Gilgi, one of us

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Memorial plaque for Irmgard Keun in Berlin

Gilgi, one of us is the first novel by Irmgard Keun , which was published in Berlin in 1931 and was very successful. It is part of the New Objectivity .

Time and place of the novel

From the fact that Spain becomes a republic at the end of the novel , you can tell that the narrated time ends in April 1931. The action takes place in Cologne .

action

Three mothers

The 20-year-old stenographer Gisela Kron - called Gilgi - wants to be self-employed and independent . Gilgi still lives with his parents. On the morning of her 21st birthday, Gilgi is woken up by Mrs. Kron with a confession. Gilgi's mother is a Miss Täschler . When Gilgi visits the said lady, the confessions continue. Gilgi's birth mother was called Magdalene Greif . Towards the end of the novel, Gilgi can't help it - she has to visit her mother because she urgently needs 500 marks. Gilgi doesn't need the money for herself, she wants - helpful in every situation - to help the large family of her childhood friend Hans out of a tight spot. Hansen's body shudders while crying. Mrs. Greif, who sees her daughter Gilgi for the first time as an adult, does not have that much money on hand. So she gives the daughter a handful of rings to pull off her fingers and faints.

One of us

Gilgi wants nothing more than the money from her birth mother, who lives in an upper-class family . She doesn't want to see her mother again either and doesn't even ask for her father's name.

Helpers in Gilgi's need are neither the rich mother nor the boss who dismisses the smart girl into unemployment . Gilgi's friends Olga and Pit are potential helpers . Olga finally travels to Berlin and wants to make her fortune there. The unfriendly Pit, the boy with all his socialism , his ideas for a better world , studies economics and makes his way by giving lessons and playing the piano in questionable pubs . Gilgi, who only earns 150 marks in the office , has, like the two friends, taken her skills into her own hands. One of us - as the subtitle of the novel suggests, Gilgis means belonging to the army of workers . It fits in with the fact that Gilgi was printed as a serial novel in 1932 in the social democratic forward . The novel can be read as harsh social criticism if it is z. For example, it is about Gilgi's weekly stamping trip or about the tragic fate of Hansen and his family.

Martin Bruck

Gilgi's distress begins soon after she met the bohemian Martin Bruck, 22 years older than Gilgi. Martin, who only gets a monthly pension of 200 marks, belongs to the upper class. He goes into debt without hesitation, sometimes lives carefree on a big foot and drapes the feather-light, pale little Gilgi with heavy jewelry . Gilgi leaves her parents' house, moves in with Martin and falls so much in love with the carefree, boyish, happy "writer" that she almost forgets everything around her. Martin loves Gilgi not with milk porridge tolerance and oatmeal goodness , but impersonally . Gilgi fails to re-educate the messy Martin. So she wants to adapt to him; makes deeply bourgeois sandwiches . What Gilgi least favorite is Martin likes best about her. You read together. Gilgi only valued Jack London , Bengt Berg and Remarque so far . Martin feels responsible for Gilgi. That is the worst insult to them . But she will soon be released from her office. When she realizes that the easy-going Martin does not suit her, the working name, it is too late. Gilgi is pregnant by Martin. But the young woman doesn't say a word to Martin. Rather, she pours her heart out to Pit. Pit and Gilgi sit together - two small, few people . This is followed by Gilgi Olga to Berlin. Gilgi desperately wants to give birth to her child. Why is the unemployed, pregnant Gilgi going to Berlin? Queuing she wants back in the duty . Gilgi wants to be part of it again .

Quote

  • Man is more than God.

shape

  • About the blurring of the narrator's voice : Sometimes it appears to the reader as if the narrator and the protagonist Gilgi are merging. At first, the reader thinks that the narrator not only lets her characters speak in Cologne dialect , but also partly writes Kölsch herself: She talks like a waterfall . Only on closer inspection can the narrator , inner monologue and experienced speech be separated in most problem cases.
  • Regarding the dynamics of the narrative: Towards the end of the novel, when the tension rises, the narrator Gilgi likes to think in incomplete sentences and doesn’t save with dashes . The “ ragout ” is easy to read and can be literally devoured.
  • Truth : Gilgi says: You always feel the truth . The narrative tone is refreshing, direct and sometimes pleasantly reserved. The conception of Gilgis z. B. the reader can only figure it out, and much later Gilgi comes back a little wistfully: Martin kissed away the closedness of her thighs . The reader can look for such little sentimentalities in the novel like a needle in a haystack. Occasionally Gilgi gets so cheeky that the reader doesn't really want to believe her tone - e.g. B. when she dominated the gynecologist . But it could again be an internal monologue (see above).
  • Amusement : When Gilgi wants money from her birth mother, she ponders what can be sold in her apartment: Unfortunately, the piano cannot be removed .
  • Words and phrases : The author doesn't skimp on images and symbols when it comes to drawing figures. Gilgi examines critically and unrestrainedly like a revue theater director , the self-doubtful chest of his friend Pit is decorated.

Self-testimony

In 1931 the author presented her work to the publisher in Berlin: I have a manuscript of mine and would like an answer by the day after tomorrow at the latest.

reception

  • In the year of publication the novel had six editions with 30,000 copies sold.
  • In 1931/32, in issue 34 of the magazine Die Literatur, Hans Fallada describes the novel as a wonderfully brave, young, devout, honest, decent book .
  • Bernard von Brentano wrote in 1932 in Die Linkskurve : Everything that is annoying to Gilgi simply stays away, from her parents to her friends to her lover.
  • Peter Panter (Kurt Tucholsky) wrote on the Weltbühne in 1932 : A woman who writes with a sense of humor! Here is a talent. Something can come of this woman one day .
  • Erika Mann wrote in the early 30s: It is almost as if she [Irmgard Keun] were translating life into literature .

Translations

The novel was translated into French in 1933, Danish, Italian, Swedish, Romanian, Hungarian in 1934 and Polish in 1936.

filming

Stage version

literature

source

First edition

  • Irmgard Keun: Gilgi, one of us. Novel. Deutsche Verlags-Aktiengesellschaft Universitas Berlin 1931, DNB 574296093 .

Secondary literature

  • Gabriele Kreis: "What you believe is there". The life of Irmgard Keun. Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-7160-2120-2 , pp. 64-88.
  • Ingo Leiß, Hermann Stadler: Weimar Republic 1918–1933. (= German literary history. Volume 9). Munich 2003, ISBN 3-423-03349-5 , pp. 136-138.
  • Gero von Wilpert : Lexicon of world literature. German authors A - Z. Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-520-83704-8 , p. 331.
  • Gesche Blume: Irmgard Keun. Writing in a game with modernity. (= Work on recent German literature. Volume 23). Dissertation. Dresden 2005, ISBN 3-937672-38-9 , pp. 77-90.
  • Doris Rosenstein: Irmgard Keun. The narrative work of the thirties. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 1991, ISBN 3-631-42565-1 .
  • Liane Schüller: On the seriousness of distraction. Writing women at the end of the Weimar Republic: Marieluise Fleißer, Irmgard Keun and Gabriele Tergit. Aisthesis, Bielefeld 2005, ISBN 3-89528-506-4 .
  • Liane Schüller: "Well-groomed is more than pretty - it's our own merit". Body design in Irmgard Keun's “Gilgi, one of us”. In: S. Huber, W. Delabar, B. Samsami, I. Schubert (eds.): The risky project. Volume 2: The modern age and how it coped with 1890–1940. Aisthesis, Bielefeld 2015, ISBN 978-3-8498-1113-6 , pp. 35–58.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Keun p. 144.
  2. ↑ Blume p. 86.
  3. ↑ Blume p. 83.
  4. ↑ Keun p. 32.
  5. ↑ Blume p. 89.
  6. ↑ Keun p. 153.
  7. ↑ Keun p. 115.
  8. ↑ Keun, p. 116.
  9. ↑ Keun, p. 149.
  10. ↑ Keun p. 150.
  11. ↑ Keun p. 145.
  12. ^ District p. 75.
  13. ^ District p. 64.
  14. ^ District p. 88.
  15. ↑ Kreis, p. 80, 82.
  16. ↑ Kreis, p. 86.88.
  17. ↑ Leiß and Stadler p. 136.
  18. ^ District p. 294.
  19. ^ District p. 294.