As seen
In the condition as seen is an autobiographical novel by the German author Adam Silk (1929–2004).
Content and title
The novel tells the story of two families over three generations, 'simple people' who moved from rural areas (Wendland, Osnabrücker Land, Pomerania) to the cities of Linden and Hanover in the course of industrialization around 1890 . The novel ends in the post-war period in the late 1940s. The title of the novel, an expression from the used goods trade, appears in a single place in the novel: "... he had also afforded a Zündapp (...), used of course, and (that was a formula in the contract) without breakage or cracks as seen. " (P. 144)
structure
The novel is divided into twelve, not numbered chapters. The first chapter (introductory chapter) reads "You come to the city" , the last (final chapter) "You leave the city" . Chapters 2 to 11 are each preceded by a stanza from Bertolt Brecht's poem "The Lord of the Fish" as the motto on the page with the chapter title. This is followed by a description of a photograph with the main characters of the novel. At the end of each chapter, "The Mothers' Speech " is added.
History of origin
Adam Seides friend, the later theater critic Henning Rischbieter sees the first version of the novel in Seide's magazine "Der Egoist" , issue 7, in 1965. Here you can find "under the precious title VAGE, read without dots: Vage, in the subtitle so-called 'Gebilde aus dem Nachlaß von Martin Schultz'. It was preceded by a titleless volume in 23 copies in the Gulliver press in 1964 (...). Then, the main part, from the 'estate of Martin Schultz, dedicated to a lady.' Including as the fifth letter a gruesome fairy tale about a family, man, woman, son, daughter, in which man and woman fight, hate, love and the woman before time comes to death. I claim: This is the primordial cell of Adam Seide's first novel, which was moved into grim Grimmian distance, which was finally called 'In the state as seen' and was published by Rowohlt in 1980 after a long process of reshaping and becoming. " . Preprints of individual chapters followed in 1975 in Seides magazine 'Der Neue Egoist' and in 1978 in the 2nd volume of Rischbieter 'Hannoverschem Lesebuch'.
Location
The scenes of the novel are the city of Linden, which was independent until 1920, and the city of Hanover with the Döhren district .
In Linden it is Elisenstrasse, the apartment of Wilhelm and Elisabeth Meidner, as well as Wilhelm Meidner's workshop for the production of safes (Linden-Nord). Later the Noltestrasse, the second apartment of the Weidner family (also Linden-Nord), after the safe workshop of the father closed in 1914 and he found work as a foreman in the Reichsbahn repair shop in Leinhausen . Then the Franzstrasse in Linden-Süd, the apartment of Wilhelm and Martha Meidner with their son after the wedding in 1929. Here you will find a very detailed, descriptive description of the district, obviously a childhood memory of the author Adam Silk. The last street in Linden is Elsa-Brandström-Straße No. 6, the last shared apartment of the Meidner family from the mid-1930s to around 1950. In Döhren it is Querstraße, where Karl and Bertha Behrens lived. In addition, the locations in Hanover include the homeless asylum on Leinstrasse, where Martha Meidner temporarily lives after the first divorce in 1932, as well as Alexanderstrasse and Kniehauerstrasse, where Martha Meidner temporarily finds accommodation in a shop.
main characters
The main characters in the novel are the children of the Meidner and Behrens families in Linden and Döhren: two of the children of these two families: Wilhelm Meidner and Martha Behrens , who finally get married and in turn have two children (son and daughter).
- Wilhelm Meidner , son of a large farmer from Marleben (Wendland), trained as a locksmith in Lüchow, meets his future bride Elisabeth Meidner on a hike in Baden-Baden; he later became a master locksmith. Elisabeth Meidner comes from Osnabrück , is a nanny for a doctor in Osnabrück, and later a domestic worker and cook for this doctor in Baden-Baden. The children of these two are: Friedrich [Fritz], Wilhelm (main male character in the novel), Anna, Elisabeth and Johannes.
- Karl Behrens , farm laborer on a Pomeranian estate and Bertha Behrens , maid on a Pomeranian estate; Both fled Pomerania when a child was on the road, first found (illegal) work in the Sehnde sugar factory, and after fleeing again to Hanover-Döhren, an apartment on Querstraße. Karl Behrens first worked as a horse-drawn tram driver, then as a tram driver, Bertha in the Döhrener wool laundry. The children of these two are Karl, Bertha, Lina, Martha (female main character in the novel), Gustav and Marie.
- Wilhelm Meidner , son of Wilhelm and Elisabeth Meidner, grew up in Linden. After finishing school, he became a parcel delivery boy at the Schmorl & von Seefeld bookstore, an errand boy for tailors, bakeries, and bookstores, then a (unskilled) mechanic. Around 1920 he stayed for a short time with a volunteer corps in Breslau, then became a worker at Hanomag, later a taxi driver, unemployed from 1931–1933, and in 1933 a truck driver at the Albert Stiens vinegar and liqueur factory in Hanover, Friedastraße. After all, he is employed at the ironworks in Wülfel, then at MNH (machine factory Lower Saxony) in Laatzen, then top lathe operator at the MNH works in Körtingsdorf in Linden. After 1945 he found work at MAN in Fössestrasse, most recently at Wohlenberg in Hainholz.
- Martha Behrens , daughter of Karl and Bertha Behrens, grew up in Döhren. After finishing school, she worked as an unskilled worker in the Brandt biscuit and rusk factory in Wülfel, Hildesheimer Straße. She later lives on Nedderfeldstrasse in Linden, then on Grotefendstrasse, and is an unskilled worker at the König & Ephardt accounting book factory in Schloßwenderstrasse in Hanover. In 1929 she married Wilhelm Meidner, her son was born in July 1929 and her daughter in May 1932. The couple divorced three times (1932, 1936 and 1938) and then remarried again and again. Martha Behrens still has various temporary jobs, for example at night at the railroad post during World War II , and is finally evacuated with her daughter to Eversloh am Benther Berg. She dies of cancer in 1948 ("not yet fifty years", p. 216).
- Otto Kirchhoff , Wilhelm Meidner's friend, first worked as a photographer at Hanomag, then ran a photographer's shop and later became a taxi driver.
- Fritz Meidner , Wilhelm's older brother, insurance employee at Sternsche Versicherung in Hanover, after 1918 office manager, house owner in the List, founder of the Orakel society (where Martha Behrens met Wilhelm Meidner). In 1933 he became the district director of the 'Aryanised' Stern insurance (the Jewish owner Stern emigrated on February 1, 1933) and was also a member of the SA.
- The son : Wilhelm Friedrich Karl Gustav ("four names, two of each family", p. 150), son of Wilhelm and Martha Meidner, born "in July" (July 2nd, 1929 is the birthday of the author Wilhelm [later: Adam] silk).
- The daughter of Wilhelm and Martha Meidner, born in May 1932.
literature
- expenditure
- As seen. Roman Rowohlt, Reinbek 1980. 237 pp.
Secondary literature
- Henning Rischbieter: Adam Silk - "Behind the Blue Gate". In: Of poet princes and other poets. A short history of literature in Lower Saxony. Vol. 3: Forty-five portraits from Arno Schmidt to Hans Pleschinski. Edited by Dirck Linck and Jürgen Peters. Hannover 1996, pp. 251-257.
- Henning Rischbieter: Writing, sausage, guests in the evening. Memories. Springe 2009, pp. 148–154 (the chapters "Adam" and "Galerie Silk").