King Haber
King Haber is a novella by Alfred Neumann . It was published by Engelhorn Verlag in Stuttgart in 1926 . The theater adaptation of the novella by Neumann, which premiered in 1930 and was published in print, is entitled Haus Danieli .
content
The novella tells the rise and fall of the banker Moritz Haber. After its appearance in the capital of a fictional German Grand Duchy, there is much speculation about its origin and the nature of its business and contacts. Due to his rapid social advancement, the favor of the Grand Duke and the title of baron he was awarded, he attracts the envy of the nobility. He becomes a gray eminence in the state and begins an affair with the Grand Duchess. Their marriage has so far remained childless; The Grand Duke's homosexuality is an open secret in aristocratic circles. The Baroness Raven, a lady-in-waiting of the Grand Duchess, learns of the relationship. She becomes jealous, since she was the mistress of the Grand Duchess (for lack of suitable men at court), and is temporarily removed from the court.
Now the Grand Duchess von Haber becomes pregnant. She asks Haber to organize an abortion with a doctor abroad, but he convinces her to have the child. He feels a secret joy at the thought that his son could become Grand Duke and that the whole country would have to bow to his "colorful blood". He reports about the pregnancy to the Grand Duke, who decides to present the child to the public as his own child and thus as a legitimate Crown Prince. This in turn fuels the enmity between the Grand Duke and his younger brother, the Duke of L., whose son has so far been established as the future heir to the throne.
The Grand Duchess gives birth to a son who outwardly resembles Haber. The Baroness Raven recognizes Haber's fatherhood, wants revenge and reveals everything to her brother and the brother of the Grand Duke. This threatens to make the matter public. Meanwhile, the Baron Raven (the baroness's brother) is arrested for a written death threat against Haber.
Haber only fights for his son, not for himself anymore. He knows that he has to endure the hatred and envy of the nobility and maybe even stand up for his life to protect the Grand Duchess and the child. So he travels to Paris to negotiate with the Duke of L. However, under no circumstances is the latter willing to renounce his son's claim to the throne, not even when Haber offers him his suicide in return. After the arrest of Baron von Raven, the Duke of L. also feared for his own safety and has already made the affair and Haber's fatherhood known within the aristocratic union. This makes it clear to Haber that he can only save the child's life and no longer its status as Crown Prince.
Haber returns home and obtains the release of Baron Raven in order to document the admission of his defeat. He challenges Haber to a duel , although it only seems to be about his attacked honor because of the arrest: In fact, he is commissioned by the Aristocracy Association to kill Haber in a duel, while the Baroness Raven (who is now the Grand Duchess's lady-in-waiting again) is supposed to kill the child. Haber asks for the duel to be postponed, but this is not granted. He realizes that all is lost. He visits the Grand Duchess and the child in the palace one last time. In an unobserved moment he dips the child, whose bath is being prepared, up to the neck in a jug of ice-cold water. He wants to ensure that the child, whose fate has already been decided, dies of at least a seemingly natural cause and that no one but himself has to be responsible for this death.
The next morning the duel takes place, in which Haber initially wants to forego the right of the first shot and then deliberately misses. Obviously he wants his own death. The Baron Raven, however, apparently cannot reconcile this with his honor, and perhaps also realizes the injustice of the plan he is supposed to carry out and instead shoots himself.
Haber is seen by the public as Raven's murderer. Hatred against him grows, there are riots and protests in front of his house. But he does not avoid the danger to his life. During the funeral procession for Baron Raven, whom he watches from his balcony, he is shot out of the crowd. The child dies of pneumonia five days later.
style
The novella largely dispenses with precise descriptions of the people and surroundings and consists to a large extent of dialogues ( reproduced in direct speech ) in which a very sophisticated, complex language is spoken and often only hinted at. This creates a great density and tension in the plot, even if Haber's tragic end is more and more in sight.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Data on the UA , accessed on September 1, 2019