Franziska (novel)
Franziska is a novel by Ernst Weiß that appeared in 1916 under the title Der Kampf bei S. Fischer in Berlin.
The young pianist Franziska, also known as Franzi, loves the jobless fitter Erwin and has to assert herself in a love triangle .
time and place
The novel is about 1913 - first in a small town in North Bohemia , then in Prague and Berlin. The Giant Mountains are within sight of the small town. Neighboring towns are Johannisbad and Hüttenwalde.
action
The mother of 17-year-old Franzi dies. The hopeful budding pianist stands with her sisters Henriette and Minna, orphaned and almost penniless. Minna has an understanding and hires out in Prague as a maid for a retired general. The aging Henriette makes ends meet as a teacher. With the little money he has inherited, Franzi makes a short trip to Prague. There the young girl plays for the celebrated soloist Leonore Constanza. The Constanza recognizes Franzi's talent and offers an "audition" in front of the impresario Theodor Diemitz.
Back at home, Franzi, now 19 years old, falls in love with the 23-year-old Erwin. The young man, who was also orphaned , had worked in a wireless telegraphy factory in Berlin , had worked for his company in South America , had returned with an unhealed malaria and was discharged. Now he has a lot of free time and would like to self-taught as an inventor. Erwin not only fled Berlin from unemployment, but also from his girlfriend Hedy, a young stenographer who lives with her mother.
The Constanza orders Franzi to the promised audition in Prague. Nothing will come of it. Because when Franzi goes to her lover and really only wants to say goodbye, she sleeps with him. Erwin then goes to his Hedy in Berlin and leaves Franzi deflowered . The deeply disappointed young woman is preparing for a trip to Prague. Erwin comes back and goes with us. After the young man's cash flow, both can stay in Prague for about four months. But Franzi plays for Diemitz and can convince on the second attempt. The pianist receives a contract including a reasonable advance payment. Franzi feels that she is not sure of Erwin's love. She makes him a marriage proposal. Erwin agrees. There is no wedding. The lovers' differences remain. So Franzi sees Erwin as her property. The you between her and him is Franzi's wedding ring.
But Hedy doesn't rest. She is writing to Erwin from Berlin. Franzi then suggests a trip together. Said and done. In Berlin it turns out that Hedy meanwhile had another lover who, however, has left her. Erwin's malaria breaks out again. He has to go to the hospital in Berlin. Franzi travels back to Prague alone. After a twenty day hospital stay, Erwin returns to Franzi with a temperature of 40 ° C. Franzi takes care of Erwin devotedly. She says he got sick because Hedy sent him to South America. Franzi, the “woman of austere beauty”, wants to be Erwin's wife. Her first concert in Prague was a huge success. The next concert in Berlin is imminent. Erwin asks Franzi not to go to Berlin. Franzi refuses the request. Both go to Berlin. Erwin still loves Hedy. When Erwin Franzi confesses that he saw Hedy again, a rift breaks out. It looks like Erwin wants to go, but Franzi can't let him. But because Erwin loves Hedy, he goes back to her. It seems that Hedy Erwin confesses her sexually transmitted disease. It could be that she got infected from her unfaithful lover. Hedy wants to go away with her lover Erwin, wants to abandon her mother. Actually, this last-mentioned dialogue between Hedy and Erwin can be read as the great love scene in the novel: Erwin loves Hedy despite her clearly recognizable mistakes and Hedy convincingly confesses her unprejudiced love to Erwin. But the novel is called "Franziska". And Franziska sacrificed herself out of love for the sick Erwin. Erwin goes back to Franzi. Franzi cannot understand Erwin's commuting between her and the other woman. Erwin claims he no longer loves Hedy. This statement is now in stark contrast to the big love scene mentioned above. Finally Franzi's eyes open and she wonders how could she love a weakling like Erwin? Erwin, the faint-hearted, fears that something may have harmed Hedy, who has long been playing with suicidal thoughts. But it is too late. When Franzi and Erwin break into Hedy's room, she has already taken poison and dies a painful death in Franzi's arms. Erwin runs for help in vain.
The young Franzi will go her way as a pianist - initially with Constanza to Verona . Her appearance in Berlin - after a fiasco at the rehearsal - was again a very promising success.
shape
The “interior views” of the three protagonists Franzi, Erwin and Hedy are presented in separate chapters, that is, of necessity, sequentially. Thoughts of all characters - including some minor characters - are noted in quotation marks just like the verbatim speech. Plentifully interspersed symbolic images from old Prague do not always fit into the plot coherently.
Austrian German
Sometimes I completely forget ...
Kafka
- Ernst Weiß looks through the proofs together with Kafka at Marienlyst Castle .
- Kafka writes to Grete Bloch that the novel is "even more beautiful than the galley and without any effort more uniform".
reception
- Erwin's weak will has a destructive effect on Franziska and Hedy.
- Franziska, the young woman full of energy, recognizes Erwin's weakness in the end of the novel.
literature
source
- Ernst Weiß: Franziska. Novel . 225 pages. Suhrkamp pocket book 785. Collected works. Volume 2, ISBN 978-3-518-37285-2
expenditure
- S. Fischer, Berlin 1916, 1919, 1920; Rowohlt , Berlin 1925; German book club, Berlin 1926.
Secondary literature
- Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Ed.): Ernst White . Issue 76 of the magazine Text + Criticism. Munich, October 1982. 88 pages, ISBN 3-88377-117-1
- Margarita Pazi : Ernst Weiss. Fate and Work of a Jewish Central European Author in the First Half of the 20th Century . Vol. 14 of the series of Würzburger Hochschulschriften on modern German literary history, Ed. Anneliese Kuchinke-Bach. Frankfurt am Main 1993, 143 pages, ISBN 3-631-45475-9
- Gero von Wilpert : Lexicon of world literature. German Authors A - Z . S. 658. Stuttgart 2004. 698 pages, ISBN 3-520-83704-8