The fever curve

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The fever curve in the edition of the Limmat Verlag , 1995

The Fever Curve is the second Wachtmeister Studer novel by the Swiss author Friedrich Glauser . In this crime thriller , written at the end of 1935, the investigation leads Studer into the French Foreign Legion in North Africa . In addition to Matto , who treats Glauser's repeated internment in psychiatric clinics , Die Fieberkurve, together with Gourrama, is one of the most autobiographical Studer novels, since Glauser himself was in the Foreign Legion from 1921 to 1923 .

Beginning of the novel

"Read there!" Said Studer, holding a telegram under his friend Madelin's nose. It was dark in front of the Palace of Justice, the Seine rubbed against the quay walls with a chuckle, and the nearest lantern was a few meters away. "The young jakobli sends his regards to old jakob, hedy," deciphered the inspector as he stood under the flickering gas light. Although Madelin had worked on the Strasbourg Sûreté years ago and was therefore not entirely unfamiliar with German, it was still difficult for him to understand the meaning of the sentence. So he asked: "What does that mean, Stüdère?" “I'm a grandfather,” Studer replied sullenly.

content

Starting position

Sergeant Studer spends New Year's Eve with his friend Inspector Madelin in Paris , as his wife Hedy is in Frauenfeld because of the birth of their first grandson . Studer gets to know Father Matthias, who works as a missionary in Morocco and Algeria . He tells of a corporal Collani, who prophesied two deaths during confession through his clairvoyant abilities: Two old women are supposed to die in Basel and Bern . When Studer travels back to Switzerland, curiosity persists and he visits the apartment in Basel. When he gets there, Josepha Cleman-Hornuss has already died: death from gas. An old woman also dies in Bern: Sophie Hornuss, Josepha's sister, is found in her apartment; also death from gas leakage. Studer does not believe in suicide and begins to investigate.

detection

Both murdered women were consecutively married to the Swiss Victor Alois Cleman, a geologist in North Africa. With his second wife, Josepha, he had a daughter, Marie. In 1917, Victor Alois Cleman died in Morocco on malaria . Shortly before his death, he sent a temperature chart to his wife in Basel, which documented the course of his illness. This document now falls into Studer's hands during the first investigation of the crime scene. As the investigation progresses, it turns out that the temperature curve contains a hidden will , which Cleman's daughter Marie and the canton of Bern bequeathed half of a piece of land in Morocco. The property in question is now worth eight million francs and the exact location where the hidden purchase contracts are located can be found in the fever curve. It quickly becomes clear to the Bern police: This is the really big case! And only one person can solve it so that the promised money can be donated to the canton: Jakob Studer.

After his wife Hedy has succeeded in deciphering the temperature curve, Studer sets off on his mission to distant countries. In Paris, thanks to the help of Madelin's detective Godofrey, he can assume a false identity. He shaves off his mustache, has his hair dyed black and travels as " Joseph Fouché ", inspector of the Sûreté , via Belfort and Port-Vendres to Oran . Studer reaches Géryville with a mule , where he receives further information. These lead him to «Gourrama», an outpost of the Foreign Legion, where the hidden documents are said to be. When Sergeant Studer finally reached the place indicated in the temperature curve, a hole opened in the ground. Somebody got ahead of him.

resolution

In garrison post "Gourrama" finally all comes of the case together. Studer is locked in the prison cell as a “spy with a false passport” through a fictitious arrest. There he meets the only prisoner, Victor Alois Cleman, who has gone into hiding, and thus gets the final proof of his theory. In the subsequent improvised military court it turns out that Victor Alois Cleman had to change his name several times. For the first time when he was wrongly accused of murder in his youth. He went to Africa and worked as a geologist for the French government.

Blackmailed by his first wife Sophie Hornuss for years, he went into hiding as Corporal Collani in the Foreign Legion after his alleged death from malaria. There he waited 15 years limitation period from the false murder charges until he could his daughter Marie and the home passed the inheritance. The plan went wrong, however, because Father Matthias had learned of the hidden property in confession and now wanted to get to the property himself. During the trial, there is a deadly finale, at the end of which the sought-after documents appear and even justice , in line with Studer’s sense, finds its fulfillment.

Emergence

If Schlumpf Erwin Mord was the one novel that gave Glauser his breakthrough, The Fever Curve was his big "problem child". Two years passed from the first writing to the publication , during which Glauser grew tired of the crime genre. On January 8, 1938, in exasperation, he wrote to his long-time pen friend and benefactor Martha Ringier: “A story as complicated and wrong as the fever chart shouldn't happen to me again. I have to simplify my fables, then I can limit myself to a few people and then paint everyone right. " In fact, the story, the original version of which was written in just four weeks, was not well thought out. Driven by the success of the reading in the “Rabenhaus” in Zurich in November and the upcoming short novel competition, Glauser spent too little time (not for the first and not the last time) to logically construct the course of the story.

Another internment and flight

Waldau Psychiatric Clinic

The writing of the temperature curve was preceded by another delinquency of Glauser: On October 8, 1935, he was caught again trying to get opium from a doctor under a false name . This meant repatriation and internment in the Waldau Psychiatric Clinic for an indefinite period. Three weeks later, Glauser wrote to his guardian Robert Schneider: “I am now forty years old, my name is no longer entirely unknown (…) and I really can no longer take part in this very hopeless comedy. It is also impossible for me to perceive myself as an anti-social psychopath , from whom society must be saved à tout prix. " Glauser disappeared and went into hiding with a friend from the Ascones days Katja Wulff and her husband CF Vaucher in Basel . While the search for Glauser was in progress, he put him in contact with Rudolf Jakob Humm's reading circle : On November 6th, Friedrich Glauser made a detour to Zurich for a reading in the “Rabenhaus” to read from his last novel, Schlumpf Erwin Mord , in front of assembled literary friends to read aloud. The success that evening was enormous and represented a turning point in Glauser's life as a writer. It was also there that he met his future publisher Friedrich Witz , among others . Thanks to the support of his new friends and the newly gained self-confidence, Glauser decided to return to the Waldau Clinic.

original version

After Glauser returned to the clinic, the plan for his second Studer novel took shape, and on November 28 he wrote to Humm: “I will try to write a humorous detective novel. Don't you say that the pessimists are the best humorists? " After Gourrama and The Tea of ​​the Three Old Ladies had not found a publisher, Glauser wanted to reuse its themes (Foreign Legion, Spiritism , petroleum) in the new crime thriller. On December 2nd, Glauser asked Martha Ringier to send him back the story The Clairvoyant Corporal (1931), which had been loaned for the National Zeitung : "I would like to make a short novel on the subject."

Glauser had written the original version in just four weeks. Glauser had prefixed the 16 chapters with the dedication “For Berthe” (his then partner Berthe Bendel , whom he had met as a nurse in the Münsingen psychiatric institution in 1933). On December 20th he wrote to her, among other things: «I did not send you the novel because I have to turn the whole beginning upside down again, otherwise you will get the wrong picture. I'm a little scared of this. One or two chapters turned out to be funny, one or two characters are so halfway in the lead - but I'm very afraid I have made my old mistake again and have too many people march. "

By December 31st, The Fever Chart appeared to be over. Glauser wrote to the journalist and later friend Josef Halperin: «I have tried to spin all the old 'ficelles' without which a detective novel cannot be kept together. The question is whether I succeeded. (...) I let Studer smoke hashish and let him make pessimistic considerations about western hustle and bustle and the relativity of time, office time. Maybe it turned out to be really fun. But I don't know whether the referees, who may consist of pastors and secondary teachers, will also like it. We want to hope for the best. I could very well use a little success. "

competition

In 1935 the Swiss printing and publishing house (which was to be published eight years later by Matto ) announced a short novel competition and Glauser wrote to Martha Ringier on December 2nd: “It's a competition for such a thing, and I would like to do myself participate in it. " But among the 26 papers rejected was The Fever Chart . Glauser was accordingly disappointed and commented on the winning novel Die Juraviper by Arthur von Felten on April 9, 1936 as follows: “The crime story is like this: either they are purely exciting (...), or then they are (...) a little bit psychology , a lot of atmosphere (...) or then they are pure crap, neither exciting nor well-written, but 'genre raspberry syrup substitute', like Arthur von Felten. " The fact that Glauser occasionally scoffed at other authors or readers of serious literature allowed him a fool's freedom in his own writing; or, as in the case of the temperature curve , it served as a kind of justification for the inadequacies of the plot construction.

Plot chaos

Friedrich Glauser on the cover of the Zürcher Illustrierte from December 3, 1937 (Photo: Gotthard Schuh )

In the epilogue of the fever curve , the German scholar Julian Schütt (* 1964) calls the novel an improvised crime thriller, "in which the question of who the perpetrator is less as if there is a perpetrator at all." The plot of the narrative actually didn't work. Glauser had overloaded the plot, overloaded it with characters and improvised too much. Right at the beginning of the story, he copied himself, as Studer met the daughter of a protagonist on the train 'by chance': in the fever curve it is Marie Cleman on the journey to Basel and in Schlumpf Erwin Mord Sonja Witschi on the journey to Gerzenstein. Confusion spread among early readers of the manuscript. Martha Ringier's reaction was that she almost couldn't catch her breath, so she chased Glauser around. And Friedrich Witz, who wanted to publish Die Fieberkurve , said: “Confusion. Why does Studer have to go to Morocco? Why the trip? " Above all, Witz was dissatisfied with the conclusion: "Instead of the story being unraveled, the whys pile up."

Josef Halperin (1891–1963) read the novel with pleasure, but noted among other things: “I really enjoy the fever curve. It's really nice work. (...) But there is the problem of the detective novel that all advantages are badly devalued if it fails in the end with its unraveling. (…) What do we do now? I cannot imagine what interest the father could have had in constructing a wrong lead. So delete the whole story of the keyhole and finding the string? Then it would work out smoothly. It has to open smoothly, otherwise the reader will get angry. " Friedrich Witz added: “There is no convincing justification for the incidents. In the end, one does not understand why the two old women had to die, why 15 years ago a dying man in the hospital had the playful joy of making fear; and because the end suddenly gives the impression of a bursting soap bubble, the disappointment remains, which I should not expect our readers to do. "

The fact that the novel worked in the end was mainly due to Glauser's ability to create atmosphere and the skillful figure drawing , above all that of Wachtmeister Studer. In addition, compared to the previous novel, humorous elements enrich a number of scenes: For example in Chapter 7 ("The Testament"), when City Commissioner Werner Gisler, Jakob Studer, Private Reinhard and Corporal Murmann recapitulate the case. Or in Chapter 9, (“Gangster in Bern and a sensible woman”), when Hedwig Studer caught her husband raving about the young Marie Cleman and deciphered the temperature curve at the same time.

post processing

After the well-intentioned scolding from Friedrich Witz and Josef Halperin, Glauser set about reworking the fever curve , which dragged on for a year and a half. To make matters worse, Glauser was already working on his third Studer novel Matto rules and now gave it priority. In June 1936 the long-awaited move with Berthe Bendel to Angles near Chartres came in between. And there he began to write the fourth Studer novel The Chinese . Glauser increasingly lost interest in the fever chart , which should be ready by the end of November 1936.

After the original version was rewritten, the new version was still unsatisfactory. Glauser responded to Witz's suggestions for changes, the only thing he did not want to change a line on the weed Studer. "That doesn't seem too bad to me and not too much of a detective novel." Glauser wrote to Witz two years later, shortly before his death. In December 1936 Glauser had meanwhile reached the sixth revision. Otto Kleiber, feuilleton boss of Basel National-Zeitung he wrote on December 20: "I'm so slowly behind it, how hard it is to write a passable detective story. You do me a great honor in appreciating the “Studer”. How badly it is constructed - I notice it with shame now that I've read it again in print. (...) And if people like the book, they let themselves be bluffed, that's all. That is what I discovered in self-awareness and self-criticism - and that is why the reworking of the second student novel is so hard for me. I want to avoid the mistakes of the first book. " But the makeover dragged on.

'Mannli' by Wachtmeister Studer and Friedrich Glauser in der Fieberkurve , first edition by Morgarten-Verlag, 1938

On March 22nd, 1937, he wrote to Friedrich Witz, after the opening part had also been rewritten: “At last, at last you get the temperature chart . I made it clear that God have mercy! But I have one hope that the novel has retained a little of the “atmosphere” despite the “adventurous” setting and the “adventurous” plot. (…) All you have to do is tell me when you want to start printing the temperature curve . (...) You can throw out the 'Mannli' on page 86 or keep it - as you wish. " (This was Studer's (or Glauser's) drawing of the people involved in the case. These were then actually printed in the first edition, but left out again in all later editions. Only in the new edition of Limmat Verlag from 1993 were the 'blotchers' reprinted) . Witz, however, was still not satisfied and on April 6th demanded that the last twelve pages be reworked: “In any case, I advise you to completely blow up the last chapter with a good load of dynamite and from beginning to end to be rebuilt at the end. " Glauser did as he was told and in December 1937 the time had finally come: The fever curve appeared in the Zürcher Illustrierte .

Biographical background

Studer's investigations beyond the borders of Switzerland to Paris and North Africa have autobiographical references in two respects . On the one hand, Glauser lived in these places and was therefore able to fall back on his experiences and process them literarily. On the other hand, he also lets the sergeant do what he cannot do himself: break out of the clutches of hospital stays and paternalism . The managerial job in Angles, which was promised for spring 1936, was postponed again for an indefinite period after the "opium story" in October 1935 and instead ended with a renewed stay at the Waldau Psychiatric Clinic.

France and North Africa, these were also Glauser's longings for distance, freedom and adventurous backdrops in exotic countries. Jakob Studer's thoughts in the third chapter could also come from Glauser himself: «Foreign Legion! Morocco! The longing for the distant countries and their colorfulness, which, shyly, had reported back when Father Matthias told the story, it grew in Studer's breast. Yes, in the chest! It was a strangely pulling feeling, the unknown worlds beckoned and images rose up - one dreamed of them all awake. The desert was infinitely wide, camels trotted through its golden-yellow sand, people, brown-skinned, in flowing robes, strode majestically through dazzling-white cities. (…) That was luck! That was something different from the eternal report writing in the office building in z'Bärn, in the small office that smelled of dust and soil oil ... There were other smells down there - strange, unknown. "

Locations

Bern

When Studer comes to the scene of the second murder in Bern at Gerechtigkeitsgasse 44, he notices a sign next to the front door with the reference to a dance school on the first floor. This address was well known to Glauser: his former girlfriend Beatrix Gutekunst, whom he had met in 1926 after his release from the Witzwil educational institution and with whom he was together until 1932, opened his own dance school at this address in 1934.

Paris

Paris, Eiffel Tower and surroundings (1900)
(Friedrich Glauser lived in the city in 1923 and 1932)

Glauser was in Paris twice in his life and had partly used these impressions in the temperature chart . After being retired from the Foreign Legion, he came to the French capital for the first time in May 1923 and worked as a dishwasher in the “Grand Hôtel Suisse”. He was fired in September for being caught stealing. In the short stories Below (1930), I Am a Thief (1935) In the Dark (1935) and Night Asylum (1938) Glauser then processed these events.

Glauser and his then girlfriend Beatrix Gutekunst were in Paris a second time from January to the end of May 1932 and tried to gain a foothold there as a freelance journalist and writer. During this time he also got to know Georges Simenon's books and his commissioner Maigret and succumbed to the charm of the series, which was to be of decisive importance in the creation of the Wachtmeister Studer (Glauser began his first detective novel The Tea of ​​the Three Old Ladies here , who as one Preliminary stage for the future Wachtmeister Studer novels can be viewed). For the fever curve , Glauser built in some scenes from Paris, such as the pub at the Quartier des Halles , the Place Pigalle or the Montmartre . He pays special respect to the following three addresses:

  • «Studer had decided not to live with Madelin this time. He needed elbow room. So he stayed in a small hotel that bore the poetic name 'Au Bouquet de Montmarte'. " When Glauser arrived in Paris with Beatrix Gutekunst at the beginning of January 1932, the two had rented a room with a kitchen in this very hotel. Glauser wrote to Gertrud Müller, the wife of his former therapist Max Müller: “It was a lot of hustle and bustle until we finally landed here. (…) We found a room with a kitchen in a hotel and took it until we found something else. The rent is expensive (270.– for 14 days), but everything is included, heating etc. and also a gas stove. (...) Best regards from your Glauser, Hôtel au Bouquet de Montmarte (beautiful isn't it?) »
Paris, Rue Daguerre No. 19 (Glauser lived here with his girlfriend Beatrix Gutekunst in 1932)
  • Shortly afterwards, Glauser and Beatrix Gutekunst moved to Rue Daguerre No. 19 into an apartment with a large studio room and kitchen. And here, too, Glauser has the sergeant investigate and describes the area in this literary reminiscence as follows: “The Rue Daguerre is a small street that branches off from the Avenue d'Orléans. Potin, the well-known grocery store, has a counter on the corner. In the shop windows there are geese, rabbits, vegetables. Next to the shop, a flower woman sells freezing mimosas for sale. Number 18 is a courtyard with a one-story building crouching in the background. "
  • Glauser tried to gain a foothold as a columnist and intended, among other things, to gain access to the Palace of Justice , where he wanted to write court reports as a Paris correspondent . Although he got to know the publicist Jean Rudolf von Salis in the process , Glauser was not allowed to do so despite intensive efforts because he could not obtain the necessary press authorization. In the fever curve , he lets Constable Studer get to the “Palace de Justice” without any problems, as he is a good friend of Inspector Madelin and Godofrey.
  • Glauser incorporated one last memory from his time in Paris with a reference to Bullier : “We met in Paris once when I was on vacation. Do you know Bullier? 'Studer nodded. He knew the ballroom from the Montparnasse district. ‹We danced together there.› »Glauser wrote the features section Pariser Tanzlokale (1932) about dance halls .

Algeria, Morocco

In April 1921 , Glauser joined the French Foreign Legion and spent two years in North Africa until he was retired in March 1923 because of a heart defect. During this time he got to know Bel-Abbes , Sebdou , Géryville ( Algeria ) and Gourrama ( Morocco ). Glauser's geographical impressions and experiences as a soldier had deeply influenced him and were reflected in many stories and large parts of the fever curve . Two places on the temperature chart deserve special attention:

  • Géryville (after the French colonial era El Bayahd) is reached by Wachtmeister Studer on the same route as by Glauser in December 1921 during the relocation. At that time, on October 16, he wrote to his father: “Leave at 4 o'clock in the morning. Wind, snow, 48 kilometers a day ahead of us - first a stage of 30 kilometers with a cup of coffee in your stomach. - We arrive in Géryville at 4 o'clock. " And like Glauser, Studer also reaches the city in northern Algeria on a mule while snow is falling: “Another pipe, the Béret pulled over the ears, then mounted. A rolled sleeping bag was strapped to the back of the saddle. Inside were: pajamas, two shirts, two pairs of socks, toilet kits ... At fifty-nine you were ready to imitate the legionnaires ... Thank goodness the snowstorm didn't set in until Géryville was already in sight. "
  • In May 1922 Glauser was relocated to «Gourrama», an outpost of the Legion in Morocco. There he got malaria and made another suicide attempt. He had described all these and other experiences in detail in his novel Gourrama , which was unpublished during his lifetime (written 1928–1930, published 1940). Glauser chose “Gourrama” as the backdrop for the finale of the temperature curve .

characters

In hardly any other Studer novel (apart from Matto rules and Gourrama ) appear as many characters from Glauser's previous life as in the fever chart . These are mainly people from his Foreign Legion stories , such as The Death of the Negro (1933), March Day in the Legion (1933) or The Fourteenth of July (1935)

  • Father Matthias of the Order of the White Fathers . Glauser had met a missionary of this order during the Legion and assigned him an important role in the temperature curve.
  • Victor Alois Cleman: Already in the story Im Afrikanischer Felsental (1931) Glauser reported about a comrade named Cleman, who later left the Foreign Legion, did espionage and fought on the German side during the First World War.
  • Giovanni Collani: In Géryville Glauser met a corporal by the name of Collani, whom he had already described in The Corporal of Clairvoyance (1931).
  • Capitaine Lartigue: The person in charge of the post «Gourrama» appeared in the novel of the same name or in the story March Day in the Legion . In contrast to the fever curve , the Capitaine does not come from the canton of Jura , but from Paris.

Beatrix Gutekunst

Entrance to the former dance school of Beatrix Gutekunst, dance school on the 1st floor at Gerechtigkeitsgasse 44 in Bern

In the fifth chapter of the fever chart , Glauser describes an unvarnished portrait of his former girlfriend Beatrix Gutekunst. After he moved the second murder of the novel to the address of her dance school (1st floor of Gerechtigkeitsgasse 44 in Bern), he lets Gutekunst and her character traits appear: “But there was a lady at the door who was very thin and who was shorter Vogelkopf wore a pageboy hairstyle . She introduced herself as the director of the dance school in the same building and did so with a pronounced English accent. (…) 'I have an observation to report,' said the lady, and to do this she twisted and turned her slender body - one involuntarily looked out for the flute of the Indian fakir, the tones of which made this cobra dance. ‹I live downstairs ...› Winding arm, the index finger pointed to the floor. » When Studer later asks her for her name, she replies: "Ms. Tschumi." In fact, shortly after separating from Glauser, Beatrix Gutekunst married the painter Otto Tschumi . When Glauser wanted to spend the turn of the year 1934/1935 with the two of them, there was a final break. Perhaps for this reason his following descriptions turned out to be less flattering: "Downstairs you could hear her talking with shrill nagging - in between a deep voice spoke soothing words." And two pages on, Glauser puts the following words in the mouth of the tenant on the ground floor about the dance teacher: “He said that the Tschuggerei - äksküseeh: the police - could be of interest to him, the skinny Geiss - äksküseeh: the dance teacher on the first floor - had him advised to share his observations. "

Max Muller

On page 95, Studer muses: “Every action can be justified - and if the reason cannot be found in the conscious , one has to look for it in the unconscious . The sergeant had once learned this from the Bern search police when he had to solve a case that took place in a madhouse. A psychiatrist had taken it upon himself to impress on him the difference between conscious and unconscious quite drastically. " This reference refers to the third Studer novel Matto rules , which Glauser had already begun in February 1936 and in which a psychiatrist by the name of Dr. Laduner appears several times. This Laduner is none other than Max Müller , doctor and head of the Münsingen sanatorium from 1939 to 1954. Müller was one of Glauser's most important caregivers between 1925 and 1933, as he carried out a psychoanalysis with him during this time and even joined the Müller family granted. In total, Glauser was in Münsingen five times during Müller's time. A second time Glauser lets his former therapist Müller appear incognito at the end of the temperature curve : “Then,” said Studer, “I would have been bad. But sometimes you have to expect imponderables . '' Imponderables! 'Said Capitaine Lartigue. ‹How learned you speak!› »In Matto, Dr. Laduner's favorite expression 'imponderables'.

The mule

The mule played a special role in Glauser life. In the summer of 1936 he wrote a short story about this animal called Seppl ; In this Foreign Legion episode , Glauser lovingly describes the character of the mule "Seppl" and his relationship with him. The story ends with the donkey Glauser saving his life in an attack and dying himself in the process. Also in the temperature chart resurfaced a mule on: "Fridu lots einisch!": At the end of the 11th chapter, riding as Studer after Géryville the sergeant starts a dialogue with his donkey (= Friedel = Friedrich). In this address Glauser has hidden a 'second self'. The letters to Martha Ringier from March 1936 onwards are usually signed with "Mulet" ( French for mule). He explained to her: “My favorite animals are mules, they are just as stubborn as I am, they grin just as impudently and they have a coat that is uni in color. And I wear uni, ne vous en déplaise, gray. Preferably gray. I am a discreet writer, madame, I am not a high school teacher and I do not wear striped shirts. (...) I am a mule. And mules, you understand, mules are not idealists. Mules eat barley or oats, if you give them, they are frugal, also like to nibble on thistles, and you could hardly believe when you feel their soft lips that they can devour prickly plants. " When Glauser died in Nervi on December 8, 1938, Berthe Bendel wrote a telegram to Martha Ringier with the words: «Mulet est morto. Berthe. "

adventures

Smoking weed

The legionary story Kif in the edition of Limmat Verlag

While in the fever curve the mulatto who Studer smokes is called Achmed, Glauser called him Mahmoud in the story Kif (1937). In Kif Glauser described his personal experience that he had made in Bel-Abbes . This autobiographical experience, which he transferred to the novel and in which Jakob Studer gets a hashish intoxication from the Bern police in North Africa , deserves special consideration in literary historical terms: «« He smoked kif », continued the doctor,« and that was unhealthy for him, because he wasn't strong. You know what kif is? Hashish. Cannabis indica … ›(…) And Sergeant Studer was so absorbed in his thoughts that he did not even notice how he let himself slide to the ground - but he did not succeed in sitting skillfully on his own heels. He stretched out his hand - for he was too busy thinking about things to plug a pipe himself - he stretched out his hand and then dreamedly pulled on a mouthpiece, inhaled the smoke deeply into his lungs and pushed it away again themselves. 'Another one,' he muttered. (...) 'Mlech?' Asked Achmed. Studer nodded. It seemed to him that he spoke excellent Arabic, 'Mlech' - that meant, of course: 'Good.' The sergeant nodded eagerly and repeated: 'Mlech, mlech!' ”Then Studer listens to music that sounds as if the Bern march was going on played by heavenly hosts and draws the conclusion: «What use is all doing? (...) You were only a tiny drop in the mist of mankind - and evaporated ... »

On January 4, 1936, Glauser wrote to Martha Ringer: "It is good for my chaotic soul to smuggle in a little anarchism ." Indeed, the fact that an investigator smokes hashish in a detective novel from 1936 can be viewed as a literary-anarchist act; Sergeant Studer is smoking weed and is also critical of the system: On the one hand, that was detrimental to the 'original Swiss' figure of Studer, and it was also very daring for the time. On September 12, 1937, Glauser was asked whether he would like to take part in the radio program "Lander und Völker" with a short text. Glauser agreed, opted for Kif and came to the radio company Basel's studio on November 18 to record the text. The original recording of this story is the only sound document that Glauser has made. It was no longer broadcast during his lifetime.

Audio file / audio sample Excerpt from Kif , read by Friedrich Glauser on November 18, 1937 ? / i

Publications

Zürcher Illustrierte of December 3, 1937 with the advance notice of the temperature curve

At the end of 1937, the Fieberkurve was finally published as the first print in the Zürcher Illustrierte from December 3 to February 11, 1938. Before the first episode of the thriller was published as a sequel , there was an advance notice with a portrait of Gotthard Schuh on the title page. It was the fever chart starts with the following text: " Wachtmeister Studer , the <Swiss Sherlock Holmes > is already become so popular that it no longer considers him to be mere fictional character, but acknowledges the farmer in him, with clever head and kind heart masters the small and big problems of his profession as an investigator. Friedrich Glauser, the author of the Wachtmeister Studer novels, tells Studer's latest case: the fever curve . (...) In our next issue we will begin with this remarkable novel by our Swiss author. Today, however, we would like to give Friedrich Glauser another chance to speak and let him tell of his innumerable adventures from his school days. "

The story of writing followed ... ; Friedrich Witz wanted a text about the beginnings of Glauser's writing activity for the introduction of the fever curve . He described his first steps as an author in 1915 together with Georges Haldenwang in the Geneva newspaper L'Indépendence Helvétique and sent the desired text on September 3, 1937 to the editorial team of Zürcher Illustrierte . In it Glauser remarks about writing and publishing: “What a miracle it was to suddenly see the sentences that I had laboriously written in an algebra lesson in print. What, is it possible that the printed sentences look so different than they are handwritten? That the printing ink gives them spirit ...? "

An interesting detail was the fact that the editorial staff of the Zürcher Illustrierte had included an excerpt from the review of Schlumpf Erwin's murder by Charly Clerc ; In 1911 he was a teacher at the Glarisegg educational home and received a slap in the face from the 15-year-old Glauser. Perhaps that is why the description of his former student in Clerc's review was not particularly positive; in it he remembered Glauser's "above-average insolence (...), of work that was hastily smeared on (...) and dramatic appearances and gossip."

The book was published in autumn 1938, again by Morgarten-Verlag , for whose book cover Glauser had designed the fever table. Die Fieberkurve was Glauser's last novel, which was published in book form while he was still alive and hardly differed from the previous sequel in the Zürcher Illustrierte . No typescript has survived from the temperature graph .

reception

In contrast to Glauser's first Studer novel Schlumpf Erwin Mord , Die Fieberkurve sold poorly. In 1948 Artemisverlag brought out a second edition of 3300 copies, of which only 784 had been sold by 1951. As with the Morgarten publishing house, there was nothing left but to sell junk. Die Fieberkurve received more attention in the new edition of 1963 in the Sphinx crime series by the Gutenberg Book Guild .

Several factors could have played a role as reasons for the lack of success: In some respects, Die Fieberkurve is not a typical Studer crime thriller. The unity of place, time and action was given up in favor of a daring and sometimes implausible action that jumps back and forth between Bern, Basel, Paris and North Africa.

filming

In 1948 the film company Praesens acquired the rights for Die Fieberkurve . In contrast to Wachtmeister Studer and Matto ruled , this novel was no longer made into a film.

Theater adaptation

Schaffhausen summer theater

In 2009 the temperature curve was edited for the first time for the stage. Under the title The Curve - A Sergeant Studer thriller by Friedrich Glauser was playing Schaffhauser summer theater . The premiere took place on July 24th in the courtyard of the Schaffhausen Music School . Had written the adaptation of Oltner author Walter Millns that it also self-directed. In the theatrical version, an 18-person drama troupe rehearsed the temperature curve in 1935 in the presence of the fictional Friedrich Glauser.

Criminale & Bern Summer Theater

Münsingen Psychiatry Center , 2007

On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Friedrich Glauser's death, the Criminale , the largest crime festival in Europe, made its first guest appearance in Switzerland from May 17 to 21, 2013. Over a hundred events took place at several locations in the cantons of Bern and Solothurn . One of these locations was specially chosen: the Münsingen Psychiatry Center , where Glauser spent a total of six years of his short life. As part of the literature festival, the clinic remembered its famous patient by paying tribute to Glauser's psychiatric thriller Matto ruled in an exhibition .

The Bern Summer Theater took this as an opportunity to stage Walter Millns' theater adaptation of the Fieberkurve under the direction of Arlette Zurbuchen in the psychiatric center; the special venue of the then insane asylum was also a homage to Friedrich Glauser. The premiere of the “crime comedy based on Friedrich Glauser” took place on April 17th (at the same time as the opening of “Criminale 2013”) in the Casino des Parkes of the Münsingen psychiatric clinic.

Comic

Glauser's Fever by Hannes Binder at Limmat Verlag , 1998

In 1998 the graphic artist and illustrator Hannes Binder drew what is now his fifth Glauser comic: Glauser's Fever . In this implementation, Binder deviates from the linear narrative and interrupts the fever curve with biographical backgrounds (Glauser's stay in France, where he continued to work on the novel) and excerpts from letters (“I have to force myself to finish the 'fever curve' because I would really like the Ascona) -Write a novel , in the first person form, where Studer is on vacation in Locarno and unravels the whole story ... »). Binder says: "The whole thing is a single feverish dream into which fragments from reality repeatedly penetrate - letters, diary entries - which I then insert with actually cinematic means such as cross-fading, and thus process the fever curve into a single collage ."

Audio productions

  • Radio play Die Fieberkurve DRS / SWF 1990 Director: Martin Bopp, adaptation: Markus Michel
  • Matto rules as well as Kif crime, radio play, reading. Read by Friedrich Glauser. Schweizer Radio DRS, 1 CD, Christoph Merian Verlag, Basel 2006, ISBN 3-85616-275-5 .

literature

  • Gerhard Saner: Friedrich Glauser, two volumes, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main / Zurich 1981.
  • Bernhard Echte, Manfred Papst (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 1. Arche, Zurich 1988, ISBN 3-7160-2075-3 .
  • Frank Göhre: Contemporary Glauser - A Portrait. Arche, Zurich 1988, ISBN 3-7160-2077-X .
  • Bernhard Echte (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 2. Arche, Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-7160-2076-1 .
  • Rainer Redies: About Wachtmeister Studer - Biographical Sketches. Edition Hans Erpf, Bern 1993, ISBN 3-905517-60-4 .
  • Friedrich Glauser: The fever curve. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-85791-240-5 .
  • Heiner Spiess, Peter Edwin Erismann (Ed.): Memories. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-85791-274-X .
  • Hannes Binder: Glauser's fever. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 1998, ISBN 978-3-85791-316-7
  • Hannes Binder: Nüüd Appartigs… - Six drawn stories. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-85791-481-5 .
  • Walter Millns: Fieberkurve - Based on the idea of ​​the novel “Die Fieberkurve” by Friedrich Glauser, stage play (= Elgger Schaulust , Volume 41). teaterverlag Elgg , Belp 2009, OCLC 823309551 .
  • Martina Wernli: Writing in the margin - “The Bernese cantonal mental institution Waldau” and its narratives (1895–1936). Transcript, Bielefeld 2014, ISBN 978-3-8376-2878-4 (Dissertation Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule ETH Zurich, No. 20260, 2011, 388 pages).

Web links

Individual evidence

The fever curve in the book edition of Morgarten-Verlag , 1938
  1. ↑ Bernhard Echte (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 2. Arche, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-7160-2076-1 , p. 816.
  2. ↑ Bernhard Echte (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 2. Arche, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-7160-2076-1 , p. 56.
  3. ↑ Bernhard Echte (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 2. Arche, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-7160-2076-1 , p. 77.
  4. ↑ Friedrich Glauser: The narrative work, Volume 2: The old magician. Zurich 1992, ISBN 3-85791-204-9 , p. 26.
  5. ↑ Bernhard Echte (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 2. Arche, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-7160-2076-1 , p. 80.
  6. ↑ Bernhard Echte (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 2. Arche, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-7160-2076-1 , p. 101.
  7. ↑ Bernhard Echte (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 2. Arche, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-7160-2076-1 , p. 112.
  8. ↑ Bernhard Echte (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 2. Arche, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-7160-2076-1 , p. 80.
  9. ↑ Bernhard Echte (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 2. Arche, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-7160-2076-1 , p. 243.
  10. ↑ Julian Schütt: Afterword. In: Friedrich Glauser: The fever curve. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-85791-240-5 , pp. 231/232.
  11. ↑ Julian Schütt: Afterword. In: Friedrich Glauser: The fever curve. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-85791-240-5 , p. 221.
  12. ↑ Julian Schütt: Afterword. In: Friedrich Glauser: The fever curve. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-85791-240-5 , p. 231.
  13. ^ Gerhard Saner: Friedrich Glauser - A biography. Suhrkamp Verlag, Zurich 1981, ISBN 3-518-40277-3 , pp. 129/130.
  14. ↑ Bernhard Echte (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 2. Arche, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-7160-2076-1 , p. 926.
  15. ↑ Bernhard Echte (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 2. Arche, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-7160-2076-1 , pp. 455/456.
  16. ↑ Bernhard Echte (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 2. Arche, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-7160-2076-1 , pp. 575/576.
  17. ↑ Bernhard Echte (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 2. Arche, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-7160-2076-1 , p. 591.
  18. ↑ Friedrich Glauser: The fever curve. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-85791-240-5 , p. 37/38.
  19. ↑ Friedrich Glauser: The narrative work, Volume 2: The old magician. Zurich 1992, ISBN 3-85791-204-9 , p. 9.
  20. ↑ Friedrich Glauser: The narrative work, Volume 3: King Sugar. Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-85791-205-7 , p. 127.
  21. ↑ Friedrich Glauser: The narrative work, Volume 3: King Sugar. Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-85791-205-7 , p. 200.
  22. ↑ Friedrich Glauser: The narrative work, Volume 4: Broken glass. Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-85791-206-5 , p. 119.
  23. ↑ Julian Schütt: Afterword. In: Friedrich Glauser: The fever curve. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-85791-240-5 , p. 228.
  24. ↑ Friedrich Glauser: The fever curve. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-85791-240-5 , p. 126.
  25. ↑ Bernhard Echte (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 2. Arche, Zurich 1988, ISBN 3-7160-2076-1 , p. 366/367.
  26. ↑ Friedrich Glauser: The fever curve. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-85791-240-5 , pp. 130/132.
  27. ↑ Friedrich Glauser: The narrative work, Volume 2: The old magician. Zurich 1992, ISBN 3-85791-204-9 , p. 115.
  28. ↑ Bernhard Echte, Manfred Papst (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 1. Arche Verlag, Zurich 1988, ISBN 3-7160-2075-3 , p. 76.
  29. ↑ Friedrich Glauser: The fever curve. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-85791-240-5 , p. 156.
  30. ↑ Friedrich Glauser: The narrative work, Volume 2: The old magician. Zurich 1992, ISBN 3-85791-204-9 , p. 232.
  31. ↑ Friedrich Glauser: The narrative work, Volume 2: The old magician. Zurich 1992, ISBN 3-85791-204-9 , p. 288.
  32. ↑ Friedrich Glauser: The narrative work, Volume 3: King Sugar. Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-85791-205-7 , p. 97.
  33. ↑ Friedrich Glauser: The narrative work, Volume 2: The old magician. Zurich 1992, ISBN 3-85791-204-9 , p. 51.
  34. ↑ Friedrich Glauser: The narrative work, Volume 2: The old magician. Zurich 1992, ISBN 3-85791-204-9 , p. 26.
  35. ↑ Friedrich Glauser: The fever curve. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-85791-240-5 , pp. 54, 55, 59, 61.
  36. ↑ Friedrich Glauser: The fever curve. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-85791-240-5 , p. 211.
  37. ↑ Friedrich Glauser: The narrative work, Volume 3: King Sugar. Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-85791-205-7 , p. 175.
  38. ↑ Bernhard Echte (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 2. Arche, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-7160-2076-1 , pp. 155/157.
  39. ↑ Friedrich Glauser: The narrative work, Volume 4: Broken glass. Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-85791-206-5 , p. 90.
  40. ↑ Friedrich Glauser: The fever curve. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-85791-240-5 , pp. 159-165.
  41. ↑ Bernhard Echte (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 2. Arche, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-7160-2076-1 , p. 114.
  42. ↑ Friedrich Glauser: The narrative work, Volume 4: Broken glass. Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-85791-206-5 , p. 78.
  43. ^ Gerhard Saner: Friedrich Glauser - A biography. Suhrkamp Verlag, Zurich 1981, ISBN 3-518-40277-3 , p. 134.
  44. ↑ Glauser's return. In: Berner Zeitung . April 19, 2013.
  45. ↑ Lust for crime. In: Tages Anzeiger . April 22, 2013.
  46. ↑ With Glauser in the realm of madness. In: Berner Zeitung. April 19, 2013.
  47. ↑ Hannes Binder: Nüüd Appartigs… - Six drawn stories. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-85791-481-5 , p. 49
  48. ↑ http: //www.hördat.de/select.php? S = 0 & col1 = au.an & a = Glauser & bool1 = and & col2 = ti & b = The% 20 fever curve
  49. ↑ Reading sample PDF, 31 pages, 756 kB