My prices
My prizes is an autobiographical prose text by the Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard . In nine chapters Bernhard tells of nine literary awards he has received. Three of his acceptance speeches and one resignation are documented in an attachment.
content
The text is divided into nine chapters. In each of the chapters Bernhard describes the receipt of a prize, with the respective name of which the chapter is headed. The book will be opened by “The Grillparzer Prize ”, followed by “The Honorary Gift of the Cultural Association of the Federal Association of German Industry”, “The Literature Prize of the Free and Hanseatic City of Bremen”, “The Julius Campe Prize ”, “The Austrian State Prize for Literature” , "The Anton Wildgans Prize ", "The Franz Theodor Csokor Prize ", "The Literature Prize of the Federal Chamber of Commerce" and "The Büchner Prize ". The appendix contains the "Address at the award of the Literature Prize of the Free and Hanseatic City of Bremen", the "Address at the award of the Austrian State Prize" and the "Address at the award of the Georg Büchner Prize" and under "To my resignation" documented his resignation from the German Academy for Language and Poetry in Darmstadt.
The Grillparzer Prize
The framework of the first story is the purchase of a Barry suit in the Viennese clothing store Sir Anthony , which Bernhard visited with his “aunt” (Hedwig Stavianicek) immediately before the award ceremony. Then the two went to the Academy of Sciences. Once there, Bernhard realizes that nobody receives him and leads him in, whereupon the two enter the hall and take a seat in the back of the room. Soon the restlessly waiting dignitaries, including President Hunger, discover that the winner is already in the hall. Bernhard attaches importance to being asked personally by President Hunger, which he does after a lot of back and forth.
In the following honor, the writer will be awarded the Grillparzer Prize for his play Ein Fest für Boris ; Bernhard does not give an acceptance speech. After the presentation, he and his aunt stand beside the dignitaries, whereupon the Minister Firnberg standing next to him exclaims: "Yes, where is the poet?" Bernhard then leaves the hall with his aunt; The writer's friends are waiting outside and you go to the Gösser beer clinic to eat . After dinner, Bernhard has the impression that the newly acquired suit is much too tight and goes back to the clothing store on Kohlmarkt. Without hesitation, the suit worn at the award ceremony can be exchanged for a wider model.
The honorary gift of the cultural group of the Federal Association of German Industry
Bernhard begins by describing his stay in 1967 in the lung hospital , which is attached to the Otto Wagner Hospital on Baumgartnerhöhe , which precedes the award ceremony. To pay for this treatment, he has to raise 15,000 schillings, whereupon he asks his German publisher for 2,000 D-Marks. Instead, his editor transfers the amount to him without informing the publisher of the process. Shortly afterwards he received the news that he was being awarded the honorary gift of the Kulturkreis des Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie. In the autumn of this year he went to Regensburg to receive the award of 8,000 D-Marks in the town hall , which the poet Elisabeth Borchers also received. The writers Rudolf de le Roi and Hans Bender , who had a say in the award of the prize, are also present. Then the chairman of the Federal Association of German Industry , Mr. von Bohlen und Halbach, reads from the paper: “And hereby the Federal Association of German Industry is handing over the gifts of honor nineteen sixty-seven to Ms. Bernhard and Mr. Borchers!”, But nobody seems to have noticed this error. Then Borchers and Bernhard climb onto the podium and receive the prize money of 8,000 marks each.
As Bernhard's letters to Hans Bender show, the two authors knew each other before the award ceremony; The prize money had also been transferred to Bernhard in advance.
The Literature Prize of the Free and Hanseatic City of Bremen
In the introduction, Bernhard reports on the years after the publication of his book Frost (1963), in which he worked as a truck driver for the Christopherus company and delivered beer for the Gösser Bier brewery . When he found out about the award of the Literature Prize of the Free and Hanseatic City of Bremen, combined with prize money of 10,000 D-Marks, the writer traveled with his aunt to Upper Austria to have a real estate dealer show him old farms, but already at the first property in Obernathal (municipality of Ohlsdorf (Upper Austria) ), which is shown to him, Bernhard agrees: It is a building with “extraordinary proportions”, which despite its desolate condition appeals to the writer straight away. Soon after the purchase, Bernhard travels to Bremen to receive the honor and the prize money. Bernhard finally tells of his second visit to the Hanseatic city, which he hated so much, when he was a member of the jury for the next winner, with the intention of voting for Elias Canetti . However, his suggestion to honor Canetti for his work Die Blendung (1936) cannot penetrate those present; "... among the few who knew about Canetti, there was one who suddenly, after I had said Canetti again, said: but he is also a Jew." The jury finally selected Wolfgang Hildesheimer , son of Jewish parents.
The Julius Campe Prize
In this story, Bernhard reports on his trips with the Triumph Herald , which he acquired from the prize money of the Julius Campe Prize awarded by Verlag Hoffmann und Campe at the Heller car dealership across from Heinrichshof . With the new cabriolet he undertakes exploration tours around Vienna; finally he travels to Lovran in Istria , where his aunt is already staying. In Rijeka he had a traffic accident through no fault of his own, which he survived with minor injuries; after his return to Vienna he was found a competent lawyer at the car dealership who collected the sum insured, whereupon Bernhard bought a new Herald.
The Austrian State Prize for Literature
Bernhard emphasizes right at the beginning of the story that it is about the “so-called small state award”, which is otherwise intended as a sponsorship award for young writers. The fact that he received the Small State Prize instead of the big one is insulting. Little did he know that on the last day of the submission deadline, his brother had left Bernhard's novel Frost at the counter of the Ministry of Art and Culture. When the prize is finally awarded to Bernhard, he drives with his aunt to the audience hall of the Ministry of Education (today's Federal Ministry for Education and Women); The laudation is given by the Minister Theodor Piffl-Perčević , who, in Bernhard's opinion, understands nothing about art and culture. On the one hand, the minister claims that Bernhard wrote a novel that is set in the South Seas , on the other hand the writer is "a foreigner born in Holland". Bernhard forces to rest and then holds his speech, which turns into a sweeping blow to the Austrian mentality ( The state is an entity that such is the condemned continuously to infamy and mental retardation continually to fail, the people ) what a scandal causes and let the minister leave the hall rumbling. The writer Rudolf Henz storms to the podium and threatens Bernhard with his fist. Everyone rushes after the minister, leaving Thomas Bernhard, his friends and a few waiters standing at the buffet at a loss.
On the basis of this particularly well-documented incident , it is possible to study an example of the way in which Bernhard revised the presentation and assessment of what happened over the years. It turns out that Bernhard's versions of what happened in “My Prices” (approx. 1980) and “ Wittgenstein's Neffe ” (1982) contradict other representations in numerous respects, but also to Bernhard's own descriptions from 1968. The same applies for the award of the Anton Wildgans Prize .
The Anton Wildgans Prize
In the short story, Bernhard reports on the circumstances under which he received the Prize of the Federation of Industrialists. He was to be awarded the prize shortly after the ceremony described above, with Minister Piffl-Perčević as the guest of honor; after the scandal, the festive award ceremony is canceled in writing. "They sent me, without any further information about why and why [...] this projection ..."; Bernhard then received the award in the mail. In conclusion, Bernhard repeats the conversation that he had shortly afterwards with jury member Gerhard Fritsch ; he asks Fritsch whether he will "protest against this practice, step down from the jury and move back from his seat." But Fritsch refuses; he is "the father of many children and three immense women going for money." Bernhard mentions that Fritsch took his own life soon afterwards, "the poor person, the inconsistent, unfortunate, the pitiful."
The Franz Theodor Csokor Prize
The award of the Franz Theodor Csokor Prize in 1972 was an occasion for Bernhard to remember early encounters with Franz Theodor Csokor , a friend of his grandfather. This in turn gives him the opportunity to describe two encounters with the writer George Saiko in Vienna and Venice. Piero Rismondo gives the laudation at the award ceremony ; He donated the prize money of 18,000 schillings to the prisoner welfare department in Stein.
The Literature Prize of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber for Der Keller
The literary prize of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber , the Bernhard for his autobiographical work Der Keller. Receiving a withdrawal gives the writer an opportunity to recall his time as a businessman's apprentice. At the award ceremony, he meets the President of the Salzburg Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Haidenthaller. During the conversation, one discovers that the young Bernhard had passed his sales assistant examination at Haidenthaller. Bernhard incidentally learns from his Salzburg publisher (the Residenz Verlag ) that Haidenthaller is terminally ill and has only a few weeks to live; two weeks later the man actually dies; "Without the award [...] I would not have seen Mr. Haidenthaller again and today I don't know that much about my own ancestors [...], he knew mine well."
The Büchner Prize
The fact that he was asked to draft a speech about Georg Büchner when the Büchner Prize was awarded prompted Bernhard not to write about the poet, but only about things that had to do with himself. To justify it, he says that Büchner has nothing to do with the award, which was created long after his death, but only the German Academy for Language and Poetry . After the award ceremony, there were brief encounters with Werner Heisenberg and Joachim Kaiser , who were also honored. His aunt, who, like Büchner, had her birthday on that day, received 76 roses.
history
The text was probably created in 1980 as a 50-page typescript . “The findings from the estate suggest that Thomas Bernhard wanted to give his publisher the typescript My Prices […] to print 'in March 1989' as announced.” Since the author died in February 1989, the text was only published in 2009 from the estate of Suhrkamp Verlag , supplemented by an editorial note by Raimund Fellinger and some facsimiles of typescript pages.
The estate contained the volume together with fragmentary drafts of an unpublished prose text called “Newfoundland”, the bundle is now in the Thomas Bernhard Archive in Gmunden under the number SL 12.14 / 1-3.
output
- Thomas Bernhard: My Prices , Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-518-42055-3
literature
- Adam Soboczynski: I am a pig . In: Die Zeit , No. 8/2009
Web links
- Review notes on My Prices at perlentaucher.de
- Review. In: FAZ , November 17, 2008
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thomas Bernhard: My Prices , p. 17
- ^ Arnold Stadler: Thomas Bernhard's prize money . In: FAZ , December 9, 2008, p. 8
- ↑ Olaf Lahayne: Insulted Austria! The scandal surrounding Thomas Bernhard's state award speech in March 1968 . V&R unipress, Göttingen 2016, ISBN 978-3-8471-0489-6 .
- ^ Thomas Bernhard: My prices . (Paperback edition) Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-518-46186-0 , p. 132.