The found friend
The found friend (in German also under the original title Reunion and published as a reconciliation ) is a novella by the German writer Fred Uhlman . The book was first published in London in 1971 . The story is about two 16-year-old boys whose friendship fails due to National Socialism .
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The 16-year-old student Hans Schwarz is the son of a successful Jewish doctor and attends the exclusive Karl-Alexander- Gymnasium in Stuttgart . He dreams of becoming a poet, but is considered a "normal" student with average grades. He doesn't quite fit into the class and has no real friends. Hans and his family are Jewish, but first and foremost they feel like Swabians and Germans, and their father even fought for a first-class Iron Cross in the First World War .
In January 1932, one year before the Nazis came to power, a new pupil appears in the class - “Count von Hohenfels, Konradin, born on January 19, 1916, Hohenfels Castle” he introduces himself. Hans Schwarz realizes that he doesn't want to be friends with anyone other than this fascinating newcomer. He was pleased to see von Hohenfels rejecting other classmates' advances. Hans begins to distinguish himself as a literary connoisseur in class and impresses Konradin with a difficult exercise on the horizontal bar. Using a Corinthian silver drachm from his coin collection, he arouses Konradin's interest, they start talking and become friends.
The two develop a deep affection for each other, they discuss German literature in general, Hans' favorite poet Friedrich Hölderlin in particular and other topics. They also go on trips together through the Stuttgart area. Nevertheless - although the two reveal deep secrets - there is still a distance because Konradin visits Hans several times a week and gets to know his parents, but Hans is not invited home by Konradin for a long time. The few times Hans is allowed to come to Konradin's house, his parents are not present.
In the long run, politics cannot be ignored even among the students and drives a wedge between the two. When Hans attends a performance by Fidelio and meets the Hohenfels family, his friend ignores him as if he were a stranger. Hans learns that Konradin's mother's anti-Semitism is the reason why, as a Jew, he is never invited home in her presence. When the anti-Semitic agitation increasingly appeared in school and Hans was harassed by his classmates, Konradin ignored this in silence. The appointments between Hans and Konradin become rarer and finally stop completely. In this way, a real friendship - on behalf of many millions of others - is gradually irretrievably destroyed.
On the initiative of his parents, Hans emigrated to relatives in New York in January 1933 . In a farewell letter Konradin writes that he recently attended a speech by Adolf Hitler with his mother and that he could hopefully save Germany from the communists. Konradin ends his letter by wishing Hans all the best and expressing his hope that Hans will be able to return to Germany in a few years. The contact between the two breaks off. Hans' parents do not want to emigrate and stay behind, are increasingly disenfranchised and finally commit suicide.
The story ends around 30 years later: Hans now lives as a family man and lawyer in New York, trying to suppress his German past as much as possible. Surprisingly, his former school asked him to donate for a plaque in memory of the high school's war victims. An attached list shows Hans that more than half of his classmates fell. At first he hesitates to look under the letter “H”, but finally finds the entry “Hohenfels, Konradin, involved in the assassination attempt on Hitler . Executed ".
Biographical background
Like his main character Hans Schwarz, Fred Uhlman was a Jewish lawyer who emigrated from Germany in 1933 because of the National Socialists. The Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium , which he attended himself, served him as a model for the fictional school of the book . January 19, 1916 is the date of birth of both Hans Schwarz and Konradin von Hohenfels; Uhlman was born on January 19, 1901, so he rejuvenated the two protagonists by exactly 15 years. In Uhlman's autobiography, published in 1960, it says:
“Two other boys who went to the same [sic!] School were the Stauffenberg brothers. One of them almost managed to kill Hitler. He was executed for it. "
On these sentences the assumption is based that Uhlman meant by von Hohenfels Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg . Of course, none of the three Stauffenberg brothers were friends with Uhlman, they were also from younger generations. During Uhlman's studies in Tübingen, a young man sat down next to him in a lecture:
“He was very calm, but he stood out from the shabbily dressed crowd: he was extremely well dressed and wore a diamond ring on his left hand. He didn't speak to me and showed little interest in the lecture. "
It later turns out that this young man Philipp Albrecht was Duke of Württemberg , the eldest son of the Duke and grandson of the last King of Württemberg. There was no personal relationship with him either.
reception
The found friend was first printed in 1971 by Adam Books in London with an edition of only 700 copies. Uhlman's work initially went almost unnoticed until a new edition with a foreword by Arthur Koestler was published by Collins & Harvill in 1977 . Koestler wrote that he viewed the novel as a “little masterpiece”, with the adjective only “on the small scale” and “on the impression that - although it deals with the ugliest tragedy in human history - in nostalgic minor tones ( minor key = Minor ) is written “refer. Koestler prophesied that “this little book in particular will hold its own in the long run”. Uhlman's work subsequently developed into an international success and was translated into around 20 languages; it was first published in German in 1978.
Awards
In September 1997, The Recovered Friend was voted Book of the Month by the Academy for Children's and Young People's Literature .
Adaptations
In 1989 the film The Re-Found Friend was released , directed by Jerry Schatzberg, based on a script by Harold Pinter . Jason Robards , Christien Anholt and Samuel West played the leading roles .
When Diogenes Verlag , the amendment also appeared as an audio book, read by Hans Korte (Playing time: 132 minutes).
text
- Reunion 1971; German: Cologne: Hermansen 1978 ISBN 3-921549-22-1
- Fred Uhlman: The found friend . Narrative. Diogenes, Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-257-23101-6 (with a foreword by Arthur Koestler ).
literature
- Fred Uhlman: The Making of an Englishman . Ed .: Manfred Schmid. Diogenes, Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-257-23018-4 (English: The Making of an Englishman . Translated by Manfred Schmid).
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Making of an Englishman , Diogenes, Zurich 1998, p. 40.
- ^ The Making of an Englishman , Diogenes, Zurich 1998, p. 113
- ^ Reunion by Fred Uhlman . In: The Irish Times . November 19, 2016 ( irishtimes.com [accessed December 3, 2017]).
- ↑ Fred Uhlman: The found friend . Diogenes, 2016, p. 5 .
- ↑ Fred Uhlman: The found friend . Diogenes, 2016, p. 7 .
- ↑ Fred Uhlman: The found friend . Diogenes, 2016, p. 112 .