Via Mala (Roman)

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Via Mala is a novel published by John Knittel in 1934.

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Via Mala Gorge with the Hinterrhein , postcard motif around 1900

The title of the novel refers on the one hand to the geographical location of the event (the Via Mala Gorge in the Swiss canton of Graubünden, near which John Knittel the fictional town of Andruss is based), on the other hand to the "bad road" (as the German translation of the Latin term) on which the protagonists of the novel are in several ways.

First of all, there is the "bad way" of Jonas Lauretz, a sawmill who was turned into a drunkard and a violent criminal because of the boredom of the long high mountain winter. His tremendous brutality towards his wife and children led to multiple permanent physical harm; he even became a murderer in his little twin daughters, albeit so skillfully that the act cannot be clearly proven. He keeps his family like slaves and also humiliates them by letting his lover move into the winter cottage down the valley, while his wife and the four remaining children (his daughters Hanna and Silvia, his sons Niklaus and Sepp - the latter, have severe mental disabilities , is usually called "Mannli") have to endure the snowy winters in the high-altitude sawmill. The reputation of the once respected and wealthy family is now completely ruined, old Lauretz is in debt, nobody wants to do business with him anymore, his immoral lifestyle and his violence are well known.

In order to be able to pay for his debauchery, he not only denies his family sufficient financial support, he also steals from his own children when they unexpectedly get some money. A four-month prison sentence for various offenses does not bring him to reason - he withholds a large amount of cash that his younger (not yet of legal age) daughter Silvia (also called Silvelie or Sivvy) has inherited from a painter, for whom she was a maid, model and Was familiar.

This event leads to the second "bad road": Niklaus, Hanna, Jonas' wife and the day laborer Jöry Wagner, whom Jonas Lauretz also cheated out of money and whose wife he had an affair with, kill him together when he returns after his release, the corpse is buried. Wagner receives a sum of money and disappears from the area. The younger daughter, who was not present at the time of the crime, found out about the crime after her return. Although she firmly rejects this, she shows solidarity with her family and lies to the investigating authorities, to whom Jonas Lauretz is reported as missing. Years of fear, rumors, and uncertainty follow as to whether the authorities will close the case or not - but also years in which, thanks to their diligence, the family is doing much better than before and in which they are gaining a new reputation. In this way Niklaus succeeds in paying his father's debts and in receiving some profitable jobs for the sawmill; his sister Hanna met a young post clerk whose parents initially resisted a connection with the daughter of the notorious sawdust, but soon abandoned their prejudices in view of the slow social recovery of the Lauretz family.

The matter becomes more complicated when Silvia falls in love with the examining magistrate Andreas von Richenau. She cannot bring herself to tell him the truth; but neither can she resist his courtship and finally marries him. Here, too, a “bad path” is taken again - the couple's happiness is clouded by Silvia's dark secret and their irregular remorse and depression.

Finally, after a few years, the missing Jonas Lauretz's file unexpectedly lands on Richenaus' desk. He discovers some inconsistencies in her and suspects that things were not right when he disappeared. Although, since it is his wife's family, he should actually hand the case over to a colleague, his curiosity is aroused. He begins to investigate and tries to get answers from Silvia to his questions about what plunges the hitherto happy marriage into a deep crisis. Finally, he confronts the Lauretz family with his suspicions and puts them under pressure, whereupon he learns the truth from Hanna and Niklaus, but also the full extent of the misery caused by Jonas Lauretz.

Andi von Richenau is now heading in a direction that, depending on how you look at it, can also be seen as a “bad path”. After a long struggle, in spite of his professional ethics and the high personal risk, he decides to cover up the murder on his part: He has the proceedings concluded, Jonas Lauretz is declared missing.

Historical template

The historical template for the novel was a parricide that had been committed in 1817 in Obermühle in Central Franconia .

Film adaptations

The original has been filmed twice for the cinema so far. The older version , directed by Josef von Báky with Carl Wery , Karin Hardt , Hilde Körber and Malte Jaeger , was written in 1944, but was not premiered until 1948.

The newer version was created in 1961 with Gert Fröbe , Edith Schultze-Westrum , Joachim Hansen , Christine Kaufmann and Christian Wolff (directed by Paul May ).

In 1985 a TV series with Mario Adorf , Maruschka Detmers and Sissy Höfferer (director: Tom Toelle ) was created.

Play

In addition to the film adaptations, a play was also created that was shown in 2014 in the Landschaftstheater Ballenberg.

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