Magic Hoffmann

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Magic Hoffmann is a novel by the German writer Jakob Arjouni that was published by Diogenes Verlag in 1996 and deals with various socio-critical aspects of the Federal Republic of Germany in the period after the fall of the Wall .

content

Magic Hoffmann is a development novel in the style of a road movie . Using the main character Fred, who tries not to let outside influences get down, Jakob Arjouni shows an accurate picture of the reunified republic. The main venue is Berlin after the fall of the Wall.

Protagonists

Fred "Magic" Hoffmann

The main character is a stubborn and headstrong but loyal young man whose mental development seems to have stalled in the post-pubertal stage. He is disinterested in all things that do not affect him directly, he lacks qualities such as adaptability, respect and tact, which is why he often seems out of place and is perceived as a disruptive factor. Because of his naivety, he doesn't get along with the city of Berlin as such, he is a simple-minded provincial from Hesse. Because he has no empathy and stubbornly sticks to his plans without paying attention to changed facts, he stumbles from one catastrophe to the next in the novel, but he manages to get back on his feet every time (stand up man).

Annette Schöller

Fred's former best friend is a dreamy young woman. After separating from Nickel, she is looking for freedom and independence, which is why she eventually ends up in the film and television production Megastars , in which all of them practice an alternative, liberal lifestyle, but in which she is also used as a sidekick. She has finished with her old life and does not feel obliged to keep her old promises.

Nikolas "Nickel" room

Fred's former best friend is an alternative German studies student and family man who, despite qualities such as a sense of duty and loyalty, does not keep his promise to Fred. He is easily influenced by others and he likes to live on the safe side.

Monika "Moni" Sergejew

Moni is the only one who can understand Fred in a certain way. Because of her gambling addiction, she is forced to stay in the shabby Hotel Glück, where at night, after her ballet lessons, she sews patchwork jackets that she sells to Russian businessmen. Moni does everything to realize her big dream of becoming a prima ballerina, a fact that connects her to Fred. She is serene and far from any naivete, which helps her to find her way in the big city of Berlin.

action

After Fred Hoffmann is released from the correctional facility after a four-year prison sentence that he has to serve due to a bank robbery, he waits for his two accomplices, whom he covered, his friends Anette and Nickel, who have since moved from the small town of Dieburg to Berlin . When he is transferred by both of them, he goes to see them in Berlin. His reunion with Annette went wrong from the start. She is embarrassed in front of her new friends and she no longer holds on to the shared dream of building a new life in Canada with the money from the bank robbery. Disappointed, he gets drunk in Cafe Budapest, where he is the victim of fraud and has to break free from his situation by means of violence, so that the police want him from now on.

So Fred starts looking for nickel. While he is waiting to see him at a lecture at the Free University of Berlin , he meets Moni in the hotel where he lives, who immediately fascinates him. He accompanies her as she takes off her patchwork jackets and finally falls in love with her. His reunion with Nickel is anything but positive. Nickel is now a father, and although he feels indebted to Fred, he too has written off Canada .

When he realizes his dream is beginning to fade, Fred demands his share of the loot from the bank robbery and even blackmailed Nickel by threatening to report him. Moni is the only one who is enthusiastic about going to Canada with Fred and so they decide that Moni will join Fred after graduating from the ballet school, who wants to come to Canada on a ship. As soon as Fred has obtained a new passport, he wants to take the train to the sea.

When he said goodbye to Moni at the train station, both of them get into a fight between supporters of the Antifa and neo-Nazis , in which Moni is killed. Fred is interrogated by the police who recognize his stolen passport and ultimately identify him as the thug from Cafe Budapest. The novel ends with the fact that three and a half years later at Christmas, Fred was probably back in prison before that, the novel skips this time, Anette and Nickel accidentally meet in Dieburger Edeka-Markt. When they ask for Coke, Fred Hoffmann brings a box and looks down on the floor, concerned. Anette and Nickel leave without exchanging a word with Fred and when his boss asks: "Something wrong, Hoffmann?" , Fred answers characteristic with the sentence: "I told you a hundred times: Call me Hopeman!"

criticism

“And all readers love Hoffmann: Jakob Arjouni is writing a novel about the united capital, a novel about loyalty to oneself, about broken promises, changed values, lost friendships and the overwhelming power of time. A literary delight: exciting, tragicomic and full of speed. ” Harald Jähner, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

“After three big city thrillers about the Frankfurt private detective Kayankaya, Jakob Arjouni has written his first Berlin novel: funny and gripping, like everything from him.” Daniel Brunner, Annabelle, Zurich

Text output

References and comments

  1. ↑ p. 17
  2. ↑ p. 77
  3. ↑ p. 99
  4. ↑ p. 111
  5. ↑ p. 151
  6. ↑ p. 189
  7. ↑ p. 192
  8. ↑ p. 225
  9. ↑ p. 213
  10. ↑ p. 276
  11. ↑ p. 278
  12. ↑ p. 279
  13. ↑ p. 281