Episode on Lake Geneva
Episode am Geneva Lake is a novella by Stefan Zweig from 1927. The First World War is the theme. Longing for home drives a deserter home. Bauer highlights the small text with the original title The Refugee as one of the author's “most beautiful stories”.
action
In the summer of 1918, the exhausted young Russian soldier Boris was dragged out of the lake near Villeneuve . He had fought against the Germans first in Russia and then in a Russian division at the front in France. At the beginning of the fighting he was shot in the leg. He had slipped away from his carer while recovering. The march to the wife and three children near the Baikal was interrupted in western Switzerland after exhausting swimming. In front of the rushing police officer from Montreux , the refugee Boris describes himself as the serf of Prince Metschersky. The Weibel von Villeneuve and the policeman are now discussing whether Boris should be treated as a deserter or as a foreigner without documents. Some interfering residents from Villeneuve do not want to feed the Russians.
The manager of a large inn helps. Proficient in Russian, he wins the soldier's trust and accommodates him. Boris, however, is unable to adapt to a foreign country and on the same evening pleadingly turns to the benevolent manager: “You want to forgive, I just wanted to know ... whether I can go home.” The addressee regrets. Since the tsar was deposed and no end of the war was in sight, the route led through enemy territory. Despite increasing despair, the questioner is denied any prospect of returning to his wife and children. Boris thanks his new master for the information and drowns himself in the lake.
literature
First edition
- Stefan Zweig: The refugee. Episode from Lake Geneva. Book lottery of the International Book Art Exhibition Leipzig, Volume I, Leipzig 1927 (organizer: Association " German Book Artists "), 23 pages
Used edition
- Stefan Zweig: Episode at Lake Geneva. In: Novellas . Vol. 1, pp. 121-131. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1986 (3rd edition), without ISBN, licensor: S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main, (Copyright 1960), 288 pages
Secondary literature
- Arnold Bauer: Stefan Zweig . Morgenbuch Verlag Volker Spiess, Berlin 1996 (vol. 21 of the series “Heads of the 20th Century”), ISBN 3-371-00401-5
- Gabriella Rovagnati: “Detours on the way to myself”. On the life and work of Stefan Zweig. Bouvier Verlag, Bonn 1998 (Vol. 400 of the series "Treatises on Art, Music and Literature"), ISBN 3-416-02780-9