The daughter (Bruno Frank)

The daughter is the last novel by Bruno Frank , which was published on May 10, 1943 - ten years to the day after the book burning - by El libro libre in Mexico City . In January of the same year, extracts from the novel were preprinted in “ Free Germany ”. A translation into English had already come out in New York a year earlier .

Galicia 1914–1939 on the banks of the Dniester : Elisabeth, daughter of a Jewish singer and a Viennese officer, "placed between religions by birth", is left with the only escape from her homeland. Kirchner writes that Bruno Frank symbolizes the connection between “ Christianity and Judaism ” in the title figure .

action

Pattay and Recha

In 1913 the Viennese Princess Sofie Weikersthal had enough of the "game, women and duel affairs" of her nephew, Count Franz von Pattay. The lady turns to the emperor . The first lieutenant, born in 1886, was transferred to a Uhlan regiment in Galicia as punishment . The small garrison town lies on the eastern border of the empire on the Dniester. The officer there was assigned the good-natured Pyotr Gargas, a broad-shouldered Ukrainian farmer with sandy-colored hair. Half of the city's residents are Jews. As early as the Middle Ages, their ancestors had been driven out of the Rhineland as scapegoats after the black plague .

The report of the commander of the Uhlans after three months of service gives the Princess Weikersthal no reason to disinherit the count. To pass the time, the Uhlan officers have fun in Lemberg, three hours away . The famous Recha Doktor sings in the vaudeville. Pattay stays away from the mad hustle and bustle. When Rittmeister Ferdinand Schaller scolded the young, talented singer as a “dirty Jewish goat”, Pattay went to the “substitute metropolis” of Lemberg with the officers in protest. Pattay repeats the trip to the distant vaudeville theater until Recha hears him. Recha, descendant of the Grand Rabbi Doctor Shalom Shachna , was nearly raped by Cossacks as a fourteen-year-old half- orphan in Wieniawa, a suburb of Lublin . The soldiers let go of her at the last moment and hanged her father and one of Rechas's brothers. Recha's aunt Chana had sold the house, the “scene of the hideous”, and fled with her niece to relatives in Berlin. This is where the Recha Doktor's operetta career began.

The Habsburg officer Pattay ended Recha's stage career. He wants to make the Jewess Countess Recha Pattay. The Count is broke, but he borrows 20,000 kroner from the manufacturer Daniel Zweifuss in the small town to buy the small villa on the banks of the Dniester near the sugar factory. Together with Aunt Chana, the young couple lives in the new domicile - quite a distance from the garrison. Soon everyone in town will know. On June 28, 1914 , there was a physical confrontation between Pattay and the Jew-hater Rittmeister Schaller. The fighting cocks are separated. The commanding colonel gives Pattay a leave of absence. The first lieutenant spends the summer in the Carpathian Mountains with his mistress Recha . When the Russians mobilize, Pattay in parade uniform succeeds in the hasty war wedding in front of a mayor in view of the order to march. The new husband has the notary Krasna draw up a will in which the wife is appointed sole heir. On August 5, 1914, the Uhlans took a position against the Russians along the Krasnik- Komarov line . On August 24th, Pattay fell on a scouting ride near Złockow . More precisely, he had ridden alone and was found shot in the back. Chana inquires at the garrison. Rittmeister Schaller was close to the fallen count and has been missing since then.

Recha is expecting a child.

Chana

Anno 1918/19: After the war, parts of Galicia , including the small town on the Dniester, come to Poland . The grandfather - as Bruno Frank anonymized the new head of state Marshal Piłsudski - rode into the town on May 14, 1919 on a small, light gray horse. During his address, “the Marshal of Poland” always fixes a four-year-old girl in a Scottish patterned dress. As an emigrant, the grandfather had once been accepted by the freedom-loving Scots. The little one is Elisabeth - the daughter of Pattay and Recha. The wealthy Jewish department store owner Heinrich Gelbfisch takes care of the war widow Recha and her little daughter.

Around 1922 Recha had to repay the borrowed 20,000 crowns to the heir of the late Daniel Zweifuss. Chana advises the niece to marry the gentle, sincere Heinrich. Recha hesitates. In her need, the woman starts a second stage career in Warsaw. That fails. Back at home, she says I do to Heinrich on the Dniester bridge. At that moment, Pyotr comes back from a Russian captivity. Pattay's boy, who had ended up as far as Yakutsk , brings Recha painful memories of his fallen husband. Sensitive as Heinrich is, he turns away and leaves the town. Pyotr lost an arm in the war. The former Ulan is now a voting citizen of the Republic of Poland. Pyotr comes to Chana’s household in the small villa on the river as a factotum and lovingly takes care of the little Countess , as he calls Elisabeth. When the girl asks the veteran about the missing hand, he replies that the Leviathan had bitten it off.

Princess Sofie Weikersthal dies in Vienna. Elizabeth, a Jew, will inherit £ 10,000 if she converts to Roman Catholicism. Chana, head of the small family, decides that the girl should convert. Elisabeth is baptized . So the 20,000 crowns will be repaid. Pastor Korzon, Elisabeth's religion teacher, is in dire straits. The girl is reluctant to take communion . As the "child of a Jew and a Habsburg officer", Elisabeth has to endure the aggressions of snooty Polish classmates in her school class. Elisabeth speaks Polish almost like her mother tongue and is one of the best in her class. The Polish teachers oppose Elisabeth. Encouraged by the educators, a Polish classmate yells in the schoolyard “Judenkomteß!” A stone flies and hits Elisabeth. The fourth finger of the left hand breaks.

Heinrich Gelbfisch, who has meanwhile returned from Palestine , the land of promise, places Elisabeth in the institute of Madame Dieudonné in Lausanne .

Pyotr

In the fourth year of her stay in Switzerland, Elisabeth, now 17, is called back to Poland by Pjotr. Aunt Chana is dying. On the return trip Elisabeth is looking towards the end of February 1933 in Vienna at the court on the resting place of her father in the church of St. Quirin. Before Chana dies, she implores Elisabeth to leave Galicia with her mother. The aunt remembers the Wieniawa pogrom too clearly . And, the dying woman adds, Elisabeth's father was shot from behind by Rittmeister Schaller because he saw Jews as people.

When Elisabeth was 19 years old, Madame Dieudonné offered her to head her institute in Lausanne. Recha doesn't want to know anything about it. Elisabeth also doesn't want to let Pyotr down.

In January 1934 the aforementioned grandfather, the Marshal, made his pact with the Germans and died in Warsaw in May 1935.

Around 1936, when Elisabeth was of legal age, notary Krasna junior, a man in his late thirties, gave the young lady a document regarding her partnership with the Gelbfisch department store. Elisabeth is a rich woman because the Polish upper class buys and buys. However, Elisabeth reads in a newspaper: “Polish markets pure jewels!” Nevertheless, the young entrepreneur opens and runs a bookshop in the department store - a novelty in the town that is quickly accepted by customers. Elisabeth organizes poetry readings.

Herkimer

Elisabeth meets the German-born Europe correspondent George Herkimer from Columbus / Ohio . The 35-year-old was there in Spain and reached Reval in his car . Together with Pjotr ​​they go on excursions in Herkimer's robust automobile to the Sereth in Podolia . The King is crowned in London on May 12, 1937 . Duty calls. Herkimer has to go to the island. Before that, he urges Elisabeth to leave Galicia. In March 1938 Germany occupied Austria .

Elisabeth's book supplies are running out. In Amsterdam at the publisher Auerbach she meets Herkimer, the author of the book "Leviathan", again after a good year. He looks at Elisabeth's crooked fingers. She talks about the ghetto bank in her school class back then. Both get closer.

In early spring 1939, Prague fell . Herkimer fears Poland will be the next victim. At the beginning of September the world is baffled. Poland lies shattered on the ground after twelve days. In the wake of the Wehrmacht , the Schutzstaffel advanced into the town on the Dniester. Recha and Heinrich are shot with a machine gun volley in front of the small villa during an air raid on the neighboring sugar factory. Notary Krasna is killed by a targeted shot after having to run around town hall for two hours without clothes. On Friday, September 15th, Pastor Korzon was shot in front of the altar of his Salvator Church. Pyotr wants to protect Elisabeth from the intrusive Hauptsturmführer Schaller and kills him. Pyotr is shot for this. It turns out that the slain is the only son of that Rittmeister Ferdinand Schaller, now Obergruppenführer , who has Pattay on his conscience. The Rittmeister had defected to Denikin after the bloody act .

Herkimer returns to the small town on the Dniester and wants to leave the country with Elisabeth. He storms her and she surrenders to him. After a successful escape, says Herkimer, he wants to marry Elisabeth in Bucharest .

Testimonials

• In February 1941, the author echoed some of his struggle for form when writing in a letter to Thomas Mann : “The book ... just drags on ... this manic hunt for a form, which when it is reached , yes no one notices that it has been reached, makes me rather desperate. "
• Much of the novel - such as the wonderful Viennese inheritance on his father's side - appears to be constructed. Bruno Frank knows this, but points out: "... the inheritance is not just help in times of need, but - through the baptism clause - the starting point for further conflicts in Elisabeth's heart."

reception

Statements after publication

• Manfred George discussed the book on August 6, 1943 in the “ structure ” and, despite all its weaknesses, highlighted it as a “large-scale Balzac history”.
• On October 24, 1943, a certain EK in the supplement “ New York Times Book Review ” on page 16 tears the novel down as a constructed, unreal, romanticized image of historical realities.

Later statements

• Thomas Mann judged "The Daughter" in his obituary "In memoriam Bruno Frank" from 1945:

"... the novel of the" daughter "with the affectionate portrait of his wife, the daughter of the Massary, our Liesl, which was created before our eyes and ranks as a masterpiece."

On the tenth anniversary of Bruno Frank's death in 1955, the obituary appeared in a modified version:

"... the novel of the" daughter "with the affectionate portrait of his wife, the daughter of the Massary, which was written right before our eyes."

• According to Klaus Hermsdorf, the text in the first two German-language editions from 1943 and 1945 was badly distorted by the typesetter . Marshal Piłsudski's image is idealized. Bruno Frank's wife Liesl, a daughter of Fritzi Massary , was a role model for the title character Elisabeth. Hermsdorf writes that the author has made a name for himself in “simplifying difficult-entangled social processes into comprehensible symbolism”.
• Bruno Frank's father-in-law, Count Coudenhove , Kirchner suspects, was a model for Count Franz von Pattay. Kirchner continues in the chapter “V. The Daughter , a Requiem for Galicia ”of his dissertation with the novel apart. The main weakness of the book would come to light in its second half. Not from the development of the characters, but dictated by the terrible historical events, follows the literally overturning novel events. Kirchner takes Elisabeth's bookstore as "an expression of the peace-making power of European intellectual education". Fritz Landshoff could be portrayed with the Amsterdam publisher Auerbach . With Herkimer, the author draws a picture of such admirable European reporters as William L. Shirer and Edward R. Murrow, thus paying homage to the host country USA. In addition, Elisabeth's future partner Herkimer creates a successful formal element of repetition in the novel. This courageous journalist and Elisabeth's father are related in spirit. Albrecht Joseph wrote a short script for the novel.

literature

First edition in German

• Bruno Frank: The daughter. Novel. El libro libre publisher, Mexico City 1943. 322 pages, paperback

Other issues

• Bruno Frank: One fair daughter. Translated from the German manuscript by Claire Trask. Viking Press , New York 1943. 261 pages, linen
• Bruno Frank: Yolks. Översättning av Anna Greta Wide. Norstedt Verlag, Stockholm 1943, 330 pages, paperback
• Bruno Frank: La hija. Translator: Gabriela Moner. Lautaro Publishing House, Buenos Aires 1944, 334 pages
• Bruno Frank: The daughter. Novel. Bermann-Fischer-Verlag , Stockholm 1945 (first European edition in German). 374 pages, linen
• Bruno Frank: Datteren. Translator: Ib Lange. Naver Verlag, Copenhagen 1946, 298 pages
• Bruno Frank: Sur fond rouge. novel. Translator: Gaston Baccara. Nicholson & Watson, London and Brussels 1947, 402 pages
• Bruno Frank: La Figlia. Romanzo. Mondadori , Milan 1952. 320 pages

Used edition

• Bruno Frank: The daughter. Novel. With a comment by Klaus Hermsdorf (pp. 369–385). Buchverlag Der Morgen, Berlin 1979 (1st edition), 388 pages (text basis: edition Bermann-Fischer-Verlag, Stockholm 1945)

Secondary literature

• Erwin Ackerknecht : Afterword. In: Bruno Frank: Political Novella. Stuttgart 1956, pages 127-136, here: 131, 135-136.
• #Carpenter 1952 , pages 44-47.
• Sascha Kirchner: The citizen as an artist. Bruno Frank (1887–1945) - life and work . Grupello , Düsseldorf 2009, ISBN 978-3-89978-095-6 (also Diss. Uni Düsseldorf ), pages 303-326, 13, 82, 294, 302, 327, 330, 334, 379, 387, 394, 396.
• Ulrich Müller: Writing against Hitler. From historical to political novel. Investigations into the prose work of Bruno Frank. Mainz 1994, pages 79-93.
• Konrad Paul: Afterword. In: Bruno Frank: Political Novella. Berlin 1982, pages 381-395, here: 390, 393.
• #Sease 1976 , pp. 361-367, 368.
• # Circulation 1982 , page 121.

Web links

• Bruno Frank, digital works, novels

Remarks

1. ↑ The anonymous location of the action could mean Sambor (edition used, p. 303, 15. Zvo) on the Dniester. Salka Viertel was born in Sambor . Bruno Frank was often her guest in the USA (Kirchner, p. 320, 15. Zvo).
2. ↑ In this anti-war book, the Leviathan stands for any human-devouring war machine.
3. ↑ Liesl Frank's parents were also Jewish and a Habsburg nobleman (Kirchner, p. 318, 4th Zvu).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kirchner, p. 315, 7. Zvo and p. 379, footnote 324
2. ↑ Kirchner, p. 394, entry "City in old Galizien"
3. ↑ Edition used p. 207, 18. Zvo
4. ↑ Kirchner, p. 317, 5th Zvu
5. ↑ Edition used, p. 16, 13. Zvu
6. ↑ Edition used, p. 26, 5. Zvo
7. ↑ Kirchner, p. 318, 19. Zvo
8. ↑ Edition used, p. 96, 10. Zvu and Kirchner, p. 318, 10. Zvu
9. ↑ Edition used, p. 99, 6th Zvu
10. ↑ Edition used, p. 187, 10. Zvo
11. ↑ Edition used, p. 191, 11. Zvo
12. ↑ Edition used, p. 248, 6. Zvo
13. ↑ Edition used, p. 331, 8th Zvu
14. ↑ Bruno Frank, quoted in Hermsdorf in the edition used, p. 383, 16. Zvo
15. ↑ From Bruno Frank's letter of August 9, 1943 to Manfred George, quoted in Kirchner, p. 320, 8. Zvu
16. ^ Structure, No. 32, p. 15, quoted in Kirchner, p. 396, second entry George, Manfred
17. ↑ quoted in Kirchner, p. 325,6. Zvu
18. ↑ from the supplement “New York Times Book Review” quoted in Kirchner, p. 321, 9. Zvu and p. 396, first entry
19. ↑ #Mann 1984.3 , page 393rd
20. ^ # Mann 1956.1 , page 225.
21. ↑ Hermsdorf in the edition used, p. 369
22. ↑ Hermsdorf in the edition used, p. 380 middle
23. ↑ Hermsdorf in the edition used, p. 371 below
24. ↑ Hermsdorf in the edition used, p. 383, 15. Zvu
25. ↑ Kirchner, p. 316, 3rd Zvu
26. ↑ Kirchner, pp. 303–326 and pp. 378–379
27. ↑ see for example Kirchner, p. 321 below, p. 324 below or also p. 325, 13. Zvo
28. ↑ Kirchner, p. 322, 13th Zvu
29. ↑ Kirchner, p. 324, 9. Zvo
30. ↑ Kirchner, p. 322 below
31. ↑ Kirchner, p. 323 middle
32. ↑ Kirchner, p. 325 middle
33. ↑ Erwin Ackerknecht was a brother of Eberhard Ackerknecht . This and Bruno Frank were schoolmates at the Karlsgymnasium in Stuttgart and long-term friends.