The third nail

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The third nail is an anthology published in 1981 with five stories by Hermann Kant .

content

Mrs. Persokeit sent greetings

The narrator's father cannot pay his debts to the wealthy woman Persokeit and begs from his neighbors. When he returned home unsuccessfully, he found the title person there, who came by to collect the money, but died during this time as a result of a heart attack. The neighbors, who also knew the dead woman, are now pushing into the small apartment to see for themselves. When they notice that Ms. Persokeit's wallet is untypically empty, they fear that the suspicion of robbery may arise. The narrator's father now asks the bystanders for money, and everyone wants to contribute a little, but because this would lead to new debts and it would also look like a robbery if money were distributed in the presence of the rich deceased, he ultimately returns the borrowed amounts back.

vacancy

The self-absorbed amateur author Helmut Neumann writes little works under the pseudonym Haakon Smallfleeth , but in connection with the rejection by a publisher, he receives the offer to write an essay for Adelbert von Chamisso's 190th birthday . Neumann assumes that this is more interested in himself than in Chamisso, but his ignorance of the date in question prevents him from realizing it. Since he had to leave his universal lexicon to his ex-wife when he got divorced and there was no entry in the literary calendar either, he turned to the publisher responsible for the almanac, but unsuccessfully. At the same time, he pointed out the vacancy on September 26th, whereupon the editor-in-chief offered to include his name if he died on September 26th.

The third nail

Shortly after his move, the accountant, Mr. Farßmann, became aware of a baker named Schwint, whose rolls taste very good and who is therefore very popular. Schwint approaches Farßmann one day and promises to hang a bag full of rolls on a nail in the courtyard for him every day so that he can avoid the queue. In return, Farßmann, who the baker mistakenly thinks is a bookseller, is supposed to get him a copy of the Jin Ping Mei . Farßmann has the opportunity to buy an edition of the novel, but the expected consideration leads to more and more favors he demands, including tickets for the zoo ball and a wedding date. For the last negotiated service, Farßmann can only offer the promised rolls, so that in the end he does not make any profit. While everyone he addresses comes to the arranged services, he still has to queue.

Crucial twists

Sales director Axel Erdmann visits a trade fair in Lyon . The evening before his departure, he is disturbed by noises from his closet in his hotel room and cannot fall asleep. Since nothing can be found in the piece of furniture itself, he suspects the source of the noise in the next room. The embarrassing thought of unwillingly eavesdropping on strangers prevents him from asking for silence. Erdmann is surprised by the volume, however, and he suspects that there is no real wall behind the cabinet. The next morning he forcibly loosens the back wall of the barrier and behind it sees heating pipes from which the noises ultimately originated.

Beautiful Elise

A major in the criminal investigation department was put into early retirement as a result of a heart attack and, in addition to the handover protocol, wrote his successor a letter about a strange incident: One night an NVA member reported a missing person about a young woman he met on the train, afterwards but never saw again. Since there is no real reason for an investigation, the policeman researches out of personal interest, but only finds out that the young woman's name is Elise and that everyone he interviewed thinks she is beautiful, although no one can describe her in detail. She had also quit several jobs after each time an accident occurred there and she was always persuaded to take the blame for it.

Publications

The book was published for the first time in 1981 by the Rütten & Loening publishing house in Berlin , where it had three further editions over the next four years. In 1984 the collection was also published as part of the Book Club 65 and in 1989 in the German Central Library for the Blind . In the FRG the collection was published in four editions from 1982 to 1988 by the Luchterhand literary publisher. In 1985 and 2001 German audio book versions were also published .

In 1984 the Prague publishing house Odeon published a Czech version under the title Třetí hřebík , which also contained other stories from Kant. The following year, the Narodna Kultura publishing house in Sofia published a Bulgarian version under the title Krasivata Elize , which, in contrast to the German version, only contained the story About the documents in addition to The Third Nail and Beautiful Elise . The cover story was also published in a French translation in 2009 as Parfois les brötchen croquent sous la dent .

The character Mr. Farßmann , main character in The Third Nail , also appears in Kant's stories PLEXA , Märker's Joy , The Essence of L. , the Bronze Age and The Osbar Case . The six stories were combined in 1989 in the anthology Herr Farßmanns Erzählungen and, with the exception of Märker's joy , formed the basis for the film Farßmann or On Foot in the Dead End .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Versions of The Third Nail in the catalog of the German National Library , accessed on August 3, 2020
  2. ↑ Třetí hřebík in the catalog of the German National Library , accessed on August 3, 2020
  3. ↑ Krasivata Elize in the catalog of the German National Library , accessed on August 3, 2020
  4. ↑ Parfois les brötchen croquent sous la dent in the catalog of the German National Library , accessed on August 3, 2020
  5. ↑ Farßmann or On foot in the cul-de-sac on the DEFA Foundation website , accessed on August 4, 2020