Siblings Tanner

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Robert Walser

Geschwister Tanner is a novel by Robert Walser . His first novel was written in Berlin in just six weeks at the beginning of 1906 and was published there by Bruno Cassirer in early 1907 .

The 20-year-old prevented bank clerk Simon Tanner is looking for the right place in life. His four siblings, the school teacher Hedwig Tanner, the scholar Dr. Klaus Tanner, the painter Kaspar Tanner and the “madhouse” Emil Tanner cannot help him with this.

Simon Tanner

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Love instead of longing

The head of the well-heated “Kurhaus für das Volk”, into which Simon escapes from the icy winter cold at the end of the novel, is amazed at the “young, boyish man” and even “involuntarily grieves”. Although the headmistress feels that she is “superior” and considers Simon insignificant, she immediately suspects that the newcomer must have “important people for siblings”. It is almost like that. Simon tells the lady, "Klaus, the eldest", occupies "an important position in the world of scholars". Brother Kaspar, on the other hand, lived very withdrawn as a painter in Paris, and the only sister Hedwig taught children in the village. It was Hedwig, too, who looked after the mother until her death. At the time, Simon was fourteen years old. The father is now eighty years old. The third brother, however, is sitting in the “madhouse”. After his mother's death, Simon was “given to a bank as an apprentice”. In the third year of his apprenticeship he was chased to hell by the director. When he “still had a certain longing”, Simon continues about himself, he was “indifferent to people”. But now he knows “no more longing” and “now he loves” people.

Brother Klaus

Simon changes the "banks" like the shirts. However, he is usually not thrown out, but leaves because something does not suit him. He doesn't stay in his job, but becomes a “bookstore assistant”, but soon leaves the “useless bookstore”, reports to the “employment agency”, becomes a “nurse” and works as a temporary worker for an “attorney”. Simon still finds a job with a "bank of global importance", but messes with the director and is promptly dismissed. Simon disdains the certificate offered. From now on he “only wants to refer to himself”. He “doesn't want a future”, he “wants a present”. Simon tries unsuccessfully as a journalist and takes part in the inventory "in a large machine factory".

The eldest brother Klaus, who feels responsible for his youngest brother Simon, is very displeased with the “constant change of profession”. Although Klaus calls his brother Simon an "idler", the scholar is so considerate and sensitive that there never is a heated controversy between the two brothers throughout the novel. Simon, carelessly, promises Klaus "that it will stop soon" with the idleness. Klaus accepts the empty promise in good faith and thus encourages the mundane.

Clare Agappaia

With a little bit of money in his pocket, Simon goes to the beautiful Mrs. Klara Agappaia's pension - almost outside the city "on the edge of the forest" - to rent a room for himself and his brother Kaspar. That will be unaffordable for the two poor people. Klara, impressed by the young man, lets the two brothers move into a "splendid chambre" [room] free of charge and falls in love with Kaspar. Klara immediately extends her love to Simon. She kisses the boy on the grounds that he is the brother of the lover. Simon should always be Klara's friend. He is her “sweet boy”, with a “head full of such unfathomable thoughts”.

Klara's husband, the trigger-happy explorer Agappaia, has just gambled away his fortune and is looking for the expanse. Klara has to give up the pension. The brothers lose their comfortable room.

Brother Kaspar

Kaspar, the painter, does not want to be tied to a woman because he has to serve art, that is, "be hard on those by whom he is most loved". It is like this with artistic “creation”: All love must be killed. Thus love for creation is released. After all, no one can imagine a more difficult task than the production of art. “Kaspar paints for the pleasure of later generations.” One may watch an artist, but shouldn't want to influence him. Simon, the good-for-nothing, cannot understand what kind of worker his brother, the painter, is. “Art” is defined as an attempt to explain the inexplicable. Kaspar separates from Klara, although she does not want to leave him and accepts odd jobs outside of town. Simon is happy because Klara loves Kaspar unhappily. But Simon wants to "become a better person".

Sister Hedwig

Simon is staying with his sister for three months. Hedwig greets the brother stormily, but then realizes disillusioned: Otherwise Simon has not taken care of her, but she is good enough to provide board and lodging. Simon wears torn clothes with "dressy elegance". The "gentle" Hedwig feels happy . The brother does the housework and thinks about it: He doesn't want to show his sister gratitude. He only insulted her. When will the "settled sister" chase the "day thief" away, he muses on. Then Hedwig runs out of money too. That's not a problem in the country. The parents of the school children provide the teacher's household with natural produce. Klaus comes to visit and takes on Simon. Hedwig and Simon are happy when the "strict inspector" is gone again. Both waste a lot of time together. Hedwig despises Simon “a little bit” because he has “something careless and silly” about him. Hedwig finally chases the brother away and does not want to long for him. Of particular importance is Simon's encounter with Hedwig's friend Sebastian. One evening he finds his body, frozen by the winter cold, in a mountain forest. Simon admires Sebastian for the circumstances surrounding his death. In the way described in the novel, Walser himself died in 1956, who was lying dead in the snowy forest after a lonely walk.

The sorceress

Simon goes back to town, becomes the "servant of a woman" and takes care of her sick little son. The strict woman demands a lot from Simon, but she also lets him write a letter at her desk and patiently sits next to it. Simon would like a slap in the face from the mistress. He provokes her, but it remains to be seen whether he will get the desired punishment. In any case, he will soon be unemployed again. He takes a room from the landlady "Frau Weiß" and pays in advance. He immediately lies down in the bed that has been made and dreams of Klara. She has become a sorceress and shows him his siblings individually. Klaus “writes diligently on his life's work”. Hedwig is lying there dead. Being a girl and suffering was too much. Kaspar, "the creator", must not be disturbed while painting.

When the dreamer, “a friend of misfortune”, wakes up, he reads on “in the novel by Stendhal ”.

Brother Emil

From Emil's life story it is reported: He first attended a teachers' seminar, led “a pretty brisk life” in Munich, taught “rich people's children”, fell out with his director, went to Italy, then to England, tried his hand at being a politician and a poet , Playwright, composer and also as a draftsman. At last he practiced the teaching profession again and - having become insane - was taken to the madhouse.

Prisoners

In addition to his siblings and Klara, Simon always meets new people. To them he confesses his denomination. Becoming wise by traveling - Simon doesn’t think so, because he’s wise and wants to “die in the country with decency”. He would then try to “smile at death” and for him inner piety is synonymous with “human decency”. Simon “wants to stay human”. For him, this means that he can “be satisfied with very little”. His last position fits in with this. As a needy he becomes a scribe. This work is only given to those "whose clothes may be hanging down in tatters".

Representing the group of strangers that Simon still encounters, the above-mentioned “headmistress” should be mentioned. The headmistress has her first brief appearance as the last character at the end of the novel. At Christmas, Simon, the “indestructible person who knows how to endure all kinds of misfortunes”, wanders up to the outskirts to “Klara's Waldhaus”, which has since become “Kurhaus for the people”. The headmistress can't get enough of Simon. Why doesn't Simon have to pay his bill in the Kurhaus? Because of that kindness of the headmistress when she asks if “we are not all brothers and sisters on this lost planet”? In that question a title word of the book - Siblings - is mentioned. It's not just that. Simon, "apparently a bit depraved, has something captivating". The headess stands for all the characters that Simon meets in the novel - she is his "poor, happy prisoner".

Quotes

"You fit wherever you long for."
"The coincidental is always the most valuable."

Self-testimony

Walser in May 1914 about the letter from the Tanner siblings: The better thought and the creative courage associated with it emerged only slowly from the abysses of self-disregard and reckless disbelief. I clung to the cheerful basic idea with delight, and by just continuing to write diligently I found the connection .

reception

  • Kafka judges Simon Tanner: It is a very bad career, but only a bad career gives the world the light .
  • “Geschwister Tanner” has an episodic structure: The restless hero travels the world, gathers experiences, but basically does not develop himself .
  • A factual, autobiographical core is hidden behind the idealizing description .
  • Spiegelgasse - the top address in Zurich : Not only does Simon ultimately owe his landlady, Ms. Weiss , the rental amount - more, he even successfully pumps the woman up. In the novel “ The Helper ” , the protagonist Joseph Marti writes a letter on page 15 to his former landlady, Frau Weiß , in which he addresses his debts. In his afterword to " Fritz Kocher essays " writes Greven In the spring of 1902, rented: Walser in Zurich 23 Spiegelgasse no. In woman White one. Lavater had lived in the same street in the second half of the 18th century , died on February 19, 1837 Büchner and later lived a few houses further during the First World War - at number 14 - Lenin .
  • Hesse estimates that Fritz Kocher's essays , the Tanner siblings and The Assistant can be seen in a context.
  • An important theme of the novel is the criticism of the modern world of work and thus the functionalization of people. Simon Tanner refuses to indulge in the process of alienation he sees through - this refusal isolates him . Simon, the outsider and dreamer , denounces the outside world in his monologues.
  • The Archimedean point on which they [Walser's figures] stand is that of sovereignty .
  • Mächler praises the novel as an unusually poetic book that reflects the basic relationships between the members of the Walser family .
  • In 1984 Anne Gabrisch criticized the carelessness of the details . As an example, Simon's re-encounter with Klara Agappaia is given. The small child she from the Turk has received n times male, sometimes female .

shape

Romantic model of Simon Tanner is undoubtedly - as Sprengel noticed - the " ne'er-do " of Eichendorff . Following Brentano could "siblings Tanner" even as a little " wild romance " call. We are talking about all kinds of obvious design weaknesses . Monologues as long as yards are only superficially interwoven with the plot . The verbose preaching tone challenges the patient reader. In the last two chapters the prose loses its poetry. It creates the impression that the author wants to finish. The editor Christian Morgenstern convinced his boss, the publisher Bruno Cassirer , of the qualities of the Tanner siblings , so that Cassirer accepted the novel. Nevertheless, the letter that Morgenstern wrote to Walser from Obermais near Meran in September 1906 contains an overall almost devastating verdict. It is in the writing that most of the serious allegations an editor usually makes to a novice can be found.

romance

The land bloomed with a hot breath, almost died of bloom ... fragrant with its scents .

literature

  • Jochen Greven (Ed.): Robert Walser: Geschwister Tanner. Novel in: Robert Walser. The complete work. Volume 4 . Suhrkamp Verlag, Zurich and Frankfurt am Main 1978 (375 pages, 1st edition), ISBN 3-288-00945-5

source

  • Jochen Greven (Ed.): Robert Walser: Geschwister Tanner. Novel . With an afterword by the editor. Zurich 1985. ISBN 3-518-37609-8

Critical Robert Walser edition

  • Robert Walser: I.2 Siblings Tanner (first printing). Edited by Wolfram Groddeck, Barbara von Reibnitz and Matthias Sprünglin. Frankfurt a. M., Basel 2008. 340 pages, bound in a slipcase, ISBN 978-3-86600-024-7
  • Robert Walser: IV.1 Tanner siblings (manuscript). Edited by Wolfram Groddeck, Barbara von Reibnitz and Matthias Sprünglin. Frankfurt am Main, Basel 2008. 412 pages, large format, with approx. 290 manuscript facsimiles and CD-ROM. Bound in a slipcase, ISBN 978-3-86600-022-3

Secondary literature

  • Jochen Greven (ed.): Robert Walser: The assistant. Novel . With an afterword by the editor. Zurich 1985. ISBN 3-518-37610-1
  • Jochen Greven (Ed.): Robert Walser: Fritz Kocher's essays . With an afterword by the editor. Zurich 1986. ISBN 3-518-37601-2
  • Volker Michels (Ed.): Hermann Hesse: A literary history in reviews and essays. Pp. 456-457. Frankfurt am Main 1975. ISBN 3-518-36752-8
  • Robert Mächler: The life of Robert Walser. A documentary biography . Pp. 72-74. Frankfurt am Main 1976. ISBN 3-518-06821-0
  • Peter Sprengel: History of German-Language Literature 1900-1918 . Pp. 211-213. Munich 2004. ISBN 3-406-52178-9
  • Gero von Wilpert : Lexicon of world literature. German authors AZ . S. 647. Stuttgart 2004. ISBN 3-520-83704-8
  • Ulrich Weber: Siblings Tanner (1907) . In: Lucas Marco Gisi (ed.): Robert Walser manual. Life - work - effect , JB Metzler, Stuttgart 2015, ISBN 978-3-476-02418-3 , pp. 96-106.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ All the following page references without naming the author refer to the text edition by Jochen Greven (1985)
  2. ↑ p. 7
  3. ↑ p. 318
  4. ↑ p. 328
  5. ↑ p. 330
  6. ↑ p. 16
  7. ↑ p. 18
  8. ↑ p. 34
  9. ↑ p. 44
  10. ↑ p. 100
  11. ↑ p. 192
  12. ↑ p. 154
  13. ↑ p. 155
  14. ↑ p. 32
  15. ↑ p. 58
  16. ↑ p. 87
  17. ↑ p. 105
  18. ↑ p. 91
  19. ↑ p. 224
  20. ↑ p. 225
  21. ↑ p. 112
  22. ↑ p. 114
  23. ↑ p. 128
  24. ↑ p. 136
  25. ↑ p. 175
  26. ↑ p. 180
  27. ↑ Timo Stein: Robert Walser: aimlessness as a principle . Cicero . December 25, 2011
  28. ↑ p. 208
  29. ↑ p. 250
  30. ↑ p. 222
  31. ↑ p. 223
  32. ↑ p. 240
  33. ↑ p. 234
  34. ↑ p. 237
  35. ↑ p. 256
  36. ↑ p. 264
  37. ↑ p. 257
  38. ↑ p. 277
  39. ↑ p. 239
  40. ↑ p. 309
  41. ↑ p. 315
  42. ↑ p. 332
  43. ↑ p. 90
  44. ↑ p. 244
  45. ↑ p. 336
  46. ↑ p. 354
  47. ↑ p. 346
  48. ↑ p. 348
  49. ↑ p. 284
  50. ↑ p. 115
  51. ↑ Michels, p. 456
  52. ↑ p. 349
  53. ↑ Klaus-Michael Hinz , quoted in: Source, p. 351
  54. ↑ Mächler, p. 74
  55. ↑ p. 292
  56. ↑ p. 348
  57. ↑ Sprengel, p. 211
  58. ↑ p. 351
  59. ↑ pp. 281-332
  60. ^ Letter cited in extracts in: Mächler , pp. 72–74
  61. ↑ p. 158
  62. ↑ p. 159