The Vaclavbude

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Title page by Hugo Steiner-Prag

The Vaclavbude is an autobiographical student novel by Karl Hans Strobl , published in 1902 .

Historical background

The novel describes the German-Czech nationality conflict in Bohemia and Moravia in the last third of the 19th century. At the center of the novel is the so-called Badeni crisis . As Prime Minister of Cisleithanien, Kasimir Felix Badeni issued a language ordinance on April 5, 1897 , which led to a state crisis. The climax were violent riots in late November 1897 in Prague and other cities in the Czech part of Austria. Strobl at the time was a student of Law in Prague and senior member of the fraternity Austria . The students were particularly affected because - wearing ribbon and hat - they were easily recognizable as Germans. On the night of November 30, 1897, the booth of the Carolina Prague fraternity was stormed by Czech demonstrators and completely destroyed.

action

Badeni uprising in Prague (1897)

The novel has 14 chapters:

  1. The new booth : The Prague German-academic association Frankonia has lost its booth by terminating the lease. The senior, Student Binder, has been assigned to find a new place. After a long search he finds a new place to stay in the back room of Vaclav Zimmermann's inn in Prague's Josefstadt with the help of Abraham the pumpier . The move to the Vaclavbude takes place in rainy weather and with a dark premonition of adverse events.
  2. All Souls' Day : The new booth and a card game are described. Horak, the fencer at Frankonia, has an intimate relationship with the waitress Marie.
  3. The Olymp : At a meeting of the Olymp social club , in the Vaclavbude, in which students also take part, there is a dispute. Hormayr, a member of the Thessalia Prague fraternity , warns Horak of an infection from the sexually ill Marie. Horak feels offended by this and challenges Hormayr to a length on a racket .
  4. On the scale : The scale is carried out. Horak, actually infected by Marie and already weakened, is badly wounded.
  5. The story of Tycho de Brahe's death : Binder and others visit Horak in the hospital. Then they hold a binge drinking in a nasty tavern. Suddenly a stranger sits down next to them, tells of Prague in the 16th century, of Tycho de Brahe's death, and disappears again just as surprisingly.
  6. A sequel : On the way home, the stranger Binder reappears. Binder now recognizes Tycho de Brahe in him. Binder later wakes up in bed.
  7. Balance : Binder asks himself whether the figure de Brahe last night was real or a fantasy. He ponders de Brahe's last sentence: "Every people wants its own future!"
  8. The willing : The news of the overthrow of Prime Minister Badenis spreads in Prague. The students gather for a joy rally. This was followed by violent clashes with Czechs.
  9. Forces : The riot breaks out. The “street” rises against everything German.
  10. Flag guard : The liaison students assume that Czechs want to storm their Vaclavbude and meet there for guard duty. When they go home they get offended. A stranger who has Tycho de Brahe's eyes saves her from being beaten at the last second.
  11. In a remote corner : almost all of the students leave Prague. You hand over the furniture and the color items to a cobbler for safekeeping.
  12. The island : The student shack of a member of Frankonia, who keeps a large number of pets there, is described.
  13. Victim : Horak, who stayed in Prague, buys a revolver for self-defense. When he is attacked by three Czechs, he shoots one of them down.
  14. No end : the victim dies. Horak is placed in custody, but is acquitted for having demonstrated self-defense. He later dies of pneumonia.

Autobiographical elements

Karl Hans Strobl portrayed himself in the character in the novel by the student Binder. The Frankonia student union is not the actually existing Corps Frankonia (now in Saarbrücken ), but it was suspended between 1879 and 1921. The template for the Roman-Frankonia was rather the Academic Association Austria (today as Corps Austria in Frankfurt am Main ), of which Strobl had been a member since October 1894. The Jewish moneylender Sigmund Pick alias Abraham is authentic. The innkeeper Wenzel (in the novel Vaclav) Zimmermann ran the inn Zum Golden Kreuzel (U zlateho krizku) in Barmherzigengasse (U milosdrnych) No. 4 (old Prague house number 848 ). The building was demolished around 1910 and replaced by a new building.

All of the characters in the novel can be assigned to real templates:

Fictional character real person Fraternity later position in life
Abraham Sigmund Pick (1848-1922) no Pumpier in Prague
binder Karl Hans Strobl (1877-1946) Corps Austria Writer in Perchtoldsdorf
The Ghibelline Friedrich von Kunze (1876–1945) Ghibellinia fraternity Judge in Salzburg and Vienna
Gidi Gideon Brecher (1873-1943) Corps Austria Doctor in Olomouc
Large Alexander Grossmann (1873 -?) Corps Austria retired from Austria as a student of architecture
Horak Viktor Hora (1876- after 1936) Corps Austria Judge in Mährisch-Trübau
Toni Illner Anton Müller (1869–1945) Corps Austria Doctor in Oslavan
Bald Karl Kral (1877-1911) Corps Austria Secretary in Vienna
Neumann Fritz Neumann Corps Austria Doctor and manufacturer in Brno
Nietsch Fritz Nitsche Corps Austria retired from Austria
Meders Adolf Lederer (1874–1941) Corps Austria Lawyer in Asch (Bohemia)
Pohl Johann Polak (1874- after 1936) Corps Austria Construction engineer in Hohenelbe
Pinkas Kneißl no
Stiegl Hans Siegl (1877-?) Corps Austria retired from Austria
Vaclav Wenzel Zimmermann no Innkeeper in Prague
Dr. Catfish Ernst Walther Fraternity of Thessalia Dentist and mayor in Teplitz
White Carl Johannes Schwarz (1874-after 1936) Corps Austria Dramaturg in Prague and Berlin, editor in Vienna

reception

The Viennese literary critic Hermann Bahr wrote a very positive review of the Vaclavbude. Together with other reviewers, he agreed that the work was the first realistic student novel because it was far removed from the pseudo-romanticism of old Heidelberg . There were only a few German-speaking critics who rated the novel negatively.

Egon Erwin Kisch said of Strobl's novel:

"In the 'Vaclavbude' of the long-established Josefstadt, Karl Hans Strobl has faithfully reproduced the typical milieu of the Prague Mensur [...]."

- Egon Erwin Kisch : Alt-Prager Mensurlokale , in: Deutsche Hochschulwarte (Prague), 8th year, issue 1 (June 1928), pp. 1-5

Max Brod wrote about the Vaclavbude:

"[...] Karl Hans Strobl gives a very skilful picture of the everyday and festive life of those students at the Prague Alma Mater, but more from the German national side [...]."

- Max Brod : Arguable life. Autobiography 1884-1968 , notes: Teil 2603, Munich 1969, p. 151

The more recent literary studies see in the way Strobl is portrayed in part "pre-fascist tendencies", which is not based on the novel itself, but on a foreword to the new edition in 1941, in which Strobl embraced National Socialism.

literature

To the novel

  • Susanne Fritz: The Origin of the “Prague Text”. Prague German-language literature from 1895 to 1934 . Thelem, Dresden 2005, ISBN 3-937672-32-X , ( Central Europe Studies 8).
  • Paul Kisch: “Let's have a drink, we Prague people and the old tape!” To the jubilee celebration of Karl Hans Strobl and his “Vaclavbude” . In: Deutsche Hochschulwarte 6, January 1927, Issue 8, ZDB -ID 719000-1 , pp. 98-100.
  • Raimund Lang : The dramaturge of Prague. Karl Hans Strobl as a student poet . In: Freshness / Becker: Between cosmopolitanism and national narrowing. Five essays . Student History Association of the CC, Herzogenaurach 2000, ISBN 3-930877-34-1 , ( Historia academica 39), p. 137 ff.
  • Marta Maschke: The German-Czech nationality conflict in Bohemia and Moravia as reflected in the novels by Karl Hans Strobl . Berlin (dissertation) 2003.
  • Doris Multerer: German-Czech contrasts in the Prague student novels by Karl Hans Strobl . Vienna (diploma thesis) 1993.
  • Christian Oppermann : The Flamanders of Prague at the Schipka Pass . In: then and now. Yearbook of the Association for Corporate Student History Research 32, 1987, ISSN  0420-8870 , pp. 165-181.
  • Vera Schneider: Guard posts and border crossers. German-speaking authors in Prague and the public creation of national identity . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8260-3775-7 , ( Epistemata. Würzburg Scientific Writings. Series Literary Studies 631), (At the same time: Berlin, Freie Univ., Diss., 2007).
  • Walter G. Wieser: The Prague German student novel in the first four decades of the 20th century . Austrian Society for the Study of Student History, Vienna 1994.

On the historical background of the novel

  • Hartmut Lehmann , Silke Lehmann (eds.): The nationality problem in Austria 1848–1918 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1973, ISBN 3-525-35664-2 , ( Historical Texts - Modern Times 13).
  • Harald Lönnecker : From "Ghibellinia goes, Germania comes!" To "People want to people!" Mentalities, structures and organizations in the German student body in Prague 1866–1914 . In: Yearbook for Sudeten German Museums and Archives 1995–2001 ISSN  0944-0763 , pp. 34–77.
  • Harald Lönnecker: "... voluntarily never to leave here ..." The Prague German student body 1867-1945 . Volume 1: Connections and associations of the German national spectrum . SH-Verlag, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-89498-187-7 , ( Treatises on student and higher education 16).
  • Hans Mommsen : 1897. The Badeni crisis as a turning point in German-Czech relations. In: Detlef Brandes (Ed.): Turning points in the relations between Germans, Czechs and Slovaks 1848–1989. Verlag Klartext, Essen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89861-572-3 , ( Publications of the German-Czech and German-Slovak Historians Commission 14), ( Publications on Culture and History in Eastern Europe 28), pp. 111–118.
  • Esther Neblich: The effects of the Baden language ordinance of 1897 on the German and Czech population of the historic Egerland. Tectum-Verlag, Marburg 2002, ISBN 3-8288-8356-7 , (also: Regensburg, Univ., Diss., 2001).
  • Berthold Sutter: The Baden language ordinances of 1897. Their genesis and their effects primarily on the inner Austrian Alpine countries. 2 volumes. Böhlau-Verlag, Graz et al. 1960–1965.

Web links

Commons : The Vaclavbude  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Report in the Prager Tagblatt dated December 1, 1897, p. 10
  2. ↑ Walter G. Wieser: Der Prager deutsche Studentenroman , Vienna 1994, p. 41 ff.
  3. ↑ Hartmut Binder: Prague - literary walks through the golden city , Stuttgart 1997, p. 186 ff.
  4. ↑ Jürgen Herrlein : Karl Hans Strobl: known and unknown from his student life and on the "Vaclavbude" , in: Prague - A GDS Documentation, Paderborn: GDS (Society for German Student History), 2009, p. 16 ff., Here: P. 23 ff.
  5. ↑ Neues Wiener Tagblatt, 1902, p. 197
  6. ^ AH, in: Deutsche Arbeit in Böhmen, 1 (1902), p. 877; K. v. Fritsch, in: Supplement to the Allgemeine Zeitung, Munich 1902, No. 154; W. v. Wymetal, in: Tageblätter from Moravia and Silesia, Brno 1901/1902, p. 263
  7. ↑ Otto Johl, in: Arbeiter-Zeitung, 1902, No. 233; W. Fred, in: The literary echo, Berlin, 5 (1903/1903), column 1006
  8. ↑ Journal for German Philology, Vol. 108 (1989), p. 209
  9. ↑ Journal for German Philology, Vol. 108 (1989), p. 214