An anarchist banker
An anarchist banker ( Portuguese original title O Banqueiro Anarquista ) is a satirical story by Fernando Pessoa from 1922 .
content
After dinner in the house of a successful businessman and banker, the invited guest asks him whether it is true that he used to be an anarchist . He replies that he still is. This is followed by a conversation largely conducted as a monologue by the host. In it, the banker explains to the astonished guest why he, as a staunch anarchist, is forced to become wealthy. The arguments that logically build on each other are ostensibly only aimed at the goal of achieving a society free of domination. In fact, however, Pessoa's narrative is a criticism of both unconditional capitalism and its fanatical opponents.
background
Pessoa's story is one of the few works published during his lifetime. It also emerged as a result of the political unrest that had accompanied the Portuguese Republic since the fall of the monarchy and King Manuel II's exile in 1910. Reactionary monarchist forces, republican and anarcho-syndicalist groups fought civil war-like clashes. During this time of assassinations and violent confrontations, An Anarchist Banker 1922 was published. It was not until October 1921 that Republican National Guard ( GNR ) troops and naval units tried to overthrow the government. As a result, there was the Lisbon Blood Night , which was followed by another wave of violence.
Pessoa, these ideologically motivated explosions of violence were an abomination. They contradicted the for him inviolable individual freedom. Not being able to endure opposites and differences was a sign of stupidity.
"Nothing was more hateful to him than the complacency and self-righteousness of majorities who messed with individuals and played out their consensus as eloquently as numerically: many against one."
Pessoa had an aversion both to capitalism, which exerts existential coercions on people when they deviate and impairs their intellectual freedom, as well as to its bitterest opponents, who could not accept deviating views on their way to the desired liberation.
"Submitting to nothing, to no person, no love, no idea, to maintain that distant independence, which consists in believing neither in the truth, if it existed, nor in the benefit of knowing it - this, it seems to me, is the right sensitivity for the spiritual, inner life of people who cannot live thoughtlessly. "
In view of these historical contexts and personal convictions, An Anarchist Banker was published in 1922 by Fernando Pessoa. Since then, the story has been brought to the stage more often, for example by the Dortmund Theater in 2010 , with Claus Dieter Clausnitzer as the banker.
expenditure
- Fernando Pessoa: An anarchist banker. Wagenbach , Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3803112361 . Hardcover, translated by Reinhold Werner
- Fernando Pessoa: An anarchist banker. Fischer Taschenbuch , Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 978-3596103065 .
- Fernando Pessoa: The anarchist banker. minifanal, Bonn 2017, ISBN 978-3954211357 . Paperback, translated by Dirk Friedrich
- Fernando Pessoa: An anarchist banker. Wagenbach, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3803140906 . Audio book read by Hanns Zischler
Web links
- Detailed review with a separate summary
- Book review oriented closely to the content at lyrikwelt.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Reinold Werner in the epilogue to Fernando Pessoa: An anarchist banker , Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt / Main 1992
- ↑ an anarchist banker ( Memento of the original from April 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Event entry on arture.eu
