Political novella

Aristide Briand and Gustav Stresemann, 1926.

Politische Novelle is a short story by Bruno Frank from the year 1928. It was preprinted in excerpts on February 11 of the same year in the “ Tag-Buch ”. Translations into five languages ​​appeared by the winter of 1930. The French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand , who saw himself portrayed as the protagonist, thanked the author in writing in April 1929.

The German-French reconciliation after the First World War is discussed . Among other things, Briand's meeting with the German Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann in Locarno in autumn 1925 , at which they signed the Locarno Treaties, served as material for the author .

action

Born in 1879 former Supreme Court srat Carl Ferdinand Carmer, a descendant of the Grand Chancellor of Carmer had before the war ministerial posts in Prussia and the German Reich clothed and was also in the early years of the Weimar Republic was Minister. He had already lost his wife in the first few weeks of the war. She had reported to the front as a nurse and had succumbed to an infection while serving.

Together with his secretary Dr. Erlanger, Carmer is in Ravello . The days in this area near Cap Licosa , the Gulf of Policastro and the Temple of Poseidon in Paestum are numbered. From Paris, the much older Frenchman Achille Dorval calls the Germans to Cannes . Carmer and Erlanger leave. On the day of departure - it is a Sunday - Carmer is confronted with Italian fascism at the holiday resort .

Erlanger exchanges ideas with François Bloch - who is the French's companion - about the peculiarities of German and French culture and language in Cannes, what was then the “most elegant place on earth”. Foreign ministers Dorval and Carmer, on the other hand, are discussing - ready to come to an understanding, but in places quite controversial - questions relating to Germany's post-war borders , the occupation of the Rhineland and reparations . The heirs of Charlemagne would have to pull themselves together again, hopes Dorval.

A new government is formed in Berlin. Carmer is to become foreign minister. He accompanies Dorval to Marseille . On the way, the two politicians spend the night in a fishing village behind Toulon . Carmer still has hours in Marseille the next day before the train leaves for Germany. He walks alone in the lively harbor district . In the hustle and bustle on Dirnenstrasse, Gelichter, who smells prey, blocks his way back. Carmer doesn't want to give out his money. A knife stab under the left shoulder blade ended Carmer's life. In the multicultural crowd, the dead person is robbed by the murderer, a young, blond, blue-eyed white man .

shape

The introduction - hidden in the first eight of the twelve chapters - gives the reader space and time to speculate about the meaning of the text. For example, Becky Floyd's appearance in Cannes is meant. Bruno Frank took Josephine Baker as a role model for the dancer.

reception

Statements in the year of publication

• On February 28, 1928, Max Krell wrote in the " Vossische Zeitung ": "With his novella, Bruno Frank became the valiant poetic advocate of the European idea."
• Paul Block (1862–1934) reviews the book in the supplement to the “ Berliner Tageblatt ” from March 15, 1928.
• It almost looks as if Carmer is looking for death in the dangerous harbor district of Marseille. Julius Bab (weekly “Deutsche Republik” from March 23, 1928, pp. 783–788) considers this final variant neither motivated nor coherent.
• Stefan Großmann (“Das Tage-Buch”, April 14, 1928, pp. 632–635), on the other hand, takes the end symbolically. Carmer becomes a victim of his own innocence. Leading politicians of the Weimar Republic would not have wanted to admit the unfair or even criminal intentions of their political opponents.
• Bernard von Brentano (" Frankfurter Zeitung " of April 22, 1928, literature supplement 17) protests against this drawing by a German politician from the pen of a "proponent of the republic", which in his opinion is completely out of place.
• Thereupon Thomas Mann defends the author and praises the “beautiful, precise work”. No tension is generated. Thomas Mann admits that Carmers dying could seem to the reader by chance, but it is meant symbolically: The talk is of “seduction and destruction, the deep endangerment of the noble itself, Germanness, Europeanism”.
• Carl von Ossietzky tears up the novella in his “ Weltbühne ” of March 6, 1928 on pages 351–354. The text, written past life, reflects an uncharacteristic “Grand Hotel Europe”. In the same magazine (more precisely: in the issue of May 8, 1928, pp. 717–721) Kurt Tucholsky scoffs at the story. Kirchner knows the cause: both critics were against Locarno and for Bolshevism .

Later statements

• Erika Mann and Klaus Mann wrote in their presentation of the German exile "Escape to life" from 1939, "Frank once the idea of Europe - Europe as an idea, as a tradition and as a target - made one of his books on intellectual heroes: the Political novella belongs to his best, most effective and most personal work. It has all the qualities to which he owes his great success, also as a theater writer: in addition to the intensity and purity of the feeling, the elegance of the form, the bravura of the technology, the artistic charm - French, European valeurs in addition to the cozy German ones . "
• Andrea Mork and Bernd Witte discuss the novella in the June 1992 issue of the “Magazine for Culture and Politics” on pages 54–76.
• Kirchner continues in Chapter “IV. Dionysian Downfall - The Political Novella ”of his dissertation with the novella. Bruno Frank saw the disease of Europe in the fascism of those days. Stresemann is not portrayed with Carmer. Carmer's death necessarily follows from the plot and is not accidental. The old port of Marseille was the legacy of the war. For Kirchner, Dorval is Mussolini's opponent and something like a new edition of Friedrich II. Kirchner sees a commonality between the “Days of the King”, the “Political Novella” and the “Magician”. Big old men stand in the background: Friedrich II., Briand and Max Reinhardt .

literature

First edition

• Bruno Frank: Political Novella. Ernst Rowohlt, Berlin 1928. 161 pages. Linen. With illustrations after Adolph von Menzel

Other issues

• Bruno Frank: Le Roman de Locarno: Political Novelle (French-German). Traduit de l'allemand by Joseph Delage. Préface de Bernard room. Paris: Attinger, 1928.
• Bruno Frank: The Persians are coming. Translated by Helen Tracy Porter-Lowe. London: Button, 1929.

Used edition

• Bruno Frank: Political Novella. Pp. 147–253 in: Days of the King and Other Tales. (also contains: “Days of the King”, “The Magician” and Thomas Mann's reflection on the political novella). Buchverlag Der Morgen, Berlin 1977 (1st edition, licensor: Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, Munich and for Thomas Mann's consideration: S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main), without ISBN, 328 pages, linen

Secondary literature

• Erwin Ackerknecht : Afterword. In: Bruno Frank: Political Novella. Stuttgart 1956, pages 127-136, here: 131, 132-134.
• #Grimm 1974 , pages 121-126.
• # Günther 1946 , pages 135-136.
• Herbert Günther : Revolving stage of the time. Friendships, encounters, fates. Hamburg 1957, pages 89-90.
• Sascha Kiefer: The German Novella in the 20th Century. A genre story. Cologne 2010, pages 145–157, 165–169, 55, 77, 295, 315, 377.
• Frank, Bruno - Political Novella. In: Munzinger Online / Kindlers Literatur Lexikon in 18 volumes. , 3rd, completely revised edition 2009, only online (access required).
• Sascha Kirchner: The citizen as an artist. Bruno Frank (1887–1945) - life and work . Grupello , Düsseldorf 2009, ISBN 978-3-89978-095-6 (also Diss. Uni Düsseldorf ), pages 161–179, 34, 149, 160, 180, 186, 213, 217, 246, 253, 292, 304, 335, 338, 363-364, 392, 398, 399, 400.
• Klaus Mann : What do you work? Conversation with Bruno Frank. In: The literary world , volume 2, number 29, July 16, 1926, page 1.
• Thomas Mann : "Political Novella". In: # Mann 1984.1 , pages 367-382.
• Ulrich Müller: Writing against Hitler. From historical to political novel. Investigations into the prose work of Bruno Frank. Mainz 1994, pages 28-44.
• Carl von Ossietzky : Carmer and Lichnowsky. In: Die Weltbühne , volume 24, first half of 1928, number 10, March 6, pages 351–354, here: 351–353.
• Konrad Paul: Afterword. In: Bruno Frank: Political Novella. Berlin 1982, pages 381-395, here: 382, ​​389-390.
• Kurt Tucholsky (alias Peter Panter): On the bedside table. In: Die Weltbühne , volume 24, first half of 1928, number 19, May 8, pages 717–721, here: 718.
• # Umlauf 1982 , pp. 109-111, 121.
• Bernd Widdig: Bruno Frank's political novella: "Basically everything comes down to the physical". In: Male associations and masses: the crisis of male identity in modern literature. Opladen 1992, pp. 73-100.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kirchner, p. 392, entry Politische Novelle
2. ↑ Kirchner, p. 178, 7th Zvu
3. ↑ Kirchner, p. 178, 6th Zvu
4. ↑ Kirchner, pp. 161–162
5. ↑ Edition used, p. 176, 12. Zvo
6. ↑ Kirchner, p. 167 above
7. ↑ Max Krell, quoted in Kirchner, p. 178, 15. Zvu and p. 397, entry Krell, Max
8. ↑ Kirchner, p. 395, entry Block, Paul
9. ↑ Bab, quoted in Kirchner, p. 177, 11. Zvo and p. 395, first entry Bab
10. ↑ Großmann, quoted in Kirchner, p. 177, 15. Zvo and p. 396, 4th entry vu
11. ^ Bernard von Brentano, quoted in Kirchner, p. 177, 5th Zvu and p. 397, entry by Bernard von Brentano
12. ↑ Kirchner, p. 178, 20. Zvo
13. ↑ Thomas Mann, pp. 307–327 in the edition used (taken from Thomas Mann: "Altes und Neues", S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1953; first published on July 21, 1928 in "Das Tage-Buch", p. 1209-1220). See also Kirchner, p. 398, second entry Mann, Thomas
14. ↑ Thomas Mann, quoted in the edition used, p. 316, 10. Zvu
15. ↑ Thomas Mann, quoted in the edition used, p. 325, 8th Zvu
16. ↑ Thomas Mann, quoted in the edition used, p. 326, 16. Zvo
17. ^ Carl von Ossietzky, quoted in Kirchner, p. 179 above and p. 398, entry Ossietzky, Carl von
18. ↑ Kirchner, p. 398, entry Panter, Peter
19. ↑ Kirchner, p. 178, 14. Zvo
20. ↑ Kirchner, p. 178, 11. Zvo
21. ^ # Mann, Erika 1991 , page 315.
22. ↑ Kirchner, p. 400, first entry vo
23. ↑ Kirchner, pp. 161–179
24. ↑ Kirchner, p. 166, 8. Zvo
25. ↑ Kirchner, p. 176, 3. Zvo
26. ↑ Kirchner, p. 173, 15. Zvu
27. ↑ Kirchner, p. 181, 16. Zvu
28. ↑ Erwin Ackerknecht was a brother of Eberhard Ackerknecht . This and Bruno Frank were schoolmates at the Karlsgymnasium in Stuttgart and long-term friends.