster position is vacant. Initially active as a répétiteur , Georg settled in well in Westphalia . The baron wavers. Should he marry Anna? When he was on a short visit in Vienna, there was no lack of advice from his circle of friends. Else, who has meanwhile become engaged to an Englishman, wants to take Georg's child with her. When she is informed by Georg about the death of the boy, her pity goes to Anna. Georg wants to approach Anna again. But because there is again no question of marriage, she rejects him. This decision of Anna actually suits Georg. Because he wants to be free. So the baron goes to Detmold alone.

shape

The novel is not devoid of sentimentality. For example, Georg blames himself for the death of his child. He didn't love it enough.

The story of Georg's love for Anna is told. Anna sinks to the secondary character. Schnitzler only allows Georg to think, his friend Heinrich in exceptional cases and Anna almost not at all. It seems that the two main thematic threads of the novel, that is "Two Christians: George and Anna" and "Jews in Vienna" , are forcibly linked.

Jews in Vienna

The novel is a treasure trove on the above-mentioned topic, concerning the turn of the 20th century. Although hardly an episode on this topic is narrated, there is only an upper class, but from the sometimes sprawling conversations the reader learns a lot about the origin, insults and denigration of Jews in the multi-ethnic state Austria-Hungary . The patriotism of the Jews is discussed. Jews renounce their belief and even become anti-Semites.

Quotes

  • "We only keep unclouded memories on missed opportunities."
  • "There are no new ideas at all ... All ethical ideas have always been there."
  • "It's not us who make our fate, but rather some circumstance besides us."

Self-testimony

  • Schnitzler stood by his text, which he had conceived as a novel of development , and considered it to be extraordinary: "... this novel will be on the broad line of the German novels Meister , Heinrich , Buddenbrooks , Assy ". The author's response to negative judgments at the beginning of 1909: "In the place it deserves, the novel will only assert itself in the purer atmosphere of later years."
  • Schnitzler named his distant relative Gustav Pick as the “archetype” for old Eissler , and the painter Rudolf Pick (1865–1915) was the godfather of his son Willy . Therese is likely to be modeled on Lotte Glas .

reception

  • Hugo von Hofmannsthal was opposed to the novel.
  • The title aims above all at Georg's striving for professional independence.
  • Read as a modern educational novel, the path of the young nonchalant hero Georg leads into nowhere.
  • Wassermann recognized himself in the figure of Heinrich Bermann.
  • Scheffel praises Schnitzler as a modern author who avoids valuing his characters.
  • The reader mainly experiences the events as they are reflected in the consciousness of the protagonist Georg.
  • Le Rider points to autobiographical elements. It means the tense relationship with the brother Julius . Georg, cowardly, indecisive as well as lacking will and discipline, appears as the negative hero. Farese also addresses autobiographical issues: Schnitzler meets the singing teacher Marie (Mizi) Reinhard (1871 to 1899) in 1894. Mizi gave birth to their child on September 24, 1897. Schnitzler is tormented by feelings of guilt. Schnitzler loves Mizi, but does not marry her.
  • Arnold gives further leading works: Norbert Miller (Munich 1985), David Low (1986), Wolfgang Nehring (Tübingen 1986), Thomas Eicher and Heiko Hartmann (1992), Kenneth Segar (1992), Sabine Strümper and Florian Krobb (1992) , Ewa Grzesiuk (Poland 1995) and JM Hawes (1995). Perlmann calls the work of Norbert Abels : “Security is nowhere” (1982).
  • Zionists praised the work as a vote in favor of emigration to Palestine.
  • The way into the open was Schnitzler's only work that was not banned by the National Socialists.

filming

Radio plays

Entry 88 and 89 in: Radio plays ( Memento from December 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive )

Dissertations

Detlev Arens was in 1980 with the dissertation research on Arthur Schnitzler's novel "The way out" at the Polytechnic Wuppertal doctorate . It was published in print as volume 466 in the series Europäische Hochschulschriften / 01 , 168 (III) S., published by Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main and Bern in 1981 ( ISBN 3-8204-5964-2 ).

Andrea Willi did her doctorate in Zurich on the novel: Arthur Schnitzler's novel “The Path to the Free”. An investigation into daily criticism and its contemporary references. The work was published in Heidelberg in the winter of 1989.

Web links

literature

source

First edition

  • Arthur Schnitzler: The way out into the open. Novel. S. Fischer Verlag Berlin 1908 (491 pages, full linen).

expenditure

Secondary literature

  • Hartmut Scheible : Arthur Schnitzler. rowohlt's monographs. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg February 1976 (December 1990 edition), ISBN 3-499-50235-6 .
  • Michaela L. Perlmann: Arthur Schnitzler. Metzler Collection, Vol. 239. Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-476-10239-4 .
  • Heidi Gidion: main and minor matter in Arthur Schnitzler's novel 'The Path to the Free' . P. 47–60 in: Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Ed.): Arthur Schnitzler. Publisher edition text + kritik, magazine for literature, issue 138/139, April 1998, ISBN 3-88377-577-0 .
  • Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Ed.): Arthur Schnitzler. Publisher edition text + kritik, magazine for literature, issue 138/139, April 1998, ISBN 3-88377-577-0 .
  • Giuseppe Farese: Arthur Schnitzler. A life in Vienna. 1862-1931 . Translated from the Italian by Karin Krieger . CH Beck Munich 1999, ISBN 3-406-45292-2 . Original: Arthur Schnitzler. Una vita a Vienna. 1862-1931. Mondadori Milan 1997.
  • Peter Sprengel : History of German-Language Literature 1900–1918. Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-52178-9 .
  • Gero von Wilpert : Lexicon of world literature. German Authors A-Z . S. 555, right column, 16. Zvu Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-520-83704-8 .
  • Jacques Le Rider : Arthur Schnitzler or The Vienna Belle Époque . Translated from the French by Christian Winterhalter. Passagen Verlag Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-85165-767-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Le Rider, p. 155, 5th Zvu
  2. ↑ Farese, p. 137, 2. Zvo
  3. ↑ Source, p. 396
  4. ↑ Source, p. 106, 1. Zvo, p. 362, 10. Zvo
  5. ↑ Source, pp. 106/107
  6. ^ Sprengel, p. 244, 3rd Zvu
  7. ↑ Source, p. 379
  8. ↑ Source, p. 37, 1. Zvo
  9. ↑ Source, p. 32, 13. Zvo
  10. ↑ Source, p. 44, 21. Zvo
  11. ↑ Source, p. 234, 3. Zvo
  12. ↑ Source, p. 69, 19. Zvo
  13. ↑ Source, p. 69, 2nd Zvu
  14. ↑ Source, p. 128, 8. Zvo
  15. ↑ Source, p. 169, 21. Zvo
  16. ↑ Source, p. 351, 14. Zvo
  17. ↑ Scheible, p. 91, 18. Zvo
  18. ↑ Farese, p. 129 middle
  19. ↑ Schnitzler, quoted in Scheible, p. 91, 15. Zvo
  20. ↑ Quoted in Farese, p. 138, 1. Zvu
  21. ^ Schnitzler, Arthur: Youth in Vienna . Ed .: Therese Nickl, Heinrich Schnitzler . 1st edition. Molden, Vienna 1968, p. 238 .
  22. ↑ Sprengel, p. 243, 11. Zvu
  23. ↑ Sprengel, p. 244, 8th Zvu
  24. ↑ Perlmann, p. 175, 11. Zvu
  25. ↑ Perlmann, p. 172, 19th Zvu
  26. ↑ Source, p. 383, 10. Zvu
  27. ↑ Source, p. 394
  28. ↑ Gidion, p. 48, 17. Zvo
  29. ↑ Le Rider, p. 93 Mitte and p. 94, 5. Zvo
  30. ↑ Le Rider, p. 156, 10th Zvu
  31. ↑ Farese, p. 45 below (photo p. 46)
  32. ↑ Farese, p. 74 above
  33. ↑ Farese, p. 84 above
  34. ^ Arnold (1998), p. 166, right column, chap. 3.5.32
  35. ↑ Perlmann, p. 17, 3. Zvo
  36. ↑ ISBN 3-53304134-4 .