The legend of the holy drinker

The legend of the holy drinker is a novella by Joseph Roth that was published posthumously in 1939 by the Amsterdam publisher Allert de Lange . Andreas, the drinker, a man of honor, wants - across the whole legend - to bring back borrowed money, but does not get around to it, precisely because he drinks.

content

In the last weeks of his life, in the spring of 1934, a whole series of miracles happened to the homeless drinker Andreas Kartak from Olschowice in the Polish Silesia . Like his father, Andreas used to work as a coal worker. Because they were looking for coal workers in France, he went there and worked in the Quebecque mines. He had been quartered with the Schebiec couple, slept with Frau Karoline, had been caught by the husband and killed him in self-defense. For this, Andreas had spent two years in prison.

Andreas, who has become a Parisian tramp, usually spends the night under the bridges over the Seine . The first miracle: a strange gentleman lends Andreas two hundred francs . The homeless person should deposit the amount with the statue of St. Therese von Lisieux in the Ste-Marie des Batignolles chapel . Andreas drinks the money, but thinks about it, earns two hundred francs through honest work and wastes it again. In addition to the miracle of earning money through work, others join: Andreas buys a used wallet to store the rain of money and finds a thousand francs in it. He also meets a former schoolmate who is looking after him. And his former lover Karoline, who had broken her marriage with him, runs into him, walks with him through Paris and sleeps with him. But Andreas leaves the dust because Karoline has aged. He can afford that because the miracles continue. He encounters approaching young women, trusting young girls. One is called Therese - the above-mentioned saint, the not entirely sober drinker assumes. But Therese is made of flesh and blood - not who she is thought to be. Nor does she take any money from Andreas. On the contrary, Therese gives Andreas a hundred franc note just as the drinker is about to have the next Pernod at the counter . It doesn't come to that. The drinker falls over and dies. The narrator's final comment: "God grant us all, us drinkers, such an easy and beautiful death!"

reception

• In a speech in 1989, Reich-Ranicki deeply admired the "perfect, perfect prose". Because from this language “complete calm, yes serenity” comes from.
• Hackert mentions this last work by Joseph Roth as an example in which the author subjected his own "drunkenness" to self-observation.
• The legend calls Nürnberger a delicate, childlike dream poetry that Joseph Roth succeeded in working for four months in 1939.
• In her analysis, Steierwald emphasizes what is incorrigible in habitual drinkers.
• Sternburg would like to see in the generous stranger Mr. Stefan Zweig . In addition, Sternburg points out the Christian-Jewish component of the text and lists the opinions of two Catholic clergymen and of Hermann Kesten , Heinrich Mann , Andrea Manga Bell as well as a letter from Roth dated February 1939 to the address of Schalom Ben-Chorin on this subject .

Film adaptations

• Franz Josef Wild filmed the novel under the original title for television in 1963 (with Ernst Fritz Fürbringer as a strange gentleman and Hannes Messemer as Andreas).
• The work was filmed again in 1988 by the Italian director Ermanno Olmi as La Leggenda del santo bevitore (German title: The legend of the holy drinker ). The Dutchman Rutger Hauer shone as Andreas Kartak . This film adaptation received a total of nine film awards. Among other things, director Olmi won the Golden Lion of Venice in 1988 . The TV premiere in Germany was on February 11, 1996.

Radio plays

• In 1950 the RIAS produced a radio play version by Maria Sommer, directed by Hanns Korngiebel .
• In 1959, a new radio play version by Wilhelm Michael Treichlinger (editing and direction) was created at SDR .
• In 1960, the WDR produced a radio play directed by Raoul Wolfgang Schnell , with Horst Tappert as a drinker, Siegfried Wischnewski as a drinking companion, Rolf Boysen as a boxer, Wera Peterson as a saleswoman, Gisela von Collande as a woman, Kurt Lieck as the man of old age and Eduard Marks as a narrator.
• In 2007 a bilingual, German-French radio play version of The Legend of the Holy Drinker was created. The directed by Marguerite Gateau and the participation of Martin Engler , Jule Böwe and Peter Davor resulting production of Germany Kultur , SR and France Culture was also for the ARD - Radio Drama Award nomination.
• In 2010 the radio play author and director Robert Schoen produced his own version of the material on behalf of the Hessischer Rundfunk (HR) under the title Schicksal, Hauptsache Schicksal . For this, Schoen and his main actor Lorenz Eberle were awarded the War Blind Radio Play Prize.

theatre

• In the 2010/2011 season, the legend of the holy drinker was performed as a scenic story at the Theater Basel . It was played by Peter Schröder. The idea and concept were also with Peter Schröder, directed by Elias Perrig .
• In the 2014/2015 season, the Nationaltheater Mannheim performed the legend of the holy drinker in the series “Tonstudio” under the name Himmelfahrtskommando as a scenic-musical story. Reinhard Mahlberg played Andreas, directed by Jennifer Regnet and Greta Schmidt.
• In August 2020, the Ton und Kirschen traveling theater performed the legend in several locations in Berlin and Brandenburg.

expenditure

source

• Fritz Hackert (Ed.): Joseph Roth. Works. Volume 6: Novels and Stories. 1936-1940. Pp. 515–543: The legend of the holy drinker. Novella. 1939. With an afterword by the editor. Book guild Gutenberg, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-7632-2988-4 .

Further editions

• The legend of the holy drinker. After the first printing in 1939. With commentary and afterword. Edited by Konstanze Fliedl . Reclam, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-15-018683-1 ( Reclam's Universal Library 18683).
• Text output at Projekt Gutenberg-DE

literature

• Helmuth Nürnberger : Joseph Roth. In self-testimonials and picture documents. Rowohlt-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 1981, ISBN 3-499-50301-8 ( Rowohlt's Monographs 301).
• Lothar Pikulik: Joseph Roth's dream of rebirth and death. About the "legend of the holy drinker" . In: Euphorion , 83 (1989) pp. 214-225.
• Marcel Reich-Ranicki : The novelist Joseph Roth. P. 261–268 in Michael Kessler (Ed.), Fritz Hackert (Ed.): Joseph Roth: Interpretation - Criticism - Reception. Files from the international, interdisciplinary symposium 1989, Academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart . Stauffenburg Verlag Brigitte Narr, Tübingen 1990, ISBN 3-923721-45-5 (2nd edition 1994)
• The compulsion to repeat and the feigned sacralization of chance . In: Thomas Düllo: Chance and Melancholie: Investigations on the contingency semantics in texts by Joseph Roth . Diss. Münster 1991. 336 pages, ISBN 3-89473-819-7 , pp. 295-311
• Ulrike Steierwald: Suffering from history. On the modern conception of history in the texts of Joseph Roth. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1994, ISBN 3-88479-880-4 ( Epistemata. Series: Literaturwissenschaft 121; also: Munich, Univ., Diss., 1992).
• Gero von Wilpert : Lexicon of world literature. German authors A – Z. 4th, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-520-83704-8 , p. 519.
• Wilhelm von Sternburg : Joseph Roth. A biography. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2009 (2nd edition), ISBN 978-3-462-05555-9 .

Web links

• The Legend of the Holy Drinker in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Achim Küpper: “My word is far from being a confession”: On Joseph Roth's lack of mind. An interpretation of the legend of the holy drinker . (PDF)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Reich-Ranicki, p. 267
2. ↑ Hackert p. 812
3. ↑ Nürnberger p. 118
4. ↑ Steierwald p. 36
5. ^ Sternburg, p. 480 middle
6. ↑ Sternburg, pp. 480-481
7. ↑ Weblink IMDb
8. ^ Website of the Theater Basel ( memento of November 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on June 4, 2011
9. ↑ nationaltheater-mannheim.de