Josefine Mutzenbacher

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Title page (1906)

Josefine Mutzenbacher is a novel of erotic literature that was first published in 1906. Felix Salten is considered the author of the anonymous work .

The protagonist of the novel, who acts as the narrator, is a Viennese prostitute who is said to have lived from 1852–1904. She tells of sexual experiences in her childhood. The work was published in 1906 in Vienna in a small numbered edition of 1000 by the unnamed erotica publisher Fritz Freund under the title Josefine Mutzenbacher or The story of a Viennese whore told by herself . The book was published on a subscription basis in order to circumvent the censorship of the time.

This novel has been considered a masterpiece of erotic literature since it was first published, but it was not until the 1970s that it became more widespread in German-speaking countries after it was made into a film by director Kurt Nachmann . The author of the novel is unknown; However, the book is attributed to the Austro-Hungarian writer Felix Salten (including the author of the children's book Bambi, which was later brought to the screen as a cartoon by Walt Disney ). Depending on the reading, it was the contemporary authors Karl Kraus or Egon Friedell who named Felix Salten as the author; Salten himself has never committed himself to this.

Since neither the author nor the publisher dared to assert claims to copyright , reprints , new creations and several sequels soon appeared under the name Josefine Mutzenbacher , some of which were more and some less obscene . According to Oswald Wiener, the original is “probably the only world-class German pornographic novel”, part 2 is considered “considerably sloping”, part 3 “uninteresting”.

content

In the book, the protagonist , the aged prostitute Mutzenbacher, tells about her childhood. She reports how a bed-walker took her on her lap when she was five years old and lifted her skirt, how she was enlightened by other children in various "father-and-mother" games and what the neighbor was up to in the attic; In the course of the plot, "cleanings" by a hypocritical cooperator are discussed in just as much detail as incestuous acts and much more. At the end of the book she is about fourteen years old and is gaining her first experience as a prostitute.

From the narrative perspective of the main character, the pleasurable voluntariness is always emphasized, also in the dialogues of the actors that are often pages long (including the relevant Viennese vocabulary ). At the same time, a moral picture of the Viennese proletariat in the late 19th century is presented. Depending on the zeitgeist , the work has been criticized for promoting child pornography .

Legal assessment in Germany

In Germany the book was included in the list of writings harmful to minors (BPjS / BPjM) in 1982. The Rowohlt publishing house , which its issue an explanatory preface and a glossary for " Wiener had prostitute language" added sued indexing decision.

After the Federal Administrative Court had ruled that the indexing was legal, the publishing house took action before the Federal Constitutional Court . With the Mutzenbacher decision from 1990 ( BVerfGE 83, 130), this repealed the decision of the Federal Inspectorate on the grounds that there was no balancing of the fundamental right of artistic freedom under Article 5 of the Basic Law .

After the Federal Inspectorate had carried out this assessment in a new procedure and entered the book again in the list of writings harmful to minors, the Higher Administrative Court for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia decided in a second process that the work was child pornography and that of the Federal Inspectorate weighing up against artistic freedom is not objectionable. The Higher Administrative Court in Münster stated, among other things:

“The Federal Inspectorate gave a detailed explanation of the serious risk to young people within the meaning of § 6 GjS in its meeting on November 5, 1992 - and it is still valid - and focused in particular on the fact that the novel describes the sexual abuse of children in detail and in a way that is used for pornographic products portray it in a provocative way and play it down and glorify it without restriction or criticism. This assessment as a continuous violation of dignity, which the plaintiff did not counter with substantive objections, is also in the opinion of the Senate openly: The novel is almost exhausted - only a few pages are excepted - in a series of pornographic episodes in which children and Young people are always significantly involved. The main character of Josefine Mutzenbacher acts between the ages of 7 and 13 years. Incestuous scenes between siblings and between children and their parents are depicted in great detail. Seduction in all its forms, but occasionally also violence, blackmail and humiliation by superior sexual partners (parents, residents, soldiers, confessors, catechists, teachers, etc.) are part of everyday life when children are focused on sexual matters. All of these depicted experiences and their result - the status of the prostitute's life as the title character - are endorsed stylistically and in terms of content in a way that hardly enables children and young people to gain critical distance. "

The appeal against the judgment of the Higher Administrative Court was not accepted for decision by the Federal Administrative Court.

In November 2017, after 25 years, the work was removed from the list of media harmful to minors.

Sequels

Josefine Mutzenbacher: My 365 lovers. First edition (1925).

After The Story of a Viennese Whore. Told by herself, the two sequels My 365 Lovers and Peperl Mutzenbacher - daughter of Josefine Mutzenbacher - appeared later . The authors are also anonymous; there is no evidence that the sequels come from the same alleged author Felix Salten.

In addition, thanks to a reading by Helmut Qualtinger, the parody Fifi Mutzenbacher by Wolfgang Bertrand (a pseudonym of Wolfgang Kudrnofsky ) became known.

Film adaptations

In 1970 and 1971, respectively, the first ( Josephine Mutzenbacher ) and second part of the story ( Josefine Mutzenbacher II - My 365 Lovers ) were filmed by director Kurt Nachmann with Christine Schuberth , Elisabeth Volkmann and Kai Fischer . The third part was given the title Ferdinand »Mutzenbacher« in 1972 , but appeared in Germany under the name Auch Fummeln wants to be learned . 1976 followed with Josefine Mutzenbacher - How she really was a pornographic film adaptation directed by Hans Billian with Patricia Rhomberg in the title role. There were three sequels by the same director, but they could not build on the success of the first part.

literature

Book editions

  • Anon .: Josefine Mutzenbacher or the story of a Viennese whore told by herself. [First edition.] Private print [Vienna], 1906.
  • Oswald Wiener (Ed.): Josefine Mutzenbacher: The life story of a Viennese prostitute, told by herself. Rogner & Bernhard, Munich 1969. With the appendix, contributions to the aedoology of Viennese by Oswald Wiener and a preliminary remark by KH Kramberg .
  • Michael Farin (ed.): Josefine Mutzenbacher or the story of a Viennese prostitute told by herself: Unabridged reprint of the first edition from 1906 with essays on the work. Munich, Schneekluth 1990. ISBN 3-7951-1170-6
  • Wolfgang Schneider (Ed.): Josefine Mutzenbacher. Life story of a Viennese whore / Josefine Mutzenbacher and her 365 lovers . AREA Verlag, Erftstadt 2004, ISBN 3-89996-276-1 .
  • Josefine Mutzenbacher: anthology. Josefine's youth; Josefine Mutzenbacher; Peperl Mutzenbacher - daughter of Josefine . Tosa Verlag, Vienna, ISBN 3-85492-843-2 . Anthology with numerous contemporary photographs. (Note: Tosa has changed the title of the first two parts. "Josefine's youth" corresponds to "Josefine Mutzenbacher: The story of a Viennese whore" and "Josefine Mutzenbacher" corresponds to "Josefine Mutzenbacher: My 365 lovers".)

E-books

  • Hansjürgen Blinn (Ed.): Erotic literature. From Lysistrata to Lady Chatterley. Directmedia Publishing , Berlin 2006. ISBN 3-89853-536-3 . Contains, among other things, Part 1.
  • Gutenberg-DE Erotica 1 . Project Gutenberg-DE , Hamburg 2005. CD-ROM containing, among other things, all three parts by Josefine Mutzenbacher.
  • Josefine Mutzenbacher: The story of a Viennese whore told by herself. www.new-ebooks.de, Dresden.
  • Josefine Mutzenbacher: My daughter Peperl. www.new-ebooks.de, Dresden.

Detective novels

  • JJ Preyer : Investigations in the Mutzenbacher case . A new theory about the author of the Mutzenbachers in a historical crime thriller. Oerindur Verlag, Steyr 2008. ISBN 978-3-902291-22-6 .

Secondary literature

  • Clemens Ruthner & Matthias Schmidt (eds.): Die Mutzenbacher: Readings and contexts of a scandalous novel. Special number, Vienna 2019. ISBN 978-3-85449-513-0

Web links

Web links to the book

Film adaptations by Kurt Nachmann

Film adaptations by Hans Billian

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ foreword by Franz Tassie in the edition of 1971
  2. ^ Order of the First Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court of November 27, 1990
  3. ^ OVG North Rhine-Westphalia, judgment of September 11, 1997, AZ. 20 A 6471/95
  4. ↑ Josefine Mutzenbacher - BPjM gives reasons
  5. ↑ Andreas Klimt (ed.): Kürschner's German Literature Calendar , KG Saur Verlag GmbH, 2002, ISBN 3-598-23585-2 , p. 682 ( limited preview in the Google book search, "Fifi Mutzenbacher" in the Google Book search)