Maigret

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Maigret, depicted on a sculpture by Pieter d'Hont, which was erected in Delfzijl in 1966

Jules Maigret is a literary figure of the Belgian writer Georges Simenon . He is the main character in 75 novels and 28 short stories that Simenon wrote over a period of over 40 years. The crime novels are also referred to as Maigret novels , in contrast to Simenon's non-Maigret novels , which have other main characters and are often not part of the crime fiction genre. In contrast to the classic Whodunit , the focus in the Maigret novels is less on identifying the perpetrator than on the psychological motive behind the crime.

Maigret is a Commissioner of the Paris Criminal middle-aged burly figure. Typical props are bowler hats, cloak and pipe, typical traits of Maigret's unshakable calm, his empathy when solving a crime and his understanding of the perpetrators, who do not allow him to judge their actions. Numerous actors embodied the character in films and television series. According to Simenon, he thought up his protagonist in 1929 in a café in Delfzijl, the Netherlands .

History of origin

In the 1920s, Georges Simenon was an extremely prolific author of dime novels and short stories from various genres of trivial literature , which he published under a variety of pseudonyms . At the end of the decade he preferred to write on board two boats with which he traveled the rivers and canals of France in 1928 and the Atlantic coast via Belgium, the Netherlands and the Baltic Sea in the following year. It was on these trips that Simenon first developed the character Maigret, which would make him famous.

Commemorative plaque in Delfzijl, the invention Maigret and the novel Maigret and the crime in Holland reminds

Simenon later described that his boat, the Ostrogoth , was anchored in the port of Delfzijl, a city in the northern Netherlands, in the winter of 1929/1930. He was sitting in a café on a sunny morning and had had a drink: "Anyway, after an hour, a little sleepy, I gradually saw the powerful, immobile stature of a man who seemed to make a real commissioner for me." Figure with various props from: “a pipe, a bowler hat on his head, a thick overcoat with a velvet collar. And because it was so damp and cold in my abandoned boat, I approved an old cannon stove for his office . ”The next day Simenon wrote the first chapter of Maigret's first novel, Pietr-le-Letton , which was completed a few days later was.

In contradiction to these statements, the Simenon research deciphered that although Pietr-le-Letton was the first of the 75 Maigret novels known today, the figure Maigret had appeared in four previously written novels that were published under a pseudonym In L'amant sans nom as a nameless, massive, pipe-smoking detective N. 49 and in Train de nuit for the first time as a quiet detective with the name Maigret who understands the criminals. In La femme rousse Maigret was still completely in the shadow of his assistant Torrence, and it was only in La maison d'inquiétude that he became the main character for the first time. Contrary to Simenon's memory, it was Train de nuit or La maison d'inquiétude , which was created in Delfzijl, albeit in September 1929, whereas Pietr-le-Letton was probably not completed in Paris until the spring / summer of 1930. Pietr-le-Letton was also not the start of the successful series, because Simenon's publishing house Fayard had the author finish a few volumes in advance and opened the Maigret series in February 1931 with two books written later: Monsieur Gallet, décédé and Le Pendu de Saint- Pholien .

The Maigret novels were the first works that Simenon published under his real name rather than under a pseudonym. Despite its great success, Simenon discontinued the series in 1934 after nineteen novels. In the final volume with the simple title Maigret (German: Maigret and his nephew ) the commissioner was already retired. Simenon, who, in his own words, viewed the Maigrets as “semi-literary novels”, as a “safety net” on the way to real literature, turned from 1934 onwards exclusively to the non-Maigret novels , with which he made a name for himself as a serious man of letters wanted to. But just four years later, the first Maigret stories appeared in various newspapers. In 1942 Simenon finally returned to his most popular creation with novels in the form of an anthology under the title Maigret revient (Maigret returns). From then on, the Maigret and Non-Maigret novels were written in constant change, until Simenon finally withdrew from fictional works in 1972. His last novel was again a Maigret novel: Maigret et Monsieur Charles .

The Maigret series is often subdivided into different periods according to the time it was created. Stanley G. Eskin distinguishes between the three publishers in which Simenon published, the “Fayard-Maigret” of the first 19 novels, the “ Gallimard- Maigret” of the years during the Second World War, and the “Presses-de-la-Cité- Maigret ”after Simenon's move to America. Josef Quack divides the last phase again into two periods, in the first of which the detective novel is still closely linked to the psychological novel, while the novels of the last period with their general questions about guilt and crime hardly obey the principles of a detective novel.

Over the years, a whole series of inconsistencies crept into the Maigret series, including different first names and dates of birth of the protagonist. According to Simenon's biographer Fenton Bresler, the novels were sometimes "sloppily designed". In the first novel in the series, Pietr-le-Letton, Maigret's assistant Torrence was killed, which did not prevent Simenon from joining him again at Maigret's side in the subsequent novels. Simenon later admitted that he had simply forgotten that Torrence had already died. In Maigret's memoirs , Simenon takes a self-deprecating focus on his mistakes and has Maigret report: “Simenon's books are on a shelf in my library. I have patiently marked everything that is wrong with blue pencil [...]. Perhaps what irritated me most is his bad habit of confusing data ”.

Fictional biography

Birth and youth

Maigret's first name is Jules. In later embellishments - or as Stanley G. Eskin notes, "out of authorial forgetfulness" - further first names were added. His full name in Maigret's first study is Jules Amédée François Maigret, while in Maigret and his revolver it is Jules-Joseph Anthelme Maigret. Maigret's date of birth can be determined differently from three novels. In Maigret and the late Monsieur Gallet he was 45 years old on June 27, 1930, Maigret's first examination dates the young police officer on April 15, 1913 to be 26 years old. The novel Maigret and the Lonely Man , who is set in August 1965 and in which Maigret “soon turned fifty-five” , finally leads to a completely different year of birth . Various Maigret researchers have tried to smooth the contradicting information about Maigret's age in the course of the series into chronologies.

Center of Paray-le-Frésil , the real model of Maigret's birthplace Saint-Fiacre

Maigret was born in the steward's house of the Saint-Fiacre castle near the town of Moulins in the Allier department . His father, Évariste Maigret, was the manager of the castle for thirty years. In Maigret and the Saint-Fiacre affair , Maigret returns to his birthplace and has to witness the decline of the count's estate. Simenon Paray-le-Frésil , whom he met in 1931 as the private secretary of the Marquis d'Estutt de Tracy, served as a real model for the fictional town of Saint-Fiacre . Maigret attended the Lycée Banville in Moulins. His mother died of complications giving birth to their second child when Maigret was eight years old. The boy then lived with his aunt in Nantes , where he studied medicine for two years. When his father died of pleurisy at the age of 44, Maigret dropped out of college and went to Paris to earn money. Deviating from this, Maigret and Pietr der Lette speak of studying medicine at the Sorbonne in Paris' Latin Quarter .

Police career

Quai des Orfèvres as seen from the Seine

Maigret came to the police through Inspector Jacquemain, a roommate in his Paris guesthouse. In the young Maigret he evoked his childhood dream of getting to the Quai des Orfèvres , the headquarters of the Paris criminal police. But before that, Maigret had to prove himself in the unloved uniform on patrol duty, guarding train stations and department stores and going through stations with the Paris customs and immigration police . Maigret was sponsored by Xavier Guichard, the head of the Paris criminal police, who was acquainted with his father. In fact, the real head of the Paris Criminal Police was Xavier Guichard, and he had invited Simenon for a behind-the-scenes tour of the Quai des Orfèvres after the success of his first novels.

Maigret's first investigation is described in Maigret's first investigation . At the time he was 26 years old, had been with the police for four years and held the post of commissariat secretary at the Saint-Georges police station in the 9th arrondissement . After Maigret has found out more than his superiors would like, he is promoted to inspector and transferred to the police brigade of Commissioner Barodet. He served as a minor inspector for around twenty years until he was appointed commissioner and head of the homicide squad . In Maigret before the jury , two years before his retirement, Maigret holds the rank of chief commissioner (in the French original: commissaire divisionnaire). As the culmination of his career, Maigret and Monsieur Charles offered him the position of "Grand Chief", the head of the criminal investigation department, but he turned down the promotion so that he could continue to intervene personally in the investigation.

View of the Place Dauphine , in the foreground the former Café Aux Trois Marches

In Maigret's office there is an old cast-iron stove that was the only one to survive the installation of central heating in the building. Maigret successfully fought the stove with the police administration. If a pending case does not allow him to have dinner with his wife, the inspector spends his lunch breaks in the nearby brasserie Dauphine . During long interrogations it has become a ritual that he has beer and sandwiches delivered to his office from there so that the police and suspects can strengthen themselves together. The real model of the brasserie was the Café Aux Trois Marches (on three steps) on the Place Dauphine .

The inspector is assisted in his investigation by a steady trunk of inspectors . Maigret works particularly closely with Lucas, who takes over his office after his retirement. Lucas is also stocky, but a head shorter and only half the width of his boss. He tends to imitate Maigret down to the smallest detail, so that he often looks like his "copy". In some non-Maigret novels too, Lucas, who was promoted to commissioner, embodies the police investigation, for example in The Man Who Was Watching the Trains . Torrence is also described as "fat" when he leaves the criminal investigation department to set up his own detective agency. This detective agency forms the background of non-Maigret bands Les Dossiers de l'Agence O . Two younger inspectors in Maigret's brigade are Janvier and Lapointe. The nickname “Little”, which Janvier first wore, was reserved for the young Lapointe from his first appearance in Madame Maigret's girlfriend , for whom the childless inspector developed almost fatherly feelings. Not a direct subordinate is the always grumpy Inspector Lognon alias Inspector Curmudgeon from the 18th arrondissement , whose irregular tragicomic appearances are nevertheless reflected in the title of a short story and a novel ( Maigret and Inspector Currowth , Maigret, Lognon and the gangsters ). The staff also include Moers from the identification service and the coroner Dr. Paul.

As a famous commissioner, Maigret is repeatedly called to the province. In Maigret and the old lady , the Minister of Justice even intervenes personally and orders the Commissioner to Normandy . As a result of a punitive transfer, Maigret spends an extended period in Luçon in the Vendée department , where Maigret plays in the judge's house . In My Friend Maigret , Inspector Pyke of Scotland Yard follows Maigret's investigation on the Mediterranean island of Porquerolles to learn about his French colleague's famous "method". Maigret and his revolver describes the return visit of the French commissioner in London , Maigret in Arizona a study visit as a guest of the FBI in the USA. On other occasions, such as in Maigret with the Flemings, Maigret investigates privately and in the end takes the risk not to turn the guilty over to the police, but to leave them to their fate. In Maigret in Nöten , well before the age limit, the commissioner submits a request for retirement, which is granted. Even after his retirement, Maigret continues to investigate, for example in Maigret and his nephew , Maigret gets upset and Maigret in New York , where an assignment takes him to New York .

Private life

Street sign of Boulevard Richard-Lenoir in Paris

Maigret has been married to Madame Maigret since the end of 1912, as she is mostly called in the novels. The Maigret couple address each other neither by first name nor by nickname, because, as it is called in Maigret and the Ghost , “in a certain way felt as if they were one and the same person.” If he is mentioned, there is different versions for Madame Maigret's first names. In the short story Madame Maigret's Lover she is called Henriette, in Maigret's memoir she is called Louise and comes from the Alsatian Léonard family, whose members have been building roads and bridges for generations. The memoir also describes how Maigret met his wife at a party in her uncle's house.

According to Lucille F. Becker, Madame Maigret is the prototype of an old-fashioned and unemancipated housewife, whose role is mostly limited to keeping the food warm for her husband. Simenon, on the other hand, described her as his ideal concept of a wife. Madame Maigret rarely intervenes directly in her husband's investigations, most of the time he doesn't even talk to her about his cases, but when her information proves useful to her husband, she takes pride in it. The couple have no children, which is a sore point in their relationship, and Madame Maigret's particular grief. One daughter died shortly after giving birth. Maigret's nephew, the son of his wife's sister, Philippe Lauer also takes up the police profession, as is described in Maigret and his nephew . However, he proves to be unable to cope with the work and quits the job to take a job in his father-in-law's soap factory.

The Maigrets lived in their apartment on Boulevard Richard-Lenoir as early as 1913 . Although they are looking for “something better”, they live at this address for the next 30 years and later rent a neighboring apartment. House number 132 is only revealed in one novel, Maigret and his dead . According to Michel Carly, the address is considered the French version of 221b Baker Street . As they get older, the Maigrets move to a retirement home in Meung-sur-Loire , where Maigret gardens in his vegetable garden, likes to wear a straw hat in summer and regularly plays cards in the village pub. In contrast to his wife, the inspector does not have a driver's license and is therefore occasionally chauffeured by Madame Maigret.

In Maigret's private life there are few close acquaintances with whom he has dealings. His closest friend is from Roman Maigret and his revolver to the doctor Dr. Pardon Maigret made acquainted with the coroner Jussieu. Since then, the couples have been visiting each other regularly and the two men prefer to discuss their professions. The encounter with Maigret's childhood friends Léon Florentin in Maigret's childhood friend , Ferdinand Fumal in Maigret, experiences a defeat , Ernest Malik in Maigret gets upset or the student friend Julien Chabot in Maigret is afraid arouses rather negative feelings .

Appearance and mentality

A melon is also a typical feature of Maigrets ...
... like the pipe that its creator Simenon liked to smoke.

Maigret is, according to Maigret, fighting for the head of a man "six feet tall, strong and broad like a porter in the Paris market halls". At the age of 45, his weight is 100 kilograms or, according to other data, 210 pounds. In Maigret and the Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien , his description is: “A tall, heavily built person with projecting shoulders.” He has a “fleshy face whose features give the impression that they have been kneaded in unimaginative tone with strong thumb pressure”. Typical items of clothing in Maigrets include a bowler hat and an overcoat with a velvet collar. Maigret smokes a pipe, and Maigret's pipe even gave a story its title. He eats with pleasure and in large portions and likes to add alcohol. He often remains loyal to a certain drink throughout his investigations, but his favorite drink is beer .

The intimidating effect of Maigret's imposing stature is paired with an often ostentatiously displayed calm and persistence. In Maigret and the Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien it says at one point: “Something inexorably and inhuman emanated from his entire appearance, reminiscent of a pachyderm who trudges towards a goal and no longer lets any power in the world dissuade him . “At the same time Maigret is characterized by a great humanity , by sympathy, compassion and understanding for the individual. Maigret's ethics are “do not judge” and his investigations are more about understanding the crime than condemning the perpetrator. Above all, he regards the "little people" as "his people" to whom he feels he belongs. For Maigret, a feeling of togetherness arises between little crooks and the police, which he explains in Maigret's memoir : “We stand on this side and beyond the barrier, that's for sure. But we're also in the same boat to a certain extent. "

Maigret, on the other hand, always keeps his distance from representatives of the bourgeoisie or the aristocracy . According to the description in Maigret and the cellars of the "Majestic" , Maigret is "a plebeian to the bone, to the core". In the ambience of a luxury hotel, he does not feel he belongs and reacts with hostility. As the investigating commissioner, Maigret is often in conflict with the examining magistrate assigned to him . Simenon himself described in an interview: “Maigret found the encounters with certain investigating judges unbearable, who could certainly be very amiable, but belonged to the bourgeoisie and thought they could do their profession without understanding anything about people, simply by being followed civic principles that had been inoculated into them. What kind of right can you speak? ”The examining magistrate Coméliau, who also has an independent appearance in the non-Maigret novel Letter to my judge , becomes a permanent antagonist in the Maigret series .

Maigret's method

Maigret's famous "method" is presented in numerous novels in the series. His successes in investigations are based on intuition , which Maigret trusts far more than a meticulous scientific approach. Maigret's admission , for example, states that “the Commissioner distrusted rational arguments”, logic and “ common sense ”, the application of which would have contributed to some of the most appalling legal errors. Maigret's intuition is fed by his imagination and empathy, for example when he reconstructs the life of a young girl in Maigret and the young dead , until his understanding of her nature finally convicts the perpetrator. Maigret's inspiration, which is often triggered by a key stimulus, is often compared to the way a novelist works, especially that of his creator Simenon. Similar to the way Simenon incubated his novels for a long time, only to write them down in a brief, intense state of intoxication, Maigret also apparently sinks into passivity and indifference until, at a certain moment, with a "click", as it were, he senses that he is on the right track from which he does not give up again with an outbreak of activity and his own persistence.

In his occupation as a detective inspector, Maigret is often compared to a doctor "whom one called in the greatest need and in whose hands the patient has laid his fate." In Maigret's first investigation , Simenon describes Maigret's secret career aspiration as "doctor and priest in one Man who saw someone else's fate at first sight. [...] You would have gone to this man and asked him for advice, just as you would see a doctor. He would have been something of a 'tinker with fate' [...] because he could put himself in the lives of all people, in the shoes of all people. "Although Maigret ended up with the police after dropping out of medical studies, he now asks himself: “Aren't police officers sometimes 'tinkerers'?” His special ability as a “raccommodeur de destins” (“repairman, patchwork cutter, corrector for fates”), who ultimately leads his cases to a satisfactory solution, has become a constant phrase for the inspector who, in Maigret's memoir , refers to having introduced the phrase himself.

role models

Memorial plaque for the Liège police officers killed in the resistance during the German occupation, including Arnold Maigret

There are a number of theories about the possible models of Maigret. In Simenon's hometown of Liege there was indeed a police officer named Maigret whom Simenon may have met while working as a police reporter. Arnold Maigret was deported under the German occupation of Belgium and died in a concentration camp . Simenon himself referred to other police officers who would have had an influence on the character of Maigret: a friend of his grandfather and retired commissioner named Saint-Hubert, as well as two star police officers in France at the time: Georges Massu and Marcel Guillaume. On the other hand, he borrowed the name Maigret from a neighbor on the Place des Vosges in Paris , who later complained to the famous writer that his name was used for an "ordinary policeman".

There are also role models for the Maigret character in Simenon's family. The biographer Patrick Marnham refers to Simenon's great-grandfather and paternal grandfather for comparable stature and authority, and to Simenon's father Désiré for his calm and understanding, especially for his son's escapades. Simenon, who idealized and adored his father all his life, stated himself to have passed on some of his character traits to Maigret. In an interview he also confessed: "I wanted to give Maigret the age of my father".

There are also numerous parallels to Simenon's own biography: Maigret shares some childhood memories of his author, who himself had lived in Paris for ten years and allowed the commissioner of the Paris Criminal Police to travel to many other places he visited. Like Maigret, Simenon smoked a pipe and shared his predilection for eating and drinking. When asked about the similarity between author and character, however, he gave very different answers. In 1963 he insisted: “The claim that I identify with Maigret is another legend. I never imagined I resembled Maigret. ”In 1976, on the other hand, he called Maigret“ one of the few characters I created with whom I had something in common ”.

Position in crime fiction

According to Ulrich Schulz-Buschhaus, the classic detective novel consists of a mixture of the components mystery , action and analysis . In the Maigret novels, on the other hand, the first two elements take a back seat to the psychological analysis. The focus is not on the search for the perpetrator, but on understanding the act. At Simenon's crime there is no aura of mystery about it, it arises from everyday life and has itself become everyday occurrence. The perpetrators are not demonic criminals, but ordinary citizens whose act arises from a crisis situation. Maigret is not an eccentric detective either, but a petty bourgeois who is integrated into the police apparatus . In their ordinariness, the commissioner and the perpetrator alike become figures of identification for the reader.

For Helmut Heißenbüttel there were two classic types of detectives before Maigret's appearance: those who solve their cases primarily through violence, and those in the tradition of Auguste Dupin or Sherlock Holmes who solve their cases through logical conclusions. In the character of the Commissioner Maigret he sees a “decisive transitional position” for the development of the genre of the detective novel and a new “prototype” that creeps into the suspects' lives in the guise of a “rural urban petty bourgeois”. Due to the close proximity of the commissioner to the perpetrator and victim to the point of identification, there is a “suffering bond” which can lead to the fact that in the end he even covers the perpetrator or allows himself to be judged. According to Reclam's detective novelist , Maigret is "the exact opposite of Holmes". His approach is based on familiarizing himself with the milieu of the case, talking to the people, drinking and observing their reactions until one of those involved proves to be unable to cope with the “massive personality of Maigret” and the inspector explains the background of the Crime revealed.

Simenon was little influenced by contemporary or classic crime fiction in creating his character Maigret and the novels in the series. He was not very interested in other crime writers and read only a few crime novels. Julian Symons evaluates: “The Maigret novels stand on their own in the field of crime fiction, yes they have little relation to the other works of the genre.” Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac even go so far that Simenon's novels are actually no crime fiction at all . Although he uses the technology of the genre, but with his focus on the background of human behavior, “one cannot count him among the detective novelists. Thanks to a misunderstanding, Maigret is considered one of the greatest detectives. "

Nevertheless, the Maigret novels were groundbreaking for a new, psychologically shaped type of crime fiction, which Boileau and Narcejac or Patricia Highsmith , for example , embody. In this respect, Arnold Arens sees “Simenon's innovative achievement” comparable to that of Dashiell Hammett , the “father” of the hardboiled detective . The first German-language crime writer of importance, Friedrich Glauser , created his figure of Sergeant Studer based on Maigret's model. According to Walter Obschlager, Glauser took over "content, atmospheric, even linguistic elements" from Maigret fights for a man's head in his first crime novel, Schlumpf Erwin Mord . Even Friedrich Dürrenmatt's detective novels show a relationship to Simenon's Maigret series. According to Armin Arnold, Maigret's first investigation was the inspiration for The Judge and His Executioner , and Reclam's crime novelist traces the plot of The Promise back to Maigret . Ultimately, Ulrich Schulz-Buschhaus sees the “mixture of adventure and comfort” of the stereotypically transfigured police work at the center of German television crime series such as Derrick or The Old Man significantly influenced by the Maigret series.

Works and adaptations

Novels and short stories

The 75 novels of the Maigret series were published in the original French by three Parisian publishers. The first 19 novels by Monsieur Gallet, décédé and Le Pendu de Saint-Pholien until the planned conclusion of the series with the simple title Maigret published from 1931 to 1934 Simenon's house publisher Fayard . During the Second World War, the Editions Gallimard published the two anthologies Maigret revenant and Signé Picpus in 1942 and 1944, each with three new Maigret novels. The majority of the 28 Maigret stories were written during the war years and, after being published for the first time in various magazines, appeared in book editions by Gallimard . When he moved to America, Simenon switched to Presses de la Cité , which published Simenon's works from the volume La Pipe de Maigret in 1947 to the last novel Maigret et Monsieur Charles in 1972.

The first German translations appeared in the Schlesische Verlagsanstalt between 1934 and 1935 . The author was Germanized as "Georg Simenon", while Harold Effberg, a pseudonym of the lawyer Harold Friedeberg, acted as translator. After the war, it took a long time for the internationally successful series to be released for German-speaking audiences. Individual novels have been published by Hammer Verlag in Vienna and by the Detective Club in Wiesbaden. It was not until 1954 to 1975 that Kiepenheuer & Witsch - with the exception of La Maison du juge and Maigret se fâche - published the collected Maigret novels. The majority of the translations came from the duo Hansjürgen Wille / Barbara Klau. For individual novels, the Cologne publisher also hired well-known contemporary writers such as Paul Celan ( Maigret and Maigret and the terrible children are wrong ) or Milo Dor and Reinhard Federmann ( Maigret and the shadow at the window ). The Munich-based Heyne Verlag published paperback editions of the novels at different times. After the Zurich-based Diogenes Verlag had acquired the rights to Simenon's complete works, Simenon's novels were published there from 1978 onwards in new translations under partially changed titles. In 2008/2009 Diogenes published a new edition of all Maigret novels in 75 volumes with revised translations. The edition of the work was completed with the anthology of 28 stories under the title All Maigret Stories . Kampa Verlag has been publishing revised new editions and translations of all Maigret novels and stories since 2018 .

Movies and TV series

Rupert Davies in Murder on Monday
Jean Richard , the most appearing maigret actor

More than 30 actors embodied the character of Commissioner Maigrets in international film and television productions. The first Maigret actor was Pierre Renoir , who played the commissioner in the 1932 film adaptation of La nuit du carrefour . In the same year Abel Tarride followed in the film adaptation of Le chien jaune , the following year Harry Baur in the film adaptation of La tête d'un homme . During the Second World War, Albert Préjean appeared in three French cinema productions. The first international Maigret was Charles Laughton in the US film The Man on the Eiffel Tower from 1949. Between 1958 and 1963 Jean Gabin played the leading role in the three Maigret films Maigret tend un piège , Maigret et l'affaire Saint-Fiacre and Maigret voit rouge . In 1966 Heinz Rühmann joined the ranks of Maigret actors with Maigret and his biggest case . In the Soviet Union, too, there was a native Maigret with Boris Tenin in a total of four productions.

The first series with Commissioner Maigret on German television came from the British BBC and was broadcast on ZDF from 1965 . The series with Rupert Davies in the leading role developed into a street sweeper in England as well as in Germany and shaped the image of the commissioner in these countries. The original title music by Ron Grainer was replaced for the German version by a musette waltz by Ernst-August Quelle , which achieved great popularity and - unusual for the time - was released as a single .

In France, it was Jean Richard in particular who became famous for the role of Maigret in 88 episodes of the series Les Enquêtes du Commissaire Maigret . The German dubbed version was also broadcast by ZDF.

Overall, the following more extensive TV series around Maigret were produced:

  • 1960–1963: Great Britain, with Rupert Davies (52 episodes + 1 TV film from 1969)
  • 1964–1969: Italy, with Gino Cervi , known from Don Camillo and Peppone (16 episodes + 1 movie)
  • 1964–1965: Netherlands, with Kees Brusse (6 episodes)
  • 1967–1969: Netherlands, with Jan Teulings (12 episodes)
  • 1967–1990: France, with Jean Richard (88 episodes)
  • 1978–1978: Japan, with Kinya Aikawa (25 episodes)
  • 1991–2005: France, with Bruno Cremer (54 episodes)
  • 1992–1993: Great Britain, with Michael Gambon (12 episodes)
  • 2016–2017: Great Britain, with Rowan Atkinson (4 episodes)

When asked about the three best French Maigret actors, Simenon named Pierre Renoir, "because he understood that his role model was a civil servant", Michel Simon , who only played the commissioner in a single film, but this was "very good", and Jean Gabin, who “filled the role thanks to his unique personality”. In contrast, he could not win much from the Americanized portrayal of Jean Richard. Rupert Davies has surpassed all of the international maigrets. He identified himself with his role in such a way that he even went to the author to study how Maigret used his pipe. As the best Madame Maigret Simenon was not considered a European actress, but the actress of the Japanese series: "She corresponded to my ideas of Maigret's wife best!"

Radio plays and audio books

Since the early 1950s, at the same time when Kiepenheuer & Witsch first made the Maigret novels known to a larger audience in German translations, numerous German-language radio plays and audio books based on the novels and stories of the Maigret series have been produced. Some radio productions were made before the books were published and therefore have different titles.

The radio edits by Gert Westphal , who wrote the radio plays Maigret and his scruples , Maigret and the Groschenschenke , Maigret and the unknown , Maigret and his revolver , Maigret and the yellow dog as well as Maigret and the beanstalk for the, became particularly well known Established Südwestfunk . Under his direction, Leonard Steckel appeared as Maigret, Annedore Huber-Knaus as Madame Maigret and Heinz Schimmelpfennig as Inspector Lucas. In 1961, Westphal's arrangements were re-produced by Bayerischer Rundfunk . Under the direction of Heinz-Günter Stamm, Paul Dahlke spoke to the inspector, Traute Rose his wife and Reinhard Glemnitz spoke to inspector Lucas. The Dahlke radio plays Maigret and his scruples , Maigret and the yellow dog , Maigret and the beanstalk as well as Maigret and the Groschenschenke published the audio publishing house in 2005 together with the RIAS production Maigret and the terrible children on CD.

In 2003 SFB - ORB , MDR and SWR produced a series of a total of eight radio plays edited by Susanne Feldmann and Judith Kuckart . Speakers included Christian Berkel as narrator and Friedhelm Ptok as Inspector Maigret. The radio plays were published on CD by Steinbach speaking books . The publisher had also previously produced the first Maigret audio books that Fred C. Siebeck and Edgar M. Böhlke had read. From 2006 onwards, Diogenes Verlag produced a new series of audio books with the speakers Gert Heidenreich and Friedhelm Ptok. Hans Korte and Jörg Kaehler read in the shorter stories Christmas with Maigret and Maigret's Pipe . Walter Kreye has been reading Maigret novels and stories for Audio Verlag since 2018 .

comics

Between 1992 and 1997, the Belgian publisher Lefrancq published a Franco-Belgian comic series called Maigret , for which Odile Reynaud edited a total of five Maigret novels as comics . The drawings came from Philippe Wurm and Frank Brichau . The Stuttgart-based Ehapa-Verlag published the first three volumes Maigret und seine Toter between 1993 and 1994 , Maigret highlights a trap and Maigret among the Flemish in German translation.

literature

  • Georges Simenon: Maigret's Memoirs . Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23835-8 .
  • Stanley G. Eskin: Simenon. A biography . Diogenes, Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-257-01830-4 . Especially Chapter 16 The Maigret Saga , pp. 383–414.
  • Alfred Marquart : About Commissioner Maigret . Poller, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-87959-205-5 .
  • Josef Quack: The limits of the human. About Georges Simenon, Rex Stout, Friedrich Glauser, Graham Greene . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2000, ISBN 3-8260-2014-6 . Chapter 1 Maigret or The Burden of Responsibility , pp. 11–86.
  • Claudia Schmölders , Christian Strich (Ed.): About Simenon . Diogenes, Zurich 1988, ISBN 3-257-20499-X .
  • Tilman Spreckelsen: The Maigret Marathon. A self-experiment in 75 FAZ columns . Diogenes, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-257-23966-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Patrick Marnham: The Man Who Wasn't Maigret. The life of Georges Simenon. Knaus, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-8135-2208-3 , pp. 180-181.
  2. ↑ Georges Simenon on the birth of the figure of Commissioner Maigret . In: Georges Simenon: Maigret and Pietr the Lette . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 1. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23801-3 , pp. 191–192.
  3. ↑ Patrick Marnham: The Man Who Was Not Maigret , p. 182.
  4. ^ Daniel Kampa: Afterword. In: Georges Simenon: Maigret in the house of unrest . Kampa, Zurich 2019, ISBN 978-3-311-70054-8 , without pages.
  5. ↑ Patrick Marnham: The Man Who Was Not Maigret , pp. 182-185.
  6. ↑ Patrick Marnham: The Man Who Was Not Maigret , p. 202.
  7. ^ Stanley G. Eskin: Simenon. A biography , p. 383.
  8. ↑ Josef Quack: The limits of the human. About Georges Simenon, Rex Stout, Friedrich Glauser, Graham Greene , p. 23.
  9. ↑ Profiled on the page maigret.de.
  10. ^ Fenton Bresler: Georges Simenon. In search of the "naked" person . Ernst Kabel, Hamburg 1985, ISBN 3-921909-93-7 , pp. 126-127.
  11. ^ Georges Simenon: Maigret's Memoirs . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 35.Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23835-8 , p. 161.
  12. ^ Stanley G. Eskin: Simenon. A biography , p. 391.
  13. ^ Georges Simenon: Maigret's first investigation . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 30. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23830-3 , p. 145.
  14. ↑ Georges Simenon: Maigret and his revolver . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 40.Diogenes, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-257-23840-2 , p. 12.
  15. ↑ Georges Simenon: Maigret and the late Monsieur Gallet . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 2. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23802-0 , pp. 7, 36.
  16. ^ A b Georges Simenon: Maigret's first investigation . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, Volume 30. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23830-3 , pp. 8, 13.
  17. ↑ Georges Simenon: Maigret and the lonely man . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 73.Diogenes, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-257-23873-0 , p. 50.
  18. ^ Maigret Biography from the work of Jacques Baudou .
  19. ^ David F. Drake: The Chronology of Maigret's Life and Career .
  20. ^ Jean Forest's Chronology of the ages of Maigret and Simenon .
  21. ^ Georges Simenon: Maigret and the Saint-Fiacre affair . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 13. Diogenes, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-257-23873-0 , pp. 9, 40.
  22. ↑ Lucille F. Becker: Georges Simenon . House, London 2006, ISBN 1-904950-34-5 , p. 28.
  23. ↑ Georges Simenon: Maigret and his childhood friend . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 69.Diogenes, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-257-23869-3 , p. 6.
  24. ^ A b Georges Simenon: Maigret's Memoirs . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 35.Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23835-8 , chapter 3.
  25. ↑ Georges Simenon: Maigret and Pietr the Lette . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 1. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23801-3 , p. 111.
  26. ^ Georges Simenon: Maigret's Memoirs . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 35. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23835-8 , chapters 5–6.
  27. ^ Georges Simenon: Maigret's first investigation . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 30. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23830-3 , p. 36.
  28. ↑ Patrick Marnham: The man who was not Maigret , p. 197. Cf. also Xavier Guichard in the French Wikipedia.
  29. ^ Georges Simenon: Maigret's first investigation . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, Volume 30. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23830-3 , pp. 13, 209.
  30. ↑ Georges Simenon: Maigret defends himself . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 63.Diogenes, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-257-23863-1 , p. 12.
  31. ↑ Georges Simenon: Maigret before the jury . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 55.Diogenes, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-257-23855-6 , p. 10.
  32. ^ Georges Simenon: Maigret and Monsieur Charles . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 75. Diogenes, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-257-23875-4 , pp. 5–7, 120.
  33. ↑ a b Georges Simenon: Maigret and the cellars of the "Majestic". Diogenes, Zurich 2008, reading by Friedhelm Ptok, ISBN 978-3-257-80206-1 , chapter 5.
  34. ↑ Peter Foord: The Site of "La Brasserie Dauphine" on the Maigret page by Steve Trussel.
  35. ^ A b Georges Simenon: Maigret's Memoirs . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 35. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23835-8 , chapters 165–166.
  36. ^ Georges Simenon: Christmas with Maigret. Read by Hans Korte. Diogenes, Zurich 2006, ISBN 3-257-80046-0 , track 22, approx. 2:30.
  37. ↑ Extras on maigret.de.
  38. ^ Georges Simenon: Maigret in distress . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 18. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23818-1 , p. 74.
  39. ↑ Georges Simenon: Maigret and the ghost . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 62.Diogenes, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-257-23862-4 , p. 130.
  40. ↑ Marie-Claire Desmette: The Confessions of Madame Maigret . On Steve Trussel's Maigret page.
  41. ^ Georges Simenon: Maigret's Memoirs . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 35.Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23835-8 , chapter 4.
  42. ↑ Lucille F. Becker: Georges Simenon. House, London 2006, ISBN 1-904950-34-5 , p. 56.
  43. ^ Dieter Paul Rudolph : La protagoniste inconnue . In the blog Watching the detectives .
  44. ^ Georges Simenon: Maigret in distress . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 18. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23818-1 , p. 60.
  45. ^ Georges Simenon: Maigret's Memoirs . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 35. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23835-8 , pp. 164–165.
  46. ^ Georges Simenon: Maigret's first investigation . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 30. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23830-3 , pp. 62–63.
  47. ↑ Georges Simenon: Maigret and his dead . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, Volume 29. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23829-7 , p. 194.
  48. ^ Simenon, Maigret and Paris: Two Recent Books on Steve Trussel's Maigret page.
  49. ↑ Georges Simenon: Maigret is upset . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 26. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23826-6 , pp. 7-12.
  50. ^ Georges Simenon: Maigret in New York . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, Volume 27. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23827-3 , pp. 10-11.
  51. ↑ Does Maigret have a driver's license? on maigret.de.
  52. ↑ Georges Simenon: Maigrets and his revolver . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 40.Diogenes, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-257-23840-2 , p. 16.
  53. ^ Georges Simenon: Maigret's confession . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 54.Diogenes, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-257-23854-9 , pp. 7, 29.
  54. ↑ Maigret of the Month: Maigret a peur (Maigret Afraid) on Steve Trussel's Maigret page.
  55. ↑ Georges Simenon: Maigret fights for a man's head . Diogenes, Zurich 2006, reading by Friedhelm Ptok, ISBN 3-257-80041-X , Chapter 2, Track 4, approx. 4:30.
  56. ↑ Georges Simenon: Maigret and the late Monsieur Gallet . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 2. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23802-0 , pp. 94, 104.
  57. ↑ Georges Simenon: Maigret and the hanged man of Saint-Pholien . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 3. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23803-7 , pp. 9, 12.
  58. ↑ Cf. Georges Simenon: Maigret's Memoirs . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 35. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23835-8 , pp. 39-40, where Maigret defends himself against this decoration.
  59. ^ Georges Simenon: Maigret in cure. All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 67.Diogenes, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-257-23867-9 , p. 20.
  60. ↑ Patrick Marnham: The Man Who Wasn't Maigret. The Life of Georges Simenon , pp. 192–193.
  61. ↑ Georges Simenon: Maigret and the Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 3. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23803-7 , p. 107.
  62. ^ Stanley G. Eskin: Simenon. A biography , pp. 396-403.
  63. ^ Georges Simenon: Maigret's Memoirs . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 35. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23835-8 , pp. 98–99.
  64. ↑ Georges Simenon: Maigret and the cellars of the "Majestic" . Diogenes, Zurich 2008, reading by Friedhelm Ptok, ISBN 978-3-257-80206-1 , chapter 7.
  65. ↑ “So you are the novelist of the unconscious?” An interview with Francis Lacassin . In: Claudia Schmölders, Christian Strich (Ed.): About Simenon , p. 199.
  66. ^ Stanley G. Eskin: Simenon. A biography , pp. 144, 300.
  67. ^ Stanley G. Eskin: Simenon. Eine Biographie , pp. 405-408, citations p. 406.
  68. ↑ Georg Hensel: Simenon and his commissioner Maigret . In: Claudia Schmölders, Christian Strich (Ed.): About Simenon , p. 157.
  69. ^ Georges Simenon: Maigret's first investigation . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 30. Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23830-3 , pp. 99-100.
  70. ↑ Hans Altenhein: A dream of Maigret . In: Claudia Schmölders, Christian Strich (Ed.): About Simenon , p. 118.
  71. ^ Georges Simenon: Maigret's Memoirs . All Maigret novels in 75 volumes, volume 35.Diogenes, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-257-23835-8 , p. 61.
  72. ↑ Patrick Marnham: The Man Who Was Not Maigret , pp. 196–197.
  73. ^ A b Nicole Geeraert: Georges Simenon . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1991, ISBN 3-499-50471-5 , p. 48.
  74. ^ Patrick LeFort: Simenon raconte la naissance de Maigret . In: Télé 7 Jours of April 12, 1986.
  75. ↑ Patrick Marnham: The Man Who Was Not Maigret , pp. 54–55, 198–199.
  76. ^ Nicole Geeraert: Georges Simenon , p. 49.
  77. ↑ Patrick Marnham: The Man Who Was Not Maigret , p. 199.
  78. ↑ Patrick Marnham: The Man Who Was Not Maigret , p. 200.
  79. ^ Ulrich Schulz-Buschhaus : Forms and ideologies of the crime novel. An essay on the history of the genre. Athenaion, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-7997-0603-8 , pp. 1-5.
  80. ^ Arnold Arens: The Simenon phenomenon . Steiner, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-515-05243-7 . Pp. 32-33.
  81. ↑ Helmut Heißenbüttel : Rules of the crime novel . In: Jochen Vogt (Ed.): The crime novel. Poetics - Theory - History. Fink, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-8252-8147-7 , pp. 111, 117-118.
  82. ^ Armin Arnold, Josef Schmidt (Ed.): Reclams Kriminalromanführer . Reclam, Stuttgart 1978, ISBN 3-15-010279-0 , p. 310.
  83. ↑ Julian Symons : Simenon and his Maigret In: Claudia Schmölders , Christian Strich (ed.): About Simenon . Diogenes, Zurich 1988, ISBN 3-257-20499-X . Pp. 123-129, quoted p. 129.
  84. ↑ Pierre Boileau , Thomas Narcejac : The detective novel . Luchterhand, Neuwied 1967, p. 126.
  85. ↑ Arnold Arens: The Simenon Phenomenon , p. 33.
  86. ↑ Josef Quack: The limits of the human. About Georges Simenon, Rex Stout, Friedrich Glauser, Graham Greene , p. 118.
  87. ^ Walter Obschlager: Afterword. In: Friedrich Glauser: Smurf Erwin Murder. Sergeant Studer . Limmat, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-85791-241-3 , p. 201.
  88. ^ Armin Arnold: The sources of Dürrenmatt's crime novels . In: Gerhard P. Knapp, Gerd Labroisse: Facets. Studies for Friedrich Dürrenmatt's 60th birthday . Lang, Bern 1981, ISBN 3-261-04712-7 , pp. 158-162.
  89. ^ Armin Arnold, Josef Schmidt (Ed.): Reclams Kriminalromanführer . Reclam, Stuttgart 1978, ISBN 3-15-010279-0 , p. 147.
  90. ↑ See also Irene Beissmann: Von Maigret zu Bärlach. A comparative study of crime novels by Georges Simenon and Friedrich Dürrenmatt (PDF; 5.4 MB) . Master's thesis at McGill University Montreal 1973.
  91. ^ Ulrich Schulz-Buschhaus: Current forms and tendencies of the crime novel on the server of the University of Graz .
  92. ↑ German-language editions on maigret.de.
  93. ↑ Maigret Films & TV on the Maigret page of trussel.com.
  94. ↑ Rupert Davies on maigret.de.
  95. ↑ Allow me, Maigret. on maigret.de.
  96. ↑ Ernst-August Quelle on his 80th birthday  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.gema.de   on the GEMA website .
  97. ^ Fenton Bresler: Georges Simenon. In search of the "naked" person . Ernst Kabel, Hamburg 1985, ISBN 3-921909-93-7 , p. 328.
  98. ↑ Kirsten Howard: Maigret has been canceled. In: Den of Geek! denofgeek.com, May 30, 2018, accessed January 20, 2019 .
  99. ↑ Maigret • Rowan Atkinson can be serious (and crime thriller!) Too. Hörzu, June 5, 2018, accessed January 20, 2019 .
  100. ^ Fenton Bresler: Georges Simenon. In search of the "naked" person . Ernst Kabel, Hamburg 1985, ISBN 3-921909-93-7 , pp. 328-330.
  101. ↑ For the ear on maigret.de.
  102. ↑ All German-language Maigret radio plays at a glance (chronologically) on maigret.de.
  103. ↑ All German-language Maigret audio books at a glance (chronologically) on maigret.de.
  104. ↑ tape Dessinées: Éditions Claude Lefrancq on the Maigret page of Steve Trussell.
  105. ↑ Comic Maigret on maigret.de.