Vogelweide (novel)

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Vogelweide is a novel by the German writer Uwe Timm , which was published by Kiepenheuer & Witsch in August 2013 and was on the long list of the German Book Prize . In a constellation that reviewers have often compared to Goethe's elective affinities , Timm describes a love affair between a man in love and the wife of a couple who are friends. The story is told from an uninhabited North Sea island , to whose solitude the man has withdrawn.

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The islands of Scharhörn (in the foreground) and Nighörn
The bird watcher's house on Scharhörn

Christian Eschenbach, a bankrupt software entrepreneur , lives in seclusion as a bird warden on the uninhabited North Sea island of Scharhörn . In addition to bird watching , he has a lot of time for his studies on the biblical prophet Jonas and the evaluation of a survey on the subject of desire on behalf of the leading German pollster . His only companion is the presence of those people who have met him on his life path and who sometimes seem to take shape like ghosts in his hut. In this loneliness he received a phone call from his former lover Anna, who announced her visit, whom Eschenbach was looking forward to with a mixture of joy and fear.

Eschenbach looks back on his life. He studied theology to protest against his left-wing parents , but his faith was not enough to become a pastor. Instead, he founded a software company with which he optimized the processes of his clients and was very successful over the years, until the payment of a hated partner and collapsing orders led to bankruptcy . After he lost his material possessions, Eschenbach found the valuable goods of the time again, and he accepted small orders in various fields, most recently as a substitute bird keeper on Scharhörn.

Living apart from his wife and adult daughter, Eschenbach had a long relationship with the Polish silversmith Selma, who sells imitation Hopi jewelry. Although the relationship was happy, he fell in love with the Latin and art teacher Anna, whom he had met at a lecture. Anna also had a harmonious marriage with the architect Ewald and two children, and both couples became friends. When Eschenbach and Anna began a secret, but all the more passionate, affair, they did so with a feeling of excess, until Anna could no longer bear the guilt feelings towards her husband. She broke off the relationship with Eschenbach at the very moment when he went bankrupt, after her confession also left her husband and moved with the children to her brother in America, where she opened a gallery .

After the abandoned Ewald first let out his anger on his friend, he soon found consolation in Selma, who was also betrayed. He began a relationship with the Polish woman and gave her the child that Eschenbach had denied her over the years. Anna also gave birth to a child after the crossing, and neither Eschenbach nor Ewald ever asked about paternity. Only when his former lover visits him on the island five years later does Eschenbach find out that she has baptized the boy with the name Jonas. He also learns that Anna has leukemia and is in Germany to see a doctor. She wants to make her peace with him before she returns to America, where chemotherapy with a questionable outcome is waiting for her. The two lovers spend one last night together. After Anna left, Eschenbach still senses her presence on the island and he knows that it will be days before his familiar spirits will find their way back.

interpretation

Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann , the model of the "Norne" (1991)

According to Sandra Kegel, Vogelweide is full of allusions from " Shakespeare to Storm to Shackleton ", from " Keats and Goethe , Luther and Luhmann ". This begins with the title, a reference to the medieval minstrel Walther von der Vogelweide , and the name of the main character, which alludes to his contemporary Wolfram von Eschenbach - both together belong to the staff of Richard Wagner's love opera Tannhäuser . The caricature of Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann is hidden behind the pollster named “ Norne ” in the novel . Other current references apply to Margot Käßmann or Ronald Reagan . The fallen Eschenbach reads Don DeLillo's Falling Man , of all people , and the departure of his lover is reminiscent of Madame Bovary .

Most reviewers stand out in particular on Goethe's elective affinities and the motif of two befriended couples who find each other in a different constellation. Sigrid Löffler describes: “It's about the conflict between desire and morality,” which Timm “examines under today's conditions.” According to Meike Feßmann , he reflects people's longing for redemption in religious motifs: “In a society that is about to dissolve works of solidarities of all kinds, it can be a revolutionary act to hold on to lifelong ties. ”Kristine Maidt-Zinke recognizes rather a“ well-groomed cheating in saturated circles ”, which with all sorts of quotations is“ laboriously lifted to a higher discourse level ”. According to Sandra Kegel, the novel presents love “in all its manifestations” up to the “soulless contact exchanges” of the Internet. For Christoph Schröder it is about "creating a bourgeois-saturated world with all its comforts in all its glory first, in order to then let it fail all the more effectively." While Paul Jandl experiences a "hell trip through the moral standards of bourgeois society", Martin Halter pursues “a meditation on God and the world, the happiness of the moment and the art of parting”.

reception

Vogelweide found a mixed response in the German-language feature pages. The novel made it onto the SWR best list and the long list of the German Book Prize 2013.

According to Sigrid Löffler , Timm tried to discuss his love constellation "with an almost old-fashioned, moral seriousness, as if the marriage morality of Tolstoy's , Flaubert's or Fontane's novels were still valid today ." This was done "in a way that was as sympathetic as it was a little zeitgeist-removed". Martin Halter read “a serene book, calm and serene”, told with “fine irony, melancholy sadness and occasionally angry sarcasm”. Iris Radisch found an entertaining "interior shot [...] from the emotional cosmos of the established German middle class" in the novel, although she criticized a "slightly smug tone" with a "kind of conventionality". For Meike Feßmann, Vogelweide was “a questioning, tentative novel that doesn't force us to believe. His attitude is philosophical, he makes us think while he tells us a story full of beautiful contradictions. "

For Sandra Kegel, Uwe Timm cast “an over-reflective look at our reality, which leads to stereotypical images.” The “discussions on passion” would themselves become “an involuntary passion story”. Kristina Maidt-Zinke described: "The novel sinks irritatingly deep into the lukewarm silt of a Berlin lifestyle milieu". For Paul Jandl, the novel, which has to be read against the grain, is in some places "no longer even old-fashioned, but almost seems stubborn". Sarah Schaschek complained about the form of the novel: “There are no chapters, dialogues appear in the middle of the text without any hints. There is only a constant flow of narrative, which washes around the individual islands of thought. ”It is told“ of a longing that is not literary. ”In the end, Christoph Schröder sees Vogelweide “ literally silted up ”.

expenditure

Reviews

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Sandra Kegel: What does a kilo of desire cost? In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from August 16, 2013.
  2. ↑ a b c Christoph Schröder: Falling Man on Scharhörn . In: the daily newspaper of August 24, 2013.
  3. ↑ a b c Meike Feßmann : Adultery and wasteland . In: Der Tagesspiegel from August 24, 2013.
  4. ↑ a b Sigrid Löffler : Between Desire and Morality . On: Deutschlandradio Kultur from October 10, 2013.
  5. ↑ a b Kristine Maidt-Zinke: Strands that loosen laterally . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung of September 3, 2013.
  6. ↑ a b Paul Jandl : Uwe Timm's Utopia is on the island of Neuwerk . In: Die Welt from August 22, 2013.
  7. ↑ a b Martin Halter: Ornithological Affinities . In: Badische Zeitung of August 17, 2013.
  8. ^ Uwe Timm: Vogelweide bei Perlentaucher .
  9. ↑ SWR best list September 2013 at Südwestrundfunk (pdf; 95 kB).
  10. ↑ Longlist 2013 ( Memento of the original from October 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the German Book Prize . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.deutscher-buchpreis.de
  11. ↑ Iris Radisch : Reading tips with Iris Radisch: "Vogelweide" . On: Zeit Online from September 6, 2013.
  12. ↑ Sarah Schaschek: Meet four . In: Die Zeit from October 2, 2013.