Soldier Suhren

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Soldat Suhren is a novel by Georg von der Vring that was written around 1924 and published in 1927. It deals with the experiences of a soldier in World War I and is considered to be the first German World War II novel that , in the style of In the West Nothing New , wants to show the futility of war.

content

Suhren is drafted into war against his will. He tries in vain to evade this by simulating an illness. Suhren then decided to “become a useful soldier”, but could not bring himself to enthusiasm for the war. Most of the novel describes critically and ironically the drill in preparation for the frontline deployment, the drills and the military exercises during the training period. Suhren spends every free minute writing letters to his bride Lisa and poetry.

Only towards the end of the novel does Suhren come to the front in Volhynia in Russia. First roads are built and trenches are dug, then Suhren comes into battle. He fires three shots and (presumably) kills an enemy before sustaining a gunshot wound to his arm. With this " home shot " the war is already over for Suhren.

style

The style of the novel is rather lyrical and often ironic. There are numerous poems interspersed. The narrative thus differs significantly from the emphatically realistic descriptions in world war novels by other German combatants such as Ernst Jünger , Edlef Köppen or Erich Maria Remarque . Certain parallels can be drawn to Jaroslav Hašek's novel The good soldier Schwejk .

reception

Von der Vring initially struggled to find a publisher for the novel, which was completed in 1924. He received seventeen rejections. However, the novel was a considerable success with around 30,000 copies sold and made Georg von der Vring known as a writer practically overnight.

The work received mostly positive reviews, including from Thomas Mann in the Berliner Tageblatt . While some critics complained that Vring only provided “lyrical marginalia” on the war, another review called the work a “flaming indictment against the war”. There were also polemical voices that classified the work as a trend novel that denigrated the German soldiers at the front. For Hans-Jürgen Fröhlich (1989) it is "one of the most convincing books against the war and at the same time one of the most artistically successful books of the twenties."

literature

Expenditure:

  • Soldier Suhren. JM Späth, Berlin 1927.
  • Soldier Suhren. Schneekluth, Munich 1980.

Secondary literature:

Web links

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  1. ↑ Hans J. Fröhlich: An unsoldat goes to war; Hans J. Fröhlich on Georg von der Vring: "Soldat Suhren" (1927). In: Marcel Reich-Ranicki (Ed.): Read novels from yesterday today. Frankfurt am Main 1989, p. 92 f.
  2. ↑ Hans J. Fröhlich: An unsoldat goes to war. 1989, p. 97.