The boys from tent thirteen
The boys from tent thirteen is a youth novel by the GDR writer Benno Pludra with illustrations by Paul Rosié (from 1975 with illustrations by Gerhard Lahr ). It was first published in 1952 by the children's book publisher Berlin . The story is told from the perspective of a young pioneer in the form of a diary .
content
The story is set in a tent camp for young pioneers in the early years of the GDR . The first-person narrator belongs to tent group thirteen, an all-boys group. The boys are disrespectful, headstrong and outrageous and their behavior pissed off the former group leader Max, because he couldn't get along with them with his authoritarian leadership methods.
When Max is replaced by Helga, the astonishment about a female leader is great. Some of the boys hope that Helga will manage to educate them to be “decent” pioneers. They hope that justice will be done in the group, as the law of the fittest has prevailed up to now. They expect Helga to show more radical authoritarian behavior than Max showed.
But Helga turns out to be the opposite model to Max, and when she only observes at the beginning of her stay and does not intervene, the disappointment is great. It only intervenes in really dangerous situations to avoid accidents.
Little by little, however, the boys are beginning to respect Helga. A central episode of the novel shows the change of the pioneers very clearly. On the occasion of a cultural program, each tent group appears on the stage. Since group thirteen did not manage to rehearse a performance due to some disputes, Erwin, one of the boys, goes on stage alone and stutters out a poem that has already been presented much better by another tent group. The appearance is a disgrace.
At the closing ceremony of the tent camp there is the opportunity to perform again. At Helga's suggestion, the group performs a play in which they play themselves at the beginning of the tent camp. Thus Helga has achieved her goal of raising the young to be proper pioneers. The performance is a complete success, which is achieved because the boys have embarked on a development process with Helga, which they reflect in the play at the end.
A second level of reflection is the form of the diary novel, in which a group member self-critically reflects the development process. Pludra's novel thus ties in with the form of the brigade diaries , which played an important role in GDR cultural policy.
literature
- Ursula Steinhaussen: How does the brigade diary help us with personal development? , Verlag Tribüne, 1968