Weiskern's estate
Weiskern's estate is a novel by the German writer Christoph Hein , which was published by Suhrkamp Verlag in 2011 and was awarded the Uwe Johnson Prize the following year .
content
At the age of 59, Rüdiger Stolzenburg is still a half-time lecturer at the University of Leipzig . He has been promised an appointment to the Academic Council for 15 years , but with increasing financial constraints, Frieder Schlösser, head of the Institute for Cultural Studies , fears that his institute will sooner be closed than that Stolzenburg still has a chance of full employment. So the scientist gets by more badly than well with underpaid odd jobs. Even the tax office cannot believe the academic's low income, orders a review of the previous tax returns and, due to a calculation error in the last ten years, demands an additional tax payment of over 11,000 euros, a sum that Stolzenburg cannot raise.
Stolzenburg lives alone. He is no longer in contact with his divorced wife. His thirty-year-old daughter calls her father no more than once a year if she has money problems. Stolzenburg has time-limited affairs with ever younger women, for example with the beautician Patrizia, whose marriage wishes he consistently evades. A friend of his institute colleague Marion, named Henriette, arouses unexpectedly serious interest in Stolzenburg, and he separates from Patrizia for her. But Henriette doubts his trustworthiness and remains at a distance, especially when Stolzenburg withholds the attack of a girl gang from her. The girls, who are barely in puberty, but armed and ready to use violence, have been following Stolzenburg since an accident a few days ago and he is ashamed of his helplessness towards the children.
For years, Stolzenburg's passion has been a hopeless project, a work by the forgotten stage artist and cartographer Friedrich Wilhelm Weiskern , for which he cannot find a publisher. Jürgen Richter, who wrote the only dissertation on Weiskern and who has meanwhile achieved prosperity as a publisher, also rejects the unsaleable book edition. A Conrad Aberte turns to Stolzenburg and offers a Weiskern estate found in an attic for sale. Stolzenburg accepts the offer with the sole intention of obtaining copies of the documents that could give his work a boost. But a call to the Dorotheum in Vienna reveals the estate to be a forgery, and Stolzenburg works with the criminal police to convict Aberte.
From another side there is an unexpected opportunity to inspect Weiskern's original manuscripts: the uncle of his student Sebastian Hollert owns an extensive collection of autographs . Stolzenburg despises the wealthy factory owner's boy who shows no interest in his studies and wants to buy from Stolzenburg the degree that it only needs to meet a condition for his uncle's inheritance. Although the bribe could relieve him of all financial worries in one fell swoop, Stolzenburg rejects the immoral offer just as brusquely as that of the student Lilly, who openly offers herself to her lecturer in order to write her thesis on the history of the Grillo Theater allow. He doesn't want to be like his colleague Krupfer, who has had a reputation for years for sleeping with his students in exchange for good grades.
On a flight to Basel , where he is supposed to give a lecture, Stolzenburg is afraid of falling. But his illusion of failed propellers disappears into thin air. Stolzenburg reflects on his situation on the flight. A tax advisor who, like so many other people outside of Stolzenburg's academic enterprise, could not grasp the low income, achieved a halving of the tax liability and a repayment in installments that do not seem unattainable. Stolzenburg still hopes to have a relationship with Henriette, but he can also imagine living alone and calling Patrizia again. And he still hopes to convince Richter of the Weiskern edition, the preface of which he already has before his eyes, including the episode about the forger Aberte. Perhaps he will accept Sebastian Hollert's offer to get his uncle's Weiskern manuscripts. And once he has jumped over his shadow, he could also accept Lilly's offer. The only thing he won't give up is playing pool with his friends, where he counts more than half a place.
expenditure
- Christoph Hein: Weiskern's estate . Suhrkamp, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-518-42241-0 .
- Christoph Hein: Weiskern's estate. Reading with Götz Schubert , director: Rainer Schwarz , 420 min., 1 mp3 CD, MDR Figaro 2013 / Der Audio Verlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-86231-562-8 .