The Ziegler

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The Ziegler is a story by Anna Seghers that was written around 1928 and appeared in 1930 in the collection “ On the way to the American embassy ” in Berlin.

The young, humble Marie Ziegler does not come as a lone fighter against the social order and goes down with the résumé: "There was nothing but this only power within you, and that alone was useless."

content

The assets of the former small business craftsman Ziegler have been sold by an anonymous company. The father of four does not want to stand in the queue of the unemployed for financial help because he feels such a shame. So the carefully dressed man knocked on other small business owners who were well known to him and who were still active . These show him the door with a reference to his own existential worries. Because Ziegler cannot believe the bankruptcy , he lets his daughter Marie continue to manufacture and mend his former product - woolen textiles. The old customers only buy goods occasionally and mostly out of pity. Ziegler falls ill and dies. Marie is just about ensuring the survival of the family with her mending work and peddling. The girl's health deteriorates over time. Marie covers up her attacks of weakness and continues to sacrifice herself for the family. The widow Ziegler does her best, but in the end she can no longer hide the shameful condition of the disused furniture from the eagle eyes of the neighbors. Ms. Ziegler rents out rooms and limits herself to the extent that Anna, the second daughter, can no longer receive her groom in the middle of the cramped conditions. The longed-for wedding does not happen. Who should raise the dowry expected from the future in-laws ? When looking for an apprenticeship position for the younger of the two sons, the mother is put off by the entrepreneurs she knew. When the older son, who had a job outside, visited his family for a few days, he was shocked by Marie's health. When Marie brings her brother to the train station, he says to her goodbye: "You will soon have died." The sister agrees quietly. It seems like the brother is right. Because at the end of the story Marie lies "flat on the pavement".

Self-testimony

Anna Seghers anno 1931 on the text: "The hunger of the petty bourgeois, his completely senseless loneliness."

Form and interpretation

The action runs for several years in the Weimar Republic . The long period is recognizable, for example, in the figure of the little son. At the beginning of the story, the little boy is walking by the river, holding the unemployed father's hand. Towards the end of the text, the mother looks for an apprenticeship with the boy. The past years can also be read in the story told by the older of the two sons. At first he steals bread as a snotty kid and in the end he learned a trade, worked, earned money abroad, marched on the street with his companions behind flags and also got to feel the stick of the enemy. The fuzzy narration was exaggerated in the story just sketched. So diametrical interpretation is not surprising. According to Schrade, the older son could have joined the National Socialists and according to Neugebauer, “the working class”. Neugebauer most likely means a communist formation. In spite of all of this, the sensitive, cautious tone of the lecture, sometimes concluded with an occasional bang, makes you sit up and take notice. Here is an example. When Marie bites and spits out her brother's postcard, it becomes clear to the reader how much the lonely, worn-out girl hates the sender of his parting word (see above).

reception

Büchner might be a role model for the young author. Social hardship among the petty bourgeoisie is described. Only the older of the two Ziegler sons breaks out of the petty-bourgeois milieu. Marie and the older of the two sons are looking for ways out of impoverishment. Marie, asked to break out of hopelessness by the girl in the red cap, refuses. Marie is shattered by the heartlessness of this cold world.

literature

Text output

expenditure

Secondary literature

  • Heinz Neugebauer: Anna Seghers. Life and work. With illustrations (research assistant: Irmgard Neugebauer, editorial deadline September 20, 1977). 238 pages. Series “Writers of the Present” (Ed. Kurt Böttcher). People and Knowledge, Berlin 1980, without ISBN
  • Kurt Batt : Anna Seghers. Trial over development and works. With illustrations. 283 pages. Reclam, Leipzig 1973 (2nd edition 1980). Licensor: Röderberg, Frankfurt am Main ( Röderberg-Taschenbuch Vol. 15), ISBN 3-87682-470-2
  • Ute Brandes: Anna Seghers . Colloquium Verlag, Berlin 1992. Volume 117 of the series “Heads of the 20th Century”, ISBN 3-7678-0803-X
  • Andreas Schrade: Anna Seghers . Metzler, Stuttgart 1993 (Metzler Collection, Vol. 275 (Authors)), ISBN 3-476-10275-0
  • Sonja Hilzinger: Anna Seghers. With 12 illustrations. Series of Literature Studies. Reclam, Stuttgart 2000, RUB 17623, ISBN 3-15-017623-9

annotation

  1. ↑ Anna Seghers paraphrases Ziegler's grief: "Suddenly he was stamping wildly against the pavement, then it became light inside him, misfortune streamed out of his heart in bold, bright colors." (Edition used, p. 98, 6th Zvo )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edition used, p. 363, entry Die Ziegler .
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 115, 12. Zvu
  3. ↑ Edition used, p. 110, 16. Zvu
  4. ↑ Edition used, p. 119, 2nd Zvu
  5. ↑ quoted in Hilzinger, p. 94, 5th Zvu
  6. ^ Schrade, p. 17, 16. Zvu
  7. ↑ Neugebauer, p. 20, 15. Zvo
  8. ↑ Edition used, p. 115, 10th Zvu
  9. ↑ Brandes, p. 33, 10. Zvo
  10. ↑ Neugebauer, p. 20
  11. ^ Batt, p. 36
  12. ↑ Brandes, p. 32
  13. ↑ Hilzinger, p. 94, 9. Zvo