Pargfrider
Pargfrider is a novel by Stefan Heym that was published by Bertelsmann Verlag in 1998 . Heym used the life story of the Austrian cloth merchant Joseph Gottfried Pargfrieder , also Pargfrider, as a template . He lived in Austria in the 19th century and worked as an army supplier.
action
The novel is divided into a framework and an internal story. In the framework narrative, "SH" reports on an encounter that took place around 50 years ago. The internal plot consists of Pargfrider's memoirs, which are divided into 21 chapters. On four to 13 pages each, they describe episodes from the near and distant past of the cloth merchant.
The framework story
At the beginning of the book, a person with the initials “SH” describes how the Soviet soldier Vladimir Dawydowitsch Grinberg in Vienna promised him a book with Pargfrider's notes at the end of the Second World War. However, the agreed handover, which the Russian Jew stole from Pargfrider's castle in Wetzdorf, does not take place. Grinberg is recalled to Moscow and sentenced to camp in Siberia. So 50 years pass before the two men meet again and "SH" comes into possession of the historical certificate.
The “afterword” at the end of the book completes the storyline. It is a letter "SHs" to Grinberg in Tel Aviv, in which he dedicates a copy of the transcript of Pargfrider's notes to him. The fictional document is characterized by the incorporation of two Pargfrider texts. "SH" quotes the last will of the draper with regard to the meticulously planned funeral and the precise description of the coffin in which he wanted to be enthroned on an armchair.
The internal act
Pargfrider lost his mother at the age of about three and worked his way up to a successful businessman who, due to the Austrian armies' need for fabric for uniforms, became a leading dealer, "Napoleon des Zwillichs". Two important military men became the most important friends and advocates of Pargfrider, who - partly in return, partly out of friendship - eased their debt burden. Field Marshal Josef Wenzel Graf Radetzky von Radetz and Baron Maximilian von Wimpffen , Imperial Field Marshal, introduce him to their Masonic lodge and appear in Pargfrider's portrayal as human despite their function as military men who decide the life and death of many soldiers. Despite their aristocratic status in conservative Austria, they are open to progressive democratic ideas in their private lives. The two nobles cannot bring Pargfrider closer to his goal of being recognized as equal in higher circles, which obviously has to do with the fact that he is Jewish.
In return for the promise to pay off their debts, he receives successively from Wimpffen and Radetzky the promise to be allowed to bury their corpses on his property. For this purpose Pargfrider builds a crypt on the site of the Heldenberg memorial that he built . In the outside area there are busts of historical and living figures of intellectual life and power: Shakespeare, Copernicus, Mozart, Goethe and Leibniz are represented as well as Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria - and Radetzky and Wimpffen. After Wimpffen had been lying in the crypt for some time, Radetzky's funeral became Pargfrider's final triumph. Emperor Franz Joseph feels compelled to make Pargfrider a knight in order to give the final resting place of his well-deserved commander Radetzky the necessary dignity and in order not to have to enter the grounds of an untitled Jewish parvenu at the burial. Pargfrider, who sees himself confirmed in his wisdom that everything and everyone can be bought with money, gives the Emperor the Heldenberg in a gesture of high-spirited generosity and sees himself in his life's goal when the Kaiser finally arrives in person for Radetzky's funeral.
interpretation
Criticism of Stalinism
In the novel Pargfrider Heym uses themes that pervade earlier works. In his late work Heym took up the criticism of Stalinism from his early years (The King David Report). The fictional character Grinberg is portrayed in the frame narration as an innocent victim of Moscow. Only after the XX. At the CPSU party convention , at which Khrushchev initiated the departure from Stalin , the former Soviet soldier was released from involuntary detention in the camp. Grinberg makes it clear to “SH” that his imprisonment was interpreted as a “minor administrative accident”.
Criticism of anti-Semitism
The novel paints a tableau of imperial Austria in the middle of the 19th century from the individual point of view of a Jew who ascends into the strengthening middle class, but is not accepted by ( anti-Semitic ) society.
Representation of (Jewish) intellectuals as outsiders
There are several characters in the novel who fulfill the image of the critical intellectual. "SH" and Grinberg are entrusted with intellectual work as subordinate ranks in their respective armed forces: "SH" as a military journalist and Grinberg as subordinate of the "chief censor" Petrushkin. But Pargfrider is also a critical outsider who is not accepted by the established circles at court. A special characteristic connects “SH”, Grinberg and Pargfrider: They are all of Jewish origin, which predestines them for their role as intellectual outsiders.
literature
- Primary literature
- Pargfrider. Novel. Munich, btb / Goldmann, [Munich 1998] 2000. ISBN 3442726484
- Reviews