Moschko of Parma

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Moschko von Parma is a short story by the Austrian writer Karl Emil Franzos which was published by Duncker & Humblot in Leipzig in 1880 .

East Galicia around the middle of the 19th century: The blacksmith Moschko impregnated the maid Kasia, but is not allowed to marry her lover because he is a Jew and she is a Christian . The relationship between the two is said to be a sin. That doesn’t go into Moschko’s head, because a relationship that makes two people so happy cannot be wicked.

Title and form

Franzos' touchingly told story about the unhappy love of two very simple people is mixed with soft, by no means maliciously meant mockery. When reading some passages from life filled with events and finally when it comes to the bitter death of the protagonist Moshko, the reader feels at times put into a picaresque novel . The bittersweet title is written in the context: Moschko served for 21 years as the Common Moses Violet Scent in the Duke of Parma regiment number 24 of the Habsburg Monarchy .

In the 13th and 15th chapters, Franzos abandons his narrative continuum; makes a leap forward over 21 years. The reader who rubs his eyes has to laboriously sort through the unheard-of narrative event while reading that 13th chapter. In any case, Franzos bypasses the description of the drill in the Parma regiment with the trick and “only” tells the death of the title hero in the arms of his son Fedko.

overview

The storyline runs for 28 years.

Moschko Veilchenduft grew up with his parents in the ghetto of the small town of Barnow and became a blacksmith. His love for the maid Kasia Dumkowicz is unfortunate - caused by undisguised condescension and mocking verses in choral singing, which the young man strikes at almost every encounter with Christians in the Habsburg monarchy. The broad-shouldered blacksmith does not always accept the insults of Christians. Kasia says to her brother Hawrilo: “... it's strange, this Jew is fighting and fighting! I've never heard that before. ”Actually, Kasia doesn't like the Jews either because they crucified Christ. When the maid confesses to the reverend Mikita Borodaykiewicz a kiss she gave Moschko, the clergyman is indignant: “Unfortunate creature - a Jew who crucified the Savior.” Thereupon Kasia defends the beloved: “He swears that he is was not there. "

The Christian polemics, mixed with malicious glee, become so unbearable that Moshko replies with “We Jews are also human beings!”. Once during his 21-year service in the military in the Habsburg Monarchy, he is supposed to convert to Christianity. The Jew resists the advertiser who only wants to collect his premium. In general, Moschko would like to assert his own head. It starts when he wants to join the military at the age of 13. This wish from childhood is fulfilled - against his will - seven years later. Moshko is drafted and crippled during one of the battles.

Speaking of Moschko's stubbornness: He wants to get to the bottom of this as an evil when he ponders why he is different from the rest of the people. Franzos conveys one insight to the reader: A happy Jew stays in the ghetto all his life. As soon as he leaves this closed residential area - like Moschko, who is apprenticing as a blacksmith to a Christian outside on the highway - his unstoppable decline begins. In the extensive narrative, Franzos shows with a number of other examples how Moshko first negotiated the unwillingness and then the strict aversion of his fellow believers in the ghetto. This aversion culminates in the behavior of most of the surviving relatives and acquaintances of Moschkos when the invalid, terminally ill, returned to the Barnow Ghetto after 21 years of military service. Had it not been for the son Fedko Dumkowicz and his foster father, Uncle Hawrilo Dumkowicz, outside of the Ghetto, the veteran would have died in the ditch, uncomfortable, alone in the far hall.

action

When Moschko turned thirteen, he had to choose a career. The boy wants to go to the soldiers. Isaak Turkischgelb, the Marschallik in Barnow - the lively, eternally thirsty, two-legged local newspaper of the community - finds a way out for the appalled parents. Moschko started his apprenticeship with the Ruthenian blacksmith Wassilj Grypko, because there was no Jewish master blacksmith in the Barnow area. Moschko is the first Barnow Jew to learn the blacksmith's trade. Over the next seven years he got along well with his teacher and made friends with his cheerful companion Hawrilo Dumkowicz, the son of a poor day laborer from Korowla. When the master Grypko dies - Moschko is now twenty years old - the stately smithy falls to a poor cousin of the deceased. He comes from Russia and dismisses the Jew Moschko. The Christian Hawrilo is allowed to stay.

The draft for military service threatens. Isaac wants to help Turkish yellow again. The marshalik visits Golde Hellstein together with Moschko's father. This father's sister is the only rich woman in the impoverished Violet Scent family. The aunt is supposed to pay the almighty factor Peer Blitzer a larger amount, which he uses to bribe the members of the drafting committee. Moschko is called up because his stingy aunt couldn't agree on the factor.

In one of the battles, Moschko was wounded during his 21 years of military service, was allowed to go home and died there at the age of 41.

reception

According to Sprengel, Franzos made the transition “from ghetto history to novel format” in this “large narrative”. The integration of the Jew Moschko into the aforementioned regiment of the Habsburg monarchy does not go "without sacrificing and damaging" the protagonist.

literature

expenditure

  • Moschko of Parma. Story of a Jewish soldier. By Karl Emil Franzos . Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1880 ( archive.org ).
  • Moschko of Parma. Story of a Jewish soldier. Narrative. , German publishing company Concordia, Berlin 1899.
  • Moschko of Parma. Narration . Cotta, Stuttgart around 1900.
  • Moschko von Parma , pp. 5–192 in Karl Emil Franzos: Moschko von Parma. Three stories (also contains: Judith Trachtenberg - Leib Christmas cake and his child ). Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1972 (1st edition, edition used).
  • Moschko of Parma . tredition, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-8424-0745-9
  • Karl-Maria Guth (Ed.): Karl Emil Franzos: Moschko von Parma. Story of a Jewish soldier . Verlag Contumax - Hofenberg, Berlin 2016 (1st edition), ISBN 978-3-8430-7897-9 .

Secondary literature

  • Karl Emil Franzos: Judith Trachtenberg. Narrative. With an afterword by Günter Creutzburg. With illustrations by Rosemarie Heinze . Verlag der Nation, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-373-00154-4 .
  • Peter Sprengel : History of German-Language Literature 1870–1900. From the founding of the empire to the turn of the century. Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-44104-1 .

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Franzos calls the area with the " Ruthenian peasant huts" in the " Podolian villages" (edition used, p. 61, below) Half-Asia (edition used, p. 59, 14th Zvu).
  2. ↑ Franzos means his hometown Tschortkau (see also Tschortkau district and Günter Creutzburg in the afterword to Judith Trachtenberg , p. 235, 4th Zvo) on the Seret (edition used, p. 145, 13th Zvu) south of the district capital Tarnopol in western Ukraine .
  3. ↑ Factor, here: employee in the city administration.
  4. ↑ Mentioned are Radetzky in the Battle of Novara and the fight against King Carlo Alberto .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ edition used, p. 120, 16. Zvu
  2. ↑ edition used, p. 98, 13. Zvu
  3. ↑ edition used, p. 133, 17. Zvo
  4. ↑ edition used, p. 61, 18. Zvo
  5. ↑ edition used, p. 74, 13. Zvu
  6. ↑ edition used, p. 80, below
  7. ↑ edition used, p. 87, 17. Zvu
  8. ↑ edition used, p. 145, 16. Zvo
  9. ↑ edition used, p. 120, 18. Zvo
  10. ↑ edition used, p. 139, 19. Zvo
  11. ↑ edition used, p. 20, 6. Zvo
  12. ↑ Sprengel, p. 282