The black sheep
The Black Sheep is a satirical short story, for the reading of which the then unknown author Heinrich Böll won the Group 47 literary prize at the meeting in Bad Dürkheim in early May 1951 . On June 12 of the same year the short story was read in the SWF , and in September 1951 it was published by Opladen Verlag Friedrich Middelhauve . Until the end of April 1951, Böll worked as a temporary worker for the city of Cologne. After the award, he no longer had to justify himself for the new main job. From then on, Böll worked as a freelance writer. An author's contract with Kiepenheuer & Witsch paved the way.
content
As the narrator shares his story, he feels that his life is coming to an end. The signs are unmistakable. Within his family, he sees himself as the last link in the chain of black sheep that has not been torn off for generations . At any given time there has been exactly one in the family. The narrator knows that he must be the black sheep right now. To prove it, he tells the story of his uncle Otto. This person did not adhere to the norms of middle-class coexistence during his lifetime, but preferred to keep his freedom. Uncle Otto only lived on credit. In turn, the uncle borrowed small amounts of money from the fathers of the family. Each time he wove the word "short-term", which the whole family feared, into the request for money.
The narrator quickly comes to a strange point. On the last day of his life, Uncle Otto picked up a large lottery prize and died in a traffic accident on the way home. With the profit, all debts - carefully noted by the deceased during his lifetime - could be settled. The uncle had bequeathed the rest to the narrator in a will. So Uncle Otto knew his successor. And he was right. The narrator breaks out of the middle-class life after the inheritance, celebrates the inheritance, wins the lottery, can thus easily pay off the considerable mountain of debt and still has a difficult task. According to the law of the series, the narrator now has to look for his successor shortly before the supposedly imminent death. What is the name of the boy from the family whose name he is to determine in his will?
reception
- Balzer comments on The Black Sheep : “Böll is not a humorous writer”, but portrays “the derogatory in its sublimity”. The narrative's ingredients are “minimal optimism, sadness” and “humane quality”.
- Barner speaks of “subtle, humorous family satire”.
literature
- source
- Heinrich Böll: The black sheep . In: Heinrich Böll works. Novels and short stories 1. 1947–1952. Edited by Bernd Balzer . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1977 (supplemented new edition 1987), ISBN 3-462-01871-X , pp. 620–629
- First edition
- Heinrich Böll: The black sheep. With seven drawings v. Mirko Szewczuk . Middelhauve, Opladen 1951
- expenditure
- Heinrich Böll: The black sheep . Illustrated by Heinz Edelmann . Gertraud Middelhauve Verlag, Cologne, 1972
- Heinrich Böll: The black sheep . With illustrations by Wiltraud Jasper . Insel Verlag 1988, Insel-Bücherei No. 1078, ISBN 3-458-19078-3
- Michael H. Gloth: Heinrich Böll: Stories (The scales of the Baleks, The black sheep, they didn't fly away, anecdote about the lowering of the work ethic, The immortal Theodora) 1995, audio cassette, ISBN 978-3-922647-12-6
- Heinrich Böll: Works (Cologne edition). Volume 5, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2004, ISBN 978-3-462-03264-2
- Secondary literature
- Gabriele Hoffmann: Heinrich Böll. Life and work . Heyne biography 12/209 Munich 1991 ( Cecilie Dressler Verlag 1977), ISBN 3-453-05041-X
- Bernd Balzer: Anarchy and tenderness . In: Heinrich Böll works. Novels and short stories 1. 1947–1952. Edited by Bernd Balzer . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1977 (supplemented new edition 1987), ISBN 3-462-01871-X , pp. [11] to [187]
- Bernd Balzer (Ed.): Heinrich Böll 1917–1985 for his 75th birthday. Peter Lang AG, Bern 1992, ISBN 3-906750-26-4
- Karl Heiner Busse: Too true to be beautiful. Early publications. In: Bernd Balzer (Ed.): Heinrich Böll 1917–1985 for his 75th birthday. Peter Lang AG, Bern 1992, ISBN 3-906750-26-4 , pp. 25-42
- Wilfried Barner (ed.): History of German literature. Volume 12: History of German Literature from 1945 to the Present . Beck , Munich 1994, ISBN 3-406-38660-1
- Werner Bellmann (ed.): The work of Heinrich Böll. Bibliography with studies on early work. Westdeutscher Verlag , Opladen 1995, ISBN 3-531-12694-6
- Beate Schnepp: The writer's job. Böll's artistic self-image as reflected in unknown evidence. In: Werner Bellmann (ed.): The work of Heinrich Böll. Bibliography with studies on early work. Westdeutscher Verlag , Opladen 1995, ISBN 3-531-12694-6
- Gero von Wilpert : Lexicon of world literature. German Authors A-Z . Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-520-83704-8 , p. 68