Winterspelt (Andersch)
Winterspelt is a novel published in 1974 and the old work of the writer Alfred Andersch . The story is about fictional events shortly before the Ardennes offensive in the winter of 1944–1945 in the vicinity of the Eifel village of Winterspelt . In view of the futility of further fighting, a German commander, Major Dincklage, plans to hand over his unit to the American enemy.
As in his earlier novels, Andersch again takes up his personal basic theme: freedom, and the freedom and power of independent thought. This topic materializes in Winterspelt in the conflict between the demands of a professional or social role, especially the role as a soldier in the Wehrmacht, and the opposing duties of loyalty, for example the commander's responsibility for the lives of the soldiers entrusted to him.
The events are described from the perspective of various participants. Each of them, for example the commander, the Belgian double agent and mediator, and the "little" corporal who is acting in accordance with his soldier role, draw different consequences for their actions due to their character, their interests and their biography. The meeting of such different personalities in a critical situation has fatal consequences in the end.
Alfred Andersch characterizes his novel as a "sandpit game". The story tells how it was, the story plays out a possibility.
filming
The novel was filmed in 1976 under the director Eberhard Fechner , with Claus Theo Gärtner and Olli Maier among others . Most of the film's locations were in Belgium because many of the locations there were still in a wartime state in 1974. So the place Maspelt replaced the title place .
literature
- Rolf Becker: Resistance in the sandpit. Alfred Andersch: "Winterspelt" . The mirror . Issue 41/1974 ( online )
- Rolf Michaelis: Higher Indian game. Alfred On the other hand, the novel “Winterspelt” . The time . Issue 41/1974 ( online )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ursula Reinhold: Alfred Andersch: Winterspelt . Berlin reading mark . Issue 4/1999