Heimito von Doderer I - Personal Intro

As you might have guessed already, I love to read. Fortunately there was a time in my life when I could do it a lot. Reading was an essential part of my youth when I was still a member of the proletariat and not yet had become a member of the precariate. In the German society of the 1970s, when the status of your father defined your cognitive abilities for your teachers, literature was the only voice that spoke to you freely and considered you reasonable and smart enough to connect you with ideas and ideals. 

No book ever said to me: "Oh, your father does read books? I thought he would be a worker ..." or "Ah, really? You passed this exam? Hm, well, maybe you are not as downright silly as we all have been thinking here." or "Your opinion can not be considered here, as you do not have the background and education that can confirm you would have anything valuable in your brain." Books just told me what they had to tell, and delighted me with opinions and insights, that allowed me to extend my personal horizon and asked me to think and develop. 

After working myself through the German and European classics - and of course through the Scripture - in my teenage years I discovered more contemporary writing. The start was  difficult for me, because at school we began with Walther von der Vogelweide, jumped directly to J.W. v. Goethe, scratched Th. Storm and then ended up with German WWII and post WWII writers, which occupied us for 6 of 8 years in secondary schools. I never developed the necessary insight to dwell on that for so long and it even annoyed me, that this was not only the favorite topic in literature lessons, but also in those of history, civics and religion. 

The constant recapitulation of cruel, inhuman and stupid actions of a whole folks that I had to consider my own and the even more constant efforts from teachers to make us feel guilty made me angry. Especially because descendants of former concentration camp prisoners were still considered suspects.

Despite all this it so happened that I had a long conversation with a very old lady about literature. She had a lot of knowledge (for German readers: and a family background, proper education, a university degree etc. etc.) and we felt very happy with each other, because we had a lot to share. She had shown me some books she possessed, with handwritten personal dedications from Thomas Mann, Johannes Bobrowski and others when she said suddenly: "Unquestionably you have read Heimito von Doderer." I confessed I had never heard of this author, which made her smile.

"You have to." she decided. "You will fall in love with his writing. Start with the "Strudlhofstiege" and you will want to read all of his books."

I put this name on the list of authors I wanted to read without doing further research. And on a stay in Vienna the book she had mentioned showed itself in a book-store right in front of me. I took it, paid for it, started to read the same evening, fell in love with the writing and immediately wanted to read everything this man had ever written.

There are not many German-writing authors that I count to my favorite ones. The Austrian Heimito von Doderer is on top of them. And in my next entry I will start to introduce him to you.

Novel

I love fairy tales and traditional tales from any cultural background. And now finally there is a space to publish my own fairy-tales.

The first is available from today on: http://www.xinxii.com/stonato-p-343076.html

It tells about the trials and tribulations of a couple who want to make their relationship work.

Prussian for Advanced Speakers

Sagen Se mal 'n Satz mit 'Feldmütze'!
"Herr Schmidt jeht mit seine Frau ins Theater, fällt mit se hin und hebt se wieda uff."


Sagen Se mal 'n Satz mit 'Kandelaba'!
"Kann de Labawurscht nich essn!"

and my absolute favorite:

Sagen Se mal 'n Satz mit 'Opfa'!

"Ob wa noch ein nehm wolln?"

With loving thoughts of my grandpa. Maybe I will remember more ...

Difficulties

Germans - not Germanics - love difficulties. I guess that is why they created such a difficult language to learn and use. While people who study German often complain about grammar, structure and word formation, Germans discuss on a different level. In newspapers, magazines, company sites and numerous social networks they get excited about the correct use of words and grammar and compete in doing it more perfectly than perfectly.

These days when large parts of the human society on this planet are talking about the new pope and what to expect from him, the Germans found an additional topic to worry about: How should he be called? It is not about whether he is Francesco I or simply Francesco, it is about how can one properly translate this name into German.

The German Francesco is a Franz. It was a very popular boy's name in the beginning of the last century and though it is no longer in the top lists, it is still common. Famous musicians and writers were named Franz and even emperors. There is no doubt its origins are in the Latin Franziskus - and that is what gave the Germans troublesome thoughts: Is it proper to call a pope Franz? Any smaller and bigger newspaper published at least one article about it during the last days - and the German discussion started. Specialists in German studies, linguists, wise men of the church and many other self-appointed German language specialists shared their opinion. In the end it seems they came to the conclusion, that in the case of "Franz" German is not good enough to address a pope; it has to be "Franziskus" - while his patron saint is still "Franz von Assisi". But the most important thing about this decision seems to be, that one can explain it in further newspaper and magazine entries to provide a basis for further discussions for the readers (who I guess, are often German experts, too). Or perhaps one can even renew the discussion and find another decision one can discuss ...

Then there was the fact that "we are no longer pope". Nevermind that the last pope was Bavarian and that Germans know very well, that Bavarians have no proper language, but only a dialect, and are culturally and socially quite backwards. What made the good man pope, made him German as well and made all the Germans become pope. It is to be doubted, that all the Germans were ready to resign. So maybe in due time Benedictus XVI will be remembered as a Bavarian pope after all. But now: What to do with falling back into the grey mist of being insignificant again?

This started a second linguistical discussion. The language approach is always good if nothing else can help. While neither Spanish nor Italian speaking people will develop any deeper reflections on the name "Bergoglio", for some of the experts it became the center point of a very profound meditation about name origins and their meanings which culminated in the hint that "Berg" means "mountain". In the Piemontese region where they located the origin of that family name are mountains and now - after many discussions about it - it seems pretty clear, that for some ethnological reason people there used a German word and ended it Piemontèisa. So "we are still a bit pope" - which will probably soothe the Germans, and if not they can always discuss it, which seems to be as comforting.

Examples from different Centuries

Languages change and develop. Cultural, political and economical changes in the region in which they are spoken cause creations and implementations of new words, simplifications and alterations in orthography, grammar and structure. While some of my German language students from all over the world get excited about reading poems from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and novels from Hermann Hesse in the original language some of my German native speaker students complain a lot about having to understand the meaning of the same texts and developing a proper interpretation from that.  Usually the latter come to the conclusion that they are just too stupid to produce valuable work and good marks. One of my remedies for that is to let them write an interpretation about a song from Peter Fox. Usually the outcome of that is very promising and we can slowly start to develop an allowance and understanding for different expressions ... until we finally are able to get the sense of the "Prometheus" or whatever was on the teachers mind. And we can even discuss it most controversially, which is seems to be pure fun for the 15 and 16 year old boys and girls who have to write about it. So that you know what I am talking about let me include a translation from Steven J. Plunkett:


Shroud your heaven, Zeus,
With cloudy vapours,
And do as you will, like the boy
That knocks the heads off thistles,
With oak-trees and mountain-tops;
Now you must leave alone
My Earth for Me,
And my hut, which you did not build,
And my hearth,
The glowing whereof
You envy me.

I know of nothing poorer
Under the sun, than you, you Gods!
Your majesty
Is barely nourished
By sacrificial offerings
And prayerful exhalations,
And should starve
Were children and beggars not
Fools full of Hope.

When I was a child,
And did not know the in or out,
I turned my wandering eyes toward
The sun, as if, beyond, there were
An ear to hear my lament,
A heart, like mine,
To be moved to pity for the afflicted.

Who helped me
Against the pride of the Titans?
Who delivered me from Death,
From Slavery?
Did you not accomplish it all yourself,
My holy, burning Heart?
And shone, young and good,
Deceived, your thanks for salvation
To the sleeping one above?

Should I honour you? Why?
Have you softened the sufferings,
Ever, of the burdened?
Have you stilled the tears,
Ever, of the anguished?
Was I not forged as a Man
By almighty Time
And eternal Fate,
My masters and thine?

Do you somehow imagine
That I should hate Life,
Flee to the desert,
Because not every
Flowering dream should bloom?
Here I sit, I form humans
After my own image;
A race, to be like me,
To sorrow, to weep,
To enjoy and delight itself,
And to heed you not at all -
Like me!






and a German version would be:

Bedecke deinen Himmel, Zeus,

Mit Wolkendunst!

Und übe, Knaben gleich,

Der Disteln köpft,

An Eichen dich und Bergeshöh'n!

Mußt mir meine Erde

Doch lassen steh'n,

Und meine Hütte,

Die du nicht gebaut,

Und meinen Herd,

Um dessen Glut

Du mich beneidest.

Ich kenne nichts Ärmeres

Unter der Sonn' als euch Götter!

Ihr nähret kümmerlich

Von Opfersteuern

Und Gebetshauch

Eure Majestät

Und darbtet, wären

Nicht Kinder und Bettler

Hoffnungsvolle Toren.

Da ich ein Kind war,

Nicht wußte, wo aus, wo ein,

Kehrt' ich mein verirrtes Auge

Zur Sonne, als wenn drüber wär

Ein Ohr zu hören meine Klage,

Ein Herz wie meins,

Sich des Bedrängten zu erbarmen.

Wer half mir

Wider der Titanen Übermut?

Wer rettete vom Tode mich,

Von Sklaverei?

Hast du's nicht alles selbst vollendet,

Heilig glühend Herz?

Und glühtest, jung und gut,

Betrogen, Rettungsdank

Dem Schlafenden dadroben?

Ich dich ehren? Wofür?

Hast du die Schmerzen gelindert

Je des Beladenen?

Hast du die Tränen gestillet

Je des Geängsteten?

Hat nicht mich zum Manne geschmiedet

Die allmächtige Zeit

Und das ewige Schicksal,

Meine Herren und deine?

Wähntest du etwa,

Ich sollte das Leben hassen,

In Wüsten fliehn,

Weil nicht alle Knabenmorgen-

Blütenträume reiften?

Hier sitz' ich, forme Menschen

Nach meinem Bilde,

Ein Geschlecht, das mir gleich sei,

Zu leiden, weinen,

Genießen und zu freuen sich,

Und dein nicht zu achten,

Wie ich!

If students struggle with this already, one might understand that the very most of them hardly get an idea about the meaning of a text like the following: 


Nahtegal, sing einen dôn mit sinne
mîner hôchgemuoten kuniginne!
kunde ir, daz mîn stæter muot und mîn
herze brinne
nâch irm süezen lîbe und nâch ir minne!


The poem is at least 500 years older than Goethe's so called "hymn". It was found in the Carmina Burana, a collection of songs from the Medieval Times. Friends and lovers of classical music might know it as the basis for a selection that Carl Orff used for setting it to music and publishing it as a cantata under the same name. Most of the original lyrics are written in Medieval Latin, but a few - like the one citated above -  in Middle High German, that indeed looks rather different from the nowadays use of the Standard Language:

Nachtigall, sing einen Ton in aller Sinnlichkeit
für meine edel gesinnte Königin!
Verkünde ihr, dass mein steter Sinn und mein
Herze brennen
nach ihrem süßen Leib und nach ihrer Liebe!

Nightingale sing a sensual tone

for my noble minded queen!

Tell her, that my steady mind and my

heart burn

for her sweet body and her love!

Carl Orff didn't choose this one -  and the one I like  in his cantata is in Latin at best interpreted by a lyric soprano by the way.  But that certainly is a matter of taste.

In his choice one can see an example for the link between language and music. Composers of all times have been very carefully paying attention to the pronounciation and structure of the language they used for their compositions. Not all of them were eloquent writers as well. But the letter writing of one we will take as a last example for this entry, for it shows a unique example of as well the person as the differences to nowadays written German - despite the fact that hardly anyone writes personal letters in any language anymore. ;)

Mailand, 26. Jenner 1770.

Mich freut es recht von ganzem Herzen, daß Du bei der Schlittenfahrt, von der Du mir schreibst, Dich so sehr ergötzt hast, und ich wünsche Dir tausend Gelegenheiten zur Ergötzung, damit Du recht lustig Dein Leben zubringen möchtest. Aber eins verdrießt mich, daß Du den Herrn von Mölk so unendlich seufzen und leiden hast lassen und daß Du nicht mit ihm Schlitten gefahren bist, damit er Dich hätte umschmeißen können. Wie viele Schnupftücher wird er nicht denselbigen Tag wegen Deiner gebraucht haben vor Weinen. Er wird zwar vorher schon drei Lot Weinstein eingenommen haben, die ihm die grausame Unreinigkeit seines Leibes, die er besitzt, ausgetrieben haben wird. Neues weiß ich nichts, als daß Herr Gellert, der Poet zu Leipzig, gestorben ist und dann nach seinem Tode keine Poesien mehr gemacht hat. Just ehe ich diesen Brief angefangen habe, habe ich eine Arie aus dem Demetrio verfertigt, welche so anfängt: Misero tu non sei usw.

Could you guess even as I did not choose one of those that are copied over and over again? Should you be interested you might be happy to find 161 letters of this composer on the Spiegel-Online Gutenberg-Projekt:  http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/5000/1

or in English: http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=1458927

Enjoy!

Perception

From the Migration Period (400-800 AD) until nowadays Central Europe had a turbulent history of changes. Though the number of violent conflicts between ethnic groups and states fortunately have been decreasing during the last decades, many of them are still remembered. As especially the early years of the mentioned period throw a light on the development of Germanic Languages in Central Europe I am going to tell more about them in one of my next entries. But first I want to address the chapter that still seems to be the main focus for most people who live in and/or are interested in this region: The Third Reich. 


Nazi Germany officially ended with the German Instrument of Surrender on May 8, 1945 - exactly 22 years before I was born, more than 67 years from today. And after 67 years the ideology of the Third Reich and its impact on people in and outside Germany still provides the basis for political decisions, historical research, school lessons, university lectures, admissions and assignments of guilt, novels and movies.


During my time as a student it was the main topic in many school years in History, Geography, German and Religion lessons. I had to write many exams and essays about it, so I will happily drop the chance to do here again. We also had to read many books and watch many films of different qualities related to the topic and though this also is over 20 years ago, every year new books are published and new films are made. 


Not long ago I had a conversation about that with  my partner in life. He uttered the opinion that as long as it was fiction there was no need for any resemblance to reality. The reader of the book or the audience of the movie would not expect to learn about historical facts and details. They only wanted to be entertained. Thinking of quite a number of movies I happened to watch, I can only hope this distinguished opinion of my best-of-all-men is wide-spread. 


If I had to name one book that provides an impression as serious as authentic I would select "LTI - Lingua Tertii Imperii, Notizbuch eines Philologen" by Victor Klemperer. In a very rational manner it deals with the alterations the Nazis contributed to the German language, their way of using, misusing and assaulting it, and by doing this using, misusing and assaulting people. From the view of a philologist Klemperer also displays a view on history and nature of the folks, that was developing these alterations and expressing itself in these terms. For advanced students of German and those who are interested in more than the every-day use of the Standard German language, the book might also provide some revealing insight into nowadays use of German, heated discussions about certain terms in the media, that we might call "LTI-terms" following the book, and the sensitivity of some German social groups as well as the willfull repetition habit of others.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTI_-_Lingua_Tertii_Imperii

http://www.amazon.com/Language-Third-Reich-Lingua-Imperii/dp/0826491308/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338822043&sr=8-1

An insider-movie that seems to be worth watching is one by director Michael Verhoeven about the youth of Anna Rosmus, a German - well, seen from here, Bavarian - author now living in the United States of America. It has won several awards and I recently found it subtitled on youtube:

Anna - here called Sonja - a school girl in the aftermath of the Third Reich develops an interest in the nazi past of her town and decides to do research and write an essay about it ... As entertaining as the movie seems to be and whether it really displays an exact copy of what truly had happened in Mrs. Rosmus' youth, it shows a nicely authentic view on one especially Bavarian attitude on dealing with the "bad times" of the nazi regime. Bavarians in pre-Christian times had different Gods than all other tribes - and they still like to point out that they see and do everything "their way".

Side note 1: The subtitles in some situations might be equally helpful for German native speakers of other parts of Germany. ;)

Side note 2: If you are learning Standard German, please, do not take the example of spoken language for valuable for any other part of Germany than Bavaria. ;)

Official Swabian

It's funny how Germans still get emotional about their languages. Reading the comments on different sites to this clip I found very deprecative remarks telling us "this is not German". Well, nobody said it would be. It is Swabian. - And I found very appreciating comments from people who think it cool, great and terrific to hearing their language in an official situation. 


Once more I think it is realistic to admit that there are "Germanic languages" and one "Standard German language".  People are worth hearing their idiom in addition to the standard version even if there are customers on board whose only language is the standard version.