Yesterday was today: a hundred years now
Yesterday was today: One hundred years of the present is a novel with autobiographical features by Ingeborg Drewitz from 1978. It describes the history of a Berlin working-class family from 1878 to 1978 primarily from the perspective of women and describes the change in the image of women.
content
The novel is divided into 20 chapters that begin in 1923 with the birth of Gabrieles, who turns out to be a protagonist in the course of the book . In addition, there are 5 chapters issued as the " work diary of the novel", which additionally structure the novel.
The novel unfolds a wealth of (contemporary) events, personal fates and characters. For a detailed description of the content see below, the brief description of the individual persons provides an essential overview.
people
1st generation
The family, whose story is described in the book, comes from a proletarian background and lives in a cross-generational apartment in Berlin-Moabit . The only performing representative of the 1st generation is the great-grandmother.
Great grandmother
The only chapter in the book that is written from the perspective of the great-grandmother is also the first in the book. The (nameless) great-grandmother plays with the idea of actively drawing more attention to herself. In fact, it is only seen by the family as "a mouth that needs to be shut". Your own horizon does not go far beyond that. She is a representative of the conventions, who throughout her life led a life dictated by external circumstances.
2nd generation
Hopes for social advancement are associated with the 2nd generation. The son Paul studied , allegedly also in Paris , but only lived briefly. His memory is v. a. held up by the grandmother. Gustav, by marriage, belongs to the lower middle class due to his job as an accountant .
Alice / Lieschen
Like her grandmother, Alice fits into a classic female role within the family without any problems . Their work is focused on caring for the family. She calms down any doubts with the words: "And why not?" The subordination to social conventions plays a minor role. She shares her hope with her daughter Susanne, who wants to give her more prospects for the future.
Gustav
Gustav is the child of a poor Silesian extended family who came to Berlin under the influence of the socialist laws, also in connection with the desire to improve his social status. He too wants to give his daughter a better future by thinking of the difficult situation of his family of origin. He is a socialist , even if he has no active class consciousness .
Paul
Paul does not appear personally, but is given the function of a role model . As the only one who has broken through the social position of the family, he points to Gabriele's future. The grandmother also describes Paul's political commitment (he is said to have been there on St. Petersburg Blood Sunday ), which will rub off on Gabriele.
3rd generation
The history of the 3rd generation is described in more detail than that of the previous generations. It is based on the history of the Weimar Republic and the National Socialist Third Reich . Susanne, who was awarded a career as a pianist , marries an unsuccessful draftsman who is permanently unemployed. The economic recession in the Weimar Republic left the family with serious problems. Even during the National Socialist era, the family's social situation barely improved.
Susanne
Susanne is the first woman in the family history who has a stronger urge for self-realization . Her marriage to the (nameless) man with whom she has nothing in common, and the birth of Gabriele, however, seem to destroy her future plans and make her joyless. She opts for self-sacrifice for the family, but keeps in itself a rebellious share. She passes on her plans for self-realization to Gabriele.
Susan's husband
The nameless draftsman is economically and personally unsuccessful. He is permanently unemployed despite his occupation, which identifies him as a member of the bourgeoisie . He is dependent on his in-laws, who therefore suspect him. Marriage to his wife means nothing to him, he beats her. At times he plays with suicidal thoughts . His lack of self-esteem leads to an ambivalent attitude towards National Socialism (entry as a " March hare " and subsequent open rejection) and creates additional problems for him. His social origins are also problematic: Susanne's husband's mother turns up as an alcohol-dependent prostitute who begs him for money.
4th generation
The 4th generation means the end of the generational community in the house in Berlin-Moabit . With Gabriele, the narrative now focuses more on an individual fate. However, through her studies and journalistic work at WDR she is already part of the academic educated middle class .
Gabriele
Gabriele is the clear protagonist of the book. After her birth, most of the chapters, with the exception of the work diaries, were written from her perspective after her youth. Its history is very changeable and is examined in detail.
Born in 1923, the impressions of the oppressive relationship between Susanne and her husband weigh on Gabriele. As a result, she feels estranged from both parents. Her youth is characterized by being separated from her peers, she is not a member of the BDM . By chance she ends up in the group of a (non-violent) resistance movement , to which she hesitantly turns. Her sexual initiation with a member of the movement also takes place under the auspices of general political events. The end of the war is vividly described as a new beginning and a state of spiritual emptiness.
After 1945 Gabriele and other young people founded a magazine that tried to address the past. In 1948 she married - for the reader very suddenly - the editorial board member Jörg, in 1949 Renate was born, followed by Cornelia. Gabriele slowly began to have doubts, her marriage to Jörg is characterized by speechlessness and coldness on the part of Jörg. In 1954 Gabriele left Jörg with the children and moved in with a friend. In a chapter in the form of a letter , she reflects on the past relationship. She received her PhD in 1956 and was raped on her way home from the graduation ceremony . She meets Jörg again and becomes pregnant. In 1957 her daughter Cornelia had a fatal accident and she moved in with Jörg again.
Jörg
Jörg, a chemist , is the spiritual representative of a rather antiquated family image. He marries his wife out of convention and fails to develop a real relationship with her. Gabriele only knows how to answer the deep feelings that Gabriele writes to him with superficiality.
5th generation
The events of the 5th generation no longer continue a "family history" in the strict sense. The story describes above all the death of Cornelias and its effects, as well as the argument between Gabriele and Renate.
Renate
Renate, Gabriele's older daughter, stands out for her clear oppositionism . She takes the political position made by Gabriele to the extreme by joining the left student movement . She believes in the possibility of political change. She is increasingly isolating herself from her mother; Only marginally does the mother, and thus the reader, learn about her main problems, for example when she fails to graduate from high school or is noticed by drug use . Her idealism is disappointed, and towards the end of the novel she works on the assembly line . She is reconciled with Gabriele.
Cornelia
Cornelia, Gabriele's second daughter, plays a functional role in Gabriele's development. Her sudden death destroys the freedom that Gabriele had apparently gained and brings her back to Jörg.
Claudia
While Renate seeks the political alternative and opposition to her mother, the much younger Claudia represents the opposite (also to the youthful Gabriele): She leads an average life, integrates into a community of her own age, and has no particular interest in politics .
style
Yesterday was today: One hundred years of the present describes in a very compact style a large period in which a multitude of characters appear. Nevertheless, the book is relatively thin in print form (approx. 400 pages). This depends u. a. essentially related to Drewitz's writing style.
subjects
The novel deals with the role of women since 1900 and marriage , self-actualization and the double burden since the 1950s. In addition, it offers an atmospherically dense picture of everyday life and key experiences from very different historical epochs.
reception
At the turn of the millennium, the novel became a focus topic (star topic ) in the German Abitur basic course in Baden-Württemberg for three years .
literature
- Brüggemann Rogers, Gerhild: The novel by Ingeborg Drewitz, New York, Bern, Frankfurt a. M., Paris 1989; ISBN 0-8204-0715-1 .
- Fischer-Lüder, Yvonne-Christiane: Pressed to the edge - made a victim - become subject: The development of female characters in the novels by Ingeborg Drewitz, Frankfurt a. M., Bern, New York, Paris 1990, ISBN 3-631-42536-8 .
Web links
- zum.de (didactic) material Yesterday was today and detailed synopsis, a contribution within the ZUM.de .
- lehrerfortbildung-bw.de Didactic material with suggestions for lessons