People in the hotel

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People in the Hotel (subtitle: Colportage novel with backgrounds ) is a novel by Vicki Baum from 1929.

The novel deals with life in Berlin during the golden 1920s . In the characters appearing, the reader not only meets lonely, mentally deformed and physically ill people, but also those who reveal a disturbed relationship to reality behind their bourgeois facade. The expressionist paradigm of criticism of society and civilization becomes visible, which shows people as victims of the anonymous mass society of the 20th century . The focus is on lonely, mentally and physically deformed people as well as the decline of bourgeois values.

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The novel is set almost exclusively in a Berlin luxury hotel and thrives on the relationships that develop between the guests staying there. The Hotel Excelsior is said to have served as a model . In the program booklet for the world premiere of the play Menschen im Hotel, Vicki Baum later claimed that she had made her experiences with this novel in the 1920s as a maid at the Hotel Bristol in Berlin . However, this was just a publicity stunt, as the author admitted in 1959. Right at the beginning of the novel, the aging famous ballet dancer Grusinskaya is introduced, who has already passed her zenith and only dances in moderately crowded theaters. Vicki Baum had already used the figure of the aging ballerina in 1926 in the short story "Panic. Story of a Derailment". Before her performances, Grusinskaya knows how to keep the whole hotel team on their toes with her hysterical manner. In the further course of the novel it is shown how Grusinskaya suffers from her fading fame, from her loneliness and her increasing age. She is always in a bad mood, has depression and takes sedatives.

The lonely and disfigured face of a war wounded Dr. Otternschlag, who kept asking at reception whether a message or a letter had been left for him, which was never the case. Dr. Otternschlag lives in the hotel as a bitter long-term tenant and is addicted to morphine. Every evening he ponders whether he should part with an overdose, but he doesn't find the courage to do so.

Next, the young Baron Gaigern is introduced to the plot, he is impoverished and works as a facade climber and trickster, which, however, nobody would think of him.

With Mr. Kringelein, an employee of the lower middle class enters the hotel and asks for a luxuriously furnished room, as Mr. General Director Preysing always tends to order, which he claims to know. Because Kringelein's external appearance does not at all fit into the surroundings of a luxury hotel, the reception desk initially refuses to let him have a room as a guest. The reader learns that Kringelein is terminally ill and has decided to break all bridges (family, work as an assistant accountant) behind him in order to enjoy life until his death. Kringelein gets to know the regular hotel guest Dr. Otternschlag. Both agree to meet up to see Grusinskaya in the theater that evening. This is Kringelein's first visit to the theater.

The next day, General Manager Preysing stays at the hotel. He has come to negotiate because in order to secure the existence of the company he works for, he is supposed to achieve a merger with a Chemnitz company. He finally manages to do this, but he cheats the negotiating partner about a cooperation with an English company. He then wants to deceive his wife by trying to hook up with the assistant secretary of his lawyer, Fräulein Flamm, known as Flammchen.

Grusinskaya dances again in front of almost empty stands and falls into another depression. She refuses to continue dancing, takes refuge in the hotel and wants to take her own life there with an overdose of sedatives. In her room she surprises the Baron Gaigern, who just wanted to steal a valuable pearl necklace from her room. The young Baron Gaigern pretends that he is in love with the aged star dancer Grusinskaya and that he broke into her room through the facade to confess this to her. However, during a night of love, the two actually fall in love. Gaigern should follow the diva to Vienna .

In order to organize money for the trip to Vienna, Gaigern ties up with the terminally ill assistant accountant Kringelein. He offers to show the death row inmate the real life of the big city. You first visit a posh men's outfit store, where Kringelein is dressed in new and elegant clothes, drive an automobile, fly, visit a boxing match, a casino and end up in a nightclub. There Kringelein collapses with a stomachache. Dr. Otternschlag with a morphine syringe and prevents Gaigern from stealing from him. Kringelein recovers and seems transformed. He has given up his career as an accountant and seeks out his boss, Preysing. He gives his opinion to this and condemns his stubborn attitude towards the poor working conditions of the employees in the company. Preysing's new lover, Flammchen, is impressed by Kringelein.

In the meantime, Baron Gaigern has chosen the general manager as the next victim. But he is caught again. Preysing kills the baron in a scuffle. The police arrested him on suspicion of manslaughter . In the course of the investigation, his family learns of his affair with Flammchen, while his fraud is exposed at the company. Preysing is at the end, while Flammchen, Miss Flamm seeks and finds attention from Kringelein. They both decide to travel together. Dr. Otternschlag remains lonely in the hotel foyer and Grusinskaja is waiting in Vienna for her young lover, who will never arrive.

Film adaptations

The novel has been filmed three times so far. In 1932 , a Hollywood version was created under the title Grand Hotel , which combined a star cast and won the Oscar for Best Picture . In 1945 another film was made under the title Weekend at the Waldorf , and in 1959 a German film.

Theater adaptation

Radio plays and audio books

literature

  • People in the hotel. A colportage novel. Ullstein, Berlin 1929. First edition.
Current issues
  • Vicki Baum: People in the Hotel , novel, paperback. KiWi-Paperback 991, 5th edition, Kiepenheuer and Witsch, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-462-03798-2 : Audio book: as a radio play with Brigitte Horney, Willy Maertens, Erik Schumann, edited by Gerda Corbett. Director: Heinz-Günter Stamm. SWR2 Südwestrundfunk , 1 CD, 82 minutes, Der Hörverlag , 2012, ISBN 978-3-86717-962-1 .
Secondary literature
  • The revolving door as a wheel of fortune. Werner Fuld about Vicki Baum: People in the hotel. In: Novels from Yesterday - Read Today, Volume 2 (1918–1933) . Edited by Marcel Reich-Ranicki . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1989, ISBN 3-10-062911-6 ; Fischer TB 13092, Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-596-13092-1 .
  • Nicole Nottelmann: The careers of Vicki Baum. A biography. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2007.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ The ironic subtitle was left out in the post-war editions, cf. on this the review by Werner Fuld.
  2. ^ Nicole Nottelmann: The careers of Vicki Baum . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2007, p. 145 .
  3. ↑ Vicki Baum: Panic. History of a derailment . In: UHU . tape 2 , no. 10 . Ullstein, Berlin June 10, 1926, p. 21-32, 122-128 .
  4. ↑ Berliner Börsenzeitung January 17, 1930, page 3
  5. ^ Thomas Siedhoff, The New Theater in Frankfurt am Main 1911-1935. Attempt to systematically appreciate a theater business (= studies on Frankfurt history, issue 19), Frankfurt a. M. 1985, p. 395