Ingrid Babendererde. High school diploma in 1953

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At the John Brinckman High School in Güstrow , probably the template for the Gustav Adolf High School in Ingrid Babendererde , Uwe Johnson passed the final exam in 1952.

Ingrid Babendererde. Graduation exam 1953 is the first work of the writer Uwe Johnson , which was only published in 1985 after his death.

Classification, historical context

The first version of the story was written as early as 1953/54, but after several cancellations in Ost ( Mitteldeutscher Verlag ) and West ( Suhrkamp ) the Suhrkamp-Verlag did not publish it from the estate until 1985; Johnson died in February 1984.

Similar to his novel, Mutmassungen über Jakob , published in 1959, the author describes the situation of the people in divided Germany during the Cold War and lets his protagonists discuss the possibilities of an undogmatic, democratic socialism. The actions take place in the context of the failed reform efforts in the GDR and other Eastern Bloc countries: June 17, 1953 and the popular uprising in Hungary in 1956. In his four-volume main work, the Anniversaries , which takes up and expands the characters and motifs of the early novels, Johnson sets this topic in New York in 1967-68 against the backdrop of the Prague Spring .

Stalin died on March 5, 1953 ; In the CPSU a triumvirate had taken the lead (in which Khrushchev later prevailed).

During talks that lasted from June 2 to 4, 1953, the leadership of the Soviet Union ordered a three-person delegation from the GDR leadership (General Secretary Ulbricht, Prime Minister Grotewohl and member of the Politburo Fred Oelßner) to change course . In Moscow there was evidence that a popular uprising was imminent.

On June 11, the “New Course” of the Politburo in New Germany , the central organ of the SED , was announced. In parts of the population it was interpreted as a "declaration of bankruptcy by the SED dictatorship".

Until then, the SED regime under Walter Ulbricht (and the formulation he coined “systematic construction of socialism ”) had pushed for a “ Sovietization ” of society and a strengthening of state power based on the Soviet model. See also de-Stalinization # DDR .

content

In Ingrid Babendererde, Uwe Johnson describes the story of a high school graduate class in a fictional Mecklenburg small town in the GDR called Wendisch Castle in the anniversaries . The events are related to the repression against church members and mainly focus on the week before the school leaving exams . They are triggered by Elisabeth Rehfelde, a member of the Junge Gemeinde , who throws her FDJ membership book at a functionary's feet, whereupon the school management and party committees initiate disciplinary proceedings and seek to oblige the students to vote in line with the line. As in the speculations , the protagonists represent three typical attitudes: Director Siebmann takes the dogmatic position with a clear friend-foe polarity: In times of threats to the GDR from capitalist aggressors who use the Junge Gemeinde as agents, every citizen must adopt the socialist one Support the system unconditionally. On the other hand, there are the critical students of the church youth organization, but also the group of friends Ingrid, Klaus and Jürgen with their outwardly more or less adapted behavior. Jürgen Petersen basically understands Siebmann's arguments, but not his radical method of punishment and indoctrination. For example, the director of Ingrid Babendererde demands a contribution to the school assembly against the Young Community and thus forces them to take sides. However, in her speech, which contrasts the understanding of socialism of the SED and the headmaster, she advocates individual leeway and freedom of expression . Ingrid, like Elisabeth, is expelled from school the day before graduation. In response to this, she and her friend Klaus Niebuhr flee to the West, in "that way of life that they consider to be the wrong one". Both pass a special kind of school leaving examination.

Structure and narrative form

The novel is divided into four parts, each with introductory, italicized sections about the escape of the protagonists. The main plot and information on the prehistory and biography of the characters are told in retrospect, namely in the Er-form with authorial style elements as well as in personal narrative form from different, frequently changing perspectives : v. a. Ingrids, Klaus and Jürgens, but also other people such as Ingrid's mother, Ms. Petersens or the teacher Sedenbohm. Dialogues and internal monologues are inserted into these sections . Another characteristic is the metaphor of nature related to the people and their actions .

reception

When published in 1985

In the afterword Siegfried Unseld justifies his rejection of the novel (1957), which was probably symptomatic of the intellectual scene in the FRG at that time: “Certainly it was extra-literary criteria that blocked my access to the text. The strangeness of the milieu, the intricate provinciality of this small town, the many passages of text in the Mecklenburg town of Platt [...] Nothing I could do with the stunned rebellion of this high school graduate class, with the freaky relationship between Ingrid and Klaus, the 'Ingridspott' and the 'Ingrid beauty 'I was uncomfortable, the whole, so complicatedly portrayed story transported for me, who at this time discovered the great American storytellers, Thomas Wolfe, Faulkner and Hemingway, in a word too little world. [...] I defended myself against a partisan atmosphere [...] and erroneously this representation was not made clear to me as a criticism of the author. I also fought against the prejudices of the young refugees who moved to West Berlin at the age of 18, already knowing that 'they switched to the way of life that they see as the wrong one'. "

After the posthumous publication, literary critics showed more understanding for the first work: “It is absolutely impossible to read this book without being amazed at so much talent [...], so much cheerfulness. Without admiration for so much political character and so much ironic accuracy. ”( Joachim Kaiser in the Süddeutsche Zeitung ). “It is nice that this book […] informs us about the attempts of a nineteen-year-old writer who gave us knowledge and conscience about a bad time. Uwe Johnson is a writer who makes sure that we do not forget ”(Klaus Podak in the Süddeutsche Zeitung).

In the review of the novel in SPIEGEL in the year of its publication, Tilman Jens rated the book as a “document of a farewell and at the same time a boisterous protest book, a text - the only one from Johnson - that is entirely in the present”, he draws a “bitter- exact picture from the Stalinist era ”. With the departure of the two main characters in the West, Uwe Johnson “mapped out his own path, as it were. The consequences of this break are played out in literary fiction. In self-experiment he creates the pain that haunted him all his life and should have a decisive influence on his work. "Jens considers Suhrkamp's decision to reject the novel to be correct and emphasizes, in addition to the bold style, the" abrupt change in narrative perspectives " and “skilful persiflage of the official GDR party language” there would also be “antiquated kitsch” and “mannerist gay”. The author was "still looking for his own style". The publication of the book in 1985 was correct, it was the foundation of Uwe Johnson's later books.

Later evaluation

In an essay from July 2014 in the ZEIT , Jan Brandt praised the beginning of Ingrid Babendererde and speculations about Jakob on the occasion of Uwe Johnson's 80th birthday : “The words mark the radical counter-draft of a young author who grew up in the East to GDR propaganda and on the state art doctrine, socialist realism. Even more: They mark a description of reality that repeatedly calls for counterstatements, for new perspectives - regardless of the prevailing ideologies. ”Jan Brandt emphasizes that it is worthwhile“ to read the most radical German post-war author again ”.

Dramatization in the Volkstheater Rostock 2014

In autumn 2014, the Rostock Volkstheater opened the season with a stage version of Johnson's work by Holger Teschke , which Jens Fischer described as “cleverly compressing” and acclaimed by the premiere audience. The chronicle of the early 1950s was in the foreground. When the Rostock Volkstheater made a guest appearance in Baden / Aargau , the Badener Tageblatt wrote that the novel could be tamed for the stage.

expenditure

First edition:

Ingrid Babendererde. Graduation examination 1953. With an afterword by Siegfried Unseld , first edition 1985, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1985

Later editions:

  • Ingrid Babendererde. Graduation exam 1953 , with an afterword by Siegfried Unseld, edition Suhrkamp 1817, paperback, 272 pages, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 978-3-518-11817-7
  • Ingrid Babendererde. Graduation exam 1953 , text and commentary, Suhrkamp BasisBibliothek 144, paperback, 310 pages, Suhrkamp, ISBN 978-3-518-18944-3 - publisher's announcement with the addition: Publication date indefinite

literature

  • Beate Wunsch: Studies on Uwe Johnson's early story “Ingrid Babendererde. Graduation exam 1953. “ Frankfurt am Main 1991 (= literary historical studies Volume 18) ISBN 3-631-43309-3 .
  • Nicola Westphal: Friendship in times of tyranny. Considerations for a school lesson in “Ingrid Babendererde” . Johnson Yearbook Volume 10/2003, pp. 95-108 pdf

additional

A ten-minute summary of the content, realized by Michael Sommer, is available on Youtube in the Sommers Weltliteratur to go series .

Web links

Wendisch Castle

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerhard A. Ritter: The »17. June 1953 «- A historical location . In: Popular uprising against the SED state - An inventory, p. 26.
  2. ↑ The new High Commissioner Vladimir Semjonow - the highest-ranking Soviet representative in the GDR (in fact superordinate to the GDR leadership) rejected requests from SED politicians for a more cautious and slower change of course - with the sentence “In 14 days you might not be a state have more"
  3. ↑ Gerhard A. Ritter: The »17. June 1953 «- A historical location . In: Popular uprising against the SED state - An inventory, p. 24.
  4. ↑ Gerhard A. Ritter: The »17. June 1953 «- A historical location . In: Popular uprising against the SED state - An inventory, p. 25.
  5. ^ Siegfried Unseld: The examination of maturity in 1953 . Epilogue to: Uwe Johnson: Ingrid Babendererde. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt a. M. 1985, p. 259.
  6. ^ Siegfried Unseld: The examination of maturity in 1953 . Epilogue to: Uwe Johnson: Ingrid Babendererde. High school diploma in 1953. Suhrkamp Frankfurt a. M. 1985, pp. 258f.
  7. ↑ Uwe Johnson: Ingrid Babendererde. High school diploma in 1953. Suhrkamp Frankfurt a. M. 1985, p. 4.
  8. ↑ Uwe Johnson: Ingrid Babendererde. High school diploma in 1953. Suhrkamp Frankfurt a. M. 1985, back.
  9. ↑ Der Spiegel of May 27, 1985 , accessed on March 8, 2019
  10. ↑ Jan Brandt: At home in the parallel world, DIE ZEIT of July 14, 2014 , accessed on March 8, 2019
  11. ↑ Review of September 20, 2014 at Nachtkritik.de , accessed on March 10, 2019
  12. ↑ Critic Jens Fischer in Die Deutsche Bühne.de from September 22, 2014 , accessed on March 10, 2019
  13. ↑ Review in the Badener Tageblatt on December 13, 2015 , accessed on March 10, 2019
  14. ↑ Announcement at Suhrkamp.de , accessed on May 20, 2020
  15. ↑ Video on Youtube , accessed March 8, 2019