The wolves are coming back
The wolves are coming back is a short story by the German writer Hans Bender from June 1954.
action
The Starost of the Russian village Krasno Scheri obsolete shortly after the end of the Second World War, seven German prisoners of war in his small, remote village far. During the long march through the woods, the Starost is all alone with the soldiers, armed only with a rifle. A young German soldier named Maxim, who can speak Russian, asks him, a little worried about the wolves, which are always a danger in the area, but the animals have moved far to Siberia because of the war and have not yet returned. After arriving in the village, the Starost distributes the prisoners of war to the houses; he himself takes Maxim into his family with his wife and two children. Despite the hard work on the kolkhoz , Maxim and the Starost soon become friends.
The children of Krasno Scheri have to walk a long walk to school in the neighboring village every day. Since the voracious wolves are gone, the children can make their way to school without adults. In winter, the children of the Starost report on wolf tracks that they saw in the snow on their way to school. But the adults do not believe the children. On a day with heavy snowfall, Maxim suddenly sees a wolf and draws the attention of the Starost and his wife to it. The woman accidentally slips out to Maxim that her husband's rifle is unloaded. The Starost had no cartridges in town and didn't want the prisoners to know. With ax and scythe, the two go into the forest to save the children who are on their way to school.
The Starost and Maxim can find the ten school children just in time. They hold out for hours into the night while a pack of hundreds of wolves return from Siberia. The starved pack moves directly past the people in the direction of the larger cities.
After the last wolves, the Starost speaks first: “The wolves are coming back. You smell the peace. "
Origin background
Hans Bender was himself a Soviet prisoner of war until 1949; he confessed to allowing autobiographical elements to flow into his work. He was particularly influenced by the Anglo-American short stories of this time, which narrated in a sophisticated way and focused on complex and psychologically interesting characters.
reception
Hans Benders The Wolves Come Back was included in numerous anthologies and school reading books within a few years . The short story even found its way into some readers abroad. Paul Hühnerfeld wrote in 1957 in Die Zeit , The wolves are coming back “do not need to fear comparison with the English and American models of this genre”: “Bender's strength lies in this direct, non-descriptive diction with which he describes the real things about a piece To make unreal accessible. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bellmann, Werner (ed.): Classic German short stories . Reclam, 2003, p. 152 .
- ↑ Manfred Durzak: The German short story of the present: author portraits, workshop discussions, interpretations . Königshausen & Neumann, 2002, ISBN 978-3-8260-2074-2 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
- ↑ Bellmann, Werner (ed.): Classic German short stories . Reclam, 2003, p. 321-322 .
- ↑ Manfred Triesch: To Hans Benders The wolves come back . In: The teaching practice / Teaching German . tape 3 , no. 2 , 1970, p. 88-95 , doi : 10.2307 / 3529568 , JSTOR : 3529568 .
- ↑ Manfred Durzak: The German short story of the present: author portraits, workshop discussions, interpretations . Königshausen & Neumann, 2002, ISBN 978-3-8260-2074-2 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
- ↑ The master shows himself in small things . In: ZEIT ONLINE . ( zeit.de [accessed on April 25, 2018]).