Phantom of fear

Phantom of Fear is the title of a short story by Ernst Kreuder , first published in 1939 in the volume Die Nacht der Gefangen . It is also the eponymous cover story of a collection of stories by the author published posthumously in 1987 by Reclam Verlag .

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The narrator remarks late at night in the stairwell a sinister figure who meddles with a key on a door long. Irritated, he stops at the top, waiting; however, the person becomes aware of him, whereupon he comes down to her and helps her to unlock the door. The name tag tells him that the stranger bears the name Karl Brand; instead of entering the apartment through the open door, however, he asks the narrator to go out with him. He agrees and the two make their way through the dark alleys to a bar that is only sparsely lit. Mr Brand hands the narrator a cigarette and fire, the landlord brings two glasses of beer and Brand starts a conversation:

“You see,” he said, “when the men who are now sitting in the pubs all over the world,” he raised his hand and counted the continents on his five fingers, “if these men didn't go into the pubs, but each one for himself in a dark forest, what would that mean? "" You mean, "I said," that this holds the world together? "" Or because it holds together, "he said," the men go there. "

Since people no longer experienced stories, but only told them, Brand offers the narrator the opportunity to put together a story with him. Meanwhile the beer glasses have already been emptied; the landlord brings schnapps. The narrator leaves it to his companion to begin the story, the internal narration begins.

According to this, a man called "Franz" had to take a train journey for an urgent reason and hurried to the station. The train is already leaving; However, he believes he can still reach him, as does a young woman in front of him who grabs the door bar, but cannot finally pull herself up or safely let go, so that she finds herself in a life-threatening situation - but Franz manages to close it pack and bring them back to the ground unharmed. The train drives away; They spend the waiting time for the next opportunity to travel together in the waiting hall. Franz feels very drawn to the woman, who is significantly younger than him, and to his delight he manages to put a smile on her face again after the shock. Suddenly, however, they are interrupted by excited newspaper boys who are handing out an extra edition: The train they wanted to take has crashed in the fog, twelve dead have already been rescued.

Brand interrupts his story briefly to ask the narrator for his opinion; who testifies that it seems unusual to him, but believable; Brand continues.

Franz rushes off to inform his sister of the circumstances by telephone; when he tries to return to the young woman, however, he finds that she is no longer there. He searches the train station for her but does not find her, her image is imprinted on him and follows him into his dreams. He doesn't stop looking for her. Finally he meets her again: in a hotel she walks past him in her bathrobe to her room. He knocks; and the power of his long unfulfilled wish is so strong that it lets him in, despite the inexplicable fear that has filled her since she barely escaped death in his presence. He makes her a marriage proposal; she postpones the decision on the next evening.

The next day they kiss; but the joint dinner is interrupted by another catastrophe. A fire breaks out in the hotel, several people die, Franz and the stranger lose sight of each other and swap roles: Now it is Franz who is filled with fear, because it seems to him that death reigns near his beloved. However, she can no longer leave him; she writes him countless letters, which, however, remain unanswered; one day it stands in front of his door, he doesn't open it, it disappears again. But finally, when he wants to come home some time later, he finds the lock damaged - apparently someone has gained access. A few steps above him he notices another man who finally helps him unlock the door and goes to a bar with him.

"How do you like that?" Asked Herr Brand. "I wasn't expecting that," I said. "How will the story go on, I mean what are you going to do now?"

They return to the house together. The narrator wants to say goodbye, but Brand asks him to stay a little longer. He looks around, sees no one and says that the beloved stranger has probably left. But suddenly she steps out of the bathroom, only dressed in a bathrobe, and calls his name. He stares at her.

"Anna," he said softly, blinking, swallowing, and, it seemed to me, completely forgotten.

She drops the bathrobe on the floor. The narrator turns away; the reader is simply and factually informed that the two would have married soon afterwards. When he met the man again some time later and went to the inn with him, he explained to him that he was fine; the story ends with the words:

"I guess that's the end of the story," I said.

"I hope so," he said, and drained his glass.

Text analysis and interpretation

Phantom of Fear is part of a series of earlier and rather simple stories that Kreuder published mainly for the purpose of earning a living and of which he himself did not think too much: He called them "robber pistols" because they built up a tension that did not appear in the final points would be dissolved - these are predominantly “calculated commercial products for an undemanding market”, judges Stephan Rauer. Of these, however , Phantom of Fear is one of the most successful.

The first part of the story lies in “mysterious darkness” - the plot moves from the dark hallway via dark alleys to the darkest table in a pub. The type of presentation is initially predominantly passive; "The key was turned several times, and the door was rattled"; Franz “is notified by telegram” that he has to go on a trip. Details are precisely observed and noted without first wanting to fit into a whole. In fact, the process of narration and the design of the narrative is described by Brand himself very precisely and in a self-reflective manner: "Up until now there have only been horrors, the threads are not yet tied."

However, this changes in the course of the presentation. The dark, uncomfortable inn becomes more intimate with each interruption of the internal narrative; Light penetrates the apartment when Brand and the narrator return there. This narrative change is also addressed directly and explicitly: “How will the story go on, I mean, what are you going to do now?” Asks the narrator after he has understood the connection between the two narrative levels; the story doesn't just go on, it is actively determined by the actions of the protagonists. With the bathrobe off Anna's shoulders, the anxious tension from the plot and its characters finally falls away. The gloomy atmosphere at the beginning of the story is replaced at the end by seemingly laconic, concise and clear closing sentences: "Soon afterwards Brand married"; "It brought us luck".

expenditure

• Ernst Kreuder: The prisoner's night. Stories. Wittich, Darmstadt, 1939.
  • also published in: Ernst Kreuder: Phantom der Angst. Stories. Reclam, Stuttgart, 1987.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Benedikt Viertelhaus: Brief introduction to the short stories by Ernst Kreuders with introductory remarks and the full text of the story. In: Kritische Ausgabe 8, 2002, pp. 85–89.
2. ↑ Stephan Rauer: "BUTKU". On Ernst Kreuder's short stories in National Socialism. In: Carsten Würmann, Ansgar Warner: In the break room of the “Third Reich”. On popular culture in National Socialist Germany. Peter Lang, Bern, 2008, pp. 229–245.
3. ↑ Werner Zimmermann: German prose poems of the present. Pedagogical Verlag Schwann, Düsseldorf, 1954, pp. 175–178.