Campfire (novel)

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Campfire is a multi-perspective novel by Julia Franck from 2003, which tells the life of GDR refugees in the Marienfelde emergency reception center in West Berlin in the 1970s. In it Franck illuminates life in the uncertainty of transit, the question of political appropriation as well as complaints about privacy. It also addresses the folklore and demonization of the other in the East-West area of ​​tension, the loss of identity due to a lack of space, motherhood and emancipation, as well as the claims to prosperity, happiness and understanding that prevail on both sides of the wall.

The novel is divided into 16 chapters, which consist of alternating descriptions by four first-person narrators, whose lives all lead them to the Marienfelde emergency reception center. This multi-perspective architecture enables Franck to express the respective pasts, perceptions, encounters and motivations of her characters and to depict the different characters by looking at one another not only from the point of view of themselves, but above all in the perception of others. In this way, the reader not only gains a deeper insight into the psychology of the characters than would be possible with a description from the perspective of a character alone; these insights often suggest contrasting interpretations of the characters' identities, so that the "truth" is increasingly difficult to name and the reader is denied a clear orientation.

The focus of the novel is the move of the young chemist Nelly Senff with her two children Katja and Aleksej from the GDR to West Berlin and their experiences in the Marienfelde refugee camp. The second first-person narrator is an older Polish woman, Krystyna Jablonowska, who moved to West Germany with her father and brother in order to have her brother , who is suffering from cancer, treated with Western methods. In addition, the story is told from the perspective of a CIA employee : John Bird conducts the interrogations with the refugees; when he meets Nelly, his political stance comes to light as well as his marital problems. The fourth perspective is that of the actor Hans Pischke, who was ransomed by the Federal Republic of Germany after repeated imprisonment in the GDR and has lived in the camp for several years.

The novel has been translated into Arabic , Danish , English , French , Italian , Croatian , Dutch , Polish , Russian and Spanish .

content

Nelly Senff moves to West Berlin with her two children, supposedly to marry her West Berlin friend “Gerd”. However, this is a paid escape helper; Nelly has him as the reader learns later, 10,000 marks for the escape aid paid. After arriving at the camp, she was interrogated by the black Vietnam veteran John Bird , who lives in Berlin with his wife Eunice as a member of the US secret service. John Bird is hoping for a promotion within the CIA and is convinced of his fight for freedom in the service of the United States. His wife Eunice, on the other hand, is increasingly lonely in the strange city and turns to the consumption of marijuana . An attraction develops between John and Nelly that is not only based on the discussion of their different political attitudes. Nelly reveals the interrogation methods of the Western secret service as being similar to those of the Stasi , whereupon both of them, even after a one-night stand , become increasingly alienated. Nelly also sees herself in the West Berlin camp as a victim, as a defendant and as a prisoner robbed of her privacy.

In contrast to most of the other residents of the camp, Nelly left the GDR for personal reasons, as her partner Wassilij Batalow, with whom she has two children, disappeared a few years earlier; allegedly he committed suicide. In the interrogations with the American secret service, Nelly is proud and silent, she claims the right to privacy as a sign of freedom in the West.

The American secret service is remarkably well informed about the relationship between Wassilij and Nelly; Wassilij may have been a US spy who was exposed and therefore eliminated by the GDR authorities. Nelly behaves proudly and dismissively towards the American interrogators, vehemently claims her right to privacy, and draws parallels with her interrogators to the ongoing interrogations in the GDR, to which she was subjected after submitting her application to leave the country .

Nelly's children Aleksej and Katja are marginalized and teased at school because of their differences and their lack of property . Their son is even beaten up to such an extent that he has to spend several days in the hospital. The main culprit is his classmate Olivier, the son of the Rothe family, who are involved in refugee care. The Rothe family is a symbol of the self-righteous, condescending and hypocritical treatment of GDR refugees by the West German population.

Krystyna Jablonowska emigrated from Poland to West Berlin with her aging father and brother Jerzy, who is suffering from cancer, in order to be able to provide him with better medical treatment there. The single woman gave up her career as a cellist for this. Krystyna wears an old fur coat that gives an indication of her former well-off life in Poland. In the reception camp and also in West Berlin society, Krystyna loses her identity . Despite her knowledge of German, her employer repeatedly pretends to be unable to understand her in a fast-food restaurant . After the death of her brother, whose care became Krystyna's only motivation, she leaves Marienfelde and her father. She is the only one of the four storytellers who manages to leave the camp in the course of the novel. With this act, however, she disappears completely from the narrative - an indication of the identity-forming power of this close togetherness in the camp. All characters exist only as residents of the camp and in their perception by others, but not as individuals. Nelly Senff, who gets to know Krystyna and her father when she leaves her children in her care for a few hours, is the only character who takes on several roles in the course of the novel and whose identities do not only exist in the projection of others.

Hans Pischke is a former actor who has been living in the reception camp for four years. It shows most clearly how much the cramped space and the lack of privacy provoke the loss of identity. Hans, who had already spent several years in GDR prisons before his arrival in West Berlin, seems to be no longer able to exist outside the narrow confines of the camp. He refuses various job offers that would have led him out of the camp, and he does not maintain contact with people outside the camp. A friendly affection develops between him and Nelly, who at first thinks he is strange because he is constantly watching and following her. At the same time, Hans Pischke is the most obvious example of identity formation through the perception of others: although he was a critic of the regime in the GDR, a camp resident spreads the rumor that he was a stasis spy, whereupon he was brutally beaten. The identity as a spy sticks to him. Towards the end of the book, Hans learns that his fourteen-year-old daughter Doreen, with whom he had no contact before, will move to his camp to reunite families from the GDR. A closer relationship no longer develops between the two of them during the novel; on the night before their arrival, Hans even tries to take his own life, but his attempt at suicide fails.

The title of the novel arouses positive feelings of romance, freedom, cozy get-togethers at first. However, it refers to a fire that broke out in the canteen of the emergency room at the end of the novel during the Christmas party.

Autobiographical references

After moving to West Germany in 1978, Julia Franck lived with her mother and three sisters for nine months in the Marienfelde emergency reception center in West Berlin , where the novel is also set.

The author herself points out that she invented characters and plot freely, but that the atmosphere of fear and longing described in the novel is autobiographical. Personal memories, for example, of “the crampedness in the emergency reception center, the lack of separation between private and public” were included in the presentation. Topics rooted in personal experiences such as “the uncertainty and the breaks in people's lives” and questions about “identity, belonging” are central to the novel.

Critics praised the successful transformation of autobiographical material into literary material. Ulrich Rüdenauer said in the Frankfurter Rundschau: “The fact that her new novel Campfire is not an autobiographical report but a literary search for clues in a no man's land should be noted positively: The author distributes what she has experienced - the narrowness, the fear, the vacuum, the lack of communication - on different figures ”. Hans-Peter Kunisch (SZ) saw the “presumption of authenticity” disproved by “the complex narrative perspective” - one gains “the impression that the author is telling the material that is close to her”. Andreas Nentwich found in the NZZ that Julia Franck "had long since outgrown as an author to 'look for herself' in the experiences of her characters". And Cornelia Geissler wrote in the Berliner Zeitung: “Julia Franck [...] has processed her own experiences in the book. Processed in the sense of: used. Here there is neither a generally valid history processing nor an emotional review of how little Julia felt in the world between East and West ”.

subjects

Julia Franck herself formulated the essence of the novel in her acceptance speech for the awarding of the Marie-Luise-Kaschnitz Prize of the Evangelical Academy Tutzing , which she received in 2004 for campfires in particular :

“If I tried to write a piece from the interior of German-German history in my book, especially honored here, Campfire , it was less with the aim of playing off the good German democracy against the dire dictatorship of the GDR. Rather, the camp, as it existed between East and West Germany, is a symbol for all of Germany today. The mere description of the bureaucracy with which an administrative giant like Germany lives, which measures our heartbeat, was an attempt at a literary approach to us. Perhaps it is a book from the middle of our German waiting room: Prosperity, work, freedom and happiness - they are all eagerly expected - and during this time we stand on the threshold from one state to another, we are a little afraid, a little bit in love, and hope and expect - wait for happiness. "

In addition to the obvious political issues and the plight of the refugees between democracy, politicizability, political appropriation, individuality and the struggle for the right to private life, which is discussed in particular on the basis of Nelly's proud attitude and her persistent complaint of this right, campfire negotiates two issues that are discussed in Julia Franck's works are prominent: Motherhood and female emancipation. With her literary and journalistic contributions, the author takes a position on current debates on feminism, but she always illuminates these topics in the historical context of her stories. In doing so, she criticizes the rigid expectations society has of women with children.

As in other texts by the author, the fathers are absent from campfires or do not live their father role. Wassilij Batalow, Katja and Aleksej's father, has allegedly committed suicide, Hans Pischke has no contact with his daughter until puberty, and Krystyna's father insults his daughter instead of acknowledging her devotion to his brother and herself . Relationships between mothers and their children are presented from several angles. In addition to the prominent descriptions from Nelly's point of view, the reader also gains insights through the stories of the other characters, which creates tensions between the various interpretations for the reader, also with regard to this topic. When Nelly talks, she emphasizes her devotion to and close bond with her children. This becomes particularly clear in the first chapter, when Nelly worries about her children while they are being interrogated by the border guards. But her children also give her a feeling of perspective, routine and normality, especially during her own interviews at the border and in the camp and the humiliation that goes with them. Nelly's love for Aleksej and Katja is unquestionable, but she describes it as a physical manifestation of memory - objectifying it in her relationship to her own past in the GDR or to her love for her father. The love for her children remains equally strong, even if the camp life makes motherhood more difficult and the children seem to be a burden for her. The reader only doubts Nelly as a mother when she does it herself. This takes place in a conversation with a doctor after Aleksej is hospitalized with severe bruises after being assaulted by his classmates. Judging by the expectations of western society, Nelly failed as a mother: Aleksej is underweight, and Nelly is accused of abuse and neglect. Her unwillingness to take on a "low" job that does not meet her qualifications as a chemist can be admired on the one hand, but on the other hand it is incompatible with her motherhood, since problems for the children result from the family's financial hardship. Nelly enters into a constant battle against a western superficiality that focuses on outward appearance and origin. The identity of the refugees is constituted by what is offered to them in the West. As a mother, Nelly is judged based on the things she and her children do not have. It stands in stark contrast to Olivier's mother, Frau Rothe, who appears with her son at Aleksey's sickbed in riding clothes and gives the abused child a cassette as an excuse, which Aleksej cannot even play because he does not have a recorder. Julia Franck implicitly criticizes both types of mothers, both those who provide their child with the best material, but who do not come close to them emotionally, and those who do not prioritize their children sufficiently. Nelly blames the bureaucracy and institutions for her situation, and in response, she increasingly closes herself off to her children. This withdrawal from the family and the difficult emotional situation are particularly evident in the mother-daughter relationship. A central motif in Julia Franck's work is the daughter's longing for closeness to her mother, which she is denied because the mother reacts with silence and coldness. The mother's motivation for her behavior cannot be understood from the daughter's perspective. However, Nelly's character is much more complex than portrayed in her relationship with her daughter. She herself sees the reasons for the growing distance from her children as inevitable. Nelly's supposed failure as a mother highlights the extent to which her idea of ​​motherhood collides with Western expectations.

Central to the discussion of the role of motherhood in the novel is the extent to which women have to organize their own identity around their children. During the course of the novel, Nelly increasingly seeks contact with other adults. The reader evaluates Nelly based on the still popular assumption that mothers exist primarily or even exclusively for their children. Anger and motherhood are “unethical” in connection - in order to be angry as a mother, Nelly has to temporarily “stop” being a mother. For this purpose she slips into different roles. Motherhood is also a role, a part of her identity, and not her primary occupation in her current, impossible situation: Nelly has to be everything to herself, but also to her children.

Another central theme of campfires is the effects of (lack of) space on the identity of people in urban living spaces. The concept of “home” as a space in which people can develop freely is idealized, as only there intimacy seems possible. In the camp, on the other hand, the residents are severely limited in the development and unfolding of their identities due to the confined space. Only Nelly maintains a certain flexibility through her constant self-reflection within the limited possibilities and assumes different identities: From the perspective of the others, she is alternately a spy, philosopher, seductress or object of desire, young (overwhelmed and pathetic) mother and (for Hans) "Czech fairy tale princess"; their perception of themselves, e.g. B. as a chemist is sometimes in sharp contrast to these external ascriptions. The identity of the other camp residents is primarily determined by others instead of themselves. The characters, especially Krystyna and Hans, adapt to these new roles assigned to them. Krystyna seems to be the only one aware of the identities they all share with one another (refugees, strangers, immigrants, working poor); she is also the only one who manages to leave the camp in the end. Even the identity of John Bird, who is not a resident of the camp, is only determined by his job, which in turn is directly related to Marienfelde. And this identity permeates his thoughts and actions and thus also the scope of relationships with others.

In Julia Franck's work, the closest relationships always exist between siblings. So also in the campfire in the case of Aleksej and Katja. The shared experiences, from interrogation by the GDR border guards to the exclusion in the new school, strengthen their camaraderie and understanding for one another.

Despite their escape from the GDR, the figures remain stuck in a campfire in a space between the past and the future, from which they cannot escape. An important symbol for the motive of the foiled flight is the raven with the broken wing, which Aleksej and Katja pick up in order to care for him.

In his laudation for Julia Franck on the occasion of the awarding of the Marie Luise Kaschnitz Prize, Arnold Stadler said : “In the book Campfire , people are candidates for misfortune and life is not a quiz, but a series of circumstances. Less talented authors would settle accounts with those responsible, research into the nature of a non-fiction book and name them. But Franck visualizes people, lets them be and stay. With the past and the future. [...] Julia Franck put a memorial to these people in which we can read, including ourselves, soon we were so drawn into it as if these stories were ours, but we also have our little escape story ”.

reception

According to Edo Reentz, the public mostly deals with escapes from the GDR with dogged suspicion or funny nostalgia . With a campfire , Julia Franck succeeded in writing a novel about an emigration "that breathes the spirit of this epic justice". When he tells the story from four perspectives, Campfire neither bans his characters nor excuses them, the reader waits in vain for a settlement with the GDR. The tone is laconic and at times relentless, always free from clichés, Julia Franck tells both small details and particularly difficult scenes. For Edo Reentz, what is special about the strongly autobiographical novel is that for the protagonist Nelly Sennf, "security and prosperity, even freedom" are relative figures that she does not fall for in the West either. "We haven't had a novel like this before." Edo Reentz: A lot of news in the west, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 7, 2003

Hans-Peter Kunisch first explains that Julia Franck herself came across the GDR border to West Berlin as a child and lived in the Marienfelde reception camp, where a considerable part of the campfire takes place. That, in his opinion, is an essential part of the attraction of the novel. Nevertheless, the author succeeds in telling the material that is close to her away from herself. The language is unadorned and clear, Franck avoids unambiguous statements on the story and reminds of Heinrich Böll or Martin Walser. Kunisch praises the fact that the most difficult scenes are particularly well written. The four different narrative perspectives create a "historical-political overview", but only Nelly Senff's point of view is convincing throughout. "Behind the historical framework of the novel, however, the image of the equally courageous and vulnerable, equally attractive and tenacious, equally hopeless and loving mother shines out. Above all, Julia Franck has set a monument to her with this novel." Hans-Peter Kunisch: Insecure refugee movement, Süddeutsche Zeitung, September 30, 2003

Ulrich Rüdenauer points to the autobiographical echoes of the novel, but at the same time points out that it is much more of a "literary search for traces in a no man's land". "The author distributes what she has experienced - the narrowness, the fear, the vacuum, the lack of communication - among different characters and creates a small, intense episode drama." The author describes the terrible time in the reception center with unadorned, sometimes smooth, but all the more haunting language that appropriately reflects the hopelessness of the protagonists. Julia Franck chose a strange linguistic composure for incomprehensible conditions and would always find the right nuances - without any romanticism or melancholy. According to Ulrich Rüdenauer, the weakness of the novel lies in some of the somewhat strikingly told passages, such as the interrogation of Nelly by the American secret service, which appears to be "traced out of gray files". "The fact that something is told with a campfire that goes far beyond the currently fashionable ridiculization and nostalgicization of the GDR reality makes an impression." Ulrich Rüdenauer: Traumzestörungspassage, Frankfurter Rundschau, October 8, 2003

According to Sabine Peters, Julia Franck dedicates herself in Campfire to the Cold War, which is rarely dealt with in literary terms - a topic that is related to the story of her life. Nevertheless, these experiences flow more in the background, primarily about four different protagonists. These should be on an equal footing, which, according to Peters, does not always succeed: Krystina and Pischke pale next to Nelly Senff and the American secret service man John Bird, who, as the embodiment of power, represents an important antithesis to the other figures. Peters sees a further weakness in the construction of the novel, which sometimes seems somewhat implausibly structured. "With distance and discretion", Franck describes the characters who, above all, experience disillusion in the Marienfelde reception center and who do not experience the promised freedom in the West. With this portrayal, Julia Franck does not become larmoyant, with a campfire she does not present an "indictment that has congealed into the novel". The novel does not psychologize or even work up therapeutically, it shows more than it explains. "There is a distance that has something considerate and tactful about not getting too close; this is how it is in campfires - and this creates a space that enables readers to approach the feelings of the characters." Sabine Peters: Cool mood, Deutschlandfunk Büchermarkt, October 29, 2003

For Thomas Brussig, leaving home is a decisive experience and a great narrative, especially when it is a collective experience, such as escapes and emigrations from the GDR. Yet, in his view, little of note was written about it. Julia Franck succeeded in doing just that. The young author tells the story in a concentrated and unobtrusive way, with clear language and enigmatic characters. In bonfire is told from the perspectives of four protagonists, but which were clearly separated from each other - "annoying guesswork" be spared so the reader. Franck avoided the "meaningless and literarily deadly three letters GDR" and devoted himself more to the promises of the West and the supposed promise of freedom. According to Brussig, Julia Franck narrates "almost with the consistency of a Brechtian didactic play" and approaches the topic with confidence, despite its autobiographical echoes. "A stroke of luck: Campfire is a very remarkable novel." Thomas Brussig: Rough Landing, Spiegel, September 29, 2003

filming

Campfire was filmed for the cinema in 2012-2013 under the title " West ". Directed by Christian Schwochow , Jördis Triebel , Anja Antonowicz , Alexander Scheer and Jacky Ido play the leading roles .

During the years of development of the script, several authors worked on different versions, including Julia Franck herself. The script on which the film is now based is a free adaptation of the novel by Heide Schwochow .

While the novel is characterized by its multiple perspectives, the film has a clear main character in Nelly Senff, played by Jördis Triebel, who is followed by the dramaturgy. The fire, to which the title of the novel refers, no longer exists in the film adaptation.

The film had its world premiere on August 25, 2013 at the Festival des Films du Mondes in Montreal , where it received the award of the FIPRESCI film critics and journalists association in the “World Competition” section of the festival; Jördis Triebel was named “Best Actress”.

The film premiered in Germany on October 25, 2013 at the Hof International Film Festival.

The first reviewers particularly praised Triebel's performance and Schwochow's sensitive handling of German-German issues, but they also criticized various aspects of the film. While Ronnie Scheib in Variety criticized the psychological construction of the film character Nelly Senff as too little specific and colorful, whereby “West” got entangled in details, Kerstin Decker criticized the, from her point of view, too sudden and all too harmonious end of the film in the Tagesspiegel.

expenditure

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.fischerverlage.de/rights/foreign_rights/book/lagerfeuer/9783596179527
  2. ↑ Antje Schmelcher: Julia Franck: "Scars are often numb". In: welt.de . August 28, 2003. Retrieved October 7, 2018 .
  3. ↑ CLAUDIA VOIGT: Inside the wall . In: Der Spiegel . No. 9 , 2003 ( online - Aug. 25, 2003 ).
  4. ↑ http://www.fu-berlin.de/campusleben/campus/2013/130704_lagerfeuer/
  5. ↑ http://www.fu-berlin.de/campusleben/campus/2013/130704_lagerfeuer/
  6. ↑ http://www.fu-berlin.de/campusleben/campus/2013/130704_lagerfeuer/
  7. ↑ https://www.fr.de/kultur/literatur/traumzerstoerungspassage-11723174.html
  8. ↑ http://www.buecher.de/shop/berlin/lagerfeuer/franck-julia/products_products/detail/prod_id/33371844/
  9. ↑ http://www.perlentaucher.de/buch/julia-franck/lagerfeuer.html
  10. ↑ http://www.berliner-zeitung.de/archiv/julia-franck-hat-einen-roman-ueber-menschen-im-notaufnahmelager-marienfelde-geschritten-lagerkind,10810590,10110150.html
  11. ↑ http://web.ev-akademie-tutzing.de/cms/uploads/media/Marie_Luise_Kaschnitz-Preis.pdf
  12. ↑ http://web.ev-akademie-tutzing.de/cms/uploads/media/Marie_Luise_Kaschnitz-Preis.pdf
  13. ↑ http://www.buecher.de/shop/buecher/lagerfeuer/franck-julia/products_products/detail/prod_id/11863475/
  14. ↑ http://www.buecher.de/shop/buecher/lagerfeuer/franck-julia/products_products/detail/prod_id/11863475/
  15. ↑ https://www.fr.de/kultur/literatur/traumzerstoerungspassage-11723174.html
  16. ↑ http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/kuehle-lagerstimmen.700.de.html?dram:article_id=81443
  17. ↑ Thomas Brussig: LITERATURE: Rough landing . In: Der Spiegel . No. 40 , 2003 ( online - 29 September 2003 ).
  18. ↑ http://www.crew-united.com/?show=projectdata&ID=163093 and - ( Memento from June 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  19. ↑ - ( Memento from November 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) 13973 / WESTENPreiseMontreal130903.pdf
  20. ↑ http://www.hofer-filmtage.com/festival2011/filme-2013-details/film/westen.4337/
  21. ↑ http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/west-review-montreal-1200680119/
  22. ^ Hanns-Georg Rodek: Festival von Hof: Houston, we have a problem with these films. In: welt.de . October 28, 2013, accessed October 7, 2018 .