With the boss to Chenonceaux

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With the boss after Chenonceaux is a short story by Alfred Andersch . She describes the weekend trip of three German men to France , where they visit various tourist destinations.

content

The German Doctor Honig travels to France with his boss Mr. Schmitz and his chauffeur Jeschke to visit the cathedrals and Loire castles according to a check-off system over a long weekend. It is mentioned that the three of them “made two cathedrals and eleven castles” in one day .
The journey begins in Paris and ends in the Loire Valley , after having previously visited Versailles , which, according to Mr Schmitz, was “rotten” . The boss continues with these negative comments about the decaying state of the buildings while the doctor admires the architecture . For example, Mr Schmitz says that in the past the French took over building because they were not able to maintain them.

During the trip, Doctor Honig falls ill and is visited by Mr. Schmitz. During this conversation it becomes clear that Mr. Schmitz, who has only spoken badly about the buildings so far, actually admires them - and it pains him to see them rotting. Andersch puts it this way:

" [...] Mr Schmitz's dream was a dream of sparkling factories and sparkling castles, a phantasmagoria of shiny German factories and brand new French cathedrals [...], shiny and made for all eternity: Krefeld and Versailles."

Schmitz said to Honig before that it was “good to know that St. Johanna has been financed by someone” and a little later that Honig should show him a St. Johanna , he would finance her. When Honig understands Mr. Schmitz's relationship to the buildings, it becomes clear to him that there is no more St. Johanna and that "nowhere even the smallest shred of a myth could be discovered that Mr. Schmitz could have financed" . They leave the cathedral of Bourges , where they had visited a monument to Jacques Coeur , who financed St. Johanna, and are picked up by Jeschke in the freshly cleaned car, which the doctor calls a coffin.

Form and language

The language of the short story consists of long sentences and does not have a punch line as such, but aims at an insight. The text consists mainly of sentences with insertions, a large number of subordinate clauses and detailed descriptions of the people or the environment:

“ Jeschke, gaunt and blackish, certainly a convinced potato eater, scowled at the plate, but admitted after a few attempts that the liver sausage was excellent, which was remarkable in view of his other silence and caused Mr. Schmitz to stop taming his appetite and take samples To fish Jeschke's hors d'oeuvre; He also asked the doctor to exonerate Jeschke, but Honig preferred to wait for his Roman snails and, until they came, to watch the two men: the stiffly erect, skinny Jeschke who did not open a button on his gray livery jacket and with his fork from above here in the cold cuts stocked [...] "

The sentence structure is shortened in dialogues , for example if there is a difference of opinion between Schmitz and the doctor:

“Yesterday, in Versailles, Mr. Schmitz almost exploded when he saw the state of the palace. 'No,' he said, 'you can't let that thing go to waste.' He called the Versailles palace 'dat Ding'. The doctor said something about delicate patina, but Mr. Schmitz hadn't accepted the objection. "

characters

Doctor honey

Honig is an employee and member of the management team at Schmitz's company. He travels to France with Schmitz, although, like the others in the tour company, he does not speak French, which he describes as his “big educational gap”. Because of his interest in art, his colleagues call him 'Art Honey'. Hönig gets involved in discussions with Schmitz about art. According to Mr. Schmitz's statement, the doctor knows more about art than he does himself.

Mr. Schmitz

Schmitz is the head of a textile company and travels to France with Doctor Honig and his chauffeur Jeschke to inspect the buildings there. He expresses himself disparagingly about the 'rotten' structures. This is because he does not detest the buildings, but because he “couldn't stand the fact that the things he loved had become old and dirty” . He is well-fed ( "packed in healthy, solid fat" ) and has a passion for good food. But, according to the doctor, he is not fat, but only eats the best. Schmitz hates 'yes-men' and 'straight approval'. He drives a black "three-point two-liter BMW" with lemon-colored leather upholstery, which indicates his selected taste.

Jeschke

Jeschke is Schmitz's driver. He is described as gaunt, blackish and silent and is suspicious of the unknown. He is wearing a gray livery jacket.

interpretation

Relationship between Honig and Schmitz

Honey is paid for by Schmitz, so it is dependent on him, but at the same time knows more about art than the latter. Their relationship is similar to that of an artist and a patron : Honig, the art expert, and Schmitz, the employer, who dreams of capital and art merging. In addition, Andersch tries to create a contrast between the typical commercial graphic artist and the apparently nouveau riche capitalist. He breaks the cliché of these two typical characters through ironic situations and dialogues. An example of this is the scene in which the doctor envies Jeschke, who does not have to visit the buildings but is allowed to drink coffee in the car.

Joan of Arc

Schmitz, who is no longer the youngest, compares himself with the builders of these castles, who shone in their time like his factory now, but decayed years later. Unlike Jacques Coeur, whose grave he visited and to whom a memorial was dedicated, he has no Joan of Arc to finance and is therefore only picked up in an insignificant, black coffin - the BMW .

Discover myth

There is little tension in the story , a typical punch line in the form of a twist is missing. The focus of the text is on honey's discovery of what Schmitz really thinks of the buildings. He realizes that the trip - and the text - was actually about "discovering a myth that Mr. Schmitz could have financed" . The story is therefore not a typical text that comes out on a punchline, but a story that is heading towards a process of cognition.

Text output

The text was published in the anthology Geister und Menschen together with several other short texts by Andersch.

  • Ghosts and people. Ten stories. [First edition] Olten 1958.
  • Ghosts and People: Ten Stories . Diogenes-Verl. 2006. ISBN 3-257236050

Further:

  • With the boss to Chenonceaux. Everyday stories from the FRG . An anthology. Ed .: Annie Voigtländer. Berlin, Weimar, 1976

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alfred Andersch: Ghosts and People . Walter Verlag, Olten 1958, Zl. 288.
  2. ↑ Andersch: Ghosts and People . 1958, No. 267.
  3. ↑ Alfred Andersch: Ghosts and People . Olten 1958, Zl. 322.
  4. ↑ Andersch: Ghosts and People . 1958, No. 274.
  5. ↑ Andersch: Ghosts and People . 1958, No. 18.
  6. ↑ Andersch: Geister und Menschen. 1958, Zl. 51.
  7. ↑ a b c http://www.leixoletti.de/interpretationen/mitdemch.htm , found on February 12, 2012
  8. ↑ Volker Wehdeking: Interpretations: Classic German short stories . Stuttgart 2004, p. 205.
  9. ↑ Andersch: Ghosts and People . 1958, No. 375.