the train was on time
The train was on time is a story by Heinrich Böll , written in 1948, published in 1949, original title: Between Lemberg and Czernowitz . The story follows the central theme of Saint-Exupéry's flight to Arras : war as illness and a substitute for adventure. The opposite is the love between Olina and Andreas. The end: wherever I take you - it will be life , it is physical death.
content
Andreas, a soldier, goes back to the Eastern Front in 1943. A premonition that is becoming more and more certain tells him that he is driving towards death. His journey begins shortly before Dortmund, crosses Germany, Poland towards the Black Sea, it ends in Stryj , near Lwow (Lemberg), today Ukraine. The companions of Andreas are: The unshaven , Willi, NCO, the blonde , soldier, sexually ill. Andreas spends the last three days of his life with them playing, drinking and, ultimately, in the brothel. Here he meets the whore Olina, they fall in love. The ending ends tragically, but not entirely unexpected. Olina, Andreas, the blonde, Willi and two soldiers are sitting in a car that is hit by a grenade. It is not clear whether Andreas is ultimately dead, at least not expressly designed. Böll researcher Bernd Balzer on the end of the story and the fate of Andreas and Olina: "[...] the escape vehicle is shot at by partisans between Lemberg and Czernowitz, and both of them perish."
Böll's philosophy
Böll says of his literature that the most important thing for him is love and religion. Everyone has the right to a humane life. It is the task of art to pass this on and to bring in the inhumane elements of life.
Religious element in the story
The following statement is to be rated as essential: "Wherever I will lead you: it will be life." This justification of Olinas, shortly before death, points to the author's conviction that he is pointing to another, new life believes in death. The religious remains in the background throughout history. There is the chaplain, a friend of Andreas, who accompanies him on the train. Flashbacks to what he's doing as a clergyman. It is also noticeable that Andreas forgot his rifle and the chaplain could have difficulties because of it. (Conflict Church State and Church - War) During the trip, Andreas often remembers that he should pray more in the last days of his life. When he prays, it is the rituals rehearsed in childhood. He includes all people in the prayers - even if he wonders whether this or that deserves it. It is also important to note: “You must not allow a person to feel humiliated because of you” Böll directs his gaze towards charity and the recognition of the dignity of every person - deeply Christian, religious values.
Element of love
During the whole story, Andreas is accompanied by a pair of eyes which, shortly before a collapse, are imprinted on his memory. He connected it with an imaginary love for a woman he did not know. This love helped him through all the turmoil of war, gave him the will to live, gave him meaning to get through. On the last night before his death he met the prostitute Olina. They fall in love. It is a tender, spiritual love without claim to possession. Olina explains to him: Love is always unconditional and he realizes that his kind of love until now had claims: everything was lying and self-deception - I only believed I loved her soul ... and would have sold all these thousand prayers for one Kiss from their lips ... but what is a human soul without a body Böll makes very high demands on the love between man and woman, but above all he elevates women from the role of subjects , he emancipates them, recognizes them as people with equal rights. Mutual love is unconditional.
People on the edge
In this story, too, Böll draws attention to the people on the fringes. With them he sets the standards, our humane society is justified by them. He picks out their peculiarities, he shows why they were marginalized by society. He questions the destinies and the inhumanity that leads to these destinies. In contrast, there are those recognized by society as successful. For example, Andreas' foster father, this successful but callous lawyer who oppresses his family and subordinates everything to his public reputation. The general, who leaves a lot of deadly information on the prostitute Olina: he talked like a sentimental schoolboy ... he chatted with lust all sorts of things that were extremely important . Values such as money, wealth, title and power are contrasted with love, feelings and humanity. Willi, who shares everything with his new friends on his trip, is responsible for them. The blonde, a young man who was seduced and depraved in war, is powerless and helpless in the face of life. The prostitute Olina, forced into prostitution by the war, in the service of her fatherland as a spy for the partisans. She realizes that she also serves wrong powers and that only the innocent are the victims .
Conclusion
The, superficially read, banal story of a last trip, the last three days of a life, turns out to be a startling work. It sharpens the picture for the “makers” of the time, for the inhumane values of a society. It simultaneously shows the beauties of life and the sense of enjoying these beauties. Live, eat, drink, love, sleep, speak - the fundamental human needs are already worthwhile to defy the adversities of life.
people
main characters
ANDREAS
Andreas was 23 years old when he was sent back to the front. He was born on February 15, 1920 in Germany. He didn't know his parents - who actually didn't want him. He grew up with his aunt, her husband was a successful lawyer and alcoholic. His person was rather calm and very thoughtful. The smallest of noises triggered streams of thought in him that he was never really able to control. Often he got lost in his thoughts and lost touch with reality.
OLINA
Andreas' last love, 23 years old, born February 12, 1920, studied music, was a pianist, is a prostitute in a Lviv brothel and a spy for the resistance.
THE UNSHAVED
Andreas companion during the journey to the Eastern Front. First name Willi, NCO, married. During his home vacation, Willi surprised his wife in adultery with a Russian. This prompted him to return to the front immediately. In doing so, he squandered the money he saved up for repaying his remaining mortgage during the war. Willi gets drunk all the time, while he takes care of Andreas and the "blonde".
THE BLONDE
Son of a flag and military symbol manufacturer. Second companion of Andreas. The blonde is sexually ill. During the last frontline deployment to outposts in the Ssiwasch swamps of southern Russia, he was constantly raped by a constable.
Secondary characters
THE KAPLAN
Name Paul, is a friend of Andreas, accompanied him to the train. Andreas forgot the rifle with him.
UNKNOWN GIRL
Andreas looked into her eyes in a split second during a physical breakdown near Amiens (F). Shortly afterwards, Andreas was wounded. Since then, he has hoped to meet her again one day.
Other people
- Coffee girl in Dortmund
- Fat, young, red-faced lieutenant (joins in Dresden)
- Constable (molester of the blond)
- Puff mother with money box mouth in Lemberg
- General (client of Olina)
- Aunt Marianne, foster mother Andreas, sister of his mother
- Uncle Hans, foster father of Andreas, lawyer
Important sentences
- The silence of those who say nothing is terrible. It is the silence of those who do not forget, those who know that they are lost. [256/257]
- It is not good for man to be alone. It would be incredibly difficult to be alone with the others, these gossipers about heroism, promotions, food and tobacco and about women, women, women who were at their feet. [269]
- God is with the unfortunate. Unhappiness is life, pain is life. [269]
- ... the sky above this plain is black and heavy, and this sky slowly descends on the plain, ever closer, ever more, very slowly this sky descends, and it cannot run away and it cannot scream because it knows that screaming is futile. This futility paralyzes him. Where should a person be there who hears his screams, and he can't let himself be crushed by this sinking sky. [274]
- He, too, sometimes sang them without knowing or wanting to, digging in these songs that one simply drowned into them, drilled into them in order to kill their thoughts. Venison Schütz ... Heidemarie .... [300]
- They are thrown in at Cherkassy. There's another kettle or something. Tinker. They'll throw it. [300]
- It's horrible, when you have to die, to think that you have insulted someone ... the only reason I did it is because I wanted others to laugh at a joke I made. Out of vanity. [304]
- They are all poor, gray, hungry, seduced, and betrayed children. And her cradle, that's the trains, the front vacation coats that do rak-tak-tak-bums and put her to sleep. [306/07]
- Joy washes away a lot, just as pain washes away a lot. [317]
- The last night is breaking, and the last day has passed like all the others, unused and pointless. [329]
- They will wear abominable clothes and will glorify the war and beat it for their fatherlands: hideous century; ..... every death in war is a murder for which someone is responsible. [334]
- ..in the terrible game in which we all participate, the game: sending others to their deaths whom one does not know. [337]
- You must not allow a person to feel humiliated because of you. [341]
- There are no ugly people. [dtv 73]
Reading sections
Philosophical guiding principle
- Life is beautiful, he thinks, it was beautiful ... I have to see that life was beautiful. [314-315]
Futility of war
- You know, she says, giving him a very serious look, that we only kill innocent people, too, only innocent people. [338]
love
She loved him unconditionally. I don't understand ... and I would have sold all of these thousands of prayers for a single kiss from her lips. I only know that now. [345–346]
Clarifications
- flashing eyes
- gentle eyes
- sad eyes
- dim eyes
- painful eyes
- terrible finality
- soft skin
- Fragonardmund like Fragonard shepherdesses (Fragonard, French rococo painter)
- Fragonard nose
- Fragonard forehead
- fine ears
- fine nose
- lean body
- unsubstantial voice
- sonorous voices
- dull air
- sweet dust
- dry shadow
Idioms, special expressions
- The cheap pungency of bad vinegar [259]
- the anger bursts from his shiny buttons [260]
- sad eyes the color of dark, rained sand [270]
- the splendid bridges that leap sternly and elegantly over the water like tall, slender animals
- The mountain carried the road on its back [278]
- The whole leaden French petty ridicule [278]
- Long it goes up the hot mountain [279]
- A face almost like a rabbit [278]
- a degenerate greyhound skull [303]
- the lieutenant's helpless dog eyes [303]
- a terrible low screaming [282]
- a dry shadow without mildness [286]
- The blonde plays his swampy melodies [299]
- the whole yellowish-white unventilated soldier's skin [311]
- A scrap of music, just a piece of music [319]
- as quietly as twilight now sinks into the room through the open curtain [332]
- under the "gentle trees" [341]
- floats like a twitching disk [353]
- that sneering, cold, gray morning haze [357]
- the rigid pallor that pulls over Olina's face [361]
reception
Wolfgang Lohmeyer wrote in the literary magazine Das Goldene Tor (5th year, 1950, No. 1), edited by Alfred Döblin , about Böll's story: "A soldier travels on a holiday train from West Germany to Lemberg. On the train he comes - in a kind of associative logic - the realization that he will die between Lemberg and Czernowitz. No idea - a knowledge. And now the journey is marked by a farewell. Despite the monotony of the processes, conversations and thoughts (one is reminded of Wolfgang Borchert) an exciting piece of prose. A glaring headlight that drives into the macabre gloom of the last year of the war. This serious, weighty book, which is 145 pages long, deals in sober and yet poetic language of fear, lack of faith, the knowledge of guilt, prayer and atonement that one can still read it today, yes, it should be read! - That's what I call a documentary book. "
expenditure
- The first edition was published in 1949 by Friedrich Middelhauve.
- An inexpensive edition of the story is available from dtv.
- The first annotated edition appeared in 2003 in Volume 4 of the Cologne Böll edition (Kiepenheuer & Witsch). This edition offers the incorrect text of the first Böll work edition from 1977/79.
- Jean-Paul Sartre, the main proponent of French existentialism, published a translation of the story in his magazine Les Temps moderne (October to December 1953). The book edition of Le Train était à l'heure was published in March 1954.
Research literature / interpretations
- Balzer, Bernd: The train was on time . In: The literary work of Heinrich Böll. Introduction and comments . Munich 1997. pp. 39-65.
- Bellmann, Werner : Heinrich Böll's first book publication "The train was punctual". On printing history, text development and commentary - on the occasion of a failed new edition. In: Wirkendes Wort 65 (2015) Heft 1, pp. 87-104.
- Bernáth, Árpád: The beginning of a mystical attempt. For the interpretation of the story “The train was punctual” by Heinrich Böll. In: Árpád Bernáth / Károly Csuri / Zoltán Kanyó: Text theory and interpretation. Investigations on Gryphius, Borchert and Böll. Librarian, Kronberg / Ts. 1975 (Theory - Critique - History. 9.) pp. 225–263.
- Bernhard, Hans Joachim: The train was on time . In: HJB: The novels of Heinrich Böll. Social Criticism and Community Utopia (1970). 2., through u. exp. Edition: Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1973. (Germ. Studies.) Pp. 16–39.
- Delabar, Walter: “The train was on time”. In: Heinrich Böll. Novels and short stories. Interpretations . Edited by Werner Bellmann. Reclam, Stuttgart 2000. pp. 35-43.
- Schmidt, Gary: Koeppen - Andersch - Böll. Homosexuality and Fascism in Post-War German Literature. With a foreword by Rüdiger Lautmann. Swarm of Men Script-Verlag, Hamburg 2001. [p. 20–52 to Bölls The train was on time and billiards at half past seven ]
- Stebler, Max: The motif of death in Heinrich Böll's "The train was on time" . In: Orbis Linguarum 12 (1999), pp. 81-88.
- Zimmermann, Werner: “The train was on time”. In: WZ: German prose poems of the present. Interpretations for teachers and students. Düsseldorf 1954. pp. 99-118.