Fritz Kocher's essays

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Robert Walser

Fritz Kocher's essays are stories by Robert Walser , published by Insel Verlag Leipzig in 1904. In addition to the essays by Fritz Kocher, a high school student, this first book by Walser also contains the observations of Der Commis , Der Wald and the diary recording Ein Maler .

A number in round brackets refers to the page in the source or in the literature reference.

Fritz Kocher's essays

As in the role poem , in role prose ( Wilpert anno 2001, 697) the author takes on the role of a figure - here that of the student Fritz .

The parents

Fritz, a villain in style (38), calls the parents in his essay poverty (16) wealthy . The father has a carriage and horses , is mild, cordial, fair and cheerful, but tough and harsh towards poor people (18). The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Fritz is harsh against children of poor people who sing in front of the door in the freezing cold ( Christmas , 37). Fritz thinks his father is a wise man ( Die Schule , 19). Fritz does not want to become a saddler, locksmith, carpenter or turner . A bookbinder or even a ship's captain would be more interesting . Forester, poet, musician, merchant, tightrope walker or clown would also be tempting . Fritz fears the clown's ridiculous suit might displease his parents. They would certainly like to see him become a doctor, pastor, lawyer or teacher . Fritz has absolutely no desire to do any of this ( Der Beruf , 29-30).

The life

In his fundamental essay Der Mensch (8 -9) Fritz postulates that this higher being should stand above his colleague, the animal, and goes on to say that he wants to become famous . But there is a specter lurking here - lowliness . Because most ventures are only based on greed . With the essay Friendship (14-16) Fritz feels overwhelmed. The subject is more for the professional writer . Still, he bravely writes. To love and treasure it arrives at the friendship. But unfortunately there are people who only want to appear as our friends in order to be able to hurt and harm us . Fritz has observed that jokers have trouble making friends . With a sarcastic look, Fritz fixes the poverty (16-18) in his environment . For poor women , he has a preference because they ask so beautiful can. Poverty has its good . It makes the rich charitable . Fritz doesn't love the poor boys in his school class because they envy his prosperity and are gleeful about his school failures . Incidentally, Fritz doesn't care what is done in the factories . He does not know why all the poor people work in the factory and suspects that the cause of employment is a punishment for being so poor (36). In his detour into the realm of courtesy (20-22), where there are also gruesome abysses, more gruesome than they are in the high mountains , Fritz came to the conclusion in writing that politeness would actually be superfluous if there were very few people scattered on earth lived . In the essay Das Vaterland (30 - 32) Fritz compares the subjects of other countries with pets . He's an ardent Republican . Unfortunately, Fritz, a second A-class student , is still on a chain .

The teacher

Thirty people sit in Fritzen's school class. A main hatchet - like a kind of king (48) is underneath. This classmate can make faces. He receives a beating with the sheep's face (47). The teacher struts through the classroom in high boots as if he had come from the battle of Austerlitz (26). He scratches his hair lustfully at times . Fritz does not want to bear the burden of the teacher's knowledge (25). In Fritz's opinion, it is better not to bother the teacher with questions during the class essay. That is simply not brave , and besides, the interviewee detests such things (46).

Art

Fritzens older brother wants to be Kapellmeister or better yet - something that incorporates all the arts of the earth (24). Then later he tries to give sonorous expression to his emotional impulses - makes verses (39). He wants eagle wings . Of course, Fritz is also musically inclined. He wants to die listening to music (43) because it sounds like weeping in melodies (44).

Fritz knows how to write essays. It's all about style. Because he equates it with sense of order (45).

The clerk

There is no action in this sarcasm. The subtitle - a kind of illustration - indicates: After reading the book, the reader knows what a clerk is. The clerk has diligence, tact and a sense of adjustment (50), wears a clean , white stand-up collar , is extremely versatile (52) and naive, good-natured, polite and efficient (64). As a good calculator and housekeeper , he does his work in peace, privacy and modesty (64) in the barren office . Out of position , the clerk is one of the most terrible phenomena. Starving workers (57) are not against it.

A painter

The sheets from a painter's notebook (66) describe the artist's journey into the high mountains. He comes from that big city where the grief of the many makes the brilliant happiness of the few (69). In the mountain solitude he receives shelter from the art-loving countess . The landscape painter finds all the objects he loves around the countess's house: fir trees and his favorite color gray . He paints the mountain world according to the motto: Painting is the coldest art , and in addition to observation, the mind and musing dominate (74). In one breath he denies the poets, these stubborn heads , any knowledge of nature . Then he paints the countess. She sits motionless and coldly in front of her as a model (81). The portrait succeeds. Then comes a world famous poet. The Countess puts her house at the disposal of the terminally ill to die. That newcomer can indulge in his vice in the house until the last day without any restriction. The painter paints the dying poet, how he looks out at the fir trees and how the trees in turn look in through the window. Then the painter forgets about art. The countess commands that we love her. The painter obeys. The story doesn't end well for the countess. The painter cannot stand love , is destined for a colder life (89). Why is it, he wonders, that artists do not come to rest? (90) And he leaves the beloved.

The forest

The author never tires of the jubilant prices of the native forest as the chosen destination of the townspeople and the green stay of the hikers. Fritz Kocher's essay Mein Berg (32 - 34) already touches on the great Walser theme of the forest: the huge beeches on the back of the Bözingenberg, named after the village of Bözingen at its foot. Bözingen is a district of Biel , the birthplace of Walser. The author lived in Biel until he was 17. The praise for the forest can only refer to the forests of Switzerland.

The author knows that peace and forest are one (107). Despite this knowledge, he described this calm with uneasiness . Perhaps a mistake, as he critically surveys his difficult attempt to write precisely and precisely about something beautiful (106). It is not the author's profound philosophizing that is remarkable (104), but rather his excellent description of the forest in Switzerland, in which the poet can cope with a good poem (102).

This eulogy to the forest is exuberant : the author wants to die with his love for the forest (102).

Self-testimony

Walser to the head of Insel Verlag about Fritz Kocher's essays: It is definitely one of my best prose pieces (epilogue, 116).

reception

  • The book was not selling well. Nonetheless, Walser took over the funny, naive pupil language from the essays as an instrument of incorruptible knowledge of human reality for his later work ( Mächler , 64).
  • In 1909, Hesse ( Michels , 455) noticed in the essays a flash of love for things ... and ... through oratory prose the warm, intimate glow of genuine poetry.
  • The essays are less a parody of the writing culture of grammar school German lessons than ironically broken self-statements ( Sprengel ).
  • Greven the called Papers a moody and original art product, ironically precocious and of stupendous [startling] sensitivity (epilogue, 120).

literature

source

  • Jochen Greven (Ed.): Robert Walser: Fritz Kocher's essays . With an afterword by the editor. Zurich 1986. 128 pages, ISBN 3-518-37601-2

Critical Robert Walser edition

  • Hans-Joachim Heerde, Barbara von Reibnitz , Matthias Sprünglin (eds.): Fritz Kocher's essays. Critical edition and reprint of the first edition (= KWA I.1). Basel, Frankfurt a. M. 2010. 333 pages, 11 illustrations. ISBN 978-3-7965-2463-9

Secondary literature

  • Volker Michels (Ed.): Hermann Hesse: A literary history in reviews and essays. Pp. 454 - 455. Frankfurt a. M. 1975. 592 pages, ISBN 3-518-36752-8
  • Robert Mächler: The life of Robert Walser. A documentary biography . Pp. 61-64. Frankfurt a. M. 1976. 218 pages, ISBN 3-518-06821-0
  • Gero von Wilpert : Subject dictionary of literature (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 231). 8th, improved and enlarged edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-520-23108-5 (925 pages).
  • Peter Sprengel: History of German-Language Literature 1900-1918 . P. 210. Munich 2004. 924 pages, ISBN 3-406-52178-9
  • Gero von Wilpert: Lexicon of world literature. German Authors A - Z . S. 647. Stuttgart 2004. 698 pages, ISBN 3-520-83704-8
  • Hendrik Stiemer: Fritz Kocher's essays (1904) . In: Lucas Marco Gisi (ed.): Robert Walser manual. Life - work - effect , JB Metzler, Stuttgart 2015, ISBN 978-3-476-02418-3 , pp. 90–94.
  • Ethel Matala de Mazza : Weak points. Fritz Kocher's sentences. In: punctuation marks. Scenes of writing (Festschrift for Bettine Menke ). Edited by Helga Lutz, Nils Plath, Dietmar Schmidt. Kadmos, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-86599-364-9 , pp. 61-65.