The unknown size

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The unknown size is a novel by Hermann Broch , which was published in 1933 by S. Fischer in Berlin. A first version had previously been printed in the Vossische Zeitung . Four versions were created from July to November 1933, the last of which was used for the first print by S. Fischer and also for the publication in the source (see below). The source also contains the first publication of the film script for the novel. The novel was published in English, Italian and French from 1935 to 1968.

The young mathematician Dr. Richard Hieck to grasp the unpredictable, animalistic forces within him through the predictable. On the occasion of the death of his younger brother Otto, he unexpectedly found a way to construct this parallelogram of forces. The path leads through the heart, i.e. through love.

content

Richard Hieck, the sturdy bachelor with the "soft smile over the yellow ascetic face", is doing his doctorate with his patron, the o. Ö. Professor Dr. phil. Heinrich Weitprecht. Previously, Dr. Kapperbrunn, the mathematical assistant of the physicist Weitprecht, gave the young, awkward mathematician a job at the observatory above the city. The skeptic Kapperbrunn, who always scornfully comments on Richard's slide into the depths of physics, is himself a pure mathematician. When the very aged professor, seriously ill, had to undergo a cure away from home, the life's work of the quantum physicist and wave mechanic Weitprecht had to be put in order. For the professional registration of the extensive papers, Kapperbrunn, known for paradoxical sayings, ordered the Dr. Hieck a "negro". Behind this is the 21-year-old docile Ilse Nydhalm, student of physics in the 6th semester. Richard was amazed to find that the bespectacled, slim, medium-sized, brown-haired lady with the dull complexion and gray eyes has ideas with which to cope with the difficult work.

Suddenly Richard places more value on his appearance. At the same time he realizes that the sin in his sweating body is the unpredictable. Ilse and Richard get closer. Richard lectured awkwardly for hours in private on the cosmogony of the theory of relativity , panting on non-Euclidean geometry verbatim, et cetera. It is Ilse who first utters the sentence: “I love you.” Richard would have loved to hide in a mouse hole on the occasion. The first shy kiss is followed by the constant holding of hands. The relationship does not go unnoticed in Weitprecht's institute.

The Hiecks are petty bourgeois close to the proletariat . Richard occasionally has to represent his younger brother Otto's father, who died much too early. Otto learned the profession of copperplate engraver at the graphic arts institute and often spends his free time with his friend, the apprentice Karl Wohlfahrt. The young boys urgently want to replace their bicycles with a motorcycle. Both consider Otto's mother, the blooming widow Katharine Hieck, secretly to ease their cash. The reader does not find out whether and by whom the theft was carried out. Otto only suspects that his mother might have secretly slipped Karl the money. The young engraver, who is not allowed to become a painter for financial reasons, wants to find out about his mother and friend. However, he does not succeed in catching the unequal couple in flagranti . Richard and the reader are no smarter than Otto either. In any case, it seems that Otto's frustration isn't just caused by a chronic lack of money. Finally Otto seeks and finds death.

Immediately after the death, Richard abandons his awkward demeanor. If, as a mathematician, he wanted to know the world and could not understand the animal in himself, let alone calculate, then from the dead brother's bier it becomes clear to him that love is also knowing. So he professes his love for Ilse. Both become a couple. On the occasion of the upcoming retirement of Professor Weitprecht, Kapperbrunn wants to find a more solid position for Dr. Try Hieck.

Quote

  • The goal of knowledge lies outside of knowledge.

Testimonials

Broch commented on the novel.

  • It is impossible for the author to explain to the reader the research objects of the scientist Dr. Present Hieck. Rather, it is about elementary things: birth, death, love.
  • Richard's “ platonic worldview ” is demonstrated , in which the “knowing I” wants to stand above the matter.
  • It is described how a scientist arrives at the “total knowledge” of the world. In addition to science, this includes love.

shape

The omniscient narrator is not afraid to illuminate the psyche of the secondary characters quite brightly. Within the short text - despite the brittle material - he succeeds in constituting the petty-bourgeois Hieck family and their surroundings in an extremely vivid way before the reader's inner eye.

literature

source

  • Hermann Broch: The Unknown Size. Novel. (= Hermann Broch: Annotated Work Edition. Volume 2). 4th edition. Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-518-02492-2 , pp. 9-142.

First edition

  • Hermann Broch: The Unknown Size. Novel. S. Fischer Berlin 1933, DNB 572771312 .

expenditure

  • Hermann Broch: The Unknown Size and Early Writings. With the letters to Willa Muir. Edited and introduced by Ernst Schönwiese and Eric W. Herd. Rhein-Verlag, Zurich 1961, DNB 450630617 .
  • Paul Michael Lützeler (ed.): Hermann Broch: The unknown size. Novel. (= Commented edition of the work. Novels and stories. Volume 2; Suhrkamp Taschenbücher. 2364). 1st edition. Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-518-38864-9 .

Secondary literature

  • A “selection bibliography for secondary literature” with 7 digits can be found e.g. B. in the source.
  • Gero von Wilpert : Lexicon of world literature. German authors A - Z. Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-520-83704-8 , p. 85.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Source, pp. 255-257.
  2. ↑ The Unknown X. The film of a physical theory. Source, pp. 143-240. Paramount rejected the script (source, p. 259).
  3. ↑ Source, p. 260.
  4. ↑ Source, p. 129 above
  5. ↑ more ordinary public
  6. ↑ Source, p. 71, 14. Zvo
  7. ↑ Source, p. 78, 5th Zvu
  8. ↑ Source, p. 107, 1. Zvo
  9. ↑ Source, pp. 243–246.
  10. ↑ Source, p. 244 above
  11. ↑ Source, p. 244 center
  12. ↑ Source, p. 245 above
  13. ↑ Source, p. 261.