Children of Hellas

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Kinder von Hellas is a short story by Brigitte Reimann that was published in Berlin in 1956.

content

The 15-year-old beautiful Helena Zachanides and Costas Chalkidis, who was about the same age, met and fell in love with the partisans under the command of Stawros Tajidis in the summer of 1948. Leading heads of this department of the Greek People's Liberation Army talk to comrade; so are communists. Helena and Costas do not follow such ideals directly throughout the text. Helena and her older brother Tanassis joined the partisans after the “henchmen of the king ” had killed brother Nikos near the small port town of Alexandroupolis on the Aegean Sea . With the move from Saloniki , the Zachanides family could not hide from the henchmen. Nikos had been involved in the 1946 uprising against the English.

Helena fights fearlessly in the ranks of the partisans. In 1948 alone, it put six enemy tanks out of action. Costas went to the partisans after seeing his father hanged. The boy is not much inferior to Helena in bravery. During the battle for the village of Suflis, he carries his wounded commander, Stavros Tajidis, out of the fire. Love affairs among partisans are severely punished. Even so, Helena is loved by the commanding officer and Costas. Costas fights against Stawros for his girl. The boy wants to live with her. When a train full of enemies is about to be blown up near Feres and Helena volunteers, Costas also succeeds in participating in the suicide mission. The boy surprisingly defected to the enemy during the enterprise. Helena's brother Tanassis, who is also participating, is promptly shot by the approaching, well-informed enemy. The defector and Helena are imprisoned. Because Costas wants to save the life of his beloved, he reveals the position of the partisans to the enemy. Helena and Costas are then released. Helena recognizes the traitor in Costas, wounds him, makes her way to Tajidis and confesses the whole truth. The partisans expel the girl from their ranks. Costas confronts Tajidis and is shot as a punishment. Helena fights the enemy on her own in a neighboring partisan formation and is mortally wounded. The girl is buried in honor by the partisans.

interpretation

Brigitte Reimann dedicated the book to a certain "Helena Ziplakis", "who was murdered in Greece in the summer of 1955, at the age of twenty-three, after seven years of imprisonment." Apparently the author got the material from an acquaintance, "the Greek worker Christos Ziplakis". This early work certainly has weaknesses. For example, Brigitte Reimann approaches the omniscient when she writes: “He was not even ashamed of his lie.” In this sense, the author makes it a little too easy for herself - when she sums up: “He thought: I can already see Ghosts. ”When the southern Thracian nature around the partisans is described, Brigitte Reimann's prosaic language sometimes echoes poetry and thus gives an idea of ​​the future important author.

reception

  • Revolution: Brigitte Reimann's role models were “ The Wedding in Haiti ”, “ The Engagement in St. Domingo ” and “ Hyperion ”. However, the role models lack Reimann's pathos and also lack great emotions.
  • The children (Helena, Costas) die for the demanding ideology of their fathers .
  • The motif of Helena's brotherly love - Costa is similar to Nikos' brother - reminds Wiesener of Antigone .
  • Helena appears to Dohms to be experienced by a young person.

literature

Text output

First edition
  • Children of Hellas. With illustrations by Kurt Zimmermann . Publishing house of the Ministry for National Defense, Berlin 1956. 211 pages. Half linen.
Used edition
  • Children of Hellas. Illustrations by Werner Ruhner . Follow-up remarks by Heide Hampel . New life publishing house, Berlin 1989. Kompaß-Bücherei Vol. 377, ISBN 3-355-00957-1

Secondary literature

  • Barbara Wiesener: About the pale princess who kidnapped a purple horse across the sky - the utopian in Brigitte Reimann's work. Univ. Diss. Dr. phil., Potsdam 2003, 236 pages

Remarks

  1. ↑ The plot runs until the summer of 1949 (Hampel in the edition used, p. 162, 7th Zvu).
  2. ↑ For the history see also under ELAS .
  3. ↑ See also under Battle of Athens .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hampel in the edition used, p. 164, 4. Zvo
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 8, 16. Zvu
  3. ↑ Edition used, p. 5
  4. ↑ Hampel in the edition used, p. 161, 1. Zvu
  5. ↑ Edition used, p. 148, 4th Zvu
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 119, 4. Zvo
  7. ↑ Wiesener, p. 86, 5. Zvo
  8. ↑ Wiesener, p. 85, 12. Zvo
  9. ↑ Wiesener, p. 85, 9th Zvu
  10. ↑ Herbert Dohms, in NDL , Heft 5, 1957, p. 143, quoted in Wiesener, p. 74, 2nd Zvu