I, the eyewitness

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I, the eyewitness, is the last novel by Ernst Weiß , published posthumously in Munich in 1963. The anonymous first-person narrator , a Catholic Bavarian doctor, married to the Jewess Viktoria, tells his life story up to 1936.

A number in round brackets refers to the page in the source or literature.

characters

  • The first- person narrator
    • Robert, his son
    • Lise, his daughter
  • Dr. Kaiser, family doctor of the family of the narrator, called the Jewish Emperor
    • Victoria, his daughter
  • Privy Councilor Dr. Gottfried von Kaiser, councilor , madwoman , called the fool emperor (17, 244)
    • Helmut Kaiser, his son, childhood friend of the narrator

action

As a schoolboy, the first-person narrator is kicked by a horse when he tries to hand the animal bread. The attending physician Dr. Emperor, named because of its confession of the Jews Kaiser, gives the patient relief from a painful pleural puncture (21). The narrator gets to know and love Viktoria, the doctor's daughter, a beautiful, blond, young girl (22). Victoria's affection for the narrator's family turns into hatred after the narrator's devout Catholic mother snubbed the unsuspecting young girl with an anti-Semitic remark (54). The real cause of this statement was the narrator's father. After he had given birth to twins with the maid Vroni (44), he blamed the Jewish emperor for this (52). The mother, glad to have found a scapegoat, in her hatred of Jews, took this insane assertion of the father at face value. The defamation of the Jewish emperor by the father was all the more incomprehensible as the Jewish emperor and his daughter were among the few people in the village who, after the father was ostracized by society, still supported him (51). The narrator's father, a bridge construction engineer, was responsible for the collapse of one of his bridge constructions, which resulted in personal injury (47).

Because the narrator wants to become a doctor, he first has to graduate from high school. The father doesn't believe in it, but lets the son go to school because an uncle supports the boy financially. After the father's fiasco, his uncle's monthly payments fail, and the hunger student (71) turns to the psychiatrist Dr. Gottfried von Kaiser , the so-called fool emperor . This, a bad Catholic and Jew hater (106), supports the narrator financially and professionally. In return, the narrator has to work hard as an assistant to the fool emperor (69). After graduation, the narrator becomes a surgeon (96) and psychiatrist (107). Among other things, he is becoming a specialist in diseases such as hysterical blindness (107).

During the war, the narrator operated - initially on the western front in the La Fierté Lescoudes section as a surgeon. During a vacation from the front he sees the beautiful Victoria again (118). He then intervened personally in the war. As a dogged, daring shock troop leader (121), he earned the Iron Cross in the fight against Gurkhas (120) .

AH

The title of the novel suggests the objectivity and distance of the first-person narrator. But right on the first page of the novel, the writing doctor has to come out with a massive confession. In 1918 he was assigned to the reserve hospital in P. as a medical officer (122), he made the blind AH see and consequently blames himself for the misfortune that AH, the son of a smallholder, poor art student in Vienna and house painter (130), later over Europe brought. The Upper Austrian private AH from Braunau (185), a troublemaker, agitator, ringleader, troublemaker and Jew hater, was orderly at the staff of the Bavarian List regiment (123). After the narrator has released patient AH as cured, he asks the son of the fool emperor, that is his childhood friend Helmut, who serves in the war ministry, for a pressure post for the private. For study purposes, the narrator takes some medical records from the military hospital to the southern German town of M. Among the papers there are also documents on AH's medical history

At the behest of his mother, the narrator swears on her deathbed not to marry a Lutheran or a Jew (143). The narrator then experienced 1918/19 in M. Novemberschmach and Räterepublik . In M. he meets AH again. Friend Helmut is grateful to the narrator for the acquaintance with AH, this (158) speaker who is gifted with uncanny powers . Even the Catholic narrator who does not believe in God (160) succumbs to this miraculous being (170). During the putsch of November 1923 , AH and Ludendorff escape the crackling rain of bullets from the state police (179).

Victoria

After the death of her father, Viktoria turns back to the narrator. The couple are getting married. Son Robert and daughter Lise are born (183). The past caught up with the narrator after 1929, when Helmut, now a National Socialist (186), appeared in party uniform and asked for the minutes of (184) AH. The narrator refuses. AH is Chancellor and lets the German Reichstag on fire plug (187). Victoria, who knows about the minutes, asks her husband with tears in her eyes to destroy the papers (191). The narrator refuses. His father, meanwhile a staunch National Socialist , draws his attention to the danger (194). The narrator escapes alone to Switzerland, but travels back to Germany to see the woman in consternation. He misses Victoria. She, meanwhile safe in Switzerland, sat in the oncoming taxi between the hotel and the train station. But he had taken it for a mirage. SS men (200) arrest the narrator. The prisoner was sent to D. (201) concentration camp and was severely mistreated there. With the help of Helmut, he manages to escape. In return, Viktoria had to hand over the minutes to the escape helper.

In 1934 the narrator goes to Paris with Victoria and the children. The couple become strangers to each other (221). The narrator cannot find work as a doctor abroad. Helmut, in disgrace, though he medical history of the Gestapo delivered had (232) flees to Paris and lives near the couple. When his father, the rich fool emperor, shows up in a good mood as a pleasure traveler, the alienation has become insurmountable. Even the narrator can no longer understand the fool emperor. The narrator will on the part of the Spanish Republic against Franco fight. Viktoria and the growing children have found a modest job in Paris and tolerate the decision of their husband and father.

Quote

Being big in small roles is difficult (101).

Hitler

The figure of AH is based on Hitler biographies . Ernst Weiß probably spoke to the Hitler biographer Konrad Heiden in Paris . The war-blind private Hitler was found on October 21, 1918 in the Pasewalk reserve hospital by the psychiatrist Dr. Edmund Forster treated and released on November 19 cured ( Pazi , 108, 109).

Armbruster investigates the events in Pasewalk and quotes Oswald Bumke : “I can't say whether [Hitler's] blindness was hysterical.” According to Armbruster's research, the reluctance of the medical professionals to the relevant passages in the text of the novelist Ernst Weiß is understandable, especially since there Hitler's Pasewalker medical record should no longer be traceable.

Edition

On September 15, 1938, Ernst Weiß presented the manuscript of the novel Der Augenzeuge to the American Guild for German Cultural Freedom . A copy of the manuscript came into the hands of Paul Gordon through Karl Breuer in New York . After the war, Gordon found the Kreißelmeier Verlag , which printed it under the title Der Augenzeuge and later as Ich, der Augenzeuge . The change of title had become necessary because in 1955 Le voyeur - Eng. The Eyewitness - was published by Alain Robbe-Grillet ( Pazi , 107,112,113).

Self-testimony

Ernst Weiß wrote to Stefan Zweig in 1939 : We mustn't let up (fight) as long as we breathe ( Arnold , 53).

reception

  • Richard Arnold Bermann wrote on August 2, 1939: The story is told in a somewhat dry but credible manner ( Pazi , 112).
  • Pazi (113) states: The fascination with mental illness ... forms the core of the novel.
  • Pazi (115) tries to underpin Ernst Weiß narrative work out the miraculous healing of AH .
  • After Paci (116) is the "real story" with the war blind AH ... something by force [in the book] carried in .
  • The book caused a white renaissance in 1963 ( Arnold , 18).

literature

source

  • Ernst Weiss: I, the eyewitness. Novel . Aufbau-Verlag Berlin 1973

First edition

  • Ernst Weiss: I, the eyewitness. Novel . Kreißelmeier, Icking 1963

Further editions

Secondary literature

Special topics

Web links