The powder mill
The powder mill is a novel by Gertrud Fussenegger (1912–2009). The novel was published as a detective novel in 1968 .
The name of the novel refers to the venue, the Gasthaus Pulvermühle in Franconian Switzerland , where Group 47 held its 31st annual meeting in 1967 . Gertrud Fussenegger was also present.
construction
In the framework narrative of a marriage that failed due to post-war silence, flashbacks and memories reveal a criminal case from the days of the war. Some associated themes are woven into the narrative - the topic of faith, the question of guilt also in relation to the atrocities of war and remembering ancient myths and stories.
content
Although Julia and Jürgen Bojan have decided to get a divorce, Julia accompanies Jürgen on his trip to Italy to their home village, a small town in South Tyrol. In the vain search for the powder mill, a place from Juliet's childhood, they get lost and learn that it no longer exists.
When Jürgen learns shocking fragments from Julia's past the next day, he goes on a search for the truth himself. From Julia's former teacher and brother-in-law Hans Wagenseil, he learns that Julia's half-sister Hedwig, with whom Juliet lived after her mother's untimely death, was first married to the rich, older quarry owner Seffo Lebandowsky. Even then, Hans Wagenseil had an affair with Hedwig, he was also the father of Hedwig's only child, whom Lebandowsky thought was his own. The whole village knew. The unsuspecting Lebandowsky hired the teacher as an accountant after he lost his job. Wagenseil lived in the old powder mill near the quarry and befriended the quarry worker Utan Dragenowitsch.
Lebandowsky, a difficult person who drinks a lot, tells Hans the story of his life, which includes his foreman Dragenowitsch, whom he brought with him from Bosnia from the First World War as a devoted and undemanding servant. Dragenowitsch sees the kuk officer Lebandowsky as his lifesaver, since allegedly Serbs had burned his home village and shot all the residents. But in truth Lebandowsky and his troops were the culprits. After Dragenowitsch learns the true story from Hans, Utan silently digs a pit in the basement of the powder mill. He advises Hans to go on a trip. So Hans immediately goes to Innsbruck, where Julia goes to school and starts an affair with the 17-year-old.
When Hans returns to Lajon, Lebandowsky has disappeared, no body is found. Hans first continued to run the company and eventually married at the instigation of Pastor Hedwig, without loving her. The relationship between Hans and Dragenowitsch is disturbed, guilt and complicity lie between the two. When Hans Utan slips money into the first monthly payment, Dragenowitsch understands this as Hans' attempt to buy himself out. From then on, Dragenowitsch blackmailed Hans.
Julia comes back to Lajon and they meet regularly in secret in the powder mill. As Dragenowitsch, who deeply admires Hedwig from afar, understands the affair, he shows himself to be Lebandowsky's murderer and describes Hans as an accomplice. Lebandowsky's body is found walled up in the powder mill. Hans is sentenced to 12 years in prison, Dragenowitsch has to go to a labor camp, where he later dies, Hedwig ends up in a madhouse. Julia and Hedwig's son are washed away by the chaos of war in Germany. While fleeing from the Russians, the boy, mistaken by soldiers for the German officer Jürgen Bojan, is shot. In contrast to Julia, Jürgen knows about this mix-up. This is how Julia and Jürgen met, both hiding their traumas from each other and never really getting close. The two find each other through the agonizing but increasingly liberating confrontation with the past.
expenditure
- The powder mill: a crime story . Stuttgart, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt 1968 (first edition)
- The powder mill: a crime story . Munich, dtv 2007. ISBN 978-3-423-13534-4 (new edition)
Various book club editions have also appeared.
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.dtv.de/buecher/die_pulvermuehle_13534.html ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
