Handbook of fraud

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The Handbook of Schwindels , first published in Munich in 1922, is a critical-satirical book by the writer Ewald Gerhard Seeliger , which caused quite a stir at the time. While the book was being confiscated, its author was prosecuted and taken to the Haar asylum. The diagnosis the psychiatrists made was hypomania . Seeliger was certified as insane (Section 51), which had the side effect that he no longer had to pay taxes in the future. He was allowed to leave the institution after six weeks. The court case was closed after three years at the expense of the state treasury.

The rather narrow work, which pretends to be a lexicon with a wink (around 1,000 keywords, from Adam to Zwist), is not a guide to fraud. Rather, the pacifist sworn writer uses biting language to uncover “fraudulent violence” and “bans” in all possible forms in order to arm his readers against being cheated (for example about freedom). He sees the "main blocker" in the state.

reception

On the occasion of the "rediscovery" of the Handbook of the Swindle in 1986, Wolfgang Harms pointed to a formal similarity to the dictionary of the devil by the North American writer Ambrose Bierce from 1906/1911. The epilogue of the new edition does not indicate whether and to what extent Seeliger and his friend Richard Dehmel were inspired by Bierce. The German "Fire Rider of the Enlightenment, next to whom the philosophical state cathedrals all, hush, fall into ashes", only occasionally maintains its scarcity. For Jörg Drews , most of the articles in the handbook are “brilliantly” written, “full of analytical acumen and at the same time full of verbose abuse and unrestrained eloquence; their argumentation is meandering and associative, which Suada also nailed up in a few places, but hardly ever really stupid and above all never boring. "

It must be said, however, that there is little argument in Seeliger's handbook . The cloak of satire and the once issued license for polemics relieve him of this often arduous necessity. What wonder if the fiery rider and “graphomaniac great owl” makes a few mistakes, for example against homosexuals and “gypsies”. He declares the son of an armaments manufacturer and explosives maker Alfred Nobel to be "the most peaceful of all Swedes". Above all, Wolfgang Harms regrets Seeliger's “rock-solid” belief in the superiority of German culture and language. Henner Reitmeier is also alienated by Seeliger's “Glorification of everything rural and earthly”: “Land ownership, cultivation of land, rural life - it is pure bliss.”

In the succession of Bierce and Seeliger, the alienation or parody of the form “lexicon” through, for example, subjective, polemical, cunning procedures has inspired a number of authors to this day, but research and presentation of this “genre” of sham lexicons (Reitmeier) is still pending . Approaches can be found with Monika Schmitz-Emans .

The following samples from Seeliger's handbook are cited after the new edition in 1986.

Tastings

“ Flag, the colorful swindle of state rape. Whoever lifts a F. strives to make it as colorful as possible or at least red in front of their eyes. Whoever pulls behind a flag is pulling on himself. The oath of allegiance is the oath of robbery and murder on the great cannon which alone can save (see sacrament) . The only human vane is the weather vane. "

“ Omnibus, traffic device for all people without preferential seats. The earth is the O. of free humanity (sd) on its journey through eternity (sd, traffic) . "

" Baptism, eligibility for Christian word-magic service. Since the church has no sabered district murder sergeants (see district, sergeants) , it is smart enough to call in its apprentices (see recruits) when they are still in diapers and cannot defend themselves other than by screaming and wetting. But the church is not so easily astonished and wets the person to be baptized, dripping with the water of his life, with the holy, deadly sealing water of the Christian goddess (see Trinity, holy, sacrament) . "

“ Joke, the right idea, surprising combination of thoughts, ability to think, agility, truthfulness. False thinkers are always foolish, the most deadly serious are the lawmakers (see judges, blocking pains , law) . Her books are characterized by their complete lack of humor and deadly. A stupid book than a criminal code (sd) is unthinkable. Free humanity, however, is extremely funny, cheeky (see Vorwitz) and curious (see curiosity, researcher) , it sticks its nose into every dirt, behind every curtain and into every boarded-up juggler's booth. Nothing seems so dreadful and illegal to statesmen as the cheeky man striving for omniscience, and every monster brother Freemason (see Lodge) trembles with fear when he thinks of the possibility that his free, i.e. his quite ordinary, locked in and locked out, homeless (liar and logisless) human stepbrother could climb up on the roof at eleven tomorrow morning and spit into the very secret soup. Soon all violent cobblers will be ripe to discover what is most fabulous of all truths for them, that the state is only a very lazy joke, and indeed the most stupid and wrong idea of ​​the most inhuman, i.e. the most stupid, namely the most lazy of all two-legged people (see Shepherd, Laziness, organization, state order) . "

expenditure

Individual evidence

  1. ^ New edition (epilogue) p. 302
  2. ↑ according to Wolfgang Harms, in: Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz , February 9, 1987
  3. ↑ Hans Wollschläger , in: Der Rabe 15, 1986, p. 198
  4. ^ Jörg Drews , in: Süddeutsche Zeitung , July 12, 1986
  5. ^ Erhard Schütz , in: Frankfurter Rundschau , December 6, 1986
  6. ↑ edition p 107/282
  7. ^ New edition p. 159
  8. ^ General newspaper Mainz
  9. ↑ Henner Reitmeier: Der Große Stockraus , Berlin 2009, p. 218. Seeliger, son of a Silesian village school teacher who makes music and beekeeping, has his own article in this not unrelated Relaxicon
  10. ^ Lexicographical writing , accessed April 29, 2012