The invisible wall
The invisible wall is a novel by the German writer Stefan Andres from 1934. In this partly autobiographical work, Andres depicts the events surrounding the construction of the Dhrontalsperre near Trier between 1912 and 1914, which changes the living environment and circumstances of the resident millers in the Dhrontal radically change. The work takes place in the late period of the German Empire before the beginning of the First World War .
action
The story begins with the description of an intact, if somewhat rural-backward, sedate world and social structure in the Dhrontal, in which the millers go about their craft without further excitement. The first unrest arose when Wendelin Riedenburger announced that the city of Trier was planning to build a dam in this section of the valley. Wendelin is a son from the Riedenburgmühle who went to the city to study years ago and is now returning as a young, ambitious building officer.
The millers take different positions on this project. Marjam Müller from the Eselsmühle, known as 'Eselsmarjam' like her son Pitter, is and remains strictly against the innovation. Both fear the loss of their familiar surroundings and refuse to sell themselves to the builders:
"" There are a few clever guys, and your boy is the worst of them, they want to get rich with our stuff! ""
The married couple Berend and Traut von der Knickwiesmühle asked for time to think about it, but a sale of the water rights would come in very handy for them, as the farmers hardly had any more grinding there. Traut knocked out her poor groom in favor of the wealthy Knickwiesmüller and subsequently gave birth to a handicapped child. That is why one suspects there is a curse on the mill.
Klaus Edinger, the miller at Fichtelmühle, known as the 'Fichtelkläschen', is ready to assign his property rights on the condition that the compensation promised by the city meets his expectations. He suspects that the much-cited “common good” is just an empty phrase in the modern economy, behind which the real winners of the measure are hidden. Nicodemus Riedenburger is also happy to sell the mill for a reasonable price. Wendelin's father is aware that he cannot guarantee his many children a secure future on the outdated mill in the Dhrontal.
Eucharius Wetzstein von der Wetzsteinmühle is very impressed by the construction project and the power supply that was hoped for. The somewhat vain man with a magnificent mustache has always shown great interest in technical innovations and dreamed of the blessings of a power supply in the valley.
Wendelin's return is also problematic for another reason: There is a competitive situation between the men and him because of Maari Edinger, Fichtelkläschen's niece. The former childhood friend still has not got over Wendelin's departure, although she clairvoyantly recognizes that she cannot shape a future together with the coldly calculating academic. Wendelin has to admit to himself that he has alienated himself from people and their way of life in many ways:
"" He was a commissioner, and an assignment usually alienates us from our own sense of what is essential and what is right. ""
In this situation, one goofy prank sets numerous events rolling. After a wet and happy threshing festival, they tell Eucharius, who also worships Maari, that she is waiting for him in the 'picture' of a chapel in the forest. When he gets there, Eucharius has to realize that he was teased. People continue to drink and party in the forest, where the Eucharius falls asleep completely drunk. The next morning he finds out that half of his mustache has been cut off. Offended in his man's honor, he initiates proceedings in Trier, in which he reports Pitter, who also wants to win the Fichtelmaari, as the suspected culprit.
Pitter refuses to comply with his summons to court. He resists the orders of the gendarme who is supposed to bring him up. When Wendelin wants to mediate, Pitter attacks the hated rival and traitor in an extremely aggressive manner. In self-defense, Wendelin blinds his opponent so that he completely loses his sight. As a result, Maari turns completely away from Wendelin. When she and Pitter get married, the millers of the Wendelin valley are even more restrictive.
The construction of the dam is carried out by the engineer Dr. Dupienne, who, when he makes Maari an improper offer, is put to death by Pitter. This only delays the completion of the building; Wendelin will take over the completion.
The further fate of the millers is different. The donkey maryam dies. Pitter cannot cope with his blindness, Maari's lack of love, the death of her newborn and the loss of her home, and takes his own life. The Riedenburgers leave the valley. You set up in a new house in Tarattem and start working as a winemaker. While the big sons begin to find their way in this existence, father Riedenburger starts to drink and is laughed at by everyone as 'the drunk Wingertmüller'.
Fichtelkläschen wasted his energies in lawsuits with the city over the amount of the settlement for his mill. The Knickwieschen Müller have bought up almost half of the valley and are very satisfied with it. Eucharius seems to be winning too, as he invested in an oil mill on time. He is also the only one who benefits from the power supply, albeit at his own expense, as his mill is located close to the electricity route to Novimagen. For the other residents, it is too costly for the electricity company to lay cables in the remote valley.
After all these events, Wendelin withdraws in resignation, but there is little time for him to think because the First World War, which has been on the horizon for some time, will break out and everything will change.
In these essential narrative strands of the main storyline, numerous secondary characters appear, such as Besenlitzchen and Warty Jacob - the tramp couple who are always looking for a sensation - Wendelin's different siblings Florence, Martin and Ziska, and 'Grand Ulf', the wise and thoughtful grandmother of the family Riedenburger.
Interpretative approaches
The novel has numerous autobiographical features. In his childhood, the miller's son Stefan Andres experienced the construction of the Dhrontalsperre and the move of his family from his father's mill to Schweich . He changed place names in his novel, but most of them are easily recognizable.
The classification of Andres' novel in terms of literary history presents difficulties, although late naturalistic traits can be recognized in the work, which was written around 40 years after the height of naturalism . The millers suffer from the rapid mechanization and materialistic thinking of the electricity companies, they have to struggle with the loss of traditional values, whereby religious attitudes inevitably take on the paint of the old-fashioned. The depiction of social outsiders and the use of dialectal passages are typically naturalistic. However, the characters in the novel are not completely impoverished, as in that epoch, but rather the problematization of the upheaval situation caused by the planned dam construction.
Even reasonable compensation cannot prevent most millers from losing their usual social community. With the sale of the water rights, in addition to the spatial uprooting of the valley dwellers, their special professional qualification as millers becomes worthless. The activity in another field of work takes place as an unskilled worker, which amounts to a reduction in their social prestige. This leads to psychological problems, especially for the elderly.
Interpersonal relationships are dissolved, even love relationships fail. The conflict between the two forms of life is embodied in the figure of Wendelin Riedenburger, who on the one hand wants to succeed as an engineer, but on the other hand has to painfully experience the alienating effect of this measure and the loss of his childhood friend Maari.
The question of who will benefit from the dam is another aspect of the novel. The already wealthy Knickwiesmüller, possibly also the Eucharius with his oil mill, gets rich from the millers in the valley. The other residents are the losers of the restructuring.
The opacity of the modern state, which is reflected in the title 'The Invisible Wall', is a constituent theme of this novel. While the weavers still had tangible enemies in Gerhart Hauptmann 's naturalistic play of the same name in the factory owner Dreißiger and his collector Pfeifer, the millers concerned can only fight against vaguely recognizable opponents. The donkey maryam suspects that a few 'profit hunters of the city' are hiding behind the measure; The defenseless woman cannot take any further measures. Fichtelkläschen consumes himself in the fight against a judiciary that is not really comprehensible even to the more urbane valley dweller.
In the transfer to 'the bigger one', namely the level of the imminent First World War , the problem of dubious state welfare is reflected in the fate of the young Florence, who is simply not found or is simply forgotten during a medical exercise as an injured person.
The opacity of the modern world also finds its parallel in the episode of the unenlightened mustache crime, which functions symbolically for the impenetrability of machinations in a modern world; likewise the loss of Pitter's eyes, the blindness of which makes him see in a certain way.
expenditure
- The invisible wall. Diederichs, Jena 1934.
- The invisible wall. Gutenberg Book Guild, Berlin 1937.
- The invisible wall. Moselle power plants, Saffig near Andernach 1988.
- The invisible wall. Stefan-Andres-Gesellschaft, Schweich 1991.
- The invisible wall. With an afterword by Wolfgang Keil and a glossary by Hermann Erens and Herbert Pies. Stefan-Andres-Gesellschaft, Schweich 2013.
Translations
- Nezrimaya stena. (Russian: "The Invisible Wall"). Translated by S. Fridljand. Raduga, Moscow 1995.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stefan Andres: The invisible wall, Schweich: Stefan-Andres-Gesellschaft 2013, p. 15.
- ↑ Stefan Andres: The invisible wall, Schweich: Stefan-Andres-Gesellschaft 2013, p. 50.
- ↑ Stefan Andres: The invisible wall, Schweich: Stefan-Andres-Gesellschaft 2013, p. 51.
- ↑ Cf. Stefan Andres: The invisible wall, Schweich: Stefan-Andres-Gesellschaft 2013, p. 195.
- ↑ Further biographical coincidences emerge in particular from the biographical outline of Stefan Andres: Born in 1906. A boy from the country, in: Wilhelm Große (Ed.): Stefan Andres, Trier: Spee 1980, pp. 13–47.
- ↑ Cf. Stefan Andres: The invisible wall, Schweich: Stefan-Andres-Gesellschaft 2013, p. 52.
- ^ Cf. Stefan Andres: The invisible wall, Schweich: Stefan-Andres-Gesellschaft 2013, p. 187.
- ↑ See Stefan Andres: The invisible wall, Schweich: Stefan-Andres-Gesellschaft 2013, p. 119.
- ↑ For further interpretative approaches cf. Wolfgang Keil: Readings of the novel "The invisible wall, in: Stefan Andres: The invisible wall, Schweich: Stefan-Andres-Gesellschaft 2013, pp. 224–235.