Aunt Jolesch

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The Aunt Jolesch or The Downfall of the West in Anecdotes is a book published in 1975 by the Austrian writer Friedrich Torberg . The title ironically refers to Oswald Spengler's cultural-philosophical work The Downfall of the West . A follow-up volume , The Heirs of Aunt Jolesch , appeared in 1978. The third volume that Torberg had already “planned” no longer existed. In 2001 Georg Markus wrote Aunt Jolesch's grandchildren .

content

The book is a collection of anecdotes from Jewish life in the interwar period in Vienna , Prague and other places of the former Austro-Hungarian monarchy , some of which were personally experienced, partly heard and collected over many years . In addition to well-known personalities such as Ferenc Molnár , Anton Kuh , Egon Erwin Kisch , Leo Perutz , Alfred Polgar , Alfred Adler , Egon Friedell and Otto Soyka , hairdressers, waiters, the bizarre lawyer Hugo Sperber , the unkempt columnist Egon Dietrichstein , the mine owner and chansonnier Franz Elbogen , the editors of the Prager Tagblatt and a number of relatives and acquaintances of the author - including above all the eponymous Aunt Jolesch , of whom Torberg wrote in a letter in 1975, “that Aunt Jolesch is not an image of the real one, but a symbolic figure . “Torberg collected anecdotes and sayings from his friends and acquaintances, which he put into the mouths of Aunt Jolesch and other people in his book. The author Georg Markus claims to have identified Gisela Salacz, who was born in Großwardein on December 4, 1875, as the "real" aunt Jolesch, who married Julius Jolesch in 1893 and lived in Vienna. Unlike Aunt Jolesch in the book, she did not die with her family in 1932, but moved to Prague on May 19, 1938, where her trace is lost.

Aunt Jolesch is, as Torberg writes in the preface, “... a book of melancholy. It draws from the memory well that I still knew ”. Despite all the sadness, it shows the reader the world of the Jewish bourgeoisie in a very humorous way and with a lot of wit. The stories and anecdotes often culminate in a punchline, sometimes they just characterize the actors using aphorisms and wisdom.

The statements of Aunt Jolesch herself are among the most frequently quoted sentences. They are already introduced on the first few pages when Torberg tells of her nephew Franz, who wrote a report about a car accident he had previously experienced with the words “Another lucky thing I was with the car I did not slide onto the opposite lane, but rather hit the bridge railing ”. As always, Aunt Jolesch comments with a few, but all the more concise, words: "God should guard you from everything that is still lucky". Another well-known piece of wisdom from Aunt Jolesch is: “What a man is as beautiful as an ape is a luxury.” Yet another, intended for the son who is pitted while playing cards: “What do you sit down, play cards with people, what sit down Play cards with you? "

filming

In 1978, based on Torberg's screenplay, the film of the same name was published under the direction of Wolfgang F. Henschel , a German-Austrian co-production between ORF , ZDF and Neue Thalia Film Wien. In addition to Torberg himself, the actors included Adrienne Gessner (in the title role), Harald Harth , Fritz Muliar , Guido Wieland , Manfred Inger , Eric Pohlmann , Johann Sklenka , Paul Hoffmann , Franz Marischka , Harry Fuss , Robert Mayer , Aenne Bruck , Gretl Elb , Henry Gregor, Michael Janisch , Edith Leyrer , Eduard Linkers , Gottfried Schwarz, Edd Stavjanik , Joe Trummer and Peter Wehle .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Johannes Reiss: Franz - Aunt Jolesch's favorite nephew. In: Kosher Melange. The blog of the Austrian Jewish Museum. October 23, 2018, accessed December 9, 2018 . ISSN 2410-6380
  2. ↑ Robert Sedlaczek : The Making of "Die Tante Jolesch" . In: Der Standard , April 26, 2013
  3. ↑ Georg Markus: Who was Aunt Jolesch? Illustrierte Neue Welt , 4/2018, p. 22.
  4. ↑ Filming on Youtube