The beaten
Die Geschlagen is the first novel by the co-founder and patron of Gruppe 47 , Hans Werner Richter . It was published for the first time in 1949 by the Munich publishing house Kurt Desch and became one of the most important novels on the subject of war and captivity immediately after the Second World War . In 1951 Richter received the Fontane Prize of the city of Berlin for this .
content
The novel opens with the surrender of the Italians on September 8, 1943, who initially directed themselves against the units of the Wehrmacht - “War over, everything is broken”. The protagonist Gühler, a simple private , is at Monte Cassino with remnants of units that are more busy "organizing" things than fighting for the final victory. Many of the soldiers expect the Americans to arrive and be captured almost every day . Monotony and, above all, uselessness dominate the mood among the soldiers. The attitude of Private Gühler is characterized above all by the unwillingness to have to fight for a regime that one actually rejects and had fought oneself:
“I'm against Hitler.”
“And you're fighting for him.”
“No,” said Giihler, “I'm just a wheel in a machine that can't jump out.”
“Well,” said Giihler, “ court martial , firing squad , you know that. ”
“ Are you afraid of it? ”
“ Yes, ”said Giihler.
[...]
"Then you want the others to win?" Grundmann began again.
"It's better for us."
"And you fight them?"
"Yes, that's crazy," said Giihler.
(Richter 1978, p. 49)
When Gühler's unit was to be relocated to the front, they were taken under heavy fire by American units on a mountain slope near Monte Cassino . Finally, the units scattered on the mountain can no longer hold out and are forced to give up. For many, this day will be a day of liberation, which nevertheless retains its ambivalence for the protagonist Gühler and will later even prove to be illusory:
"We are free, do you understand that, we are trapped and are free."
(Richter 1978, p. 136)
Because in American captivity, a bitter struggle develops between opponents of the regime and staunch National Socialists who terrorize and even kill those who think differently. The Americans hardly notice this. They make no difference to Gühler; this gives rise to doubts and disillusionment about American democracy. So Gühler:
“They guard terror with their machine guns ; they guard the terror of the Nazis. "
(Richter 1978, p. 201)
After an attempted uprising by the old Nazis, the Americans interned them in penal camps and the general situation in the camp improved. Gühler teaches German, becomes head of the camp library and also publishes a camp magazine. Everyday life in the camp remained unchanged until the end of the war. The moment of unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945 is nevertheless a moment of subdued joy for Gühler. His hope of having survived the Nazi regime is at the same time a criticism of the Americans' collective guilt thesis:
"It can't go on like this forever [...], we have to get out of this dirty machine one day."
(Richter 1978, p. 288)
Text analysis
“The Beatings” can be viewed as a brief crisis story - individual sections deal with relatively short periods of time. The time told is one year and eight months (September 1943 - May 1945).
Throughout the novel there is a one-sided perspective of an authorial narrator . This means that although an omniscient narrator leads through the plot, it is still not possible to see the people involved. This can only be deduced from what is spoken.
“Die Geslagen” is all about literature after 1945 . Belonging to the clear-cut literature is particularly evident from the dominant parataxe . The reduction of the verbs of communication to a maximum of three different ones in the whole novel testifies to this. The external events dominate the novel and, supported by the narrative perspective , suggest objectivity.
The contemporary, realistic narrative style is transformed by Hans Werner Richter into magical realism , a term that Richter borrowed from the expressionism of the visual arts and coined for literary works. The historically based details in the compositionally, linguistically and stylistically simple work create an unreal, magical atmosphere in connection with the complexity and severity of the topic dealt with.
Publishing history
The novel “Die Geslagen” was published for the first time in 1949 by Kurt Desch, one of the most successful publishers of the post-war period. Richter joined a publishing program that included literary greats such as Wiechert, Camus, Plievier, Segehrs, Kisch and Brecht. This and the good relations between the publisher and the Information Control Division of the American occupation forces, which were responsible for literary phenomena, ensured Hans Werner Richter 's first novel good sales.
The novel achieved further editions in the Deutsches Taschenbuch-Verlag (1969, 1985) and in the Bertelsmann-Verlag (1978, 1980).
reception
The importance of the novel has largely faded into the background today; at the time of publication, however, it was of great relevance. It was one of the first novels on the subject of the simple German soldiers and prisoners of war and received a corresponding response in the press:
“The author, Hans Werner Richter, has made a first valid statement. So read his book so that you can see with him what you are unconsciously asking for; for clarity about yourself. "
“These are people we know. These fellow soldiers are just as familiar to us as the Americans who guard or interrogate them. "
“In the style of the now forty-year-old author, some things are reminiscent of Remarque; the succinct sentences, like bursts of fire from a machine gun, the realistic, undisguised language. Unlike Remarque, the unsentimental and unromantic portrayal of the war is not an end in itself for Richter. This book is at the same time a double document of the times, in the psychological and in the political sense. It deserved to be one of the best German writers of 1949. "
“What is special about this book is that its author not only defends the honor of the decent German soldier who was innocently guilty with a warm heart, but also the honor of his people. There is a parallel in great politics to the experience of the soldier Gühler. This book is therefore not only aimed at Germans. It should be read because it will find its place in the literature of the last war. "
literature
- Hans Werner Richter: The defeated . Roman, Munich 1978.
- Erich Embacher: Hans Werner Richter. On the literary work and journalistic work of a committed German writer , Frankfurt am Main 1985.
- Bernd R. Gruschka: The controlled book market. American communication policy in Bavaria and the rise of the Kurt Desch publishing house from 1945 to 1950 , Frankfurt am Main 1995.
- Sebastian Mrożek: Hans Werner Richter. On the prose work of an unrecognized writer , Frankfurt am Main 2005.
- Verlag Kurt Desch (Ed.): From the Romanstrasse . Announcements from the Kurt Desch publishing house, 2, 9, Munich 1949.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Richter 1978, p. 19.