The spoke

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The spoke in the work edition of Limmat Verlag , 1996

The spoke (earlier editions as "Krock & Co.") is the fifth, shortest and last Wachtmeister-Studer novel by the Swiss author Friedrich Glauser . The crime thriller, written in 1937, was Glauser's first commissioned novel and deals with a murder in the fictional village of Schwarzenstein in the Appenzellerland .

Beginning of the novel

Why had you been indulgent? Why had the wife and daughter been given their will? Now you stood there and should, if possible, take responsibility because you had acted on your own initiative and the corpse had not stayed in the little garden, behind the house, where it had been found ... The dead man was lying on the white-scrubbed table in the front cellar of the Hotels zum Hirschen, and a narrow streak of blood snaked across the light-colored wood. The drops slowly fell onto the cement floor - it sounded like the ticking of a tired wall clock.

content

Starting position

Jakob Studer and his wife traveled to Arbon in eastern Switzerland to celebrate their daughter's wedding with Albert Guhl, who is also a police officer. After the ceremony there is a carriage ride; Studer suggests the village of Schwarzenstein in the nearby Appenzellerland as a destination, because he remembers that his old school sweetheart Anna Rechsteiner runs the «Hirschen» inn there with her paralyzed and terminally ill husband. However, when the wedding party wanted to leave for Arbon late in the evening, a body was discovered in the garden behind the inn. Anna asks Studer for criminological help, in the hope that the death will be cleared up quickly. When the sergeant examined the corpse in the basement of the inn, he discovered the cause of death: a pointed bicycle spoke had been pushed through several of the dead man's vital organs. There is also a gray dog ​​hair stuck to the spoke. Since the bicycle dealer Ernst Graf, who runs his bicycle business next to the deer, owns a dog with gray fur, the evidence seems to point to the neighbor.

detection

The investigations lead Sergeant Studer to the Appenzellerland

Since the wedding party is stuck until the local police arrive the following day, Studer begins the investigation. The dead man's name was Jean Stieger and worked in the law firm “Krock & Co.”, which is based in St. Gallen . Stieger came to Schwarzenstein the day before to visit the secretary Martha Loppacher, who also works for the “Krock” law firm and lives in “Hirschen” for the cure. In the dead man's pocket, Studer also finds a pile of empty envelopes that the clerk sent to Stieger. The next morning the sergeant first visits the bike dealer and comes to the conclusion that he is innocent. In the course of the morning, however, Ernst Graf was picked up by the canton police. Although Studer is neither on duty nor responsible for investigating the murder, he decides to pursue the case with his son-in-law. After the wedding party has left, the two of them stay at the «Hirschen». During the course of the day, the seedy head of the law firm "Krock & Co.", Joachim Crock, appears. After dinner he sits down at the piano and falls dead from the chair after the first few bars. The summoned doctor found poisoning. In the two days that followed, Studer made himself acquainted with the people in question for the double murder and also discovered a possible motive: Several farming families in the village and the surrounding area were deeply in debt to Anna's husband, Karl Rechsteiner; their farms are threatened with enforcement . Rechsteiner, on the other hand, appears to have large debts with the company "Krock & Co." to have. When a banker from Paris shows up at the hotel, Studer telegraphs to the French capital and asks his friend Commissioner Madelin for information. Together with his reply and the reconstructed typeface of a missing letter, it becomes clear to the sergeant who committed the murders.

resolution

For the next morning the sergeant has ordered the interrogator and the police chief from Trogen to use a clever trick to reveal the perpetrator and his motives. It also succeeds in unmasking an internationally active usury gang . After Studer amazed the local police by solving the case and at the same time helped his former school sweetheart out of a hopeless situation, he can return to Bern satisfied.

Emergence

Before Friedrich Glauser moved to La Bernerie-en-Retz in Brittany with his then partner Berthe Bendel (whom he had met as a nurse in the psychiatric institution in Münsingen in 1933) , they lived in Angles near Chartres . However, life there increasingly became a test of endurance: Living in a dilapidated house, financial worries and the climate were draining your strength. The move to La Bernerie followed at the beginning of March 1937. Glauser and Berthe rented a holiday bungalow and stayed there until December of the same year.

La Bernerie . Place of origin of
Die Speiche

At this time, Glauser's long-time pen friend and benefactor Martha Ringier put in contact with Max Ras , founder and editor of the Swiss observer . This led to Glauser's first commission to write a novel. On May 10th, he wrote to Gotthard Schuh : “The thing is that Ras from 'Observer' wants to bring a short novel by me and at the same time a treatise on Glauser as an announcement. He wants to make me. It can be fine with me. The 'observer' is already increasing to 450,000 and hopes to increase it by 50,000 after the spread to which my novel is supposed to contribute. That would allow you to reach people you would otherwise never reach. And that's why I took action, whether or not my colleagues are disgraceful of me. I've been sick long enough, why shouldn't I benefit a little now when 'just around the corner there is a little sunshine for me'? And if it's even a little, I paid it, the 'sunshine'. " Success finally seemed to be there. They approached Glauser and wanted to "make" him. However, the deadline for the “observer” was set for mid-June. This means once again the pressure to write a print-ready text in just a few weeks. In addition, Die Fieberkurve was waiting for its seventh revision for Friedrich Witz . In addition, Josef Halperin wanted to publish Glauser's legionary novel Gourrama . And last but not least, the Chinese for the writers' competition should be ready by the end of the year. Glauser reached for opium again , which meant that after the spoke had ended, he had to undergo an addiction treatment in the private clinic «Les Rives de Prangins» on Lake Geneva from July 17th to 25th .

Glauser only needed six weeks for Die Speiche : from mid-May to the end of June 1937 he had written all 14 chapters. On May 31, he reported to Martha Ringier about the initial difficulties: “But I hope I can give you the sum back when I can finish the novel for Ras. It has to be finished, of course, but that will still cost you a few nasty drops of sweat. I've already started it four times and have to throw the whole beginning over again. Always the old story. You suddenly realize that you can't really do anything yet. " On June 13th he announced that he had arrived on page 80 and on June 26th the new Studer novel was ready. In order for the crime thriller to be printed, however, Glauser had to travel to Basel and shorten the story by a fifth. The observer editors changed the title to "Krock & Co." (It was not until 1996 that the novel was published again by Limmat Verlag under the title intended by Glauser ). Even before Glauser had handed in the typescript , he made a disparaging view of the spoke . On July 9th, in a letter to Berthe Bendel, he described the novel as “rubbish”: “So listen, children, Ras promptly paid 2,000.00 today. [...] So I have to shorten, quite a bit, throw out the sentimental. […] The Ras-Schmarren should be ready by Sunday. God grant it. " And two months later he wrote to Otto Briner about this: "I also did some crap - if you get your hands on the observer, you will discover this rubbish without further ado."

Nervi near Genoa . Glauser's last stop

However, the hoped-for success was no longer to come for Glauser during his lifetime. The last year of his life was overshadowed by the theft of the Chinese manuscript , opium, another rehab and an accident with a fractured skull . A long convalescence and financial worries followed when he and Berthe moved to Nervi near Genoa in June 1938, where , among other things , he began to work on the Studer Roman fragments and where the two wanted to get married. The life situation seemed so hopeless that at the beginning of October Glauser wrote to Max Ras asking for money: “We have run out of black horses, our marriage is just around the corner, we should live, and worries make me break up. [...] Apart from you, I have no one else I can turn to. [...] I don't know what to do anymore. My God, I think you know me enough to know that I am not the kind of person who likes to curry favor with others and whine in order to get something. You know my life has not always been rosy. It's just that I'm tired now and don't know whether it's worth going on. " Ras then transferred money to Nervi. In the meantime, however, he had lost interest in Glauser's literary work, and so on November 4th he sent a manuscript back to the man he had intended to "make". Shortly before the planned wedding, Ras' letter with the returned text arrived. A few days later Glauser collapsed unexpectedly and died at the age of 42 in the first hours of December 8, 1938.

Biographical background

Locations

Typical Appenzell farmhouse

Behind the fictional village of Schwarzenstein is the village of Grub from the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden , where Berthe Bendel grew up. Glauser got to know the village and the area when the two Berthe's parents and half-siblings visited. According to the literary scholar Bernhard Echte, this one-off visit must have taken place in May 1936, shortly before the couple left for Angles. Berthe's half-sister Hulda Messmer recounts Glauser's visit to Grub in her memoirs: “Friedel was with us in Grub once with Berthe, for about fourteen days before they left for Nervi [here she is most likely wrong about the date: shortly before Glauser and Berthe traveled to Nervi, the spoke had been finished for a year]. That's when the parents met him. We had open racks for the dishes, and Mother put the coffee port and the milk port on them. And then Friedel would always bring the coffeehouse down and just drink from it. He just had to have his coffee. He was someone who could easily adapt to the circumstances, he was also not squeamish and not a bit difficult. We were simple people and we didn't have what many others have had. He could do better with ordinary people than with other high-ranking people. [...] Friedel often lay on the sofa - we had a sofa in our little room. Sometimes he and Berthe went for a walk, sometimes to the Bischofsberg. Berthe grew up there until she was six years old, then she had to go to school and came home to Grub, where her mother had moved after the marriage. "

characters

When the impoverished farmer tells Studer his fate in Chapter 12, Glauser gives him the surname of Berthe's stepfather Jakob Messmer: “'And it's the same everywhere,' said the pastor outside. ‹At least Messmer has been honest with you, sergeant.› »After his brief visit to Grub, Glauser also incorporated other people into his novel: the real landlady Anna Tobler, who runs the“ ox ”(in the novel it becomes the hotel“ Hirschen ») Is called Anna Rechsteiner in the spoke . And there was also a role model for the sick Karl Rechsteiner: At that time, a rich Zedel owner with the nickname « Beckens » lived in Grub . Even the old house with the workshop of the figure Ernst Graf existed: a village original named Hans Graf, called "Velohans", was known for the disorder around his workshop. The fact that the producers of the film adaptation in 1976 found the forest around five kilometers away for Glauser's Schwarzenstein as the filming location did not prevent the people of Gruben from recognizing their village and its roommates: “We Gruber are particularly looking forward to the film that is in preparation. When looking at it, we are reminded not least of our deceased roommates, who stood as models for the writer Friedrich Glauser without knowing anything about it and without having anything to do with the gruesome events of this crime novel. "

Jakob Studer and Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes , illustration by Sidney Paget

Glauser's sergeant Jakob Studer has repeatedly been compared with the literary investigative figure par excellence: the master detective Sherlock Holmes , who was created in 1887 by Arthur Conan Doyle . As early as 1936, Der Bund wrote in a review of Schlumpf Erwin Mord : “This novel is far above the average of the well-known 'crime literature' and is more than just a breathlessly captivating arithmetic model based on an exemplary scheme. Glauser raised his material to an artistic level that was eternally far removed from the prolific writer Edgar Wallace , but which even a Conan Doyle could only reach in rare moments. " And when Max Ras announced the first episode of Speiche in the Observer on September 15, 1937 , he too did not shy away from the comparison with the private detective from Bakerstreet 221b : “A year ago, the poet and writer, Friedrich Glauser, wrote a novel in the ‹Zürcher Illustrierte› achieved a success. In this novel, titled Wachtmeister Studer , the author has solved the difficult task of creating a Swiss Sherlock Holmes. " In December of the same year, Zürcher Illustrierte adopted Ras's formulation for the introduction of the fever curve : “Wachtmeister Studer, the 'Swiss Sherlock Holmes', has already become so popular that he is no longer perceived as a mere fictional character, but rather recognized as a compatriot who masters the small and big problems of his job as an investigator with a clever head and a kind heart. "

An interesting detail is the fact that Glauser actually oriented himself to Arthur Conan Doyle in the spoke : In order to solve the case, Studer uses a trick from a Sherlock Holmes story and explains to the witnesses present: “One more minute! As I said, my trick is old, I read it in a book when I was young - a very well-known book. " The "book" that Studer (or Glauser) addresses is most likely the short story The Builder of Norwood , which Doyle wrote in 1903. There Sherlock Holmes demonstrates in the final scene Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard and three police officers how a person is unexpectedly lured out of their hiding place. Glauser has taken over this system for Die Speiche : Studer appoints the interrogator and the police chief from Trogen ( seat of the cantonal court ) plus a police officer to Schwarzenstein to solve the case according to the same model of Doyle's story:

Model for the final scene: Doyles The Builder of Norwood , illustration by Sidney Paget

Version Doyle:

"Do you want to open that window there, Watson, and light the straw?" I did what he told me to do. As a result of the procession, a thick, gray cloud of smoke soon rose, the dry straw pattered, and the bright flames rose up.
[...]
"Fire!" All of Norwood must have heard it.
[...]
On the apparently solid wall at the end of the corridor a door suddenly opened and a small, thin man with gray hair and white eyelashes rushed out like a rabbit from its hole.

Version Glauser:

A piece of newspaper flares up. [...] Studer puts it under the straw, it moths, smokes - but the draft comes.
[...]
Now six men shout in unison: «Fire! Fire!".
[...]
A click ... But not the door, where the straw is smoking, opens, but a door to her right, in a dark corridor. The Rechsteiner stands in the frame.

Publications

First episode of Die Speiche
("Krock & Co.") in Schweizerischer Beobachter from September 15, 1937 (excerpt)

From September 15, 1937 to January 15, 1938, Die Speiche was published as the first print in the journal der Schweizerische Beobachter . Among other things, Max Ras wrote in the introduction: «The observer liked the work [Glauser's first Wachtmeister-Studer -Roman Schlumpf Erwin Mord ] so much that he asked the poet to write a story for the observer's readers in which this famous Sergeant Studer appears. The novel begins below; Whether it is also so well received by the inclined reader remains to be seen in the following. The observer introduces the poet himself to his friends. He is a Swiss born in Vienna who tried his hand at writing at an early age. After eventful fates as a chemistry student, editor, Foreign Legionnaire , casserole, miner, nurse and gardener , he found his real calling as a writer. Various Swiss newspapers have already published short stories about him. The observer hopes that the new police novel will offer his readers something exciting. If you want to read the story further, please use the payment slip enclosed with this booklet if you are not yet a subscriber. "

In 1941 Morgarten-Verlag published the book edition of Die Speiche . In 1955 the novel appeared in the Sphinx crime series of the Gutenberg Book Guild and in 1963 in the publishing house Das Neue Berlin under the title "Wachtmeister Studer engages ein".

filming

The Appenzell village of Wald , 1976 filming location for "Krock & Co."

In 1976, Der Speiche was launched under the title "Krock & Co." Filmed in a German-Swiss co-production under the direction of Rainer Wolffhardt . Hans Heinz Moser played the sergeant . The Schweizer Illustrierte wrote in 1977: “' Wachtmeister Studer' , the classic Swiss crime thriller from the 1930s with Heinrich Gretler , is still familiar to every child in this country. It was only forty years later that local and German filmmakers noticed that its author, the writer Friedrich Glauser - in addition to the " Matto rules " filmed in 1945 [correctly: 1947] - left behind other Studer novels. [...] Heinrich Gretler, however, whose cartilage nose and rough humanity made the Studer unforgettable, is no longer there. The clever police man from Bern is played by the […] Bernese actor Hans Heinz Moser in the ‹Krock›. With Sigfrit Steiner [who already played in the Glauser films from 1939 and 1947], Regine Lutz and Kurt Bissegger are other prominent Swiss actors in the role. Because local and German producers agreed that the new 'stud' should be filmed with Swiss actors and in the original version spoken in Swiss German. […] Originally, the producer Helmut Pigge wanted the setting and setting as well. But Pigge couldn't find a village called Schwarzenstein on the map. So the TV team went in search of the village that the author lovingly described. In the end she almost certainly found Glauser's role model: the Appenzell forest high above Lake Constance . The film 'Krock & Co.' was shot there last summer. In Wald, not only Appenzell extras and genuine Dibi-Däbi ambiance [ Dibi-Däbi : joking name for Appenzeller] could be found, but also the country inn, which in Glauser's novel is the scene of two murders and the story of a dramatic marriage. "

Theater adaptations

As early as 1948, Peter Lotar adapted "Krock & Co." as "Volksstück in five acts". The dialect version with Heinrich Gretler in the lead role premiered at the Küchlin Theater in Basel . This was followed by a tour with around 60 performances throughout Switzerland. Glauser jokingly mentioned the "Küchlin" in the summer of 1936, when he was living with Berthe Bendel in Angles and teaching a little rooster named Hans tricks; on August 15th he wrote to Martha Ringier: “The weather is fine, today I taught Hans how to dance the tightrope, on the linen rope, he's a little clumsy, but otherwise docile. And if everything goes wrong, I appear in the Küchlin as a chicken dresser - the young Swiss writer, whose name you will have to remember, in a solo act, surrounded by his flock of chickens. If that doesn't work! "

The spoke has been performed regularly by amateur theater ensembles over the years. In 2005 the Schötz theater group played "Wachtmeister Studer's last case - based on the novel" Krock & Co "". In 2013 the theater pedagogue Ingrid Wettstein wrote an adaptation and directed the Reiat-Theater in Stetten ; the premiere of «Krock &. Co. » took place on October 31st. Wettstein had already written a dialect version of Schlumpf Erwin Mord under the name "Wachtmeister Studer" for the amateur stage in Fällanden in 2007 . In January / February 2018, the “Theater in Baden” ran the written German version by Peter Lotar (“Wachtmeister Studer - very private!”) As a dinner theater under the title “Krock & Co.” in the baroque hall of the Hotel Limmathof in Baden .

Comic

Nüüd Appartigs… (including the crime comic «Krock & Co.») by Hannes Binder published by Limmat Verlag , 2005

After Hannes Binder had already adapted Glauser's “Chinese” as a comic in 1988, Die Speiche followed in 1990 (under the title “Krock & Co.”) with a total of 313 panels . When designing the graphic novel , Binder took a slightly different approach this time by making the implementation more optically. In an interview from 1990 he said: “I no longer trust the story blindly and do everything 1: 1, but a little more from a distance. I want to concentrate more on Glauser's pictures, which he actually offers almost like in a script. I try to play out images that are apparently unimportant for the plot, the details and marginalities that are so typical for Glauser, as well as possible. " First, Binder developed the rough concept of a storyboard and then began researching by photographing houses and landscapes in the Appenzellerland. Schwarzenstein, the Hotel Hirschen and the bicycle workshop did not exist. In the Zurich Oberland , however, Binder found an ideal role model in Gyrenbad near Turbenthal : “An old gout bath that is falling apart . There is only one economy left, the bathing part burned down, I think. The house is on a slope and has the layout of a house from the time. " Together with another motif from Rehetobel , Binder's Hirschen was created. Binder describes the search for the model of the bicycle workshop as follows: “There are allotments in Seebach outside. I know them from civil defense . There are areas where people with small animals can do whatever they want. I went there for a day, looked around and took photos. Glauser describes it pretty precisely, with the junk and junk lying around everywhere. "

Audio productions

  • Friedrich Glauser: Krock & Co. , radio editing with Schaggi Streuli , 1955
  • Friedrich Glauser: Krock & Co. , radio play, production: SWF / DRS 1990, 67 min., Adaptation: Markus Michel, director: Felix Bopp
  • Friedrich Glauser: Krock & Co. Wachtmeister Studer determined. Christoph Merian Verlag, Basel 2010, ISBN 978-3-85616-432-4 .

literature

Krock & Co. ( Die Speiche ) in the book edition of Morgarten-Verlag , Zurich 1941
  • Gerhard Saner: Friedrich Glauser, two volumes, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main / Zurich 1981.
  • Bernhard Echte, Manfred Papst (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 1. Arche, Zurich 1988, ISBN 3-7160-2075-3 .
  • Frank Göhre: Contemporary Glauser - A Portrait. Arche, Zurich 1988, ISBN 3-7160-2077-X .
  • Hannes Binder: Krock & Co (Friedrich Glauser). Crime comic, Arche, Zurich 1990, ISBN 3-7160-2115-6 .
  • Bernhard Echte (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 2. Arche, Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-7160-2076-1 .
  • Rainer Redies: About Wachtmeister Studer - Biographical Sketches. Edition Hans Erpf, Bern 1993, ISBN 3-905517-60-4 .
  • Friedrich Glauser: Die Speiche Limmat Verlag, Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-85791-240-5 .
  • Heiner Spiess, Peter Edwin Erismann (Ed.): Memories. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-85791-243-X .
  • Hannes Binder: Nüüd Appartigs… - Six drawn stories. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-85791-481-5 .
  • Ingrid Wettstein: Krock & Co. - Wachtmeister Studer - crime novel based on Friedrich Glauser. Theaterverlag Elgg, Belp 2013.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernhard Echte (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 2. Arche, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-7160-2076-1 , p. 603.
  2. ↑ Bernhard Echte (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 2. Arche, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-7160-2076-1 , p. 614.
  3. ↑ Bernhard Echte (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 2. Arche, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-7160-2076-1 , p. 647.
  4. ↑ Bernhard Echte (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 2. Arche, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-7160-2076-1 , p. 740.
  5. ↑ Bernhard Echte (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 2. Arche, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-7160-2076-1 , pp. 874/875.
  6. ↑ Bernhard Echte: Afterword. In: Friedrich Glauser: The spoke . Limmat Verlag, Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-85791-243-X , p. 143.
  7. ↑ Peter Erismann, Heiner Spiess (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser. Memories. Limmat, Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-85791-274-X , p. 72.
  8. ↑ Friedrich Glauser: The spoke . Limmat Verlag, Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-85791-243-X , p. 112.
  9. ^ Gerhard Saner: Friedrich Glauser - A work history. Suhrkamp Verlag, Zurich 1981, p. 163/164.
  10. ↑ Der Bund , December 10, 1936.
  11. ↑ Friedrich Glauser: The spoke . Limmat Verlag, Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-85791-243-X , p. 123.
  12. ↑ Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes - The Empty House and Other Detective Stories. Delphin Verlag, Cologne 1993, ISBN 3-7735-3133-8 , p. 31.
  13. ^ Arthur Conan Doyle : The builder of Norwood in the project Gutenberg-DE
  14. ^ Friedrich Glauser : Krock & Co. in the Gutenberg-DE project
  15. ^ Gerhard Saner: Friedrich Glauser - A work history. Suhrkamp Verlag, Zurich 1981, p. 163.
  16. ↑ Sil Schmid: Murder twice in the country inn - a case for Studer. In: Schweizer Illustrierte , February 14, 1977.
  17. ^ Gerhard Saner: Friedrich Glauser - A work history. Suhrkamp Verlag, Zurich 1981, p. 163.
  18. ↑ Bernhard Echte (Ed.): Friedrich Glauser - Briefe 2. Arche, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-7160-2076-1 , p. 341.
  19. ↑ The "Schötzer Studer" investigates .... In: Willisauer Bote , August 30, 2005.
  20. ^ A case for Sergeant Studer. In: Schaffhauser Nachrichten , November 2, 2013.
  21. ↑ Hannes Binder: Nüüd Appartigs… - Six drawn stories. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-85791-481-5 , p. 227
  22. ↑ Entry on the radio play in hördat.de (PDF) , accessed on March 19, 2016