The red sailors

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The red sailors ( A forgotten winter ) from 1984 is the first part of a novel trilogy by Klaus Kordon . The book is set in Berlin in the first post-war winter of 1918/19 . The stories of 13-year-old Helmut Gebhardt and his family are told. The November Revolution is at the center of the plot . The title refers to the Kiel sailors' uprising .

The other two books from the trilogy of turning points are the books With my back to the wall and The First Spring , published in 1990 and 1993 .

action

In November 1918 the sailors of the imperial navy refuse the order to sail and move to Berlin. Hunger and the insurgent soldiers in the city form the basis for the revolution. Helmut, known as Helle, and Fritz make friends with the mutinous sailors of the deep-sea fleet and experience the revolution first hand.

All people are fictitious, but Klaus Kordon wrote in the first book: “ The heroes of this story live at Ackerstrasse No. 37. They are fictitious - and yet they lived. ” This is how the people of the tenements in Gesundbrunnen and their struggle for a better life and for“ never again war ”come to life.

The story is told from the perspective of the student Helle. The beginning of the book is about the return of his father Rudi from the First World War, who until then had fought at the front and lost an arm to a French grenade. Helle hears of many atrocities, hunger, lack of money, diseases and death. Also how the hope for a quick victory and the pride in Kaiser Wilhelm II slowly develop into the revolutionary mood. The story is told as if Helle and his father were present at important historical events. So z. B. Helle and his friend Fritz met two of the sailors who had refused the imperial order to sail and had moved to Berlin, where the emperor abdicated on November 9th. In the case of Helle and Fritz, the subsequent disputes between sailors, workers and loyal followers of the emperor are justified by the different political views of their parents. Ultimately, the Gebhards join the communist party and support the goals that Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg were striving for. This fact causes Helle some problems with a teacher loyal to the emperor who thinks absolutely nothing of communists. Later, the book describes the murder of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg, as well as the bloody crackdown against Friedrich Ebert rebel Spartacus .

main characters

The main characters come from a German working-class family in Berlin.

Main characters are:

  • Rudi Gebhardt, a soldier who lost his right arm to a grenade shortly before the end of the war
  • Marie Gebhardt, his wife and the mother of four children together, one of whom has already died
  • Helmut "Helle" Gebhardt, oldest son and student
  • Fritz Markgraf, high school student, a good friend of Helle
  • Martha Gebhardt, five year old daughter of Marie and Rudi
  • Hans “Hänschen” Gebhardt, the youngest son (baby) of Marie and Rudi
  • Grandma Schulte, lives above the Gebhardt family and takes care of Martha and Hans during the day. She represents old values ​​like loyalty to the emperor.
  • Heiner Schenck, marine and best friend of Helle and Arno
  • Arno, also a marine, is shot dead while trying to escape when he is arrested
  • Nauke, neighbor of Helle and Spartakist, was shot dead on November 9th
  • Ede, also a good friend of Helle. His father was imprisoned for a year for helping to organize the January strikes.
  • Friedrich Förster, the "nasty" teacher, patriot loyal to the emperor

Awards

literature