Instructions for use for Potsdam and Brandenburg
Instructions for use for Potsdam and Brandenburg is a book by the writer Antje Rávic Strubel , who was born in Potsdam in 1974 and was awarded the Marburg Literature Prize. The work appeared in 2012 in the book series Instructions for Use for ... by Piper Verlag , in which writers such as Paul Watzlawick , Iris Alanyalı , Jakob Hein or the cabaret artist Bruno Jonas try to reproduce their impressions of cities, countries and regions in literary form . In 2008 Strubel had already published an instruction manual for Sweden in this series .
Strubel, who grew up in Ludwigsfelde , describes her homeland in an ironically distant and often laconic manner, which she is allegedly indifferent to - in the very first sentence of the preface she warns the reader: Do not be under any illusions. I am not a fan of Brandenburg. - I was born here. I live here. That's all. Despite the warning, one reviewer read the book as a declaration of love to Brandenburg, which Strubel describes as a village overdose . While the local media in particular, but also national newspapers such as Die Welt or the magazine Emma , praised the book enthusiastically, one critic found the flippant style to be superficial, flattering self-irony and the content of this obviously bourgeois commissioned work as rather superficial.
content
Structure, glossary and blurb
Antje Rávic Strubel's book is not a traditional travel guide; If you want to find out more about regions or areas of Brandenburg, you will not find it here. There is no register of places or persons and the table of contents is not divided into cities, villages or landscapes, but mainly according to subject areas. These include chapters such as Prussia and Märker , ways and water , gardeners and silent , built- up space or empty land . In such thematic chapters, Strubel tries to decipher the mentality of the Märker, usually characterized as silent and closed, with descriptions of her experiences in addition to a lot of detailed information, about which hardly anyone apart from Theodor Fontane has written (Strubel: there is no psychogram of the country ). Chapters like The Eternal Outpost , Ohne Sorge or Lausitzer Karnickelland , on the other hand, already refer with the headings to a more targeted, “dutiful” occupation with well-known Brandenburg sights / landscapes, here with Potsdam , Sanssouci and Lausitz .
The book concludes with the Brandenburg-German glossary , which says, for example, that Jenaupe! an emphatically said exactly means. About the knight Kahlbutz , the " glossary " tells what can be read in every encyclopedia - applied in the, according to reviewers (see below), loosely funny style of Strubels: famous, well-preserved corpse. It concerns a nobleman from the 17th century who is said to have killed a shepherd after he had not allowed him to rape his wife. [...] . Strubel's fun in the text and in the glossary - highlighted by some reviewers - on the rugged Konsum -brandenburgischen hammwanich is reminiscent of Dieter Moors three years earlier stories from the asshole-free zone , which you do not need to take up this topic in the main title What we don't have . Ms. Widdel hurled the hammwanich at Moor at the first attempt to walk in the village shop after his move from Switzerland and, in view of Moor's annoyance , twisted her facial expressions several times into Widdel's [] 'Hammwanich face' . The publisher description, which is largely the blurb corresponding sums Strubel's book as follows:
“Between the Elbe and the Oder. Alleys and waterways, pleasure palaces and campsites, white storks and pickled cucumbers, empty villages, millionaires and a calm state capital: the Potsdam author Antje Rávic Strubel gets to the bottom of the clichés and truths about Brandenburg. [...] After years in New York and Berlin, Antje Rávic Strubel has returned to her native Potsdam. In her hilarious homage, she tells of life between Lausitz and Stechlin, between Schorfheide, Sanssouci and Spreewald, Havelland and Hohem Fläming. From Lüchen and Bruchten, wolves and the "Brandenburg Amazon". From traces of Brecht, Kleist and Fontane as well as the influence of Dutch architects. About the triumph of the sea buckthorn and the myth of the Beelitz asparagus. From luxury villas by the lake or who really owns the shore. From everyday life in the artists' quarter Babelsberg. From tropical islands and other fun pools. From the typical humor of the country, the importance of the circular saw and the advantages of Brandenburg's lack of words. "
Hidden beauties of Brandenburg and Fontane
According to Strubels, the reluctance to travel, which the Brandenburgers are often said to be, is not due to their allegedly clumsy , immobile mentality. You just know that if you stay patiently at home, hidden beauties will open up. (P. 140) Fontane had already formulated this in a similar way in August 1858, when the sight of an old Scottish castle on an island in Loch Leven evoked a wistful image of Rheinsberg Castle with the feeling that the Rheinsberg tour at home was no less been beautiful than the scottish. Well, Mark Brandenburg has that much too. Go and show it. Born out of love and attachment to home, the decision to look for the treasures of the landscape and culture in the future at home instead of abroad, let Fontane wander through the Mark Brandenburg for thirty years between 1859 and 1889 and resulted in the five-volume hikes the Mark Brandenburg .
The references to Fontane are manifold in Strubel's book. She lets us know, for example, that the fountain vendace occurs exclusively in the Stechlinsee , the most famous lake in Brandenburg since Fontane's novel The Stechlin . The hidden beauties that Strubel discovered on their Brandenburg tours include salt water points and dunes . In the middle of the inland, this barren stretch of land pretends to be by the sea. From two hundred and fifty million year old Zechstein formations, salt water penetrates unhindered upwards and allows marsh orchid ( Orchis palustris ) and beach trident ( Triglochin maritima ) to flourish (p. 140). Strubel's detailed knowledge of the country and its history can be seen in many places. She points to the Havelland , which hangs full of fruit, and the strawberry farms near Werder in the large book by the largely unknown court gardener Theodor Nietner , dedicated to strawberries (p. 136).
Style and the Sabinchen von Treuenbrietzen
Looking at Treuenbrietzen - a small town that has given itself the nickname Sabinchenstadt and that belongs to the working group "Cities with Historic Town Centers " of the State of Brandenburg - Strubel summarizes the entire morality of the Sabine in its hilarious style, according to the blurb, in two concise half-sentences:
“Sometimes it is difficult to say where a village ends and a town begins. Or to put it another way: when the town began to become village-like again. Take Treuenbrietzen, for example. Treuenbrietzen looks like a town. Signs everywhere point to the historic old town. In this old town there is a vaulted basilica and a parish church, both from the 13th century, there is a powder tower, a city wall and the Sabinchen Festival. So far everything is fine. Only: Nobody knows the Sabinchen. (The story is quickly told: a shoemaker from Treuenbrietzen first screwed the girl and then killed it, and that is now celebrated every year). And: Does n't that remind you in its bizarre way of the Fredersdorf bed race ? "
In her novel Tupolew 134 from 2004, in which she narrated the kidnapping of a Tupolew 134 to Tempelhof by GDR citizens in 1978, Strubel described her hometown Ludwigsfelde in a similarly laconic style as a glass house from which there is no escape . Sporadically integrated into a novel, Strubel's expressions about her homeland seem like splashes of color. In the instructions for use , the cheerful critical style is spread over 249 pages. Snobbery and Brandenburg are a contradiction in terms, the reader learns. In Einstein's Caputh , on the Schwielowsee promenade, you know that you will never come close to the charm of an elegant British seaside resort (summer) or a Swiss climatic health resort (winter). But that doesn't stop anyone from playing with elements of this charm with a cheeky hat and pocket square (p. 140).
reception
The local Brandenburg media and newspapers such as Die Welt or the magazine Emma unanimously praised Strubel's book. Emma, for whom Strubel wrote occasionally, explained in a brief introduction to the book: Strubel's literary travel guide about Brandenburg is a wonderful, ironic declaration of love to the 'Hamwanich' region between Prenzlau and Finsterwalde, Rathenow and Frankfurt an der Oder. The Märkische Allgemeine wrote two reviews of the instructions every two weeks . In her review, Sandra Diekhoff summed up Strubel's initial warning that she was not a fan of Brandenburg: That somehow sounds like a fan of Brandenburg. Diekhoff also wrote, among other things:
“Four years ago Antje Rávic Strubel published a book about Sweden in the same series. She once got to know the region while canoeing - and has been fascinated by Scandinavia ever since. It is not only the landscapes, but also the friendliness of the people that the author values. She also finds traces of Swedish in Brandenburg: the red cobblestones of old village streets are remnants of granite blocks that were pushed from Scandinavia into today's march during the Vistula Ice Age. The next stay in Scandinavia is already imminent: In autumn the 37-year-old is going to Finland for half a year. Overcoming boundaries: a motif that recurs in her books. "
In the same newspaper, Angelika Stürmer wrote:
“It's a kind of Brandenburg compendium that amazes even native Brandenburgers, who think they know their state very well, at one point or another. Or did you know that there is a memorial stone in Kyritz on which the following is written: “This stone commemorates 02/14/1842. Nothing happened here at 10:57 am. “[…] That the paper plate was invented in Luckenwalde - this in turn should be known to many, but it also belongs in this idiosyncratic book. Like, of course, Brandenburg's kings and other celebrities, so do the poets and writers - from Schmidt von Werneuchen, Bettine and Achim von Arnim to Erwin Strittmatter and Günter de Bruyn. [...] Your book, peppered with personal experiences, is sometimes critical, but a declaration of love. "
In the Berliner Zeitung , Jens Blankennagel stated for the book series: The books are knowledgeable, literarily demanding, but above all also written in a relaxed and funny way. He also emphasized Strubel's inclined poetry , with which it characterizes the land of hardened souls , and reproduced some of Strubel's communications:
“ I listened carefully. The way people speak reveals a lot about the way they think. And the rest is fictitious. After all, I'm a writer and not a local historian. [...] A fellow author read parts of the manuscript and said: If someone reads this, nobody will go there anymore. Wrong thought: The book is a success precisely because Strubel doesn't curry favor with her compatriots. [...] With loving skepticism, with benevolent distance and with inclined poetry, Strubel characterizes the land of hardened souls , which is not one of the regions spoiled for pleasure . [...] For example, she writes about the language of the Brandenburger: This crisp, down-to-earth slang, which is dryly puffed up and then atomized like a spit in the sand . It has turned out to be a book that is definitely amusing for Bavarian readers, but which above all brings a lot of joy to all those who think they know the people of Brandenburg and their country a little. "
Tilman Krause , literary critic and senior literary editor of the daily newspaper Die Welt , shouted to his readers right from the headline: Forget Fontane's “wanderings”. Antje Rávic Strubel is now leading through the Mark Brandenburg . Strubel can be wonderfully disrespectful and indulge in soulful indulgence . In addition, he decoded Strubel's irony of one of our national quotations , the dictum "Prussia has starved itself", to:
"" Potsdamsch ", that once stood for form awareness, parquet security, social agility. However, these properties were thoroughly expelled from the city after 1933. […] There is nothing here with Francophile aisance or the rule of bon ton. But something new has emerged. As always, it only recognizes who gets involved. But he has to be taken by the hand. And now Antje Rávic Strubel is stretching out her hand. She, who caused a sensation last year with her novel Fall der Tage into die Nacht , she, whom Piper Verlag advertises with the full-bodied, but not entirely false, criticism that she is one of the great stylists of our day who gets better with every book , So it now leads us through Potsdam and the Mark. Forget Fontane, one can only say. From now on we will hike with Mrs. Antje. [...] Strubel can be wonderfully disrespectful - then (not without reason) she calls Sanssouci the darkroom of Potsdam and she can indulge in soulfulness; a walk through the many wonderful parks in autumn, then a wonderful melancholy seizes the body . She ironically ironizes our national quotations by applying (with Helene von Nostitz! Thank you, Ms. Antje !!) the dictum “Prussia has starved herself” to botany and writes: The plants are not fattened and cared for here, but rather starved and thirsted . "
André Hansen was more critical of Strubel's text on his blog . He criticized the flattering self-irony and the deliberately flippant, surely sales-increasing style of this obviously bourgeois commissioned work , the descriptions of which seemed superficial. He found the figure of the girlfriend from the village from the wonderful book 'Vom Dorf' by the same author , who was unmoved in her poorly upholstered Trabi over the cobblestones of the Havelland and otherwise kept to a completely private maximum speed, was much more exciting . Because what a real Havelländer is, jostle if someone sneaks along on the B 5 with 110. In the instructions for use there would at least remain the alienation of automobile owners with a "B": The Berliner or: the meatball, as the older Brandenburgers affectionately dubbed their metropolitan neighbors (sic!) , Only drive to the country when the weather is good. The danger posed by these unsuspecting Sunday drivers as soon as it starts to rain was shown by the signs that were specially invented for them. They made clear what happens when a car collides with a tree. (P. 102.) With yes, of course Hansen comments on Strubel's lines and also writes:
“A book that can confidently be given to the Brandenburg mother. No, the Potsdam mother. What is important here. In this book by Antje Rávic Strubel (why the artist name Rávic for this obviously bourgeois commissioned work? Marketing?), As the title suggests, the state of Brandenburg is divided. The urban part, represented by Potsdam, is contrasted with the rural part. [...] Potsdam only wants to be different in relation to Berlin. But a city. Brandenburg, on the other hand, is “a village overdose” (p. 62), reveals the author. Oh well. […] The book is loaned to the mother. In general, it is only a passion for collecting to ask for this book back. [...] The ego-heavy style takes some getting used to for readers of ARS and seems flippant. That's intentional, yes, yes, and increases sales in a mother's generation, we got it, everything is good. […] Of course there are nice descriptions, funny passages. The perspective of the Potsdam woman whizzing by is seldom put aside and makes the descriptions of the place (Schwedt is not as ugly as I always thought, human) appear superficial. [...] "
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Piper Verlag: Instructions for use .
- ↑ Quoted from: Jens Blankennagel: "Instructions for use for Potsdam and Brandenburg". The temptress . In: Berliner Zeitung , April 16, 2012.
- ↑ Dieter Moor : You don't need what we don't have. Stories from the asshole free zone. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-499-62475-9 , p. 123.
- ↑ Piper Verlag: Antje Rávic Strubel: Instructions for use for Potsdam and Brandenburg ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Publisher description. The cover text of the book is also slightly different.
- ^ Theodor Fontane : Closing words. In: Walks through the Mark Brandenburg in 8 volumes. Volume 4 Spreeland . Gotthard Erler , Rudolf Mingau (eds.), Aufbau-Verlag , Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-7466-5704-0 , p. 437 ( the final word in the text log. )
- ^ Antje Rávic Strubel: Tupolew 134 . Novel. Verlag CH Beck , Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-52183-5 , p. 137f.
- ↑ Emma , No. 03/2012, Emma-books , S. 150th
- ↑ Sandra Diekhoff: Immersed. Antje Rávic Strubel wrote about people and stories from the market. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Märkische Allgemeine (MAZ), March 24, 2012
- ↑ Angelika striker Rinnjehaun! Antje Rávic Strubel introduces Brandenburg. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Märkische Allgemeine (MAZ), March 10, 2012.
- ↑ Jens Blankennagel: "Instructions for use for Potsdam and Brandenburg". The temptress . In: Berliner Zeitung , April 16, 2012.
- ^ Tilman Krause : Forget Fontane's "Wanderings". Antje Rávic Strubel is now leading through the Mark Brandenburg. In: Die Welt , July 7, 2012.
- ^ André Hansen: Excursion to Brandenburg or Potsdam. To: Antje Rávic Strubel: Instructions for use for Potsdam and Brandenburg. In: Blog Haarestage , May 1, 2012.
