Tarabas

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Tarabas. A guest on this earth is a novel by Joseph Roth , which was published from January 26 to March 16, 1934 as a serial in the German-language anti-fascist daily Pariser Tageblatt and immediately afterwards published by Querido in Amsterdam in spring 1934 . Soon after its publication, translations into English ( The Viking Press , New York City), French ( Gallimard , Paris), Czech, Polish and Italian ( Mondadori , Milan) came on the market.

time and place

The story tells of the last six years in the life of the landlord's son Nikolaus Tarabas. The action takes from New York to Galicia from 1914 to 1919 .

action

Colonel Nikolaus Tarabas first sins and then atone .

The Catholic Nikolaus Tarabas from the Galician village of Koryla visits the Technical University in Petersburg and takes part in an assassination attempt on the governor of Kherson . His father sends him to America as a punishment. Tarabas cannot find his way around in a foreign country. In New York prophesies him a gypsy , he would a murderer and a saint. In a rage, Tarabas almost kills the host of a New York bar and is wanted by the police.

Unexpectedly, the outbreak of war comes to his aid. Tarabas returns to Koryla via the port of Riga . Before Lieutenant Tarabas joins his regiment in Kherson, he seduces cousin Maria. The father notices this and chases him out of the house. During the war, Tarabas was promoted to captain as an extraordinary front officer . He leads the subordinates with an iron fist, kills and kills. When the revolution breaks out, Tarabas holds the remnants of his company together - also with stick and fists . A complete stranger, red-haired soldier, a Jew , appears and claims that the revolution has triumphed and that the citizen of Tarabas can go home. The captain does not allow himself to be disempowered - least of all by a Jew whom he considers to be a certain doombringer . Tarabas penetrates the new rulers, appears resolute and is actually installed as a colonel. He is supposed to set up a regiment in the Koropta garrison . Koropta is not far from Tarabas' hometown of Koryla.

What Tarabas and the reader did not yet know at the time: General Lakubeit, former advocate of Tarabas' father, wields military power. The newly crowned colonel sets up the regiment by simply recruiting men loitering in Koropta. During an inspection, General Lakubeit makes his Colonel Tarabas aware that unreliable soldiers must be disarmed and removed from the regiment. Tarabas lets the "discharge candidates" get drunk. Meanwhile, there is a pogrom against the defenseless Jews living in Koropta, including by the drunken soldiers. Tarabas, head of the police force in Koropta, is unable to act during the excesses because he is just as drunk. The houses on the main street are set on fire by Christian farmers and soldiers. Even those who were loyal to Colonel Tarabas perish at the hands of Christians in the excesses. To protect the Jews from further attacks, he orders that the Jews are not allowed to leave their homes. Then he runs into the red-haired Jewish prayer house servant Shemaryah. In his anger, the Colonel abuses him. Tarabas rightly says that Shemariah is the father of the red-haired revolutionary who wanted to send him home.

After he committed the crime against Shemariah - he tore his beard out - Tarabas realizes that he is a monster, even a murderer. He wants to atone, wants to shed all his murderous splendor . Therefore, he places the sign of his power and strokes as a tramp in rags through the country, begging and also works occasionally. A life full of privation ruins the health of the formerly robust, healthy soldier. Before Tarabas dies, he asks Shemariah, who is now almost insane, for forgiveness. The Jew forgives the Christian, becomes his sole heir, but knows no use for the money. Tarabas is buried with military honors in Koropta.

Quote

One should do good to every poor person .

Testimonials

  • Joseph Roth wrote in a letter to Stefan Zweig on May 22, 1933 : Shiny fabric, far from Germany, but with a clear connection to it . He got the material from a Ukrainian newspaper.
  • In a letter to Carl Seelig dated July 7, 1934, Joseph Roth no longer thinks much of his novel.

Prints in lifetime

  • Pariser Tageblatt , 2nd year, No. 46 from January 21, 1934 to No. 94 from March 16, 1934. Announcement in Sunday supplement No. 41 from January 21, 1934.
  • The collection , literary monthly magazine, 1st year 1934, pp. 26–33. First chapter of the novel.
  • Die neue Weltbühne , born in 1934, No. 19, pp. 584-585, excerpt under the title Father and Son .
  • Jewish library , entertainment supplement to the Israelite family paper, November 22, 1934ff, continued under the title The Miracle of Koropta .
  • Amsterdam 1934, Querido-Verlag, 288s. First edition as a book.

reception

  • Hesse called on May 6, 1934, " Basler Zeitung " the Tarabas one of his [Joseph Roth's] most beautiful books , and sums up: The seal is real and it extends to where it repentance and sanctification are . Roth thanks Hesse in writing.
  • Nürnberger sees the Tarabas as too much presented processes that are presented without a convincing concept .
  • The theme of the novella is the mistreatment of Eastern European Jews.

filming

The film Tarabas of Michael Kehlmann with Helmuth Lohner , Erik Frey and Günter Mack was sent in 1982 on television.

literature

source

Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sternburg, p. 427 middle
  2. ↑ Sternburg, p. 430 above
  3. ↑ Hackert p. 620
  4. ↑ Nürnberger p. 114
  5. ^ Sternburg, p. 429, 13th Zvu
  6. ^ Raffel p. 256
  7. ↑ Michels pp. 542-543
  8. ↑ Sternburg, p. 431 above
  9. ↑ Nürnberger p. 114
  10. ↑ Steierwald pp. 63, 130, 168
  11. ↑ Nürnberger p. 152