The plane in Brescia

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The morning edition of Bohemia from September 29, 1909 with Kafka's article Die Airplane in Brescia

The plane in Brescia is an article by Franz Kafka that appeared in the Bohemia newspaper in September 1909 . It describes an air show in the city of Brescia , in which Kafka and two friends ( Max and Otto Brod) took part during a trip to Italy. It is the first description of aircraft in German literature.

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The setting of the event

Kafka describes the Mediterranean hustle and bustle in front of and in the aerodrome, the sun-drenched open spaces and the mood-enhancing effect of the southern sun. Spectators at the spectacle are u. a. People with high-sounding Italian names, ladies who like their modern, e. T. present strange robes. Two prominent artists are also in the audience, namely Giacomo Puccini and Gabriele D'Annunzio , the latter accompanied by his translator Karl Gustav Vollmoeller .

Aviation

The famous aviators Henri Rougier , Glenn Curtiss , Louis Blériot (the high-flyer of the English Channel) and Alfred Leblanc take part. They prepare very differently for the start: Rougier is restless, Curtiss sits alone and reads the newspaper intensively. Bleriot's flying machine can only be started up after intensive efforts by the workers. Bleriot takes it stoically. Now the planes are rising. Bleriot has certain difficulties, but lands safely.

Curtiss wins the Brescia Grand Prix with a perfect performance. Rougier climbs far up, it seems to the stars. Kafka and his friends - as well as the other audience - leave before the flights are over to get hold of a car for the return trip. The sky-storming Rougier, who is still doing his laps, is still admired, but the company is no longer really with him in thought.

Here we can already hint at a later literary theme of Kafka: the loneliness of the artist who, distant and unnoticed by the audience, only follows his calling.

shape

In this article, Kafka demonstrates the technique of depicting movement, which he later uses in particular in Der Verschollene . As coordinates of seeing, proximity and distance lose their distinguishing features. The view into the vastness of the horizon when describing the planes soaring into the sky allows all boundaries to melt away. The text imitates a human perception practice that seeks points of rest in order to be able to process impressions of movement.

expenditure

  • Franz Kafka: Prints during his lifetime . Edited by Wolf Kittler, Hans-Gerd Koch and Gerhard Neumann . Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt / Main, 1996, pp. 401-412.

Secondary literature

Web links

Wikisource: The Airplane in Brescia  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Unseld p. 29
  2. ↑ Wagenbach p. 73
  3. ↑ Alt 2009, p. 73