Hatschi Bratschi's balloon
Hatschi Bratschi's Luftballon is a children's book by Franz Karl Ginzkey . It first appeared in 1904 and has been reissued several times in different versions. It is considered a well-read classic of Austrian children's literature and at the same time was heavily criticized for its racist portrayals in later reception .
action
Little Fritz runs out of the house into the meadow, although his mother forbids him. The evil magician Hatschi Bratschi (also described as a "Turk" depending on the edition) arrives in his red hot air balloon and kidnaps Fritzchen. When Hatschi Bratschi also wants to kidnap other children, he leans too far, falls out of the balloon and into a deep well. Fritz now has the balloon alone.
The witch knee-bones tries to grab the balloon, but is torn into the air with it. When she can no longer hold on, she falls on a chimney, burns and is eaten by ravens.
Fritz flies over the Alps to warm Italy and finally to the sea. There he arrives on an island where " ogres " (or monkeys in newer editions) try to grab the balloon, but fail. The balloon flies further into the desert, where Fritz falls asleep and dreams of his mother.
The next morning Fritz arrives with the balloon in the "Türkenland" or " Morgenland ", where he is perceived as the new master in Hatschi Bratschi's house by his servants and frees all the children locked up by Hatschi Bratschi. The children run home to their families, including Fritz, who is expected by his parents. The balloon flies away high in the air.
History of publication and impact
Criticism of racism
The book has received repeated criticism for its racist portrayal of blacks and Turks since the 1960s . The journalist Duygu Özkan criticizes that the book works with stereotypes about Ottomans and Turks and leads to an anchoring of these in the collective consciousness. The name "Hatschi Bratschi" alludes to the annual Islamic pilgrimage Hajj . Gudrun Harrer puts the book in the context of a larger criticism of racism of orientalist children's and youth literature in German-speaking countries. For example, she criticizes the book's cultural chauvinism and ironically describes Fritzchen as a “ real German boy ”. She refers to the passage "The servants throw themselves on their knees / Fritz is now the master for them" .
Controversial passages and their censorship
One of the most criticized parts of the book is the episode about the "cannibals". The illustrations until the 1950s made use of colonial imagery and showed the "ogres" in a strongly derogatory and clichéd portrayal of blacks. In more recent editions the "ogres" have been replaced by monkeys.
Due to the criticism of the book's hostility towards Turks, all references to Turks in the 1968 edition have been replaced. The first description of Hatschi Bratschi as a Turk was simply a magician, and the “Turkic country” became the “Orient”.
Hans Magnus Enzensberger strongly criticized the censorship of the book: "Unworthy publishers have mutilated it, stupid illustrators falsified, pedagogical overseers castrated, and in the end it was completely withdrawn from circulation" . Karl-Markus Gauß, on the other hand, also describes the attempts at censorship as hopeless, since the book itself, equating evil with dark people from the East, is already tinged with racism.
expenditure
The reception of the book also depends heavily on the respective edition, in particular on the nature of the accompanying illustrations.
The first edition was published in 1904 by Seemann Verlag in Berlin with illustrations by Mor von Sunnegg and was reprinted as a facsimile in 2019 by Ibera Verlag, Vienna.
The first new edition appeared in 1922 by Rikola Verlag with illustrations by Erwin Tintner .
The 1933 edition was illustrated by Ernst von Dombrowski and published by Anton Pustet publishing house in Salzburg . Hatschi Bratschi bears traits of anti-Semitic depictions of Jews. Simon Hadler therefore places Dombrowski's edition in a contemporary tendency to apply the long-established enemy image of the Turk to the then more common enemy image of the Jew. Harrer criticizes that the issue shows “a hatschi who would have done the striker all credit: From the sharp teeth under his Semitic - he was a Turk! - You can see the German children 's blood dripping with a hooked nose. ” This edition was published in 1936 in a Dutch translation as Hatsjie-Bratsjie's luchtballon .
An edition with illustrations by Grete Hartmann appeared for the first time in 1943, and from then on it was reprinted several times by Wiener Verlag . This is the last version, which contains the unchanged original text.
The version published by Forum Verlag Wien in 1962 was the first to rewrite the ogre episode. In this version, Wilfried Zeller -zellenberg made illustrations based on the drawings by Grete Hartmann and turned the "ogres" into monkeys for the first time. The last edition was published in 1968 by Forum Verlag with illustrations by Rolf Rettich ; here the "Turkland" was replaced by "Morgenland". Both editions have also somewhat defused Hatschi Bratschi's malice in the illustrations compared to earlier editions.
Individual evidence
- ^ Ernst Hanisch: Vienna: Heldenplatz . In: German Places of Remembrance, Volume 1 . CH Beck, 2009, p. 108 ( Demokratiezentrum.org [PDF]).
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Gudrun Harrer: Morgenländer im Kopf. In: The Standard. June 13, 2008, accessed April 1, 2017 .
- ↑ Duygu Özkan: Siege of the Turks . Metroverlag, 2011, p. 10 .
- ↑ a b Peter Lukasch: Using the example of "Hatschi Bratschi's balloon". A children's book in the field of tension between educational demands and political correctness. Part 2. In: Children's and youth literature between 1900 and 1960. Retrieved on April 1, 2017 .
- ↑ Hans Magnus Enzensberger: My favorite book: "Hatschi Bratschi". In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. August 4, 2004, accessed April 1, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c Peter Lukasch: Using the example of "Hatschi Bratschi's balloon". A children's book in the field of tension between educational demands and political correctness. Part 1. In: Children's and youth literature between 1900 and 1960. Retrieved on April 1, 2017 .
- ↑ Simon Hadler: Belonging through differentiation. The Turk as the other of Europe . In: European memory as interwoven memory: polyphonic and multi-layered interpretations of the past beyond the nation . 2014, p. 102 .
- ↑ Hatsjie-Bratsjie's luchtballon: een kinderverhaal. In: WorldCat. Retrieved April 1, 2017 .
- ↑ Hatschi Bratschi's balloon: a seal for children. In: WorldCat. Retrieved April 1, 2017 .