Welcome to the world

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Reception at the World is a novel by Heinrich Mann , written in exile from April 1941 to June 8, 1945 and published posthumously in 1956.

The 90-year-old Balthasar has hidden a large treasure of gold in wine barrels in his cellar. The 50-year-old son Arthur, who as a businessman always needs money, is out of the question as an inheritance for Balthasar. Initially, the 20-year-old grandson André should inherit, but the gold goes to Stephanie, the 18-year-old fiancée Andrés. The young lovers do without all the precious metal.

genre

This “social satire ” is polyglot . In addition to the German, French sprinkles dominate. The novel can be read as a clear criticism of the time, as a thriller or as a love story.

  • Society novel : At the reception that Impresario Arthur gives in his house, the main aim is to get hold of money for the construction of an opera house. Before the reception dissolves, Arthur, the "existential fighter in working life", wants to collect the checks.
  • Detective novel : "Master thief" Poulailler with the "politely tough cavalier face", "the most elegant man of this extensive reception of art" and "finance" tries to relieve the crème de la crème present of their valuables. “Bandit” Nolus, actually a banker, does not shy away from check fraud.
  • Romance novel : Heinrich Mann tells - deeply moving - the story of the love of André and Stephanie.

In terms of the structure of the novel, however, it is about “three big appearances” that Balthasar has in “less than twenty-four hours”.

action

First appearance

Balthasar sees himself as dead. Logically, on his 90th birthday, he invites staff lying in the cemetery to a "gluttony of ghosts". These “lunch guests” naturally appear as ghosts. The lively "concert agent" Arthur also drops by. He wants to see what the father will inherit. Because he unsuccessfully pumps up the old man, he scolds him as a curmudgeon. Arthur just wants to "expand his company". He urgently asks the birthday child to appear at the “reception at the world”, which is to take place that evening. Balthasar cannot understand his son. The old man was never an existential fighter, but the state forced assets on him at the time - at least that's how it is presented to the reader several times.

The very young birthday guest André, who works “without conviction” as a poster painter in a canning factory, does not want to inherit anything from grandfather. He only portrays the birthday boy. Only the grandson is taken into the wine cellar by the grandfather. The old man babbles that he wants to be buried in his gold, even wants to take it with him. André finds a piece of gold.

Second appearance

Only at the very end of the “Welcome to the World” does Balthasar make his next big appearance in the house of his son Arthur.

Before that, the “hunchbacked” 58-year-old “world-famous” tenor Tamburini thrilled the audience with his art. This “miracle of voice saved the new opera house” alone. In the concert hall there is “no humane air”. The mixed crowd, the “economic, cultural and human selection”, but also “the big, negligent, presidential whore” want to stroke the “elderly cripple”, this “ mascotte ”. The "dwarf" Tamburini meets a former colleague, the "beautiful" Melusine, her mother Stephanie, now banquière at Bankhaus Barber and Nolus. “Your name on the stage” has “long withered”. Both speak of “glory and shame”: Tamburini, the “famous singer”, has the wonderful voice and the hump. With the Melusine it is the other way around - she lost her voice, but she kept her "splendid figure". Arthur loves Melusine.

Stephanie, secretary in the same "can trust" as André, is fired by the "bearded can president" at the reception after she slipped out an open word. Host Arthur tries in vain to persuade the “canned man” to withdraw the “dismissal”.

Balthasar appears at last. Arthur thanks his father: "You alone are the big attraction". The old man "with the grand cordon on his venerable neck" is impressively silent. The “responsible entrepreneur” Arthur ensures that “the larger than life star of the order” is hit by a “well-aimed beam of light”. Balthasar is enthroned like Goethe. Before the old man leaves, he quickly disinherits André and leaves Stephanie his wine cellar.

Melusine, who was not happy on the hunt for money in the “world of struggles for existence”, takes “sleeping pills”. The “woman connoisseur” and “art dealer” Arthur, “overwhelmed by the struggle for existence”, takes the desirable Melusine, who suddenly needs to be leaned on, on the hard stairs. Arthur really wants to marry Melusine afterwards.

Third appearance

Together with André, Stephanie penetrates her legacy, the gold-filled wine barrels in Balthasar's cellar. Balthasar, tired from shoveling over the precious metal, lies dead on a heap of gold. Much emerges from the papers left by the deceased. In addition to the gold, Stephanie also inherits the house. “The owner of the grand cordon” was only happy for his life after he had safely hidden his gold and played for the poor. That went so far that he let the housekeeper put up with him. André and Stephanie leave the cellar without looking back.

Stephanie inherits on one condition: The chaste man has to make love with André. The enterprising fellow takes off freshly. Stephanie lets herself be thrown on her back and, in turn, puts her fiancé “in the fetters”. The testator's condition is met. Stephanie keeps the house and wants to give the gold to Arthur. The entrepreneur will soon have completely guessed it. Living in Balthasar's house with André - Stephanie is “scary” with her “too much happiness”: “The air begins to sound” to the young couple. The heavens become resounding ”.

Quotes

  • Better to suffer injustice than to do injustice.
  • Time is not real.
  • Real fertility has its reward.
  • Where I sit is always up.
  • Whoever frees me from myself is my friend.
  • We know each other by looking away.
  • The law of Don Juan does not leave out the ugly!
  • Love alone conquers death.

Exile literature

Before 1933, when a functioning German book market was open to Heinrich Mann, the author sometimes produced with a light hand, i.e. unusually quickly. For example, he wrote and published B. A serious life in just a year. Heinrich Mann's writing behavior was quite different in his exile in California . No reader can miss it - the text of the novel has been fine-tuned for years. Chronic musing, which is sometimes contagious, is characteristic of this late work, the penultimate of the author's novels.

Syntax and semantics

The novel is not as easy to read as z. B. the above. A serious life . The reader sometimes comes across a sentence that slows down the flow of reading and provokes a question of the kind: Is this sentence even possible in German? The majority of the intended sentences is acceptable, but reading pleasure suffers. The difficult reading requires “research work” if at the end of the paragraph the meaning of what has just been read has to be pondered before “further work”.

Social criticism

The eponymous expression, welcome to the world , is used in the text when Arthur welcomes well-funded representatives from business and high finance to a lavish ball in his house, at which - with the not sparing use of "hookers" and other artists - it's about the to pull the money out of their pockets to wealthy people. Heinrich Mann makes it clear that the monetary donations come by no means from the rich people, but from those people who have worked out values ​​equivalent to money.

People and events

  • Arthur Schopenhauer gave his first name to Balthasar's son. The father says: "I named this son Arthur after the philosopher of redemption, of unwillingness, of no longer being - Arthur".
  • Hitler is mentioned in the text. The dictator's weakness for the tender sex is mocked.
  • “Don't you want to experience your Stalingrad !” Shouts Stephanie to the master thief Poulailler.

Names

Testimonials

  • The novel "takes place, you don't know where, in an international, but unanimously dying society."
  • “Reception with the world” also precedes “ breath ” in the state and event . The first shows the decay, the second the disaster that has broken out.

reception

  • Thomas Mann calls the novel "ingenious and fantastic, a ghostly masquerade, a social generation game of the greatest originality."
  • In the “theatrical” event, the figure plays a role and “behind” a “sham role”.
  • A characteristic of the exile novel: the characters no longer understand the world.
  • Koopmann reads out that the author studied Schopenhauer again when he was old.

literature

source
  • Heinrich Mann: Welcome to the world . Novel. Volume 14: Heinrich Mann: Collected Works. 370 pages. Aufbau-Verlag Berlin and Weimar 1967
expenditure
Secondary literature
  • Klaus Schröter: Heinrich Mann . Reinbek near Hamburg 1967, ISBN 3-499-50125-2 , pp. 145-148.
  • Winfried Giesen: Heinrich Mann's novel 'Reception at the World'. Interpretation of a late work. Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1976, ISBN 3-261-02011-3 .
  • Sigrid Anger (Ed.): Heinrich Mann. 1871-1950. Work and life in documents and images. S. 334. Aufbau-Verlag Berlin and Weimar 1977, 586 pages.
  • Volker Ebersbach : Heinrich Mann . Philipp Reclam jun. Leipzig 1978, pp. 294-299.
  • Helmut Koopmann in: Gunter E. Grimm , Frank Rainer Max (eds.): German poets. Life and work of German-speaking authors . Volume 7: From the beginning to the middle of the 20th century . Reclam, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-15-008617-5 .
  • Gero von Wilpert : Lexicon of world literature. German Authors A - Z . Kröner, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-520-83704-8 , p. 410.
  • Gerhard Bauer: shortness of breath and fullness of sound. New style artistry in Heinrich Mann's late work . In: Walter Delabar (Ed.), Walter Fähnders (Ed.): Heinrich Mann (1871 - 1950) . From the series Hans-Gert Roloff (ed.): Memoria , Vol. 4. Weidler Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89693-437-6 , pp. 347-374.
  • Ute Welscher: speaking - playing - remembering. Forms of poetic self-reflection in Heinrich Mann's exile novels 'Willkommen bei der Welt' and 'Der Atem' . In: Walter Delabar (Hrsg.), Walter Fähnders (Hrsg.): Heinrich Mann (1871–1950) . From the series Hans-Gert Roloff (Ed.): Memoria , Vol. 4. Weidler Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89693-437-6 , pp. 375-398.

Web links

  • Willi Jasper: Heinrich Mann in Hollywood. From film poet to scriptwriter

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schröter p. 145
  2. ↑ a b source p. 50
  3. ↑ Source p. 62
  4. ↑ Source p. 98
  5. ↑ Source p. 117
  6. ↑ Source p. 159
  7. ↑ Source p. 207
  8. ↑ Source p. 208
  9. ↑ Source p. 230
  10. ↑ Source p. 118.
  11. ↑ Source p. 301.
  12. ↑ Source p. 80
  13. ↑ Source p. 245
  14. ↑ From a letter of January 31, 1948 to Karl Lemke, quoted in Schröter, p. 145
  15. ↑ From a letter of August 26, 1947 to Karl Lemke, quoted in Ebersbach, p. 299
  16. ↑ Quoted in Ebersbach, p. 295
  17. ^ Bauer, p. 370 below
  18. ↑ Welscher, pp. 396, 397
  19. ↑ Koopmann, p. 44 above
  20. ↑ Contact: winfried.giesen (at) web.de