The eternal philistine

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The eternal philistine is the first novel by Ödön von Horváth . The socially and socially critical novel was completed in 1930 and was first published by Propylaen , whose theater department Arcadia had previously published Horváth's plays.

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Telling episodically and associatively without having a continuous actual plot, the novel tries to characterize the modern type of the German philistine by means of excerpts from different lives that take place in Munich before and during the global economic crisis after the First World War .

Alfons Kobler, for example, a laid-off automobile salesman, uses his good looks to be endured by older women and to get into good company, without shrinking from embezzlement and fraud. Anna Pollinger, an unemployed seamstress, had a relationship with him. At some point she decides to become “practical” and only allow herself to be paid for love services; she begins to prostitute herself . In the studio of an artist, who also couples his nude models to wealthy customers , she meets Harry Priegler, the son of a wealthy war profiteer , who invites her on a trip with his sports car with the ulterior motive that she will accept the invitation to dinner with the willingness to have sexual intercourse have to pay. In the end she meets the unemployed Josef Reithofer, who finds her a job quite unselfishly and without expecting anything from her.

In addition to the characters already mentioned, who consistently determine the novel, who are more or less loosely linked to one another, there are a number of other characters - some of which are very briefly outlined - although the reader learns details from their life stories. A depraved nobleman plays a role, an intellectual who has failed as an artist and now works as a journalist , and numerous representatives of the bourgeoisie or the petty bourgeoisie .

The manuscript of the novel is kept in the literary archive of the Austrian National Library.

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Collected works by Ödön von Horváth , Suhrkamp Verlag Frankfurt am Main, 1970, ISBN 3-518-04482-6

Radio play editing

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ödön von Horváth: Die Romane , Suhrkamp Verlag 1983 ("White program in the 33rd year of Suhrkamp"), time table of the year 1930
  2. ^ BR radio play Pool - Horváth, The eternal philistine