Arnold Hau

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Arnold Hau is a fictional character from the New Frankfurt School .

The truth about Arnold Hau

The poets, authors and illustrators FW Bernstein , Robert Gernhardt and FK Waechter published from 1964 to 1976 in the satirical magazine pardon regularly two-sided nonsense column Mirror World (WIMS).

In 1966 they decided to publish texts and drawings in a book that did not fit in WimS due to their length or type. These are works that were created alongside WimS, but which they "did not want to expect from WimS readers at that time".

For this book The Truth About Arnold Hau they created the fictional character Arnold Hau. He appears as a universal scholar, philosopher, man of letters and poet who is particularly concerned with the question: “What is man?” Many works can be subsumed under this very general question. In this way they were able to accommodate the most varied of parodies, for example of Plato's banquet , Schiller's dramas or radio plays from the 1950s.

The book The Truth About Arnold Hau had little success at the time. Of the 2500 copies of the first edition, 1400 were sold by Bärmeier & Nikel. Since 1974 there have been several new editions at Zweiausendeins , later also at S. Fischer Verlag .

The films of the Arnold Hau group

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Bernstein, Gernhardt and Waechter made several films together with Arend Agthe and Bernd Eilert under the pseudonym Arnold Hau.

  • Der Klauer (1968): This film, shot in a gravel pit near Frankfurt, is about a Foreign Legionnaire who steals from his colleagues. The film is currently lost.
  • Hier ist ein Mensch (1972) is a music video for the hit song by Peter Alexander . In it, the text passages are taken literally, for example the line "Even happiness is sometimes blind" is represented by an allegory of happiness with a blind armband.
  • The Bavarian Forest seen through the eyes of an assfucker
  • On the wrong track (1972): Here a picture story by Waechter from The Truth About Arnold Hau is staged as a short film. There is also a Scandinavian version.
  • Milk Jugs and Fish Fingers in Antarctica (1973): A parody of adventure film filmed on a tablecloth covered with popcorn snow. The main characters are a milk jug and a fish finger, which are threatened by various tin toys.
  • Die Hau-Schau (1974) This is where Arnold Hau (played by Alfred Edel ) appears as a self-loving modern filmmaker who presents his short films.
  • Now it's your turn, Feilchen (1976): A group of hippies decorates one of their, Feilchen (portrayed by Waechter), who is supposed to shake hands with Federal President Walter Scheel . This also works. Waechter actually shook hands with Scheel on the occasion of a youth book award ceremony, so that appropriate film material was available.
  • The Casanova Project (1981): Director Arnold Hau wants to film the life of Casanova, but fails because of his difficult leading actor, played by Alfred Edel.
  • The snoop : In this film, documentary recordings of Pope John Paul II are reinterpreted as the story of a private detective with a nose for the nose. For example, press photos in which he kisses children are put in the new context that he smells them in order to recognize a criminal by his smell.

literature

  • Robert Gernhardt, FW Bernstein, FK Waechter: World in the mirror . WimS 1964–1976 (with contributions on the history of the history of WimS and its impact ), Zweiausendeins , Frankfurt am Main, 1979
  • Robert Gernhardt, FW Bernstein, FK Waechter (ed.): The truth about Arnold Hau . Frankfurt am Main 2004

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Interview with the authors in Welt im Spiegel 1964–1976 , p. 319
  2. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHgxh1j4TZQ