Beneath the wheel

The author of the book, Hermann Hesse, 1925

Under the wheel is a story by Hermann Hesse that appeared in 1906. Originally it was called a novel by Hermann Hesse . In Unterm Rad the fate of a talented young person is told who fails because of a one-sidedly demanding pedagogy, but also because of himself.

Table of contents

Joseph Giebenrath, middleman and widowed father of the protagonist Hans Giebenrath lives in a small town in the Black Forest . Hans is kept away from his peers by the principal of his school and his father in order to ward off what they consider to be a "bad" childlike influence on the boy. He gets extra tuition to prepare for the state examination in Stuttgart , for which he is the only one from his city to compete.

The boy's closeness to nature is emphasized again and again. However, on the evening before leaving for the state examination, Hans smashes a rabbit hutch that he used to appreciate. He is the second nationwide to pass the state examination. This allows him to attend the seminar in the monastery school in Maulbronn , where state officials and pastors are trained. As a reward for his rise to the educational elite, his father allows him to fish again.

The director and pastor urge Hans to study during the holidays in order to be able to cope with the increased competition in the seminar. He receives a few hours of lessons every day. Only the shoemaker Flaig, a simple man, philanthropist, pietist , who disapproves of the city pastor, advises him to have more "air and movement".

In Maulbronn Monastery, Hans Giebenrath made friends with the artistically inclined Hermann Heilner. His initial outrage about Heilner, who doesn't care about school and is rejected by the teachers because he is too intelligent and too rebellious, turns into admiration. Heilner even gives his admirer a kiss. Hans' connection to Heilner has the consequence that the teachers discredit him too. His performance deteriorates, he also feels “tired” and suffers from headaches.

After trying to escape, Heilner, who could not be found for three days and was finally picked up in a village, was expelled from school. He says goodbye to Hans with a handshake. The teachers' assumption that Hans must have known something about Heilner's disappearance weighs heavily on him. Eventually he collapses, is diagnosed with a nervous condition, and goes home on “vacation”, although it is as clear to the teachers as he is that he will not be returning to boarding school.

Hans spends a few idle weeks at home, his "tiredness" increases and he plans to commit suicide . During the apple harvest and the associated must, he falls in love with Emma, ​​Flaig's niece, who comes from Heilbronn and is not inexperienced erotically. Before her initiative, Hans fails, Emma returns to Heilbronn without saying goodbye to Hans. Hans starts an apprenticeship with a master locksmith on the mediation of his father and is ridiculed by former classmates as a “state examiner”. But August, a former schoolmate who is also training to be a mechanic, befriends Hans.

After Hans got drunk with some of the journeymen he met while training to be a mechanic through his good friend August, he drowns in the river, on the bank of which he used to spend so many happy hours. It remains unclear whether it is a suicide (even if many passages suggest it) or an accident: “Nobody knew how he got into the water”.

Interpretations

The figures

Hans Giebenrath

Hans is the best student in his hometown and, as everyone (ultimately himself) thinks, destined for higher things. His entire daily routine consists only of learning, and everyone else regards him as the hope of the town, whereby they use him more and more. Even before the state examination, Hans said goodbye to the idea of ​​ever leading a life “behind the cheese counter or in an office”. Hans has not been able to pursue his wishes and hobbies for a long time.

All rated as eager to learn, he made it to the state examination in Stuttgart, where he achieved a convincing second place. Then his time in Maulbronn begins. Here, too, he initially stands out from the crowd as a good student. But Hans Giebenrath soon reached his psychological limits and his motivation to work to the point of exhaustion was damaged by his relationship with Hermann Heilner, the rebellious artist.

"With a strange shock", Hans endures that Heilner kisses him on the mouth. In addition to the problems that Hans already has, there is also the onset of puberty, combined with the awakening tendency to fantasize, which Hans Giebenrath takes over from Heilner. Hans' performance also deteriorates due to a lack of attention to what is happening in the classroom, as he indulges in daydreams in class.

In general, his relationship with Heilner has a negative impact on Hans' reputation. After Heilner's departure, Hans Giebenrath became increasingly lonely and felt abandoned by everyone, especially since the benevolence of adults decreased along with his achievements.

With Heilner's departure from Hans' life, a long period of suffering begins with many depths, without friends of the same age, almost without adult supporters and without lasting joy. This ultimately leads to the fact that his life ends when he drowns in the creek. It is not clear whether thoughts of suicide or excessive alcohol consumption triggered this act, but it seems reasonable to conclude that he committed suicide after drinking courage. In the end, Schuster Flaig, one of the best friends, and even the only friend, says that Hans got into misery because of all the people who wanted to support him.

Even at the beginning of the novel, the narrator makes a diagnosis that the characters do not recognize (except perhaps to some extent Flaig): Hans Giebenrath is a case of " hypertrophy of intelligence with the onset of degeneration ", i. That is, he is very intelligent, but because of his incurably weak constitution, he cannot be resilient in the long term, so that situations of the type: "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" would have occurred again and again if Hans had lived on . The disregard of this fact, d. H. the unwillingness to handle Hans' resources sparingly ultimately triggered his failure.

Hesse gives only vague indications as to whether Hans was looking for death. If so, many people would have contributed to his death: the schoolmasters who kept him learning, his father and finally Emma's coup de grace (his brief love); only the shoemaker Flaig shows understanding and accuses the schoolmasters, while they pretend: "Something could have become of that, sad, sad." You and Hans 'father only see Hans' problems from their own point of view and do not think about them that Hans himself might have decided something in his own life.

However, Hesse's drowning motif is introduced into the plot well before the end of the story:

• “Hindu”, a classmate, breaks into the ice of a small lake adjacent to the monastery and drowns
• Hans Giebenrath hallucinates Jesus on a ship twice during class in the seminary; the second time he waves to him from the ship so that Hans wants to run towards him across the water (the vision then blurs); so the water seems to have an attractive effect on Hans
• Shortly before Hans' collapse, the narrator comments: "Nobody [...] saw a sinking soul suffering behind the helpless smile of the narrow boy's face and, while drowning, looked around fearfully and desperately."

Metaphorically, Hans Giebenrath has long since "drowned" before he actually drowns in a completely unrepresentative way. His death in the water is therefore a “dramaturgical necessity”.

The father

Joseph, a widower for a long time, is by no means the ideal type of the loving father: he prevents his son from attaining the compromise solution, which is possible in itself, of going to high school if he fails the state examination; the school fees due for this are too expensive for him. It remains unclear whether he really could not raise enough money to train his only son. As “middleman and agent”, as Joseph Giebenrath is introduced in the first sentence of the story, he certainly does not seem to be poor.

The father forbids his son from fishing and breeding hares while preparing for the state examination, which symbolizes the natural, self-determined and unaffected behavior of Hans. After the death of his son , he suppressed the idea that Hans wanted to kill himself, like everyone else (teacher, rector, city pastor) he thinks of an accident. He is described as a " Philistine ".

The mother and Emma

Hans Giebenrath's mother only says: "She had been dead for years, and nothing striking about her was noticed during her lifetime except that she had been sick and troubled forever." How much the boy missed her is shown in his Looking for security in nature, but also on the day of admission to the seminar: “Anyone who still had a mother when they entered the monastery seminar thinks of those days with gratitude and smiling emotion. Hans Giebenrath was not in this case and got over it without any emotion, but he was able to observe a large number of strange mothers and had a strange impression of them. "(P. 54, lines 23 ff)

Then the loving care with which mothers stroke the textiles of their sons, and then also these themselves, is described. The feminine element is underrepresented in Hans' life, he has neither mother nor sister, old Anna is only a cook for his father and him. An initial childhood love for Emma, ​​Inspector Gessler's daughter, could not be increased because of his shyness, and when Hans returned to his hometown, the petite Emma had become a ridiculous fashion figure that Hans only felt sorry for. After the promising opening that he had a treasure, Heilner no longer satisfied his curiosity about erotic adventures, and so Hans is completely erotic when he comes across Flaig's niece, Emma from Heilbronn, who kisses him, becomes tender with him and finally accuses him: “What a treasure you are! You don't dare to do anything. ”When she left without saying goodbye, the feeling haunted him that he had failed not only as a seminarian, but now also as a man; In addition, Hans' condition after Emma's departure is described as "agony", which ends in the desire for redemption and certainly also contributed to his death.

The shoemaker Flaig

Flaig is a devout pietist . He even thinks that the pastor does not believe in God, but places science above piety . If Hans ever had anything like a guardian angel, it was him. He and the pastor wage a silent "war" against each other. Master Flaig is the only one who interprets Hans 'death as a suicide, and he names the cause of the suicide as Hesse's mouthpiece: it was not the alcohol, but the teachers, the school and his father's ambition that were Hans' childhood, his freedom and ultimately his Stole life. His relationship with Hans is respectful. Even if Flaig has become disparaging towards him once, the two are bound by the lust for life, which is most evident in Hans' vacation after completing the state exam, where both have longer conversations and Hans, for example, shares the fish he has caught.

The parish priest

The pastor is also one of those who encourage Hans to study and give him little free time; Hans continues to study even during the seven weeks of vacation because the pastor thinks that otherwise life in the boarding school could be too difficult for him.

Hermann Heilner

Heilner is a dreamer and poet whose friendship with Hans changes his attitude towards school. Since the teachers don't like Heilner, because he “takes school too lightly” and doesn't want to let his thinking be pressed into templates, he finally flees Maulbronn. He is a "wildling" who evades being "branded" by the "Maulbronn system". Hans' contact with him is finally broken off. Heilner is one of the main characters in the book, and dealing with him makes it clear to Hans that he cannot go on “programmed” in this way and alienated from everything that gives him pleasure. Hermann Heilner and Hans Giebenrath probably embody different sides of the author's character. This is also indicated by the choice of name, "Heilner und Hans" - "HH", like "Hermann Hesse".

Rector

The rector learns a lot with Hans, but puts him under pressure and lets Hans study during the summer holidays so that he doesn't arrive at the seminar completely unprepared. He sees Hans as one of the very clever and is very enthusiastic about Hans' talent and challenges him to give everything in the state exams.

Autobiographical background

The author Hermann Hesse lets an autobiographical background shine through. Those familiar with the area will easily recognize the similarity between Hans Giebenrath's hometown and Calw. With this work, Hesse processes his time in the Maulbronn Evangelical Seminary . For example, he uses study names that are still in use today. Hermann Hesse also appears in this book in the two characters Hans and Heilner. He too fled and was captured, and he too was artistically inclined and had a homosexual phase, like Heilner. In Hans, however, only his feelings at the time are reflected. He had thoughts of suicide and was cured by these notes. However, Hesse's brother Hans committed suicide in 1935.

The wheel

Wheels keep appearing in the book. In his childhood, Hans Giebenrath built water wheels, but they were taken from him again because adults thought they were childish nonsense that kept him from learning. The rector speaks to Hans and uses the words “Just don't get dull, otherwise you get under the wheel.” When Hans meets Emma, ​​he feels like a “slug that has been stripped from the wagon wheel”. During his apprenticeship as a mechanic, Hans had to work on gears. Here, as in the whole book, the wheel symbolizes something negative and depressing. The title of the book, Under the Wheel , can also be seen symbolically. Hans "gets under the wheels"; the pressures exerted by those around him and society ultimately also lead to his death.

Criticism of the school system around 1900

Comments, mostly negative, on the school system around 1900 are repeatedly inserted into the narrative of the plot, be it in the form of narrator comments, be it through critical remarks by Hermann Heilner or the shoemaker Flaig. The most important of these are listed below:

“Just as a primeval forest has to be cleared and cleaned and restricted by force, so the school has to break, defeat and restrict the natural man by force; Their task is to make him a useful member of society according to principles approved by the authorities and to awaken qualities in him, the full development of which then crowns the careful training of the barracks. "

- Summary of the view of Hans' Rector by the narrator

"It is important to the Maulbronn seminar that" the young people [are] withdrawn from the dispersing influences of cities and family life and [...] are protected from the damaging sight of active life "."

- speaking narrator comment

"A schoolmaster would rather have a few donkeys than a genius in the class."

- Narrator comment

“Heilner complains that his classmates know 'nothing higher than the Hebrew alphabet', but miss the beauty of the monastery complex because they are not made aware of it. He (Heilner) 'understood the beauty of the old columns and walls'. "

- experienced speech from the point of view of Hans Giebenrath

manuscript

The complete author's manuscript from Unterm Rad has been in the Reutlingen City Archives since 1996 , which keeps Ludwig Finckh's extensive handwritten estate . Before moving from Gaienhofen to Bern in 1912, Hesse had given the manuscript to his friend at the time, Ludwig Finckh, who in turn gave him the manuscript of his novel Der Rosendoktor .

Book editions

The text by Unterm Rad was written after Hesse had given up his bookseller profession in August 1903 in Calw. It was preprinted in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung in April and May 1904 . The first edition appeared in 1906 by S. Fischer Verlag , further editions from 1909 in the series “Fischer's Library of Contemporary Novels”. The title was out of print during the Nazi era . In 1951 the Suhrkamp Verlag published a new edition that was slightly modified by the author, now called "Narration". In 1963 the Reclam publishing house in what was then the GDR published its first paperback edition. In 1977 the Hesse editor Volker Michels published the original version from 1903 for the first time as a special edition in the Gutenberg Book Guild ; this was supplemented in 1984 with drawings by Gunter Böhmer .

• Under the wheel . Novel. Fischer, Berlin 1906; ibid. 1909 (Fischer's library of contemporary novels, 2nd year, volume 1).
• Under the wheel . Narrative. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 1951.
• Under the wheel . Narrative. Reclam, Leipzig 1963; ibid. 1986, ISBN 3-379-00024-8 ( Reclams Universal-Bibliothek , Volume 118).
• Under the wheel . Narrative. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1972 (st 52); ibid. 2007, ISBN 978-3-518-45851-8 (st 3851).
• Under the wheel . Novel in its original version. Gutenberg Book Guild, Frankfurt am Main 1977; Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-518-01981-3 ( Suhrkamp library , volume 981).
• Under the wheel . Text and Commentary, ed. v. Heribert Kuhn. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-518-18834-8 (Suhrkamp BasisBibliothek, Volume 34).

literature

• Maria-Felicitas Herforth: Explanations on Hermann Hesse, Unterm Rad (= King's Explanations and Materials, Volume 17), Bange, Hollfeld 2011, ISBN 978-3-8044-1932-2 .
• Klaus Johann: Limit and stop. The individual in the “House of Rules”. On German-language boarding school literature (= contributions to recent literary history , volume 201). Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 2003, ISBN 3-8253-1599-1 , (dissertation University of Münster 2002, 727 pages), pp. 94–205 ( table of contents PDF).
• Alexander Klaehr: How students get under the wheels. On the topicality of the school criticism in HH's novel “Unterm Rad”. In: Kritische Ausgabe , No. 18 (topic “Family”), Bonn 2010 ( table of contents ).
• Volker Michels (Hrsg.): Hermann Hesse "Unterm Rad" - history of origin in the author's personal testimony. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-518-45883-9 .
• Georg Patzer: Reading key Hermann Hesse “Under the Wheel” (= Reclams Universal Library , Volume 15340). Reclam, Ditzingen 2004, ISBN 3-15-015340-9 .
• Helga Esselborn-Krumbiegel: Explanations and documents: Hermann Hesse: Unterm Rad, Stuttgart 1995

Remarks

1. ↑ Hermann Hesse also addressed his “Maulbronn Trauma ” in 1914 in the poem “In the Maulbronn Cloister”. It is said:

   Enchanted in the youthful green valley

   I stand leaning against the mossy column shaft

   And listen, as in its green shell

   The sound of the fountain stretches the vaults.

   And everything has remained so beautiful and quiet.

   Only I got older and the passion

   The soul's dark source in hatred and love,

   No longer flows in the old wild force.

   Here my first childhood dream came to nothing.

   I suffered for a long time from a badly healed wound.

   Now it is far away and has become a dream face

   And in a good hour it becomes a song.

   The soul that longed for eternity

   Now bears transience as a dear burden

   And is on the sensed youth trail

   Once again as a guest, quietly and without resentment.

   Now sing, water, deep in your bowl.

   Life has long been a fleeting dress for me.

   Now frolic, youth, in my valley

   And indulge in the dream of eternity!

2. ^ Cf. Gerald Kronberger: Hesse and Ludwig Finckh. The strange "friend" from Gaienhofen. In: Reutlinger General-Anzeiger . July 2, 2002 ( PDF ).