Long distance calls

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Long-Distance Calls brings together twenty-four short stories by Marie Luise Kaschnitz , published by Insel in Frankfurt am Main in 1966 .

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A tambourine, a horse

The years have passed. The orphan, who was eleven during the war, has since become a mother. The young wife still feels guilty for the death of her devoted foster parents. A tambourine had been used to hide the room keys in the foster parents' house . At the time, the foster mother had asked the child to put the pantry key in that beating drum. Apparently the eleven-year-old had forgotten the job, so not done it. During the night, soldiers looking for a refugee in the house asked for the key. When the key could not be found in the tambourine, the beloved foster parents were shot on the spot by the soldiers.

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The tulip man

The tulip man

In Africa, Mr. Luigi's circus was ruined by a storm. The good-natured captain of a British warship had taken the remains of the circus to Italy. There at the Cestius pyramid , very close to the Cimitero acattolico , this circus experiences its last days. Although it is no longer possible to imagine, the tulip man continues to juggle his balls. It gets its name from the tulips embroidered on his costume. The circus animals die and are buried. Artists take on foreign engagements and the tulip man continues to practice daily. He even makes a boy his pupil. After all, the child wears the much too large costume of his teacher when practicing.

Other issues
  • Marie Luise Kaschnitz: The tulip man. Stories. Selection and afterword by Hans Bender . 86 pages. Reclam, Stuttgart 1993 (first edition 1979, RUB 9824), ISBN 3-15-009824-6

Lupins

When Barbara throws herself under a train from the Kinderlandverschickung near her home town , it is the same place near the Lupins where she jumped from the Jewish train in 1943 and survived hidden with her brother-in-law, SA man Kapfinger. Barbara's older sister Fanny hadn't had the courage to jump into the lupins. Barbara actually wanted to take the place of the sister with her brother-in-law in the long run, but when he apparently guessed it and tried exactly the right thing, the girl shrinks back.

reception
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The wish

The murderous matter Almhütte file of the investigating officer on site is swelling. The victim, the young dairy farmer , had actually got on well with his milkers and servants - four older men. The helpless investigator cannot follow the “explanation” of the death by one of the servants: it was the wish - a doll made of dough that the dairy farmer kneaded during his lifetime. The investigator does not know what to make of the testimony of the dead man's father. The father recognized in the dough doll the image of an enemy classmate of the son. The investigating officer determined via Interpol : That classmate died in southern Spain on September 15. That is the day of the dairy farmer's death.

reception
  • von Gersdorff: The story of an inexplicable murder is told.
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Who knows his father

The first-person narrator, a young art history student , no longer wants to study beauty. His father's war experiences were too horrible. Then one of the comrades had put on his steel helmet and shot himself in the mouth with his rifle clamped between his knees. Or also - two soldiers came home from the front in 1944. A lady who was traveling in the compartment could no longer bear the sight of one of them, the one blemished in the face, and articulated it. Then the other soldier shot the woman.

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  • Note on broadcast by orf.at

Long distance calls

Munich: 20-year-old Angelika Baumann calls Paul and is excited about the engagement with him. The event is to take place in Düsseldorf, after the performance at Paul's father's.

Düsseldorf: Paul's father, a 61-year-old widower, calls his daughter Elly in Hamburg. A marriage of his son, after all, Paul has a doctorate, with a child of little people he can under no circumstances agree. Elly is supposed to call Aunt Julie in Munich. The aunt is supposed to break up the young couple.

Hamburg: Elly does the father's job.

Hamburg: Elly transmits father's moods to brother Paul; scares the brother over the phone - speaks of possible disinheritance and implies fatherly promises if Paul obeys.

Munich: Paul cancels Angelika. Unfortunately he cannot introduce her to his father in Düsseldorf.

Hamburg: Elly sends Angelika from Munich to her father in Düsseldorf by phone. He wanted to make her a lucrative offer.

Hamburg: Elly expresses her horror over the course of events to Aunt Julie on the phone. Her father has already made two return visits to Angelika in Munich and wants to marry the little one.

Düsseldorf: Angelika, who is married to Paul's father and is three months pregnant by the older man, tells her friend Renate over the phone about her new wealth and, above all, her bright future: Your child will inherit everything one day.

At any time

The postulate of the young first-person narrator: Everyone gets their key experience at some point in life. Then real life begins. With the first-person narrator, it was like this: As an assistant to an older notary, the future assessor had to make an inventory of the estate of a painter who had already died at the age of forty. The estate consists of 21 pictures - mostly self-portraits. The future assessor is now amazed at the chronological arrangement of those works: Because there are works of art, he recognizes himself and his future career in the portraits that are strange to him.

reception
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polar bears

At night the woman wakes up to a noise. That must be her husband Walther, who is coming home. She hallucinates her supposed guilt: while visiting the zoo, her first encounter with Walther was next to the polar bear enclosure. Walther had noticed that she had been waiting for someone else. She had always denied it. So also in her vision while waking up after that noise in front of the door. But now she's giving up her lie.

The explanation of that noise: Walther does not come home, but two policemen pick the woman up at the hospital. Her husband had an accident on the autobahn.

reception
  • von Gersdorff: The story of a life deceit is told.
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The transplanter

Inmate No. 304 is allowed to work in a nursery. When he learns of the alleged infidelity of his wife at home, he takes advantage of the new relative freedom of movement that he has gained, flees and looks after things at home. An officer whom the outlier calls learns the location of the caller through skillful conversation.

Certain gardens

Autumn 1938: The first-person narrator, a 32-year-old who is preparing for the state examination, arranges the modest estate of his great-aunt in the small town of M. in the Odenwald and is temporarily accommodated in the house of three single sisters. The two older, two old maids, show themselves to be followers of the Führer . When the first-person narrator went for walks with Sofia, the youngest sister, twice and announced his departure, one of the older sisters made him an immoral offer. A child has to go into the house. Then life will be different. May the first-person narrator impregnate Sofia before he leaves. He doesn't have to pay for the child. The man leaves without having achieved anything. When he learns of Sofia's death - she died of a rampant infectious disease - he blames himself.

reception
  • At the end of his meditation, Østbø goes into the narrative's complicity in Sofia's death.

April

The "unsightly" Miss Brutta works as a stenographer in a bank. When she comes from dictation on April 1st, there is a bouquet of flowers in her seat. Sender: Mr. Zinn. In the following lunch break, the young lady arranges the storming thoughts for a walk in the neighboring park. In this fantastic story, the lunch break on the park bench turns into a journey through time through Grossa's almost entire future life. Grossa has children and so on from the actually unsympathetic gentleman. After returning from the park bench to work after lunch, bank director Zinn has passed away. From the mirror, the young lady, who was still so young on the morning of April 1st, looks at "an old-fashioned lady".

reception
  • Østbø: Brutta flee into a fantasy world.
  • 2003, Dieter Wunderlich: April

The inventory

Joseph, called Pino in a foreign country, married the first of the three sisters Rita, Livia and Mimi. His wife ran into him. The love between the couple had long since died. Livia had made a small contribution through her presence in the house. Now the widower lists the possessions for sale. Nothing will come of his planned departure. Livia is coming - as always. The woman becomes Pino's successor to her sister Rita who died in an accident. Pino has one concern: won't his new wife Livia get bored in the lonely house? Livia says no - Mimi will come more often.

reception
  • Østbø: Pino, who at first glance appears to be superior to the three women, is captured by Livia, who acts with feminine instinct.

Silver almonds

In the Campagna : Concetta's husband Franco does not earn much in the print shop. Nevertheless, the silver bride wants to represent in front of the guests at the celebration of the silver wedding. That succeeds - albeit partly on credit. Only the culmination of the celebration bursts. Concetta had discussed the planned blessing of the silver couple by the Holy Father in Castelgandolfo personally with her confessor. The wedding party dined in Albano for almost three hours . On the subsequent trip to Castelgandolfo, the Pope's limousine roars towards the company - with a Holy Father blessing the population. The Pope travels back to his Rome .

The writer

The multiple award-winning author wants to change jobs. He applied to be a nurse in the psychiatric clinic . The hiring manager there prefers men. There is no setting. The writer cancels the madhouse for the time being. Reason: He wants to take up his pen again; wants to write about someone “who no longer wants to write”.

The feet in the fire

The first-person narrator, who had lost her fiancé before Stalingrad , can no longer do the work in the advertising agency because her tongue is so scarred when she accidentally bites it several times that no one can understand her speech. The boss has the fullest understanding and leaves the woman with light home work. Sometimes the introspective narrator thinks she is immortal because she knows no pain. Fatal - when she burned her love letters and unread books at home, a bloodcurdling scream escapes her as her feet catch fire. Neighbors break in the apartment door and pull the already immobile narrator out of the flames.

reception

The Chinese Cinelle

The young musician who plays the cinelle - a gong - in the orchestra is unlucky and lucky. The bad luck: He wants to make a career as a musician and when he earns the big money, he wants to marry his girlfriend. Unfortunately, the musician fails during the all-important performance. At the conductor's sign, he does not hit the cinelle. The luck: The girlfriend takes the failure anyway.

The day X

On the morning of the day the world ends , the first-person narrator Ms. Reiter does not want to send her two boys to school. The spouse rejects the proposal as nonsense and goes to his office at the Federal Railroad . All of the acquaintances that Ms. Reiter speaks to about the end of the world during the day don't know. After dinner the family plays a quartet . The four continue to play when the world goes down with a plaintive roar - "like a siren and yet different again".

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The relative

The unkempt husband is hanging around in front of his wife's hospital room and does not dare to go inside. They have been married for 25 years and have a son. The sick woman looks bad. A doctor asks the relatives whether he would release the deceased of science for autopsy . The head nurse who approaches corrects the confusion of the absent- minded medic. There is still a certain hope for the wife of the unkempt relatives. The end of this hospital story leads one to expect: Maybe the head nurse is right.

A man one day

Robert, now almost 50 years old, has been promoted to director and has a few hundred people under him. Then Leni see him in the office. Towards the end of the war , the then young girl hid the then 27-year-old and probably saved his life. Robert, who fears some kind of demand, denies everything. Leni, who doesn't want anything from him, leaves.

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Bird skirt

One September afternoon Rock looks for the narrator through her small open balcony door, flies around the apartment and does not want to leave. Towards evening the narrator evades acquaintances, but says nothing to them. When the narrator returns home at midnight, Rock is still sitting there. She chases him out of the apartment.

Rock was no longer seen. On the afternoon of that strange day the narrator had made four drawings of the bird - all of them unsuccessful: stork legs and a sparrow's head on the first, two heads on a thin neck on the second, three legs and tied up on the third and consisting almost only of a human eye the fourth. Rock had a yellow snipe beak and strong feet. The bird was an evenly dull color.

reception
  • von Gersdorff: The "soul bird" rock can be taken as a metaphor for the unconscious .
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The oil bottle

In the difficult year 1945 Johanna had kept the household of a commander of the Russians in Germany in order and received two briquettes and a bottle of sunflower oil every day. The commandant had loved his wife very much. This was then killed outside. When his wife was buried in the coffin, the commandant cried bitterly in front of the other soldiers. Three days later the commandant had a new wife, Johanna reports to the confused narrator. Johanna hesitates and comments: "... you just can't understand people like that."

The supervisor

In the court museum, the custodian explains and supervises the gemstone in showcase No. 12. This diamond is so famous that the narrator shrinks from explicitly naming it and refrains from it. This stone, which a prisoner found in the Hyderabad silver mine , brought so much misery to the people around him that the custodian stole it and dropped it into a body of water on a bridge outside.

In this - as in the last two stories - the foundations of our real world are shaken in a surrealistic manner with the help of absurdities . Now the custodian is also the Amsterdam diamond dealer Montini. Nothing less than the salvation of the House of Habsburg is discussed.

reception
  • Huber-Sauter: The author probably took the material from a newspaper article about the Golkondastein .

Yes my angel

For her final years, the first-person narrator - an old, decrepit widow - takes the young student Eva into her small apartment. She gives Eva a room. The senior citizen hardly earns any gratitude for her diverse other support for the student. Most of the time, Eva thoughtlessly availed of a favor. The young girl is getting married. The couple has two children. Little by little the young people are taking the old woman away, room by room. Eva's husband is worse than his wife. He ships the old lady to the hospital and is rid of her. During a visit to the sick, the acquaintance of the person looking at it does not understand why Eva should inherit everything one day. The answer: The widow regards Eva as her daughter.

The surrealistic element announced above comes to a grotesque conclusion: the patient is waiting for Eva's visit. She wants flowers from Eva; lots of flowers. The "daughter" comes with flowers, but Eva puts the bouquet on her face. Then the flowers suddenly became earth. Eva repeats her visit. Again the first-person narrator has flowers placed on her face. This time Eva puts her hand on the bouquet and squeezes.

Translation into Czech
reception
  • Østbø: Eva, as a modern woman, is profoundly inhumane .

Ship history

South America : 42-year-old Don Miguel accompanies his sister Viola on board the steamer to Marseille . The ship is very old fashioned. When it has cast off, Don Miguel sees the recently commissioned “Lutetia” lying on the quay. Horrible - the brother took the sister to the wrong ship. Don Miguel goes to the police. It doesn't get anything out. The married, 40-year-old Viola lives in Zurich . It never arrives there in Switzerland . With trepidation and trepidation, the reader concludes from surrealist passages: The story will probably end catastrophically. Marie Luise Kaschnitz, for example, reproduces a passage from the letter writer Viola: "... I was amazed to see how a piece of the ship's side broke off where I was standing and silently disappeared into the depths." And then this old-fashioned ship is on board the contents of the mailbag containing Viola's letter to the brother were thrown into the ocean once a day. Viola still sends the news of her suicide to her brother in a kind of message in a bottle - consisting of a plastic bag with her powder compact weighted down.

Categorization
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reception

literature

Text output

Used edition

  • Long distance calls. Stories. 283 pages. Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1966 (2nd edition 1991), ISBN 3-458-15244-X

Secondary literature

  • Dagmar von Gersdorff : Marie Luise Kaschnitz. A biography . 369 pages. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 3-458-16342-5
  • Johannes Østbø: Reality as a challenge to the word. Commitment, poetological reflection and poetic communication with Marie Luise Kaschnitz . (= Oslo contributions to German studies; Vol. 17). 216 pages. Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1996, ISBN 3-631-48215-9
  • Petra Huber-Sauter: The I in Marie Luise Kaschnitz's autobiographical prose . Dr. phil. Diss. University of Stuttgart , July 15, 2003 ( full text )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edition used, p. 28, 2nd Zvu
  2. ↑ Huber-Sauter, p. 29, footnote 13
  3. ↑ von Gersdorff, p. 309, 11. Zvu
  4. ↑ von Gersdorff, p. 309, 12th Zvu
  5. ↑ Østbø, pp. 97-101
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 117, 5th Zvu
  7. ↑ Østbø, pp. 101-106
  8. ↑ Østbø, pp. 106–111
  9. ↑ Edition used, p. 153, 3. Zvo
  10. ↑ von Gersdorff, p. 310, 6. Zvo
  11. ↑ Edition used, p. 195, 6. Zvo
  12. ↑ von Gersdorff, p. 309, below
  13. ↑ Edition used, p. 231, 20. Zvo
  14. ↑ Edition used, p. 233, 2nd Zvu
  15. ↑ Østbø, p. 101, 1st Zvu
  16. ↑ Huber-Sauter, p. 128, footnote 245
  17. ↑ Østbø, pp. 111–116
  18. ↑ Edition used, p. 280, 14th Zvu
  19. ↑ Østbø, pp. 93–97