Gripsholm Castle (Roman)
Gripsholm Castle. A summer story is the title of a short story published by Kurt Tucholsky in 1931. The cheerfully melancholy love story is one of the author's best-known works and is reminiscent of his debut novel Rheinsberg: A picture book for lovers .
content
The book begins with the imprint of a fictitious correspondence between the author and his publisher , Ernst Rowohlt , whose signature Tucholsky reproduces as "(giant squiggles) Ernst Rowohlt". In it, Rowohlt encourages Tucholsky to write another light and cheerful love story, while the latter instead "offers him a little summer story (" Today love? Love you? Who loves today? ") And for a higher fee haggles.
The following story is about the summer vacation of the narrator Kurt, known as Peter, with his girlfriend Lydia, whom he mostly called just “the princess”, in Sweden . After the train and ferry journey and some searching, both arrive at Gripsholm Castle , where they spend about three weeks. During their summer vacation, Kurt's old comrade and friend Karlchen and Lydia's best friend Billie visit them one after the other. The episode narration, in which an erotic adventure for three - which should be regarded as bold for the later period of the Weimar Republic - contrasts with thought-provoking scenes: the summer visitors watch a little girl who lives in a nearby children's home and under the sadistic German head of the institute suffers. The visitors decide to save the harassed child and arrange with the mother, who lives in Switzerland , that the child is snatched from the director of the home and brought home.
language
With Gripsholm Castle, Tucholsky tied in with his first, highly successful love story Rheinsberg. A picture book for lovers . Stylistically much more refined, less carefree cheerful, not without dark colors, he interweaves witty and witty Berlin dialogues with Low German sprinkles (or missingsch ), closely observed small experiences and literary cabinets, including a linguistically powerful representation of ancient cruelty rituals in the Roman Circus Maximus .
background
The dedication “For IA 47 407” can be found on the first front page of the book. This is a Berlin license plate. The owner of the car was Lisa Matthias , she was Tucholsky's lover from 1927 to 1931. Since a dedication with her name would have made the relationship obvious, Tucholsky chose this encryption. His affinity for Sweden is also authentic; After emigrating from Germany, the author first lived in Paris and decided in 1929 to move to Sweden. From April to October 1929 he lived in the Fjelltorp house in Läggesta , near Gripsholm Castle. During this time he looked for a permanent place to stay in Sweden, which he finally found in Hindås near Gothenburg in western Sweden . The fact that he was buried near the castle in Mariefred's cemetery after his death is due to the initiative of his Swedish secretary and confidante Gertrude Meyer.
Nevertheless, Tucholsky attached importance to the observation that the story contained only a few autobiographical elements. In a letter to a reader he wrote: “In the long winter months when I was busy with 'Gripsholm', nothing bothered me as much as to find this tone of true experience. Apart from a somewhat vague model of Karlchen and the fact that there really is a Gripsholm Castle, which I have never lived in, pretty much everything in this story is made up: from correspondence with Rowohlt to (unfortunately! Unfortunately!) Lydia, which doesn't even exist. Yes, it's a shame. "
Lisa Matthias also protested in her autobiography Ich war Tucholskys Lottchen against having actually participated in the described “ Ménage à trois ”. She wrote: “When Tucholsky invited Yvonne and me to Brissago one day , first in two rooms and, finally, in one - we laughed at the poor lunatic whose sexuality was beginning to become erotomaniac . […] My friendship with Yvonne actually suffered - as it is in Gripsholm Castle - no damage. Partly because I found Tucholsky's behavior just ridiculous, partly because I didn't take part in the 'Night for Three' at all. "
expenditure
It was first published in 1931 by Rowohlt Verlag , Berlin. As one of the publisher's first paperback editions, the work was published as No. 4 in 1950; it is currently available from Rowohlt, Reinbek under ISBN 978-3-499-10004-8 and from other publishers, as the text is now free of copyrights is.
Film adaptations
In 1963 the material was first filmed with Walter Giller , Jana Brejchová , Hanns Lothar and Nadja Tiller in the leading roles under the title Gripsholm Castle , directed by Kurt Hoffmann .
The most recent film adaptation, entitled Gripsholm, dates back to 2000. The main roles are cast by the actors Ulrich Noethen , Heike Makatsch and Jasmin Tabatabai . Xavier Koller was responsible as the director of the film .
Radio play and audio book
An unabridged audio version read by Uwe Friedrichsen was published in 2002. A radio play of the same name ( Rundfunk der DDR 1964) was awarded the Radio Eins Radio Play Cinema Audience Award in 2007 . In the same year the Diogenesverlag published an unabridged reading with Heike Makatsch .
Secondary literature
- Kurt Tucholsky: Complete Edition. Texts and letters. Edited by Antje Bonitz, Dirk Grathoff, Michael Hepp, Gerhard Kraiker. 22 volumes. Reinbek 1996 ff., Volume 14: Texts 1931. Edited by Sabina Becker, Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek 1998, pp. 552–601, ISBN 3-498-06532-7
- Walter Delabar: A little love story. Kurt Tucholsky's “Gripsholm Castle. A summer story. ” , In: Sabina Becker, Ute Maack (ed.): Kurt Tucholsky. The literary and journalistic work. Darmstadt 2002, pp. 115-142
- Kirsten Ewentraut: Here, too, it doesn't work without Freud. Tucholsky's “Gripsholm Castle” - A little summer story? in: Michael Hepp, Roland Links (ed.): Sweden - that's a long country. Kurt Tucholsky and Sweden. Documentation of the KTG conference 1994. Oldenburg 1994, pp. 149–180.
- Lisa Matthias: I was Tucholsky's Lottie. Marion von Schröder, Hamburg 1962
Web links
- Gripsholm Castle at Zeno.org .
- Gripsholm Castle in the Gutenberg-DE project
- Gripsholm Castle at DigBib.Org (Free Digital Library)
- Gripsholm Castle filming of 1963 in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Gripsholm Castle filming of 2000 in the Internet Movie Database (English)