A caller in the desert

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A caller in the desert is a time novel by Jakob Bosshart that was published in 1921. It is about a critical examination of the moral weaknesses of pre-war society and the failed attempt to save them by the young protagonist Reinhart Stapfer. A caller in the desert is the first part of a novel trilogy planned by Bosshart, the other parts of which were not completed. The novel is Bosshart's main work and has earned him a lot of recognition, such as the 1922 Grand Schiller Prize of the Swiss Schiller Foundation and the Gottfried Keller Prize of the Martin Bodmer Foundation.

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A caller in the desert takes place from 1908 to 1914 in a Swiss city that is never mentioned, but which can easily be recognized as Zurich.

Reinhart Stapfer has successfully completed secondary school and wants to study history and philosophy. Instead, his father Ferdinand, a successful entrepreneur, politician and high officer, demands that he join the family's own textile factory. Reinhart bows to his father's will, above all to spare his mother Ulrike, who is in poor health, from a family quarrel that she would find difficult to endure. Ferdinand, who lives with his family in a villa near the lake in the city, comes from the Golsterhof, a farm that is run by his brother Hans Rudolf and where Reinhart's grandparents Abraham and Annabab, as well as Hans Rudolf's children Adelheid, Esther and Walter live. During a visit to the Golsterhof, Reinhart learned from his grandfather that he was afraid that major changes would be imminent on the farm, because Hans Rudolf was drawn to the city, where he thought he could earn less money.

The German Helmut Geierling supports Ferdinand as managing director. Geierling is permeated by Wilhelmine imperialism and militarism and sees Switzerland as if it were soon to become a colony of the German Empire. He has his eye on Küngold, Reinhart's sister, and Ferdinand would not be reluctant to see the connection, as it would bind Geierling more closely to the family. Reinhart meets David Holzer, a comrade from primary school, in the factory. Holzer comes from a humble background and works as a worker in the factory. Through him, Reinhart comes into contact with another of his father's brothers, Melchior, who had completely broken off relations with the family after Abraham had treated him mercilessly. Reinhart learns how much misfortune Melchior and his wife had to go through in their lives and he sees how happy both of them are thanks to their modest manner. Through David Holzer, who devotes himself to socialist literature in his free time, Reinhart also learns the resentments that many proletarians have towards the rich. As children, they had met unencumbered. He had even exchanged innocent kisses with David's sister Paula in the park of the villa. They lost sight of each other for years after that, but the memory of this scene is still vivid in both of them. Paula would like to resume the relationship with Reinhart at this point, but Reinhart is in love with another woman. It's Jutta von Homberg, Georg's sister, a schoolmate from high school. Her family, however, does not like to see this connection, because the Stapfers, as the nouveau riche, are not seen as equal to their own patrician class.

Grandfather dies on the Golsterhof. At the funeral meal, Ferdinand and Hans Rudolf clash because Hans Rudolf has the impression that Ferdinand benefited for a long time from far too low interest rates that Abraham granted him for a loan. It turns out that Hans Rudolf has financial problems with the ventures he started in the city. Ferdinand holds out the prospect of an amount, but his options are also limited because he, too, has recently lost money. In order to bring in money again, Ferdinand wants to convert the company to export. He, who until then had never used his political influence for himself, indicated to Reinhart that it was particularly important now to be able to have a say in shaping the export conditions.

Although Jutta's superficiality sometimes irritates him, Reinhart asks her father for her hand. He refused on the grounds that there could be no connection between his, Homberg's family and a family that was pursuing the money-making business. Reinhart's question as to whether it would be so much better to take interest is indignantly rejected. At the same time it is known that the von Hombergs inherit a textile factory in Aarwald, similar to the Stapferschen. Ferdinand gives Reinhart hope with the remark that the von Hombergs might ultimately still be interested in a son-in-law who knows something about business.

The ambitious Dr. Wäspi, a schoolmate of Reinhart's high school, approaches Ferdinand. He would like a responsible position in the newspaper that Ferdinand controls and whose editorial staff he has only a subordinate position, because he thinks he can do a lot better than has been done up to now. He also asked Küngold's hand. He threatens Ferdinand to go to the competition if he doesn't get the job. Ferdinand does not accept that, rejects both requests, also because Küngold and Geierling are as good as engaged. But Wäspi suggests that Geierling has already made contact with the von Hombergs, which unsettles Ferdinand.

A riot breaks out in Ferdinand's company. Geierling's tone is not appreciated by the subordinates. In Ferdinand's absence, the situation escalates. David Holzer organizes resistance. Geierling wants to fire Holzer, which leads to a workers' strike. Reinhart manages to calm the situation down. The returned Ferdinand decides against Holzer's dismissal. Reinhart offers his father to take over Geierling's functions. Actually contrary to his original intention, he is more committed to the company. Geierling leaves the company, but still owns a small stake. Ferdinand introduces a more efficient dyeing process in the company. Reinhart suspects that it does not meet the qualitative requirements. Geierling adds a "von" to his name and joins the Homberg company.

Wäspi is the editor of a new newspaper called Schweizerspiegel . The Swiss mirror is a revolver blade. Every day he rode attacks against Ferdinand Stapfer. In the upcoming elections, Wäspi will run against Ferdinand. Even if he can't prove his allegations, something sticks. David Holzer told Reinhart that Ferdinand would better forego his candidacy because the left would go along with the Swiss mirror. For Ferdinand it is ultimately like a defeat that he only receives 200 votes more than Wäspi. He resigns from all offices. On behalf of Hans Rudolf, Reinhart's cousin from Golsterhof, hunchbacked Esther, surprisingly appears in the city villa and asks Ferdinand for a larger sum of money. Since he himself is in financial difficulties and cannot give anything, Ulrike sells her jewelry to help the intimidated, pathetic Esther.

Ferdinand is also otherwise under pressure: In a court case that he initiated against the Swiss mirror, Wäspi was fined, but only because he was unable to prove the allegations made against Ferdinand. He feels that he has lost his good reputation on the social floor. He renounced the participation in the seafaring in honor of the monarch visiting the city, to which he would actually have been invited. This monarch is welcomed with pomp that is atypical for Swiss standards. On the occasion of his visit there will be fireworks, the whole city is in a festive mood. Geierling also celebrates with like-minded people in a garden tavern. He feels provoked by Romands who sing French songs. The two groups clash, the landlord tries to mediate. Reinhart happens to be there too. Geierling alludes to his father's lost honor. Reinhart hits it. The two are separated. Reinhart is so upset by the incident that he gets drunk. He sleeps off his intoxication on a park bench. As he approaches his parents' villa in the morning, he meets his sister in the garden next to his mother's corpse, who drowned herself in the lake because of her father's lost honor. Reinhart realizes that Küngold feels responsible for the death of his mother and has lost her mind. In the house, for his part, the father sleeps off an intoxication; he has not yet heard of Ulrike's death. Reinhart decides to take Küngold away from the scene of the accident. He wants to go to the Golsterhof with her. But Hans Rudolf, still angry with Ferdinand and his family, does not want to give her a room.

Night falls on the way back to town. They camp on a ridge. Küngold wants to die, but falls asleep after a while. Reinhart gives himself up to his thoughts, which initially also revolve around suicide. But the look at the stars awakens in him the awareness of what a grace life is on earth, which is perhaps the only inhabited place in the entire universe. He resolves to change his life, no longer surrender himself to the world, no longer make lazy compromises, just obey his conscience. The death of his mother showed him the way to freedom, because he no longer has to be considerate of her. The next morning he brings Küngold to Melchior and Bethli.

Reinhart visits Jutta at her new place of residence in Aarwald. He wants to win them over to life in freedom. He meets her playing tennis with Geierling. He hits him over the head with the tennis racket, it bleeds. Jutta dismisses his ideas as a result of the shock and doesn't take him seriously. She easily fixes him and organizes an automobile to take him home. But after a short distance he gets out. He finds accommodation in Haus Avera , where he can stay for several weeks. It belongs to Enzio Kraus, a returnee from Asia, who meditates on the Buddhist ideal of needlessness. He hopes to have found someone like him in Reinhart. After a while, however, Reinhart realizes that this lack of need is also paired with irresponsibility: Enzio particularly neglects his daughter Imma, who feels threatened by the uncanny servant Klas. Reinhart says goodbye and walks back into town. He quartered himself in a tenement in the working class district. There he not only experiences the material need of the poor people, but also sees how envy, resentment and malice prevail instead of the hoped-for solidarity. Drunkenness and child abuse are the order of the day. In order to be able to support Melchior for Küngold's stay, he gives tutoring lessons, exposing himself to humiliations, which he bravely endures out of solidarity with the workers, who often cannot leave their jobs so easily. At Christmas he distributes gifts to children in need in the house, which is watched with suspicion. Through one of the residents he finds access to a circle of communists, anarchists, pacifists, individualists and supporters of the free money doctrine, known as the “club of fools”. He becomes a member of a left-wing party and is active in the training of young people. Under the influence of a Russian revolutionary, the mood in the party became radicalized and the majority of the “fool's club” sided with the revolutionary. Reinhart cannot agree with this attitude; he does not want to stir up class hatred. Together with like-minded people he forms the “peasant club”, a loose association of mostly young men who go on excursions to the country on Sundays and see country life as a desirable alternative to the city and to being enslaved by the machine. Reinhart tries to spread his ideas of a better life with missionary zeal. His father, demoralized after the death of Ulrike and because of the financial problems, has since recovered. His new wife brought fortune into the marriage and the company is now flourishing again. He offers Reinhart to return to the villa. But he can no longer imagine that. Hans Rudolf, on the other hand, succumbed to his financial problems. He had to be admitted to a drinking institution. Adelheid married the servant; the two now run the Golsterhof.

In the party, Reinhart meets David Holzer again, who is bad to speak of because Ferdinand has dismissed him in the meantime. And he also meets Wäspi, who was dismissed from the Swiss mirror for embezzlement and has now switched sides. Reinhart learns from a former lover of David that he left her with a child. He confronts David, wants to remind him of his responsibility. David reacts aggressively, they part in an argument. The radical forces in the party, including David, are working towards a general strike. On the day that breaks out, Reinhart wants to visit Melchior. He is just meeting him when he is trying to leave town because he has decided to return to the Golsterhof with his wife. The strikers block the departure of the wagon with which the household effects were supposed to be transported. Thanks to his relationships with the strikers, Reinhart manages to use a trick to free the car.

In the party he is more and more hostile because of his moderation. However, he is allowed to defend his position at a meeting. His speech, in which he does not so much demand the overthrow of conditions, but the change of people themselves, ends in a tumult. He has to leave the hall through the back exit. Outside he meets his childhood sweetheart Paula, who tries to comfort him. She has since married Georg von Homberg, Jutta's brother, and will go abroad with him. Reinhart is aware that due to the hostile atmosphere in the party, he is at risk of violence, especially from David. But he moves carefree in the city. Imma, who is now also living in the clutches of Klas in the city, he meets by chance in a park. He helps her to escape, which also earns him the enmity of Klas.

The outbreak of the First World War is imminent. The station is overflowing with foreigners who are striving towards their home countries. Reinhart runs into Jutta there by chance. She is engaged to Geierling, who is leaving for Germany. At the thought of a connection between Jutta and Geierling, Reinhart was stunned, although it had long been clear to him that he could no longer hope for her. On leaving the train station, Reinhart meets David Holzer and Klas. The two pursue him. David knocks him down with a brass knuckles. A Salvation Army man finds him and wants to take him to the hospital. Reinhart, however, would like to be brought to the Golsterhof. There he dies after a few days, just as Adelheid gives birth to a child.

History of origin

The first notes on the Rufer were made in 1916. Before it was drafted, Bosshart wrote the novella The Apostle of Peace , which deals with a “pacifist seized by missionary madness”. The model for this figure was Max Daetwyler , who initiated the strike on two ammunition factories in 1917. The novella, which can be seen as a kind of preliminary study for the novel, was included in the anthology Neben der Heerstrasse , which was published in 1923 after the Rufer .

The first coherent transcript of the Rufer was made in 1918. After several revisions and abbreviations, the novel was published in 1921 from May to July as a preprint in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and in December as a book by Grethlein & Co., Leipzig and Zurich.

interpretation

The novel begins with the graduation ceremony of a high school graduation class, a scene that already contains essential elements of the entire novel. The young people are “on the threshold of life”. After the professors have left the party, the high school graduates are among themselves. The mood is tipsy, beer-like, the air is thick with smoke. The class leader, compelled to give a speech, begins with a quote: "Life is not the highest of goods ...". But before he can say it in full, he is interrupted. He starts again, but in the end what he wanted to say goes completely under in the tumult that breaks out. The quote comes from Friedrich Schiller's drama The Bride of Messina and reads completely:

"Life is not the highest of goods,
But the greatest evil is guilt. "

The two lines, as blank verse bound speech and refined with a chiasmus , represent a highly artificial structure. The class leader (he would not be prime if he had not been careful in class) here cites a chunk of idealistic educational material from the fund of the Weimar people Classic . But he cannot make himself heard with it. The idealistic position is losing ground. Rougher tones are in demand. The next speaker, Oswald Wäspi, takes the opposite position:

“Anyone who is not blind in both eyes sees that the life of goods is the highest, without question. Of course, it only gets its price through the end, and this end is domination. "

The determined Wäspi will do everything to make a career in his life and to get into positions of power. To do this, he goes over corpses and, if necessary, opportunistically changes political camps. Reinhart Stapfer is completely different. When asked on the same occasion what he thinks of life, he develops the vision of a mysterious and wonderful process of cognition that he hopes to experience with the help of a university course:

“I feel like a blind man before the operation that is supposed to give him sight. [...] He knows: he is flooded by what is called light, and color and shine and serenity. It has to be something high, glorious, joyful, a food of the soul and a drink of desire. [...] He suspects it: on the whole and in detail everything will turn out differently than he imagined, but it will always be wonderful, wonderful. "

The contrast couldn't be greater. There the striving for power, which is always also a striving for material goods. With Reinhart, the desire for knowledge, for spiritual nourishment, but also a misunderstanding of reality: the life he will experience is not only “something high, wonderful, joyful.” A short time later, his father becomes him - and him coined - say: “Woe to those who cannot take realities seriously. They are called fools. ”Reinhart is not only an idealist, he is also an illusionist. And that is the reason he has to die in the end. Something the knowledgeable reader is prepared for with the initial Schiller quote. Because the two verses in Schiller's Bride of Messina comment on Don Cesar's suicide, who wants to atone for his murder of his brother. Don Cesar's death at the end of Schiller's drama foreshadows Reinhart's death at the end of Jakob Bosshart's novel. Reinhart, the idealist, could avoid the greatest evil, being guilty of one's own ideals, but he could not avoid his own death. The Schiller quote does not only point to the death of the protagonist. It also puts the tragedy of this death into perspective: the highest good is not lost, even if the “hero” dies.

In the course of the novel, Reinhart Stapfer's eyes are actually opened. And the picture of the world that he sees is not pleasant. This picture, too, has already been mapped out in the graduation ceremony scene. There Wäspi throws a malicious, but at the same time sharp-eyed look at the social reality in the country. This happens with a provocative intention and with the resentment of the member of a lower class, who was only tolerated and not taken for full in the high school class, where the rich and long-time residents set the tone. Nevertheless, Wäspi hits a real core. What Reinhart later experiences himself, what the reader is shown in the course of the plot, confirms Wäspi's cynical statements in retrospect.

Reinhart experiences the striving for power, which Wäspi has propagated as the real purpose of life, in all social classes: The patricians , in the novel the members of the von Homberg family, are afflicted with a ridiculous and hypocritical arrogance of class, which they from the traditional heroic deeds of their ancestors in the past Centuries. The dementia of the old goss mother makes the blindness for the realities of the present obvious. The upper bourgeoisie , represented in the figure of Ferdinand, combine political and economic power with military leadership functions and can, if necessary, let their relationships play out discreetly. The petty bourgeoisie , that is, the residents of the tenement barracks in which Reinhart stayed in the last part of the novel, suppress the worries of the struggle for existence in alcohol and in the malice about the missteps of others; the men pass the pressure on to the weaker, that is, to their wives and children. The farmers are unfaithful to the plaice, they are drawn to the city because of the supposedly easy profit, like Hans Rudolf, who speculates and loses everything. The workers finally, among them David Holzer, can be of party officials manipulate harden in their struggle for material improvement, want to take by force what is withheld from them, and betrayed by their agents that they have inherited from their opponents, that goal for which they originally stood, namely justice.

Reinhart let himself be caught in the hustle and bustle of the world until his mother's death. After her death, he feels free to listen to his conscience and to live up to his ideals. He introduces “The Turnaround” in his life (the title of the chapter in which his mother dies). Several offers of meaning are offered to him: In the house "Avera" the Buddhist denunciation of the world, in the "Fools Club" anarchism , pacifism , socialism and the free money theory of Silvio Gesell . Nothing seems to be right for him until he starts his own “farmers club”. But even this, with its backward-looking criticism of civilization, is not a recipe for success. Reinhart, the "fool", the "pure fool", tries nothing less than to save the world:

“Almost two thousand years ago someone came into the world with the cry: 'Come to me all who are troublesome and burdened.' He wanted to redeem. [...] 'Oh that he would come again, begin his corrupt work again and bring the shadowy people the sun, the de-souls again a soul. If only I had the strength and the fire and the word! ' That was what Reinhart wanted. "

Reinhart, the “caller in the desert”, as he calls himself after the failed speech in the party meeting, is not only a figure like the New Testament John the Baptist , but also a modern variant of the Jesus figure. This is evident in many details, for example he gathers a circle of friends and like-minded people around him in his “peasant club”, like Jesus his disciples; and it is probably not entirely by chance that there are "about a dozen", that is, the same number as the number of disciples in Jesus. In a dream he sees himself in the context of an only slightly alienated crucifixion scene, and once he thinks: "Everyone has to sacrifice himself." his untimely death: “Reinhart has to go under because, in the eyes of the author, he makes a hybrid claim to change the world instead of people. 'It was to him that he was responsible for all of humanity,' he says. "

The gloomy picture that Bosshart paints in his novel of Swiss society in the years before the First World War is the result of a deep-seated worry. He, who dealt more with timeless questions in earlier works, turns to the caller to the diagnosis of time. In his notes there are numerous notes denouncing the “materialism” of the pre-war period; something like this: “A rich generation has drowned miserably in materialism. Is there a greater world tragic? And almost an entire generation bled to death in the trenches. That is the second. ”It is the horror of the war events that gave Bosshart the impetus for this diagnosis:“ In the light of the glaring damage, Bosshart wanted to show the causes of the same. ”The novel was down to the point of“ criticism, accusation, Protest ”to be. And, as Bosshart writes in the notes to the novel: "If I do not succeed in holding the mirror up to our people and country, especially the leading classes, through the novel, without becoming instructive, then the matter is wrong."

Bosshart had developed more and more sympathy for the left in his later years. “The promise of the socialist 'ideal' had made a deep impression on his being, who sympathized so deeply with all the disenfranchised and neglected [...]. But organized socialism had completely disappointed him. ”So his stance largely coincides with Reinhart's in terms of goals, but not in terms of the path. He was convinced that social change needed “a lot of time” and “had to come from individuals and small groups. This is where his criticism of the youth began: the rebellious youth saw the weaknesses of the system very well; but she was too impatient, she also repeatedly overestimated her own possibilities. "

Bosshart's sensitivity to the precarious position of women in society is also remarkable. He clearly denounces the sexist statements made by Geierling and Georg von Homberg. In addition, daughters are used on the marriage market when it comes to establishing or strengthening business relationships. In this context, Küngold once said to her father: “Yes, I know. Among you business people one is a commodity! "

Shape and style

The novel is divided into three parts. The first two parts each contain 10 chapters, the third part is significantly longer with 17 chapters. The ninth chapter of the second part (that is, the 19th and thus the central chapter of the total of 37) is titled "Die Wende". It introduces a striking change not only to the plot, but also to the form. Eduard Korrodi already noted in his review that Bosshart's “House Avera” (in the first chapter of the third part) “puts a dream game into the glaring realism” and for Max Konzelmann it is “fairytale”.

The novel, which up to this point is "in the tradition of the classic development novel ", now develops traits of an expressionist station drama . One can distinguish between the following stations: House Avera (Buddhist denunciation of the world), tenement barracks (experience of social misery), "fool's club" (anarchism, pacifism, socialism, free money theory), social democratic party, "peasant club". The further development of Reinhart, his death on the Golsterhof, is not only the individual failure of a protagonist, it is also the “withdrawal of the traditional educational novel”, because “the self-realization of a young person and his free development are captured and permeated by materialism Society [...] no longer possible. "

The third part of the Rufer also differs stylistically from the first two in that elements of Expressionism now increasingly come into play (even if “one can hardly speak of an outwardly Expressionist style”). The model of the station drama is only one example. Martin Stern refers, for example, to the birth of the child at the end of the novel, which often appears as a “vitalistic consolation motif”, especially in expressionist dramas. Also on the fact that at the end of the novel Reinhart gets “close to numerous other lonely prophets of that time”, who are also familiar in expressionist literature. And François Comment points out that “the whole Christian theme” (Reinhart as John the Baptist, as savior, his ordeal as passion) is influenced by expressionism. The call for a “new person” in Reinhart's party speech is also a typical expressionist motif. So it turns out that Bosshart's turn to the time-related problems of his present and immediate past is also accompanied by a change in his mode of expression. While he was committed to “pure psychologizing realism” in his earlier novels, he now incorporates motifs and elements of the then current expressionism.

criticism

The caller in the desert was generally received very positively and with him Bosshart achieved a broad impact that he had not been able to before. In the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Eduard Korrodi recommends the book for “serious readers who only want to give themselves and others a permanent book, that is to say, want to enrich it spiritually.” And he appreciates the difficulty that Bosshart faced, “Cross-sections through several layers of the people, to make the fateful interlocking through the five spheres of life (the proletarian, the industrial, the political, the semi-feudal and the unreal) credible. "And Otto von Gruyères writes in the Bernese Bund :" His work (...) shines with colored life, it buzzes and hums from the colorful hustle and bustle of people, it drifts and sprouts from spring forces that overcome all languor of feeling, all sobriety of intellect. It has the secret of the inner unity, the primordial vital germ from which a healthy work of art like a healthy human life grows. ”In both reviews, a comparison is made with Gottfried Keller's Martin Salander , also a contemporary novel, also an old work. Jeremias Gotthelf's Zeitgeist and Bernese Spirit can be mentioned as an even older predecessor . The recognition also materialized in the Prize of the Swiss Schiller Foundation and in the Gottfried Keller Prize of the Martin Bodmer Foundation, which was awarded for the first time.

Of course, weaknesses were also criticized. For example, a “clichéd antithetics of the characters” in the secondary characters, who are often subject to a clear black-and-white scheme. There are positive characters, for example Ulrike, Küngold, grandmother, Melchior and Bethli, as well as the nieces on the Golsterhof; and the negative ones, especially Wäspi, Geierling, those of Hombergs and Ferdinand. Bosshart does not shy away from exaggerations that play “into the caricaturistic”. This is due on the one hand to the fact that the secondary characters “are not seen from the point of view of an objective and omniscient narrator, but from the perspective of the 'novel hero'” and, on the other hand, the characters “apart from their function in the novel are types, characteristic representatives of Circles of belief, classes, world views. They are not simply translated from life, no photographic images. ”In addition, the tendency of the novel can be explained by the fact that Bosshart wanted to give a social criticism and a warning,“ which had to scream loudly if it wanted to be heard. It was a matter of the defense of an absolute good, before which the protection and consideration for relative values ​​and honesty had to recede. "

Another allegation relates to the novel's lack of cohesion. “Bosshart groups the events around a few main points, which he treats as a novel. The plot breaks up into smaller chapters that have their own independence, ”complains Werner Günther. François Comment, on the other hand, emphasizes the “consistent structure of the work.” According to him, the “inner cohesion” and the “conscious structure” can be seen, for example, in the fact that at the end of each of the three parts of the novel a member of the family dies: first the grandfather , then the mother, at the end Reinhart himself. Despite such structural elements, the impression of a break in the narrative style at the beginning of the “Avera” chapter cannot be completely avoided, which Korrodi already noticed: “Some readers may be amazed by the chapter 'Haus Avera', in which Bosshart, to a certain extent, delves into glaring realism insert a dream game. [...] So poetically saturated this house is portrayed without objection you want to not allow but that Reinhart, such as in benefactor late summer without more is lodging under a foreign roof, he's too much of a realist. "Interestingly, takes place this Break after the "turnaround" that Reinhart wants to carry out, that is to say at the point where he makes his way to himself. Some interpreters see the design of this path as analogous to the station technique that is typical of expressionist dramas. And so François Comment also sees peculiarities in the last part of the novel when he writes: "If you wanted to coin a new technical term, you should rightly call at least the third part of the Rufer a 'station novel'."

In summary, one can say with François Comment, “that a caller in the desert is a work in which the most diverse components combine to form a whole: first the historical background of Switzerland before the First World War, then the intellectual-historical-literary movement of Expressionism the call for a new person, the related personal change of Jakob Bosshart, which culminates in the fight against materialism, and finally the Swiss tradition of the time-critical novel in the wake of Gotthelf and Keller. The novel takes up all these elements and processes them, but at the same time continues to have an effect on the next generation of writers. With this diversity and openness, the Rufer in the desert is a time novel in the best sense of the word. "

Impact history

Meinrad Inglin's Swiss mirror from 1938 is heavily influenced by the Rufer . Not only does Inglin use the term “Swiss Mirror”, which was used repeatedly for Rufer , as the title of his work; in particular, he also continues and expands Bosshart's approach of representing different layers of society with representatives of a widely ramified family. There are also similarities in terms of content, including a shooting festival and the visit of the emperor.

literature

Text output

  • A caller in the desert . Roman, Grethlein & Co., Leipzig / Zurich 1921, 413 pages (first edition)
  • A caller in the desert , Verlag Huber & Co. AG, Frauenfeld 1951, 400 pages (= works in six volumes , fifth volume)
  • A caller in the desert . Roman, With an afterword by Martin Stern, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, 431 pages (in the Spring of the Present series , edited by Charles Linsmayer - the text part is identical to the pages of the works in six volumes)
  • A caller in the desert . Roman (Suhrkamp white program Switzerland). Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1990, 430 pages, with an afterword by Martin Stern, ISBN 3-518-40268-4

Secondary literature

  • Jakob Job: Jakob Bosshart as a narrator , Dummert, Stuttgart 1923 (diss.)
  • Max Konzelmann: Jakob Bosshart. A biography , Rotapfel Verlag, Erlenbach-Zurich and Leipzig, undated [1929], 197 pages
  • Werner Günther: Poets of Modern Switzerland , 3 volumes, Francke, Bern / Munich 1963–1986, volume 1
  • Martin Stern: Epilogue to the edition A caller in the desert . Roman, With an afterword by Martin Stern, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, 431 pages (in the Spring of the Present series , edited by Charles Linsmayer)
  • François Comment: The narrator Jakob Bosshart (= language and poetry NF 40 ) , Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern and Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-258-04137-7 , 291 pages

Individual evidence

  1. ^ François Comment: The narrator Jakob Bosshart (= language and poetry NF 40), Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern and Stuttgart 1990, page 124
  2. ↑ Cf. Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Novel. With an afterword by Martin Stern, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 404
  3. ↑ Some signs: the city is on a lake; was the scene of the visit of Kaiser Wilhelm II; has an alley that is so steep “that stairs were installed along its entire length” (page 301 - see Trittligasse in downtown Zurich); and above all: on the Golsterhof, which is about 2 to 3 hours' walk from the city, there are oaks, of which the grandfather says, "They were already watching when Zwingli passed them to his death" (page 32)
  4. ↑ Martin Stern: Epilogue to Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Roman, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 406
  5. ↑ Martin Stern: Epilogue to Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Roman, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 408
  6. ↑ Martin Stern: Epilogue to Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Roman, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 408
  7. ↑ Martin Stern: Epilogue to Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Roman, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 408
  8. ↑ Title of the first chapter, see: Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Novel. With an afterword by Martin Stern, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 9
  9. ↑ Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Novel. With an afterword by Martin Stern, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 10
  10. ↑ Friedrich Schiller: The bride of Messina, conclusion. Quoted here from Friedrich Schiller: Works in three volumes , Volume III, Hanser Verlag, Munich 1966, page 552
  11. ↑ Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Novel. With an afterword by Martin Stern, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 13
  12. ↑ Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Novel. With an afterword by Martin Stern, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 14
  13. ↑ Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Novel. With an afterword by Martin Stern, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 43
  14. ↑ "In it, his main character remained an illusionist for Boßhart, despite the obvious sympathy with which he drew and accompanied her." Martin Stern: Epilogue to Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Roman, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 424
  15. ↑ Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Novel. With an afterword by Martin Stern, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, pages 11-13
  16. ↑ Cf. Martin Stern: Epilogue to Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Roman, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 413
  17. ↑ Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Novel. With an afterword by Martin Stern, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, pages 72f
  18. ↑ In the party speech, Reinhart says: “What are your goals and your weapons? The goal is power and the weapon is called violence. Don't you know that these are also the targets and weapons of your opponents? You take it over and approve it. ”Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Novel. With an afterword by Martin Stern, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 374
  19. ↑ "There they talked about a misunderstood 'retour à la nature', fought all industrialization as a 'machine being' that kills mind and soul and wanted to go back to the old craft and simple agriculture." Martin Stern: Epilogue to Jakob Bosshart: Ein Rufer in der Desert . Roman, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 418
  20. ↑ This is how Georg von Homberg once called him, cf. Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Novel. With an afterword by Martin Stern, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 104
  21. ↑ Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Novel. With an afterword by Martin Stern, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 326
  22. ↑ Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Novel. With an afterword by Martin Stern, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 378
  23. ↑ ( Matthew 3 : 1-3  ZB ), cf. also Martin Stern: Epilogue to Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Roman, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 419
  24. ↑ "Despite the Johannine title, the caller in the desert is actually a modern design of the Christ material." Max Konzelmann: Jakob Bosshart. A biography , Rotapfel Verlag, Erlenbach-Zürich and Leipzig, undated [1929], page 148. Cf. also: François Comment: The narrator Jakob Bosshart (= language and poetry NF 40), Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern and Stuttgart 1990, page 142: "Imitatio Christi"
  25. ↑ Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Novel. With an afterword by Martin Stern, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 378
  26. ↑ Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Novel. With an afterword by Martin Stern, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 382
  27. ↑ Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Novel. With an afterword by Martin Stern, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 369
  28. ^ François Comment: The narrator Jakob Bosshart (= language and poetry NF 40), Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern and Stuttgart 1990, page 149 (internal quotation: Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Roman. With an afterword by Martin Stern, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 296)
  29. ^ François Comment: The narrator Jakob Bosshart (= language and poetry NF 40), Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern and Stuttgart 1990, page 137
  30. ↑ Jakob Bosshart, Building Blocks for Life and Time . Compiled and edited by Elsa Bosshart-Forrer, Verlag Grethlein & Co., Zurich and Leipzig 1929, p. 191
  31. ^ Max Konzelmann: Jakob Bosshart. A biography , Rotapfel Verlag, Erlenbach-Zürich and Leipzig, undated [1929], page 142
  32. ^ Max Konzelmann: Jakob Bosshart. A biography , Rotapfel Verlag, Erlenbach-Zurich and Leipzig, undated [1929], page 143
  33. ↑ Quoted from Max Konzelmann: Jakob Bosshart. A biography , Rotapfel Verlag, Erlenbach-Zürich and Leipzig, undated [1929], page 142
  34. ↑ See Max Konzelmann: Jakob Bosshart. A biography , Rotapfel Verlag, Erlenbach-Zurich and Leipzig, undated [1929], page 144 and Martin Stern: Epilogue to Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Roman, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, pages 420-425
  35. ^ Max Konzelmann: Jakob Bosshart. A biography , Rotapfel Verlag, Erlenbach-Zürich and Leipzig, undated [1929], page 144
  36. ↑ Martin Stern: Epilogue to Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Roman, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 424
  37. ↑ Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Novel. With an afterword by Martin Stern, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, pages 105-107
  38. ↑ Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Novel. With an afterword by Martin Stern, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 184
  39. ^ Eduard Korrodi, Neue Zürcher Zeitung No. 1822 of December 19, 1921
  40. ^ Max Konzelmann: Jakob Bosshart. A biography , Rotapfel Verlag, Erlenbach-Zurich and Leipzig, undated [1929], page 159
  41. ^ François Comment: The narrator Jakob Bosshart (= language and poetry NF 40), Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern and Stuttgart 1990, page 157
  42. ↑ Martin Stern: Epilogue to Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Roman, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 418 and François Comment: The narrator Jakob Bosshart (= language and poetry NF 40), Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern and Stuttgart 1990, page 137
  43. ^ François Comment: The narrator Jakob Bosshart (= language and poetry NF 40), Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern and Stuttgart 1990, pages 144ff
  44. ^ François Comment: The narrator Jakob Bosshart (= language and poetry NF 40), Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern and Stuttgart 1990, page 149
  45. ^ François Comment: The narrator Jakob Bosshart (= language and poetry NF 40), Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern and Stuttgart 1990, pages 148f
  46. ^ François Comment: The narrator Jakob Bosshart (= language and poetry NF 40), Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern and Stuttgart 1990, page 141
  47. ↑ Martin Stern: Epilogue to Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Roman, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 418
  48. ↑ Martin Stern: Epilogue to Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Roman, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 419
  49. ^ François Comment: The narrator Jakob Bosshart (= language and poetry NF 40), Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern and Stuttgart 1990, page 141
  50. ^ François Comment: The narrator Jakob Bosshart (= language and poetry NF 40), Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern and Stuttgart 1990, page 141
  51. ↑ Martin Stern: Epilogue to Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Roman, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 408
  52. ↑ Martin Stern: Epilogue to Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Roman, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 404
  53. ↑ Eduard Korrodi, Neue Zürcher Zeitung No. 1822, December 19, 1921
  54. ↑ Eduard Korrodi, Neue Zürcher Zeitung No. 1822, December 19, 1921
  55. ↑ Otto von Greyerz, Der Bund , April 23, 1922, quoted from Martin Stern: Afterword to Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Roman, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, pages 410f
  56. ^ François Comment: The narrator Jakob Bosshart (= language and poetry NF 40), Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern and Stuttgart 1990, page 157
  57. ↑ Cf. Martin Stern: Epilogue to Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Roman, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 404
  58. ^ François Comment: The narrator Jakob Bosshart (= language and poetry NF 40), Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern and Stuttgart 1990, page 137
  59. ↑ Martin Stern: Epilogue to Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Roman, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 412
  60. ^ François Comment: The narrator Jakob Bosshart (= language and poetry NF 40), Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern and Stuttgart 1990, page 138
  61. ^ Max Konzelmann: Jakob Bosshart. A biography , Rotapfel Verlag, Erlenbach-Zurich and Leipzig, undated [1929], page 145
  62. ^ Max Konzelmann: Jakob Bosshart. A biography , Rotapfel Verlag, Erlenbach-Zurich and Leipzig, undated [1929], page 145
  63. ↑ Werner Günther, Poet of Modern Switzerland , 3 volumes, Bern, Munich, Francke 1963–1986, here volume 1, page 323
  64. ^ François Comment: The narrator Jakob Bosshart (= language and poetry NF 40), Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern and Stuttgart 1990, page 140
  65. ↑ Martin Stern: Epilogue to Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Roman, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 418. And François Comment: The narrator Jakob Bosshart (= language and poetry NF 40), Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern and Stuttgart 1990, page 141
  66. ^ François Comment: The narrator Jakob Bosshart (= language and poetry NF 40), Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern and Stuttgart 1990, page 144
  67. ^ François Comment: The narrator Jakob Bosshart (= language and poetry NF 40), Verlag Paul Haupt, Bern and Stuttgart 1990, page 159f
  68. ↑ As already Eduard Korrodi in his review in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung of December 19, 1921 and Otto von Greyerz in Der Bund , April 23, 1922, quoted from Martin Stern: Epilogue to Jakob Bosshart: A caller in the desert . Roman, Book Club Ex Libris, Zurich 1982, page 410
  69. ↑ See Beatrice von Matt: Meinrad Inglin. A biography . Zurich 1976, p. 177 f.