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Kaltenburg
Pencereyi açtım. Biraz sonra evin önünde bir taksi duracak, Klara elinde küçük valiziyle taksiden inip yukarıya doğru bakacak ve beni görecek. Hava kar kokmaya başladı bile. Bir karga kanatlarını ağır ağır çarparak ince kar tanelerinin içinde yol alıyor. Sibirya’dan, Urallar’dan, Baltık Bölgesi’nden geliyorlar ve yaklaşan soğukla birlikte bu yıl da Elbe Vadisi’nde toplanacaklar. Yüzlerce ekin kargası, kuzgunlar, leş kargaları ve küçük kargalarla birlikte, üstümüzde titreşen, kenarları saçaklaşan ve tekrar siyah lekeler halinde bir araya gelen devasa kuş bulutları oluşturacak.
Kaltenburg romanında bir kuşbilimcinin hayatı kuşlar ve diğer insanlarla birlikte anlatılıyor. Kuşlar gibi hatıralar uçuşuyor havada. Ve bütün romanlarında yaptığı gibi, Almanya’nın tarihiyle, toplumuyla, acılarıyla hesaplaşıyor Marcel Beyer.
Hermann Funk, babasının meslektaşı ve yakın arkadaşı Ludwig Kaltenburg’u 1930’lu yıllarda Posen kentinde tanır; ama büyükler arasına soğukluk girince Kaltenburg çocuğun hayatının ve hafızasının dışında kalmıştır. 1945 yılında Dresden bombardımanında ailesini kaybeden Funk, savaş esiri olarak gönderildiği Sovyetler Birliği’nden saygınlığı iade edilerek Demokratik Almanya’ya geri dönen Kaltenburg’la karşılaşır. Genç bir öğrenci olan Funk, Kaltenburg’un himayesine girer, kurduğu enstitüde çalışmaya başlar. Ne var ki bir süre sonra Kaltenburg’un geçmişindeki belirsizliği fark edecektir…
Resmi biyografisinde Kaltenburg’un Posen’de geçirdiği yıllardan hiç söz edilmemiştir. Profesörün, Nazi Partisi üyesi olduğundan şüphelenir Funk. Hayvanlardaki saldırganlığa ilişkin keşiflerini insanlara kadar genişletmiş olmasından kuşkulanır. İşte o zaman çocukluk anıları, hafıza ve deneyim katmanları harekete geçecek ve Hermann, Kaltenburg’un sakladıklarıyla birlikte kendi aile sırlarına da ulaşacaktır.
Marcel Beyer Kaltenburg’da Almanya tarihinin otuzlu yıllardan günümüze kadar uzanan döneminin panoramasını çıkarıyor. Daha önceki romanlarında olduğu gibi özel hayat ile tarihi olayları o denli ustaca ve inandırıcı bir tarzda örüyor ki, 20. yüzyılın bütün felaketlerini gören Almanya insanları, aşkları ve dramlarıyla gözler önüne seriliyor. Kaltenburg romanıyla Marcel Beyer “Gerçekliğin Kaşifi, Tüm Almanya’nın Yazarı” övgülerini hak ettiğini kanıtlıyor.
Kaltenburg romanında bir kuşbilimcinin hayatı kuşlar ve diğer insanlarla birlikte anlatılıyor. Kuşlar gibi hatıralar uçuşuyor havada. Ve bütün romanlarında yaptığı gibi, Almanya’nın tarihiyle, toplumuyla, acılarıyla hesaplaşıyor Marcel Beyer.
Hermann Funk, babasının meslektaşı ve yakın arkadaşı Ludwig Kaltenburg’u 1930’lu yıllarda Posen kentinde tanır; ama büyükler arasına soğukluk girince Kaltenburg çocuğun hayatının ve hafızasının dışında kalmıştır. 1945 yılında Dresden bombardımanında ailesini kaybeden Funk, savaş esiri olarak gönderildiği Sovyetler Birliği’nden saygınlığı iade edilerek Demokratik Almanya’ya geri dönen Kaltenburg’la karşılaşır. Genç bir öğrenci olan Funk, Kaltenburg’un himayesine girer, kurduğu enstitüde çalışmaya başlar. Ne var ki bir süre sonra Kaltenburg’un geçmişindeki belirsizliği fark edecektir…
Resmi biyografisinde Kaltenburg’un Posen’de geçirdiği yıllardan hiç söz edilmemiştir. Profesörün, Nazi Partisi üyesi olduğundan şüphelenir Funk. Hayvanlardaki saldırganlığa ilişkin keşiflerini insanlara kadar genişletmiş olmasından kuşkulanır. İşte o zaman çocukluk anıları, hafıza ve deneyim katmanları harekete geçecek ve Hermann, Kaltenburg’un sakladıklarıyla birlikte kendi aile sırlarına da ulaşacaktır.
Marcel Beyer Kaltenburg’da Almanya tarihinin otuzlu yıllardan günümüze kadar uzanan döneminin panoramasını çıkarıyor. Daha önceki romanlarında olduğu gibi özel hayat ile tarihi olayları o denli ustaca ve inandırıcı bir tarzda örüyor ki, 20. yüzyılın bütün felaketlerini gören Almanya insanları, aşkları ve dramlarıyla gözler önüne seriliyor. Kaltenburg romanıyla Marcel Beyer “Gerçekliğin Kaşifi, Tüm Almanya’nın Yazarı” övgülerini hak ettiğini kanıtlıyor.
361 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
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February 21, 2016
If you were in college in the social sciences 20 or 30 years ago you heard of what has become known as ethology: the study of animal behavior as it relates to humans. Your “must read pile” started tilting with Robert Ardrey’s On Aggression; Desmond Morris’ – the Naked Ape and King Solomon's Ring, and On Aggression by Konrad Lorenz. This book, Kaltenburg, translated from the German in 2012 (first published 2008) is loosely based on the life of Lorenz, a German animal behavior scholar.
The main character is a graduate student of Professor Kaltenburg of the title. The grad student is a good worker, an introvert and stand-offish, but not really the disciple that Kaltenburg is seeking. Kaltenburg, let’s say these event take place around the early 70’s, is ahead of his time. He’s your prototypical superstar professor; flamboyant; looking for publicity and a chance for a sound bite. He’s the type who makes enemies and has to have them.
The professor is odd in a number of ways. (Aren’t they all – being one, I speak the truth.) The main thing is, as an animal expert, he lets his house be overrun by creatures. Birds live in the attic, ducks, rabbits and guinea pigs on the main floor. The basement is filled with aquarium tanks. He has to have “down time” every day being with the animals and observing them. The dutiful grad student sweeps up duck crap from the driveway before tonight’s cocktail party. He sees in the professor a kind of substitute father in opposition to his own father who was withdrawn and almost timid.
Another oddity, which hangs over the novel but is never discussed in detail, is “what did you do in the war, daddy?” This is set in post-war Germany. As a doctor, Kaltenburg was drafted by the Nazis to do “medical research” but was sent to the front lines were he was quickly captured by the Russians and held as a POW until it ended. According to Wiki, this was true of Lorenz as well except that we know that Lorenz was forced to work on a project to determine if Polish “half-breeds” (Poles with one German parent) should be “allowed to reproduce.” Perhaps he didn’t come up with the right answers because, like Kaltenburg, Lorenz was sent to the front and captured by the Russians.
The other thing that hangs over the novel is that is not just Germany but EAST Germany. So these folks experienced Nazi tyranny and then Communist domination as well. The suspicion, paranoia and bureaucratic bungling of Communist East Germany become another theme. Mainly we see the repercussions of this through the grad student’s girlfriend and later wife. She lives her life by using Proust as a handbook. Like Lorenz, Karlberg eventually defects to Austria, leaving his would-be disciple behind after years of collaboration since the grad student became the director of his research institute. The student is left with a feeling of “what was that all about?”
There’s no real plot but there is an additional theme: the quirks of memory. In many places in the book the characters wrestle with the tricks of memory, such as distinctly remembering so-and-so at that party, but it couldn’t have been because so-and-so was out of the country that entire year; yet you could swear… It may sound dull but it kept my attention and I thought it was a good read.
The main character is a graduate student of Professor Kaltenburg of the title. The grad student is a good worker, an introvert and stand-offish, but not really the disciple that Kaltenburg is seeking. Kaltenburg, let’s say these event take place around the early 70’s, is ahead of his time. He’s your prototypical superstar professor; flamboyant; looking for publicity and a chance for a sound bite. He’s the type who makes enemies and has to have them.
The professor is odd in a number of ways. (Aren’t they all – being one, I speak the truth.) The main thing is, as an animal expert, he lets his house be overrun by creatures. Birds live in the attic, ducks, rabbits and guinea pigs on the main floor. The basement is filled with aquarium tanks. He has to have “down time” every day being with the animals and observing them. The dutiful grad student sweeps up duck crap from the driveway before tonight’s cocktail party. He sees in the professor a kind of substitute father in opposition to his own father who was withdrawn and almost timid.
Another oddity, which hangs over the novel but is never discussed in detail, is “what did you do in the war, daddy?” This is set in post-war Germany. As a doctor, Kaltenburg was drafted by the Nazis to do “medical research” but was sent to the front lines were he was quickly captured by the Russians and held as a POW until it ended. According to Wiki, this was true of Lorenz as well except that we know that Lorenz was forced to work on a project to determine if Polish “half-breeds” (Poles with one German parent) should be “allowed to reproduce.” Perhaps he didn’t come up with the right answers because, like Kaltenburg, Lorenz was sent to the front and captured by the Russians.
The other thing that hangs over the novel is that is not just Germany but EAST Germany. So these folks experienced Nazi tyranny and then Communist domination as well. The suspicion, paranoia and bureaucratic bungling of Communist East Germany become another theme. Mainly we see the repercussions of this through the grad student’s girlfriend and later wife. She lives her life by using Proust as a handbook. Like Lorenz, Karlberg eventually defects to Austria, leaving his would-be disciple behind after years of collaboration since the grad student became the director of his research institute. The student is left with a feeling of “what was that all about?”
There’s no real plot but there is an additional theme: the quirks of memory. In many places in the book the characters wrestle with the tricks of memory, such as distinctly remembering so-and-so at that party, but it couldn’t have been because so-and-so was out of the country that entire year; yet you could swear… It may sound dull but it kept my attention and I thought it was a good read.
April 14, 2022
Az, hogy egyáltalán elkezdtem non-fictiont olvasni, nagyban köszönhető Konrad Lorenznek. Az ő nagyívű jobb horogjai ember voltunk hanyatlásáról csodálatosan rímeltek ifjúkori szkepsziseimmel – jelesül azzal, hogy az ember idióta, önpusztító dög, kivéve persze Lorenzet és engem. Aztán megtudtam, hogy Lorenz 1938-ban belépett az NSDAP-be, és szakmányban írta a náci fajelméletet támogató tanulmányokat a rezsim folyóirataiba. Na ja, nem jó sokat tudni azokról, akiket szeretünk, mondhatnánk erre. Meg mondhatnánk azt is, hogy fiatal volt és bohó a Konrad, nézzük el neki, tekintsük egyszeri ballépésnek. Csak hát az van, hogy így, kevésbé ifjúkori szkepszissel olvasva a Lorenz-életműben bizony ott van mindaz, ami őt a nácikhoz sodorta. Azok az erőteljes analógiák a városról és a faluról, előbbit a burjánzó rákos sejtekhez hasonlítja, utóbbit a romlatlansággal azonosítja – mindez tulajdonképpen a náci mitológia egyik fő összetevője. Genetikai lezüllésről értekezik, meg a tradíciók elvesztéséről, és ezekkel szemben valamiféle „igaz értékeket” helyez szembe, valami misztikus magasságba emelt tisztaságot, kvázi az etológiai megfigyeléseit akarja társadalomtudománnyá gyúrni, miközben nem veszi észre, hogy ez a fajta „biologizálás”, az evolúció tanainak szoros alkalmazása emberi közösségekre, államokra és etnikai csoportokra a fajelmélet alapja is.
Hát, ennyit Lorenzről. Persze ez a könyv igazából Kaltenburgról szól, aki egy fiktív ornitológus. Oszoljunk, ha kérhetem. Jó, hát Kaltenburg emlékeztethet minket Lorenzre – minél többet hallottunk Lorenzről, annál inkább -, szóval azt hiszem, az ilyet hívjuk kulcsregénynek. A kulcsregények egyfelől olyanok, mintha a kiadók jogi osztálya találta volna ki őket: tudjuk, kiről szólnak, de mivel más néven futnak, ezért kevésbé vagyunk kitéve a személyiségi jogi pereknek. Megúszós műfaj ez, ha innen nézzük. Másrészt viszont a kulcsregény szabadságot ad, mert az írónak nem kell ragaszkodnia egy konkrét figura életeseményeihez, hisz nem egyetlen személyről, Lorenzről ír, hanem egy típusról: a tudósról, aki be van zárva saját szakterületébe. Azon belül ő a hérosz, a csúcs, a non plus ultra, ám amint kiteszi onnan a lábát, máris elveszíti a fókuszt, és rosszízű, bűnös kompromisszumokat köt.
Ezzel együtt ne várjunk nagy leleplezéseket. Beyer nem az ítélkezés regényét írta meg, sokkal inkább az emlékezését. Az pedig képlékeny valami. Elbeszélője Funk, a tanítvány, aki gyermekkora óta ismeri a Mestert, kötődik hozzá, mindent tőle tanult. Neki Kaltenburg az elveszett apa pótléka, aki bevezette őt a madarak világába, csókák, hollók és tengelicek közé, egy egészen lenyűgöző univerzumra nyitva ablakot. Ahogy Funk képről képre erőlködve, kínlódva hívja elő magából a vele kapcsolatos emlékeit, az nem eredményez, nem eredményezhet összefüggő, gördülékeny prózát. Töredékeket szül, bizonytalan hitelességű benyomásokat, amelyeket az olvasó Funkkal együtt kísérel meg értelmezni. A kaltenburgi bűn itt nem egyértelmű vádként jelenik meg, sokkal inkább valamiféle bizalomvesztésként, ami lassan, de biztosan eltávolítja a tanítványt a mestertől, fiút a (pót)apától. Amikor pedig mindez visszafordíthatatlanná válik, az emlékezőnek nem marad más, mint a számvetés.
Hát, ennyit Lorenzről. Persze ez a könyv igazából Kaltenburgról szól, aki egy fiktív ornitológus. Oszoljunk, ha kérhetem. Jó, hát Kaltenburg emlékeztethet minket Lorenzre – minél többet hallottunk Lorenzről, annál inkább -, szóval azt hiszem, az ilyet hívjuk kulcsregénynek. A kulcsregények egyfelől olyanok, mintha a kiadók jogi osztálya találta volna ki őket: tudjuk, kiről szólnak, de mivel más néven futnak, ezért kevésbé vagyunk kitéve a személyiségi jogi pereknek. Megúszós műfaj ez, ha innen nézzük. Másrészt viszont a kulcsregény szabadságot ad, mert az írónak nem kell ragaszkodnia egy konkrét figura életeseményeihez, hisz nem egyetlen személyről, Lorenzről ír, hanem egy típusról: a tudósról, aki be van zárva saját szakterületébe. Azon belül ő a hérosz, a csúcs, a non plus ultra, ám amint kiteszi onnan a lábát, máris elveszíti a fókuszt, és rosszízű, bűnös kompromisszumokat köt.
Ezzel együtt ne várjunk nagy leleplezéseket. Beyer nem az ítélkezés regényét írta meg, sokkal inkább az emlékezését. Az pedig képlékeny valami. Elbeszélője Funk, a tanítvány, aki gyermekkora óta ismeri a Mestert, kötődik hozzá, mindent tőle tanult. Neki Kaltenburg az elveszett apa pótléka, aki bevezette őt a madarak világába, csókák, hollók és tengelicek közé, egy egészen lenyűgöző univerzumra nyitva ablakot. Ahogy Funk képről képre erőlködve, kínlódva hívja elő magából a vele kapcsolatos emlékeit, az nem eredményez, nem eredményezhet összefüggő, gördülékeny prózát. Töredékeket szül, bizonytalan hitelességű benyomásokat, amelyeket az olvasó Funkkal együtt kísérel meg értelmezni. A kaltenburgi bűn itt nem egyértelmű vádként jelenik meg, sokkal inkább valamiféle bizalomvesztésként, ami lassan, de biztosan eltávolítja a tanítványt a mestertől, fiút a (pót)apától. Amikor pedig mindez visszafordíthatatlanná válik, az emlékezőnek nem marad más, mint a számvetés.
July 30, 2017
There were some things about this book that I loved. The writing was beautiful. The book really just never came together for me, though. There's not really a plot to this book at all. I know that's how it's supposed to be, but it's just not really my cup of tea. It's a very character-based novel, and in that respect, it's well done. All of the characters were extremely complex. It just took me so long to get through this book, because I couldn't stay focused. A lot of what goes on is fairly monotonous and repetitive. That being said, I didn't hate this book. I actually kind of enjoyed it.
June 6, 2016
Animal Behavior
From the very first pages of this fascinating novel I felt that it had the potential to be something superb, though I gradually came to see that a reader such as I, lacking a German frame of reference, might never fully realize it. Now in his later forties, Marcel Beyer has won just about every German literary prize going; there is clearly a highly refined sensibility at work here, as he juggles scraps of fictionalized biography over a fifty-year span of German history, building an intriguing complex of memories, questions, and ideas without ever becoming less than approachable in his writing style. Even as a foreigner, I sense the resonance of this rich texture of references; were I a German, more especially an East German, I believe that these muted notes would ring out loud and clear in much the way that Jenny Erpenbeck achieved with a similar place and period in Visitation.
Beyer has made no secret of the fact that several of his characters are based on real people. Ludwig Kaltenburg, for example, shares much with the Nobel laureate Konrad Lorenz (1903-89), a zoologist who laid many of the foundations for modern study of animal behavior; his book King Solomon's Ring (1949) still makes fascinating reading. Like Lorenz, the fictional Kaltenburg keeps animals all over his house, most notably jackdaws, studying their social life and their interaction with human beings. Just as Lorenz did in his book On Aggression (1966), Kaltenburg publishes a late book, Archetypes of Fear, which extends the methods of animal study to consideration of how human beings behave in crisis. One of the questions touched on obliquely in the book is the degree to which these studies may have had practical ramifications with human populations in less than natural conditions, whether during the Second World War or under the Soviet occupation of East Germany; in short, whether the great zoologist had political feet of clay.
Kaltenburg himself is rarely at the center of the picture. The narrator is his disciple, Hermann Funk, whose parents knew Kaltenburg in the early years of the War in Posen (now Poznan, Poland), a period that is left blank in Kaltenburg's official biographies. Orphaned by the fire-bombing of Dresden, where his family moved in 1945 and where most of the novel is set, Hermann spends much of the book trying to parse the meaning of certain incidents from his childhood and in his later association with Kaltenburg. He talks mainly to two women: Klara, an outspoken girl who eventually becomes his wife, and a slightly mysterious interpreter named Katharina Fischer who appears early in the book and continues to serve as an inquisitor and sounding-board. Also coming in and out are Martin Spengler, an artist who becomes famous for his use of animal imagery, and Knut Sieverding, a pioneering director of nature films. These are clearly based upon the real-life figures Joseph Beuys and Heinz Sielmann, who crossed paths with Lorenz in Posen at about the same time. I don't know Sielmann's work, but the disturbing imagery of Joseph Beuys adds another layer of resonance to the book.
As you get further into the book, the specific detail becomes clearer but the overall meaning more obscure. Fascinatingly so, fortunately, and I am sure that with more finely-tuned antennae I would have been able to get more. I would perhaps have been able to understand the significance of a death camp liberation re-enactment eleven years after the war, or why Klara's reading of Proust in nineteen-fifties East Germany should have the quality of a clandestine act—let alone why she then makes a point of recounting passages from his In Search of Lost Time that aren't even there. Or maybe I do get it. The tissue of the entire novel is one of re-examining story fragments, re-telling and even re-writing them to make the events they conceal seem less disturbing. "There's something obscene about it," Klara remarks about the conversation of Hermann's friends, "something obscene and something desperate as well, this dogged determination dressed up as chat, as though by talking about the old days you can make yourself innocent." Given the complexity of human recollection, it is not surprising that the book ends with the manipulated memories of a subverted Proust, contrasted with the pulsating life of the crows, rooks, and jackdaws with which this intriguing novel began.
From the very first pages of this fascinating novel I felt that it had the potential to be something superb, though I gradually came to see that a reader such as I, lacking a German frame of reference, might never fully realize it. Now in his later forties, Marcel Beyer has won just about every German literary prize going; there is clearly a highly refined sensibility at work here, as he juggles scraps of fictionalized biography over a fifty-year span of German history, building an intriguing complex of memories, questions, and ideas without ever becoming less than approachable in his writing style. Even as a foreigner, I sense the resonance of this rich texture of references; were I a German, more especially an East German, I believe that these muted notes would ring out loud and clear in much the way that Jenny Erpenbeck achieved with a similar place and period in Visitation.
Beyer has made no secret of the fact that several of his characters are based on real people. Ludwig Kaltenburg, for example, shares much with the Nobel laureate Konrad Lorenz (1903-89), a zoologist who laid many of the foundations for modern study of animal behavior; his book King Solomon's Ring (1949) still makes fascinating reading. Like Lorenz, the fictional Kaltenburg keeps animals all over his house, most notably jackdaws, studying their social life and their interaction with human beings. Just as Lorenz did in his book On Aggression (1966), Kaltenburg publishes a late book, Archetypes of Fear, which extends the methods of animal study to consideration of how human beings behave in crisis. One of the questions touched on obliquely in the book is the degree to which these studies may have had practical ramifications with human populations in less than natural conditions, whether during the Second World War or under the Soviet occupation of East Germany; in short, whether the great zoologist had political feet of clay.
Kaltenburg himself is rarely at the center of the picture. The narrator is his disciple, Hermann Funk, whose parents knew Kaltenburg in the early years of the War in Posen (now Poznan, Poland), a period that is left blank in Kaltenburg's official biographies. Orphaned by the fire-bombing of Dresden, where his family moved in 1945 and where most of the novel is set, Hermann spends much of the book trying to parse the meaning of certain incidents from his childhood and in his later association with Kaltenburg. He talks mainly to two women: Klara, an outspoken girl who eventually becomes his wife, and a slightly mysterious interpreter named Katharina Fischer who appears early in the book and continues to serve as an inquisitor and sounding-board. Also coming in and out are Martin Spengler, an artist who becomes famous for his use of animal imagery, and Knut Sieverding, a pioneering director of nature films. These are clearly based upon the real-life figures Joseph Beuys and Heinz Sielmann, who crossed paths with Lorenz in Posen at about the same time. I don't know Sielmann's work, but the disturbing imagery of Joseph Beuys adds another layer of resonance to the book.
As you get further into the book, the specific detail becomes clearer but the overall meaning more obscure. Fascinatingly so, fortunately, and I am sure that with more finely-tuned antennae I would have been able to get more. I would perhaps have been able to understand the significance of a death camp liberation re-enactment eleven years after the war, or why Klara's reading of Proust in nineteen-fifties East Germany should have the quality of a clandestine act—let alone why she then makes a point of recounting passages from his In Search of Lost Time that aren't even there. Or maybe I do get it. The tissue of the entire novel is one of re-examining story fragments, re-telling and even re-writing them to make the events they conceal seem less disturbing. "There's something obscene about it," Klara remarks about the conversation of Hermann's friends, "something obscene and something desperate as well, this dogged determination dressed up as chat, as though by talking about the old days you can make yourself innocent." Given the complexity of human recollection, it is not surprising that the book ends with the manipulated memories of a subverted Proust, contrasted with the pulsating life of the crows, rooks, and jackdaws with which this intriguing novel began.
May 9, 2025
Geprezen in Duitsland, waar het verscheen onder de titel Kaltenburg, maar wat mij betreft vol moeilijk-doenerige pretenties. Het boek zou de geschiedenis van de DDR (Dresden) weerspiegelen aan de hand van de levensbeschrijving van de exentrieke zoöloog Ludwig Kaltenburg (Nobelprijswinnaar Konrad Lorenz), maar ik kon er weinig chocola van maken en ben op de helft van het boek met lezen gestopt.
March 20, 2022
Félrement az elvárásom és amit kaptam helyette. Konrad Lorenzről szóló könyvet vártam, és egy fiktív Kaltenburgot kaptam, ami viszont Lorenzből merített.
Igen otthonosnak találtam, ahogy bemutatták Kaltenburg állatokkal népes élőhelyét, otthonát. És igen óvatos, utalásokba öltöztetett megoldást a kor politikájában való részvételének bemutatására. Bátrabb, egyértelműbb kiállást is elbírt volna a papír, és így elég vontatottra sikeredett az egész.
Igen otthonosnak találtam, ahogy bemutatták Kaltenburg állatokkal népes élőhelyét, otthonát. És igen óvatos, utalásokba öltöztetett megoldást a kor politikájában való részvételének bemutatására. Bátrabb, egyértelműbb kiállást is elbírt volna a papír, és így elég vontatottra sikeredett az egész.
May 22, 2015
I feel pretty neutral about this book. Some parts of it were very good and I certainly didn't have trouble getting into it. But the mysteries surrounding the ornithologist Ludwig Kaltenburg were so vague that I couldn't quite keep them all straight. I suppose that was the point, that no on really knows everything about a person they are close to. However, a little bit of clarity about some of the issues that were hinted at would have been appreciated. Eastern Germany under Soviet Rule is pretty well glossed over too - granted, these are scientists studying birds, but you would think there would be some stronger indication of the oppressive nature of that regime and its effect on Kaltenburg's Institute. Sadly, I was relieved when I was finished with this. I guess I should read some of Beyer's other novels - I might like those better.
May 30, 2023
Stark und vielversprechend begonnen: Der Spannungsbogen, wie sich all die vielen Andeutungen und subtilen Hinweise auf zunächst Unaufgelöstes entwickeln werden, war schon sehr gut.
Nur - Achtung: Spoiler! - am Ende sind mehr Fragen offen geblieben als beantwortet wurden. Und insgesamt hat die sich andeutende Klimax sich zur Antiklimax entwickelt, um dann flach in sich zusammenzufallen wie der Schaum auf einem abgestandenen Bier.
Die Idee, das Schillernde, was Konrad Lorenz (der hier als der Titel-gebende "Kaltenburg" dargestellt wird) Zeit seines Lebens dahingehend zu drehen und zu nutzen wußte, als daß er eine Lichtgestalt der bundesdeutschen Wissenschaftsszene wurde und blieb, trotz oder wegen oder ungeachtet seines Handelns und seiner regimenützlichen Rolle im Dritten Reich ...
... diese Idee, das in einer literarischen Adaptation zu verarbeiten, ist bestechend. Ihre Umsetzung durch Marcel Beyer bleibt m.E. hinter dem Anspruch weit zurück ... wenn das, was ich oben formuliert habe, je sein Anspruch war.
Fazit: Wer mehr erwartet, als schöne Sprache, sollte zu anderen Büchern als diesem greifen. Leider.
Nur - Achtung: Spoiler! - am Ende sind mehr Fragen offen geblieben als beantwortet wurden. Und insgesamt hat die sich andeutende Klimax sich zur Antiklimax entwickelt, um dann flach in sich zusammenzufallen wie der Schaum auf einem abgestandenen Bier.
Die Idee, das Schillernde, was Konrad Lorenz (der hier als der Titel-gebende "Kaltenburg" dargestellt wird) Zeit seines Lebens dahingehend zu drehen und zu nutzen wußte, als daß er eine Lichtgestalt der bundesdeutschen Wissenschaftsszene wurde und blieb, trotz oder wegen oder ungeachtet seines Handelns und seiner regimenützlichen Rolle im Dritten Reich ...
... diese Idee, das in einer literarischen Adaptation zu verarbeiten, ist bestechend. Ihre Umsetzung durch Marcel Beyer bleibt m.E. hinter dem Anspruch weit zurück ... wenn das, was ich oben formuliert habe, je sein Anspruch war.
Fazit: Wer mehr erwartet, als schöne Sprache, sollte zu anderen Büchern als diesem greifen. Leider.
October 25, 2020
Nagyon jól megírt könyv szuper fordítással.
De nekem túl volt bonyolítva a történet, és ennek okát az utolsó oldalon sem sikerült felfedeznem. Igazából csak sejtéseim vannak a történtekről, de lehet, hogy ez volt a cél. Az emlékezéssel nekem is gondjaim vannak, és nem is egy ilyen vészterhes időszak emlékeiről van szó.
Nem szívesen hagyok félbe könyvet, de lehet, hogy most ezt kellett volna tennem.
De nekem túl volt bonyolítva a történet, és ennek okát az utolsó oldalon sem sikerült felfedeznem. Igazából csak sejtéseim vannak a történtekről, de lehet, hogy ez volt a cél. Az emlékezéssel nekem is gondjaim vannak, és nem is egy ilyen vészterhes időszak emlékeiről van szó.
Nem szívesen hagyok félbe könyvet, de lehet, hogy most ezt kellett volna tennem.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 1, 2020
A slow-burn book with a sort-of obvious "surprise" at the end. Beautiful sense of pre- and post-war eastern Germany based on an elegiac reading of the life of Konrad Lorenz, the famous ornitologist. You will learn an awful lot about the life and personalities of birds, more than you ever thought you'd wanted to. It is a love-able but slow, at times even somewhat tedious book.
December 31, 2013
في كالتنبورغ تترك كل حواسك لـ الطيور تفعل بك ما تشاء
كالتنبورغ أخذتني في سفر في السماء وفي الأرض، بين أغصان الشجر وبين مداخن المنازل، بين الأقفاص وفي المتاحف
كنت أحلق معها ،
ما يخطفي في عالمها أولئك الغرقى في عالمها وكأنهم طيور لا يمتون البشر بـ صلة .. يختطفونك بين منقارهم .. ويدثرونك بين أجنحتهم .. ويخفونك بين أعشاشها ..
هذه الرواية أشبه ما تكون بـ سيرة ذاتية لـ كونراد لورنتس وهو عالم حيوان وطيور وسيولوجية حيوان نمساوي حصل على جائزة نوبل في الطب 1973
في هذه الرواية كونراد لورنتس يمثله عالم الحيوان لودفيج كالتنبورغ والتي تحمل الرواية اسمه والصبي الشريد ،، ربما بسبب تنقله بين البلدان ..
درس لورنس السلوك الغريزي لدى الحيوانات وخاصة الأوز الرمادي وغراب الزرع وكان الأخير هو ملك الطيور في القصة حيث الوصف المذهل لـ تصرفاته وسلوكه ..
هيرمان فونك الذي اتحل الكثير من الرواية هو مساعد كالتنبورغ (لورنس) كانت عائلته على علاقة وطيدة بـ كالتنبورغ لأن والده كان عالم نبات قبل أن يقتلوا أهل فونك في إنفجار بوسين أثناء الحرب العالمية الثانية .. ساعد كالتنبورغ في المعهد في الفترة التي قضاها في دريسدن قبل أن ينتقل إلى فينيا بعد بناء الجدار العازل حيث كان المعهد في ألمانيا الشرقية .. الرواية التي تسرد الكثير من الأحداث عن فونك أو الراوي بين بوسن والإنتقال إلى دريسدن بعد ذلك وكيف جرت حياته ..
انضم كالتنبورغ (لورنس) إلى الحزب النازي لأن النازيون استولوا على موطنه ثم تعاون مع الشيوعيين حسب ما تقتضييه مصالحه ..
"كالتنبورغ كالطائر الجارح الذي يجلس على شجرة عجوز، ويتمنى أن لو كان طائرًا مهاجرًا يتبع سرب أقرانه ويسبح معهم في سماء رحلاتهم البعيدة"
الطيور التي كانت تحوم في الصفحات وتنفش ريشاها غير مبالية بـ أسمائها التي نشرها مارسيل باير بـ تكلف .. أصوات نعيق الغراب أشبه بـ عازفة كمان مبتدئة ومزعجة ..
في الفصول الأولى وصف غاية في الرعب كيف أن الطيور كانت تتساقط وهي متفحمه ولم يسمع أي بكاء أو نواح كانت الوجوه مطبقة في صمت وتتجول محاجر العيون في الأنفجار الذي حدث ..
"الطيور المهاجرة التي أتت من الشمال في قسوة الشتاء كي تشوى بلهيب قدرها المحتوم"
توفي كالتنبورغ منتظرًا ظهور الغربان مع إن مستعمرات طيوره انهارت منذ سنوات عام 1989..
كالتنبورغ أخذتني في سفر في السماء وفي الأرض، بين أغصان الشجر وبين مداخن المنازل، بين الأقفاص وفي المتاحف
كنت أحلق معها ،
ما يخطفي في عالمها أولئك الغرقى في عالمها وكأنهم طيور لا يمتون البشر بـ صلة .. يختطفونك بين منقارهم .. ويدثرونك بين أجنحتهم .. ويخفونك بين أعشاشها ..
هذه الرواية أشبه ما تكون بـ سيرة ذاتية لـ كونراد لورنتس وهو عالم حيوان وطيور وسيولوجية حيوان نمساوي حصل على جائزة نوبل في الطب 1973
في هذه الرواية كونراد لورنتس يمثله عالم الحيوان لودفيج كالتنبورغ والتي تحمل الرواية اسمه والصبي الشريد ،، ربما بسبب تنقله بين البلدان ..
درس لورنس السلوك الغريزي لدى الحيوانات وخاصة الأوز الرمادي وغراب الزرع وكان الأخير هو ملك الطيور في القصة حيث الوصف المذهل لـ تصرفاته وسلوكه ..
هيرمان فونك الذي اتحل الكثير من الرواية هو مساعد كالتنبورغ (لورنس) كانت عائلته على علاقة وطيدة بـ كالتنبورغ لأن والده كان عالم نبات قبل أن يقتلوا أهل فونك في إنفجار بوسين أثناء الحرب العالمية الثانية .. ساعد كالتنبورغ في المعهد في الفترة التي قضاها في دريسدن قبل أن ينتقل إلى فينيا بعد بناء الجدار العازل حيث كان المعهد في ألمانيا الشرقية .. الرواية التي تسرد الكثير من الأحداث عن فونك أو الراوي بين بوسن والإنتقال إلى دريسدن بعد ذلك وكيف جرت حياته ..
انضم كالتنبورغ (لورنس) إلى الحزب النازي لأن النازيون استولوا على موطنه ثم تعاون مع الشيوعيين حسب ما تقتضييه مصالحه ..
"كالتنبورغ كالطائر الجارح الذي يجلس على شجرة عجوز، ويتمنى أن لو كان طائرًا مهاجرًا يتبع سرب أقرانه ويسبح معهم في سماء رحلاتهم البعيدة"
الطيور التي كانت تحوم في الصفحات وتنفش ريشاها غير مبالية بـ أسمائها التي نشرها مارسيل باير بـ تكلف .. أصوات نعيق الغراب أشبه بـ عازفة كمان مبتدئة ومزعجة ..
في الفصول الأولى وصف غاية في الرعب كيف أن الطيور كانت تتساقط وهي متفحمه ولم يسمع أي بكاء أو نواح كانت الوجوه مطبقة في صمت وتتجول محاجر العيون في الأنفجار الذي حدث ..
"الطيور المهاجرة التي أتت من الشمال في قسوة الشتاء كي تشوى بلهيب قدرها المحتوم"
توفي كالتنبورغ منتظرًا ظهور الغربان مع إن مستعمرات طيوره انهارت منذ سنوات عام 1989..
July 22, 2015
Beyer's novel, translated from German to English, echoes the life of Konrad Lorenz. The history of the period and geography are central features of the novel. Translators, including a main character, recur in important roles.
The novel is filled with deliberate contradictions to the point where the reader is left wondering exactly what is true. Does Hermann remember almost nothing of his first wildlife filmstrip or does he recall it in great detail? Does Martin socialize at evening gatherings in the drawing room or does he stay isolated in his room? Are there scenes of hand washing in Proust or not? No detail is too trivial to be contradicted in the next line, paragraph, page, or chapter.
Different time periods are bewilderingly juxtaposed. Certain characters offer clues: the nanny, Maria, is from Hermann's childhood; Klara, his wife is always from his middle years, even though she is living and still married to Hermann when is old; the interpreter, Katharina, invariably marks his later years. Often, not until one of these characters appears, does the period become clear.
Events that other authors might emphasize, marriages, births, and other major aspects of life, are barely described. However, trivial details, the dampness of the guests' coats that Klara and her sister have been tasked to hang on the coat rack and the light rain that dampens them, is repeatedly described.
Either this is an inept translation, the German language does not translate well into English, or Beyer uses literary devices like no other author. I prefer to think the latter. But in case I'm wrong, I'll conservatively rate it three stars.
The novel is filled with deliberate contradictions to the point where the reader is left wondering exactly what is true. Does Hermann remember almost nothing of his first wildlife filmstrip or does he recall it in great detail? Does Martin socialize at evening gatherings in the drawing room or does he stay isolated in his room? Are there scenes of hand washing in Proust or not? No detail is too trivial to be contradicted in the next line, paragraph, page, or chapter.
Different time periods are bewilderingly juxtaposed. Certain characters offer clues: the nanny, Maria, is from Hermann's childhood; Klara, his wife is always from his middle years, even though she is living and still married to Hermann when is old; the interpreter, Katharina, invariably marks his later years. Often, not until one of these characters appears, does the period become clear.
Events that other authors might emphasize, marriages, births, and other major aspects of life, are barely described. However, trivial details, the dampness of the guests' coats that Klara and her sister have been tasked to hang on the coat rack and the light rain that dampens them, is repeatedly described.
Either this is an inept translation, the German language does not translate well into English, or Beyer uses literary devices like no other author. I prefer to think the latter. But in case I'm wrong, I'll conservatively rate it three stars.
June 8, 2016
This novel is characterized most of all by its eccentricities. The first-person narrator’s coyness about withholding important information and his odd unreliability. The strange relationships between people and birds, which range from befriending and protecting them to skinning them and allowing them to be massacred. The way the novel wanders through (and back and forth between) present and pasts, with the frame of a not quite present conversation with a stranger that goes on for six months, but is sometimes ignored.
It is a biographical novel whose subject doesn’t appear for fifty pages and whose narrator is of two (or several) minds about its subject, and a picture of East Germany through the story of someone who was very far from being representative.
It doesn’t always work, and I found it a bit overlong, but it’s the second excellent work I’ve read by Beyer (the first was Spies.
It is a biographical novel whose subject doesn’t appear for fifty pages and whose narrator is of two (or several) minds about its subject, and a picture of East Germany through the story of someone who was very far from being representative.
It doesn’t always work, and I found it a bit overlong, but it’s the second excellent work I’ve read by Beyer (the first was Spies.
December 14, 2012
This novel is filled with lovely set pieces about the narrator's childhood and youthful experiences with his mentor, the famous zoologist Ludwig Kaltenberg. After a dramatic experience with a swift trapped in the drawing room, Hermann Funk devotes his life to the study of animals, but he's also a keen student of human nature. His detailed observations and memories of Posen and Dresden are captivating. As other reviewers have noted, this story is told in a non-linear way. It's more like a collage of remembered scenes and conversations. Even after reading the novel, I'm not exactly sure about the chronological sequence of events, but I enjoyed Beyer's lush prose and keen descriptions of animals and the people who care for them.
December 15, 2013
I think to really appreciate this novel, you'd best have a deep familiarity with the history of East Germany. As much as I enjoyed some of the descriptions -- in particular, the characters' interactions with the zoological specimens -- I never felt that I was understanding what someone more versed in that time period would have understood. I also enjoyed the challenge of following the narrator's imperfect memories, though sometimes this was too much of a challenge and I couldn't remember who was important or why. I would read another of this author's books, though, I admit, preferably one built around a more universal theme.
July 9, 2018
For me, totally different reading material, it read more like an autobiography/biography. It actually was based loosely on Konrad Lorenz, Nobel Prize winner,a zoolgist, doing research into animal behavior.1940s to late 1960s. I laid it aside, then repeatedly found myself reading bits and pieces, finally started over from the beginning. Ravens, living and stuffed, scientific terminology for the ornithologist, for some reason I enjoyed the growth of the observer,the student. Perhaps, he was the ultimate researcher in animal behavior.
January 28, 2015
A well written, compassionate book about psychology, behaviorism , birds, and life . Highly recommended.
October 6, 2016
those burning birds
March 3, 2016
Worstelen om door te lezen tot het einde. Geen aanrader.
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