The carnival confession

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Title page: The carnival confession: a story / Carl Zuckmayer. [First edition], 11th - 15th thousand. Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer, 1959. With the author's handwritten dedication for Adam Gottron .

The carnival confession is a story / novella by Carl Zuckmayer published in 1959 .

action

On the afternoon of Shrove Saturday in 1913, a man enters in Dragoon uniform the Mainz Cathedral , to confess. But after the first sentence he collapses dead. It turns out that, without his noticing it, he had been stabbed in the chest with a thin dagger before he even entered the cathedral. On the evening of the same day, the dragoon lieutenant Jeanmarie Panezza, son of a wealthy, respected family from Mainz , receives a visit from his cousin Viola Moralto from Sicily , whom he has not seen since childhood. Viola looks disturbed and seems surprised when she sees Jeanmarie.

Shortly after the murder, a drunken young man is arrested in a brothel on Kappelhofstrasse , who has made himself suspicious by carrying a large sum of money and a pistol. This man named Clemens Bäumler is also the Dragoons and the son of a woman Bäumler who occasionally for the family Panezza works as assistant and the dairy strains were from Jean Marie. In the subsequent investigation it turns out that the murdered man was Clemens' half-brother Ferdinand Bäumler. Ferdinand had fled to the Foreign Legion for embezzlement and allegedly perished there. In fact, however, he had only faked his death and had now returned to Mainz. He met Clemens and persuaded him to swap clothes because he didn't hope to be recognized in his dragoon uniform - apparently he felt persecuted.

The old Panezza, currently Carnival Prince and in love with his young partner in this role, Katharina Bekker, tries to get rid of the burden of his soul in a discussion with an old clergyman. He had fathered Ferdinand Bäumler and then more or less forced his mother to marry an unloved man. Shortly before his escape, Ferdinand had asked him for money to cover up his embezzlement, but Panezza had refused. He would like to atone by confessing this publicly. But the clergyman advises him to keep silent about this fact out of consideration for his children and for the other people who love and respect him.

Viola later tells the story: Ferdinand passed himself off as his half-brother Jeanmarie after his desertion from the Foreign Legion. Under this name he visited nineteen-year-old Viola Moralto in Sicily, whom Jeanmarie had last seen as a child and who now fell madly in love with Ferdinand. After he had taken away her precious jewelry on a pretext, he disappeared without a trace. Viola suspected that he was going to Mainz and followed him. On the trip she took an overgrown man named Lolfo with her, a son of her father who was born out of wedlock to a farmer's wife and who was loyal to herself. In fact, Ferdinand went to Mainz to blackmail his father Panezza. First he went to see his other half-brother Clemens and asked him to emigrate to America with him. In order not to be recognized, he had exchanged clothes with Clemens so that he was now wearing the uniform and Clemens the suit with the money from the proceeds of the misappropriated jewelry. Lolfo, who arrives in Mainz with Viola on the same day, recognizes Ferdinand in the crowd. He follows him to the cathedral and stabs him there out of jealousy and to avenge Viola.

Viola Moralto, who was impregnated by the fake Jeanmarie, also makes a confession with the old clergyman. Although she did not commission Lolfo to kill the deceiver, she wished his death inwardly. She too is bid farewell to the confessional talk by saying that she should go and carry her life.

shape

The narrative is not straightforward and exclusively chronological; rather, a great many facts only emerge from the third party's narration or in retrospect. The text is not divided into chapters, but only structured by paragraphs and sections that are not headed.

Subject

The plot is integrated into the carnival in Mainz , which the old Panezza presides as the carnival prince. The topic of deception and self-deception is paraphrased using detailed descriptions of the mask and fool system . The identity of some of the people involved remains unclear for a long time, as does the love relationships that arise. In the end, for example, Jeanmarie is not sure whether he wants Viola or rather his maid Berthel, whom he finally gets closer to by mistaking a mask at the carnival prom. The unmasking at the end of this celebration also thematically prepares the resolution of the case. In the end, in a vision that anticipates World War I , Jeanmarie sees herself as a soldier in a group of other horsemen who disappear into the fog. Quote: "(...) and he was no longer there." On the morning of Ash Wednesday, Viola goes to the cathedral for the eponymous "Carnival confession". There she confesses that she quietly wished Ferdinand's death. Quote: "(...) - I wanted him - dead or alive, and if I could no longer have him - I'd rather be dead!"

Locations

The piece takes place during the Mainz Carnival in 1913 in Mainz and in the Rheingau wine-growing village of Kedderich. The action begins in Mainz Cathedral and continues in the following locations:

Others

literature

  • Carl Zuckmayer: The carnival confession. Story, Fischer-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1995, ISBN 3-596-15010-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carl Zuckmayer: The carnival confession . Fackelverlag Olten, Stuttgart, Salzburg. Special edition for the Torch Book Club Olten, p. 167
  2. ^ Carl Zuckmayer: The carnival confession . Fackelverlag Olten, Stuttgart, Salzburg. Special edition for the Torch Book Club Olten, p. 186
  3. ↑ Literature list (PDF; 19 kB) for the series of events "Mainz reads a book"