The shepherd's flute (Joho)
The shepherd's flute is a story by Wolfgang Joho . It was published in 1947 by Aufbau-Verlag and in 1952 by Insel-Bücherei .
content
The young Wehrmacht soldier Wendt is traveling with his troops in a freight train through occupied Yugoslavia and Greece . When crossing a mountain gorge at night, he and his comrade Bergmann have to keep watch, as partisan attacks are feared. He searches in his memory for something “that belonged to him alone” and remembers the night before in Semlin , where he met the girl Jarmila and spent the night with her. The next morning Jarmila reacted with shock to the news that Wendt had to move on with his troop.
He envies his older comrade Bergmann that he has a wife and children. Wendt believes that Bergmann will therefore be spared, but that he himself, who has no ties, must die in the war. When the train had to stop because of mines hidden under the tracks, it was shot at from the mountains. Bergmann, who was sitting at the door of a wagon, was the only one hit. His death goes unnoticed at first because he does not fall over but leans against the door.
The next morning the train arrives in Greece, around noon the train stops and everyone has to get off. Wendt feels guilty about Bergmann and volunteers to join a group looking for a suitable burial place and digging a grave. You will find an idyllic spot on the bank of a small river.
On the evening after the funeral, Wendt learned from a comrade that there were local women who established relationships with occupation soldiers in order to spy on information and pass it on to the partisans. He now believes that Jarmila intended to do the same for him, but then fell in love with him and therefore did not listen to him. Because of her shock the next morning, Wendt suspects that she knew about the planned attack on the train.
Wendt leaves the camp of his company and returns to the grave: He is desperate and would like to swap places with the dead man. Then he undresses to bathe in the river, which initially dispels his sad mood. After the bath, he hears the melody of a shepherd's flute in the distance and falls asleep. He dreams of being on a mountain in his home country; There he meets his childhood friend Hanna, who leads him to the house where both of them lead a happy and peaceful life together with Bergmann and Jarmila. In his dream he considers the real war and Bergmann's death to be a nightmare.
When he wakes up, he decides to desert . He walks along the river and moves further and further away from his troop, in a homestead he gets something to eat from an old woman. After hiking for days, he is arrested by a military patrol, interrogated in a commandant's office and executed the next morning.
Subject
The focus of the personal narrator is not on the war, but on the psychological development of a young, inexperienced soldier. Wendt reflects on how as a soldier he has to suppress his own will. After the last events (the night with Jarmila, the death of Bergmann, the dream of peace) he can accept this less and less. So his desertion is personal and not, as the interrogating officer suspects, politically motivated.
source
- Wolfgang Joho: The shepherd's flute. Narrative. With drawings by Hans Mau . Insel-Verlag Leipzig 1952 (Insel-Bücherei No. 311).