Radetzky March (Joseph Roth)

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First edition

Radetzkymarsch is a novel by the Austrian author Joseph Roth . It was published by Verlag Kiepenheuer in Berlin in 1932 , after having previously been published as a serial novel in the Frankfurter Zeitung .

Roth describes the collapse of the dual monarchy in the form of a family history spanning three generations . The title of the novel refers to the march of the same name by Johann Strauss (father) from 1848, which symbolically runs through the plot. Roth's 1938 novel Die Kapuzinergruft also refers to the plot of Radetzkymarsch .

Emergence

Berlin memorial plaque at the location of "Mampe's Gute Stube" on Kurfürstendamm 14

The publisher Wolf Jobst Siedler reports on the creation of the novel : “In the last few months before the National Socialists came to power [January 1933] Joseph Roth sat for months [in Berlin] at a certain table in Mampe's parlor , where he had large parts of his Radetzky March, and his grief over the fall of Habsburg and the ancient emperor was probably the grief over the fall of old Europe. "

As can be reconstructed from his letters, Roth actually wrote this novel from autumn 1930 with friends (including Stefan Zweig ) and in hotels in Frankfurt a. M., Berlin, Paris, Baden-Baden and Antibes in France. The work was completed in the summer of 1932. The first copies of the book edition appeared in Berlin at the end of August / beginning of September 1932.

content

In Radetzkymarsch, Joseph Roth tells the story of the Trotta family, fatefully associated with the imperial house of the Habsburgs . The story of the decline of the Austrian family, who unexpectedly rose to the nobility, is paralleled and linked to the crisis-ridden development and decline of the Habsburg monarchy.

Knight's Cross of the Military Maria Theresa Order

From a poor peasant family in the Slovenian village Sipolje a Trotta engaged in the army for accounting sergeant and later to the police - sergeant on. After losing an eye in a fight with Bosnian smugglers, he lives as a military invalid and park ranger at Laxenburg Palace near Vienna. He opened a career as an officer for his son Joseph ; this first brings it to the lieutenant of the infantry . In the battle of Solferino , Lieutenant Joseph Trotta saves the life of the young Emperor Franz Joseph I at the risk of his life. As "Hero of Solferino" he was awarded the Military Maria Theresa Order , and as "Joseph Trotta von Sipolje" he was raised to the nobility and promoted to captain .

He irrevocably leaves the path of his peasant ancestors and becomes "the ancestor of a new generation". After the captain accidentally discovered a heroic depiction of the Battle of Solferino in his son's school book and complained about it - initially without success - to the emperor, he was raised to the rank of baron , but bitterly left the army and withdrew to Bohemia . He forbids his son, Franz Freiherrn von Trotta and Sipolje, to pursue a career in the military. Instead, he embarked on a civil civil service career and was ultimately appointed district captain in the city of W. through the favor of the emperor .

With Carl Joseph Trotta von Sipolje, the son of the district captain, nothing is left of the gnarled strength of the “hero of Solferino”. Neither a dashing soldier like his grandfather nor an official like his father loyal to the emperor, Carl Joseph is an extremely soft and sensitive character who does not embark on an officer career of his own choosing, but because his father has chosen him to do so. The young man does not really want to be a soldier, but in accordance with the ethos of duty performance, he follows his family's mandate. In the third part of the novel, Carl Joseph's tragically ending love affair with Frau Slama and his grotesque love affair with Frau von Tau St.

Retired as a lieutenant in the cavalry, fate soon led him to join the infantry on the Russian border, where Carl Joseph became addicted to alcohol and gambling. The decadence of the officer class is clearly and multifacetedly equated with the downfall of the Danube monarchy and the imperial family. Just as at the beginning of the ascent of a family the commitment of a human life for the emperor stood, at the end there was a sacrifice for the nameless comrades: Carl Joseph was killed during the First World War while trying to fetch water for his soldiers. The noble branch of the Trotta family goes out with him. Two years later (on the day of Emperor Franz Joseph's funeral!) The district captain also dies.

A descendant of the above mentioned park ranger of Laxenburg Castle is also the bourgeois Franz Ferdinand Trotta, whom Joseph Roth made the main character in his 1938 novel The Capuchin Crypt . His grandfather was a brother of the "Hero of Solferino".

Quotes

  • The Trottas were a young generation. Their ancestor had received the nobility after the battle of Solferino. He was a Slovenian. Sipolje - the name of the village he came from - became his title of nobility. Fate had chosen him for a special act. But he made sure that the later times lost him from memory.
  • “It was different then,” Skowronnek replied. “Even the emperor is not responsible for his monarchy today. Yes, it seems that God himself no longer wants to bear responsibility for the world. It was easier then! Everything was secured. Every stone was in its place. The streets of life were probably paved. The safe roofs lay over the walls of the houses. But today, Mr. District Captain, today the stones are lying across the streets, tangled and in dangerous piles, and the roofs have holes, and it's raining in the houses, and everyone has to know for themselves which street they are on and what kind of house they are he pulls. "
  • With great effort, Herr von Trotta managed to answer the question: “I don't understand! How should the monarchy cease to exist? "
  • “Of course!” Replied Chojnicki, “taken literally, it still exists. We still have an army ”- the count pointed to the lieutenant -“ and officials ”- the count pointed to the district captain. “But she disintegrates alive. It's falling apart, it's already falling apart! An old man, doomed to die, endangered by any cold, holds the old throne simply by the wonder that he can still sit on it. How long, how long? Time doesn't want us anymore! This time wants to create independent nation states first! You don't believe in God anymore. The new religion is nationalism. The peoples no longer go to churches. You go to national associations. The monarchy, our monarchy, is founded on piety: on the belief that God chose the Habsburgs to rule over so many Christian peoples. Our emperor is a secular brother of the Pope, it is His K. u. K. Apostolic Majesty, no other apostolic like him, no other majesty in Europe so dependent on the grace of God and on the faith of the people in the grace of God. The German Kaiser still rules when God leaves him; possibly by the grace of the nation. The Emperor of Austria-Hungary must not be forsaken by God. But now God has left him! "
  • “Look!” Said Chojnicki, “this is the time of electricity, not alchemy. Chemistry too, you understand! Do you know what that thing is called? Nitroglycerin ”, the count pronounced each syllable separately. "Nitroglycerin!" He repeated. “No more gold! Candles are often burned in Franz Joseph's castle! Do you understand? We shall perish by nitroglycerin and electricity! It won't take long anymore, not long anymore! "
  • And in short: there was never an opportunity during the boring day not to drink schnapps. On the contrary, there were some afternoons and evenings when it was advisable to drink schnapps.

meaning

Radetzkymarsch is generally considered to be Roth's most important novel. Critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki even counts it among the twenty most important novels in the German language. Wilhelm von Sternburg summarizes the causes of the political failure of the Habsburg Monarchy, shown in the novel from Roth's perspective of the early 1930s .

The renowned Hungarian literary historian Georg Lukács praised the work in a Moscow magazine in 1939 as "one of the most artistically cohesive and convincing of modern German literature". Volker Weidermann wrote in the FAZ in 2004 : “ Of course, Joseph Roth's Radetzkymarsch is not just my favorite book. It's the most beautiful book in the world. The saddest. Most sentimental. Most wondrous. It's a miracle. ”On October 26, 2007, André Heller featured in the ZDF program Reading! proposed the novel as his personal favorite book.

For the writer Mario Vargas Llosa , Roth's Radetzkymarsch is “the best political novel ever written”.

Transmissions into foreign languages ​​can already be proven for the time before the Second World War . For example, Radetzky March appeared in the translation by Geoffrey Dunlop in 1933 by Viking Press in the USA and in 1934 by Heinemann in London (newly translated in 2002 by Michael Hofmann ) and in 1939 in Russian by Natalia Mann in the Soviet Union. In addition, foreign scholars did their doctorate on the book, for example Lilia Basirewa in 1985 in Leningrad with the dissertation "The Roman Radetzky March by Joseph Roth and the problems of the 'Habsburg myth'".

Trivia

Only rarely are places named, or places mentioned are fictitious. The Slovenian town of Sipolje, which also became the territorial predicate of the nobility, is fictional. The Moravian district capital, in which Franz Freiherr von Trotta and Sipolje becomes district captain, is only designated with W. The abbreviation and topographical details indicate the small Moravian town of Wischau ; this was the center of a German-speaking island and since 1862 the seat of a district authority . Carl Joseph's training took place in the actually existing cavalry cadet school in Mährisch Weißkirchen . The Uhlan Regiment No. 10, into which Carl Joseph was retired, does not exist. The infantry regiment is stationed in the city of B., just 14 kilometers from the Russian border. Roth is alluding to his birthplace, Brody .

The wise Dr. Skowronnek is very similar to Dr. Josef Löbel, a gynecologist and medical writer who was friends with Roth and who was well known in the Viennese cultural scene. In summer he often works for months in the Bohemian town of Franzensbad as a spa doctor, which is why he is also known as Dr. Löbel-Franzensbad occurred. The doctor, born in 1882, committed suicide in Prague in 1942 after his wife had been deported to Theresienstadt and he was threatened with the same.

Dramatizations

There are several stage versions of Roth's work:

radio play

In 1962, the novel was produced as a three-part radio play by WDR and SWF , adapted and directed by Gert Westphal . Starring: Klausjürgen Wussow as narrator and Bernhard Wilfert , Johannes von Spallart and Matthias Fuchs as Major Joseph, District Captain Franz and Lieutenant Carl Joseph von Trotta.

Film adaptations

Radetzkymarsch was filmed in 1964 under the direction of Michael Kehlmann with Helmut Lohner in the lead role, see Radetzkymarsch (1965) . In 1995, Axel Corti filmed the novel in three parts, see Radetzkymarsch (1995) . Jem Cohen made a cinematic homage in 2007 with his commissioned work for the Viennale film festival under the title Empires of Tin .

Dubbing

Daniel Besnehard created a libretto from the novel, which was set to music by the French composer René Koering and premiered on October 4, 1988 under the title “La Marche de Radetzky” at the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg.

expenditure

literature

  • Jan Andres: Late Modern. Joseph Roth's “Radetzkymarsch” (1932). In: German-language novels of classical modernism . Edited by Matthias Luserke-Jaqui . de Gruyter, Berlin / New York a. a. 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-018960-5 , pp. 391-417.
  • Jurij Archipow: Joseph Roth in the Soviet Union. In: Michael Kessler, Fritz Hackert (ed.): Joseph Roth: Interpretation - Criticism - Reception. Files from the international, interdisciplinary symposium 1989, Academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. Stauffenburg Verlag Brigitte Narr, Tübingen 1990 (2nd edition 1994) ISBN 3-923721-45-5 , pp. 15-17.
  • Werner Bellmann. Epilogue. In: Joseph Roth. Radetzky March. Edited by WB Stuttgart: Reclam, 2010. pp. 519-538. (Reclam Library) ISBN 978-3-15-010752-2 .
  • Hansjürgen Böning: Joseph Roth's "Radetzkymarsch". Topic, structure, language. Fink, Munich 1968.
  • David Bronsen: Joseph Roth. A biography . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1974. Basic information about the Radetzky March , ISBN 3-462-00910-9 .
  • Helen Chambers: Joseph Roth's Reception in Great Britain. In: Michael Kessler (Ed.), Fritz Hackert (Ed.): Joseph Roth: Interpretation - Criticism - Reception. Files from the international, interdisciplinary symposium 1989, Academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. Stauffenburg Verlag Brigitte Narr, Tübingen 1990 (2nd edition 1994) ISBN 3-923721-45-5 , pp. 64-76.
  • Maud Curling: Joseph Roth's “Radetzkymarsch”. A psychosociological interpretation. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main / Bern a. a. 1981, ISBN 3-8204-6854-4 (also dissertation at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau 1980).
  • Daniel Keel , Daniel Kampa (Ed.): Joseph Roth. Life and work. Diogenes-TB 23983, Zurich 2010 (collection mainly of older essays and articles about Roth, also about the “Radetzkymarsch” ), ISBN 978-3-257-23983-6 .
  • Bernd M. Kraske: Homesickness for the past. Joseph Roth's "Radetzkymarsch". Wfb, Bad Schwartau 2006, ISBN 978-3-86672-023-7 .
  • Hartmut Scheible: Joseph Roth. With an essay on Gustave Flaubert . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [a. a.] 1971. About the Radetzkymarsch pp. 157–193.
  • Hilde Spiel : A world full of grandchildren. About Joseph Roth's “Radetzkymarsch” (1932). In: Marcel Reich-Ranicki (Ed.): Novels from yesterday - read today. Volume 2. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1989, ISBN 3-10-062911-6 , pp. 350-358.
  • Wilhelm von Sternburg : Joseph Roth. A biography. 2nd Edition. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2009, on the Radetzkymarsch pp. 393-402, ISBN 978-3-462-05555-9 .
  • Martha Wörsching: The backward-looking utopia. Social psychological remarks on Joseph Roth's novel “Radetzkymarsch” . In: Heinz Ludwig Arnold (ed.): Special volume Joseph Roth . Edition text u. Critique, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-88377-114-7 , pp. 90-100, 166 pages.
  • Joseph Roth: Radetzky March . In: Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Hrsg.): Kindlers Literatur Lexikon . 3rd, completely revised edition. 18 vols. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2009, ISBN 978-3-476-04000-8 , vol. 14, pp. 43-44

Web links

Commons : Joseph Roth  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolf Jobst Siedler: We got away with it again. Munich 2004
  2. ↑ See the afterword in the new edition of the novel by Werner Bellmann
  3. ↑ Sternburg, p. 398
  4. ↑ Volker Weidermann: My favorite book: "Radetzkymarsch" . In: FAZ , July 12, 2004, p. 31
  5. ↑ Chambers, p. 76
  6. ^ Archipow, p. 16 above
  7. ^ Archipow, p. 16 below
  8. ↑ Cf. the commentary in the new edition of the novel by Werner Bellmann, p. 444. In the 1995 film adaptation, Carl Joseph declares that his father was a district captain in Iglau (today's Jihlava )
  9. ↑ Norbert Jachertz: Dr. Josef Löbel alias Dr. Skowronnek Deutsches Ärzteblatt 2018, Volume 115, Issue 44 of November 2, 2018, Page S2018
  10. ↑ a b c Joseph Roth: Works 5 , Novels and Stories 1930–1936, Kiepenheuer & Witsch 2009
  11. ↑ Rowohlt Theater Verlag : Radetzkymarsch, A game in 15 images , accessed on January 19, 2018
  12. ↑ Wolfgang Höbel : Hüpfburgtheater , Der Spiegel (Hamburg), December 15, 2017, accessed on January 19, 2018
  13. ↑ Radetzkymarsch (1965) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  14. ↑ Radetzkymarsch (1995) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  15. ^ Diogenes: Radetzky March. Retrieved January 23, 2018 .