The invention of the Red Army Faction by a manic-depressive teenager in the summer of 1969

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The invention of the Red Army Faction by a manic-depressive teenager in the summer of 1969 is a novel by Frank Witzel , which was published in 2015 by the Berlin publishing house Matthes & Seitz . In the same year he was awarded the German Book Prize.

In this narrative, which takes place on different time levels, Witzel reflects on the perception of a young person of the post- 1968 generation in the various phases of life of growing up. With great attention to detail, the late 60s and early 70s come to life - the music of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and the battles with parents for every inch of hair length. The title corresponds to the structure of the novel: each statement refutes itself.

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A person tells his story by making up stories. "The invention of the Red Army Faction" is one of his stories with which he seeks an approach to himself. What is described is a kind of anarchism that does not come along as a radical negation per se, but grows out of an inability to understand, the inability to accept the world in this way. The main character is highly sensitive and suffers from an obsession to analyze things down to the smallest detail and not find any answers. A pattern is not served, radicalization arises in the interplay between action and reaction. Rather, the story is told as if a process were set in motion which, from the situation of being mad, of someone who cannot find his place in the structure of his environment, lead to misinterpretations of his actions. The youngster finds no other way out than to declare himself crazy.

In 98 non-chronological chapters, which are up to forty pages long, the picture of the psychological inner world of a thirteen-year-old factory owner's son emerges who did not reach the class goal in Wiesbaden-Biebrich in 1969 and was temporarily put in a convict . His mother is paralyzed, which is why the boy is being cared for by a " Caritas woman " who lives with the family and whom he detests. The boy is an acolyte and enthusiastic about pop - he is particularly fond of the Beatles, whose 1966 album Rubber Soul he knows by heart. In individual passages, patterns of identification between the protagonist and the founding members of the RAF emerge . This youngster plays with the name, claims to be the inventor of the RAF logo and compares Andreas Baader , Gudrun Ensslin , Ulrike Meinhof with figures from his childhood memories and imaginations. Perception and delusion are mixed up in a kaleidoscope of several layers of observation: one can put oneself in the shoes of time, in the socio-political conflicts and in the situation of someone who perceives differently, who even as an adult cannot yet confidently answer where the line between terrorist and martyr runs. Catholic upbringing is described as the ideological appropriation of young people. From his analyzes between religious zealots who promise their own salvation in the upbringing of young people, and radical revolutionaries, conclusions by analogy can certainly be drawn for young people: Both make themselves martyrs of a greater cause.

Further passages tell of a Hamburg RAF congress in the 2000s at which the first-person narrator was expelled from the room, of the failed relationship with a "Gernika", of a stay in the "Special Outpatient Clinic for Personality Disorders of the University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf " as well as conversations with an anonymous police officer, which sometimes seem like interrogations , sometimes take on the character of therapy talks .

Only towards the end of the book does the narrator explain that he only wanted to distract from the actual story, from what he had really done. What the narrator then serves up is another exciting story on this journey through politics, cultural history and pop music: He claims to be the murderer of Brian Jones , the guitarist of the Rolling Stones, who on July 3, 1969 under bis drowned in his swimming pool today under unexplained circumstances. But, as the title suggests: another invention. Through the telling of stories, both disguised in dream images, as well as through stories that come across as autobiographical memories, the complexity of a youthful psyche is fanned out in this book, which almost breaks under real conditions and whose only vanishing point is depression .

Language and design

Frank Witzel develops this story in the style of poetic realism on 830 pages in changing narrative situations, which give a crazy picture of the narrated time from the experienced and felt situations of the protagonist. He creates “a luminous kaleidoscope”, which is made accessible through a register and long chapter headings - “for the overwhelmed reader the saving thread through this rampant labyrinth of non-chronological narration”, as the reviewer of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung notes.

Reviews

"Of course, this novel can not get the German Book Prize, he's too crazy and too disparate," wrote Helmut Böttiger in the time still on 16 September 2015 nomination for the shortlist, although the nomination a "great statement" the jury for this crazy “pop politics generation novel”. The book is consistently praised and referred to as “Great Literature” ( taz ) or “Zauberwerk” ( South German ), but for the book award the novel was viewed as an outsider. Claus-Jürgen Göpfert from the Frankfurter Rundschau wished Witzel a big breakthrough with this “opus magnum”. Also Ingo Schulze praised the book: "I learn so much about the defunct West and about the present - only now I know that I myself have just always wanted a novel about this country" (back cover). After this “monstrous monumental novel [s]” received this award, it could no longer be said for a long time that the German Book Prize stood for “easy-to-sell, easy-to-read material”, said Jens Jessen at Die Zeit , who emphasized the departure from realistic storytelling as particularly innovative.

Radio play editing

Together with the director Leonhard Koppelmann , Witzel wrote a radio play version of the novel, which was produced in 2016 by the radio play and media art department of Bayerischer Rundfunk and which was first broadcast on Bayern 2 on June 25, 2016 . With Edmund Telgenkämper, Jonas Nay, Valerie Tschplanowa, Shenja Lacher, Christiane Roßbach, Peter Fricke , Oliver Nägele, Götz Schulte. Music: Frank Witzel. The production is available as a podcast / download in the BR radio play pool. The production was awarded the German Audiobook Prize 2017 in the category "Best Radio Play".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Nicole Henneberg: Frank Witzel's new novel Life Crises in Times of Change. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , September 16, 2015.
  2. ^ German Book Prize: Madness and the Present. In: Die Zeit , September 16, 2015.
  3. ^ Julian Weber: Frank Witzel's novel about the post-68s. Pop music and depression. In: the daily newspaper , April 19, 2015.
  4. ↑ Helmut Böttiger : The drums of language. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , June 14, 2015.
  5. ↑ That must, that will be the breakthrough. In: Frankfurter Rundschau , September 25, 2015.
  6. ↑ Jens Jessen : Icons of Evil. In: Die Zeit , October 15, 2015.
  7. ^ BR radio play Pool - Witzel, The invention of the Red Army faction by a manic-depressive teenager in the summer of 1969