Boëtius von Orlamünde: Der Aristokrat

by Ernst Weiss

Bo�tius von Orlam�nde ist ein Internats- und Entwicklungsroman von Ernst Wei�, der, Mitte der zwanziger Jahre geschrieben. Bo�tius Maria Dagobert von Orlam�nde, "glaubensschwacher," fast mittelloser Sohn eines "verarmten, stellungslosen F�rsten" aus Br�ssel, nennt sich einfach Orlam�nde. Der 18-J�hrige h�lt sich f�r eine "armselige Person," hat sechs Jahre Onderkuhle absolviert und sitzt in dem Stift gleichsam zwischen den St�hlen. Orlam�nde wei� nicht, wie es mit ihm weitergeht, denn der Vater, der ihm "sehr fehlt," hat seit f�nf Wochen nicht mehr geschrieben. So wird er vom Meister, dessen v�terliches Wohlwollen er genie�t, gelegentlich mit einer diffizilen Aufgabe betraut und auch zur Beaufsichtigung vornehmlich j�ngerer Z�glinge beim Reiten und Schwimmen eingesetzt. W�hrend einer solchen Unternehmung rettet Orlam�nde seinen "einzigen Freund" Titurel vor dem Ertrinken. Zum Dank wendet sich der Gerettete vom Retter ab. Als Orlam�nde dem kleinen Knaben Alma Venus, genannt Alma, Schwimmunterricht geben muss und der kleine Kerl versagt, hat der "Schwimmlehrer" zwar Mitleid, muss den Versager aber auf dem Fechtboden einsperren, weil diese Strafe im "spartanischen" Reglement von Onderkuhle f�r Wasserscheu so vorgeschrieben ist... Ernst Wei� (1882 - 1940) war ein �sterreichischer Arzt und Schriftsteller. 1928 wurde Wei� vom Land Ober�sterreich mit dem Adalbert-Stifter-Preis ausgezeichnet. Wei� deb�tierte mit seinem Roman Die Galeere.

Genres: German Literature

100 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1928

About the author

Ernst Weiss was born in Brno, Moravia, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now the Czech Republic) to the family of a prosperous Jewish cloth merchant. After his father died when he was four, he was brought up by his mother Berta, née Weinberg, who led him to art. However after completing his secondary education in Brno, Litoměřice and Hostinné, he came to Prague to study medicine. In 1908 he finished his studies in Vienna and became a surgeon. He practiced in Berne, Vienna, and Berlin but he got tuberculosis and tried to recover as a ship doctor on a trip to India and Japan in 1912. In 1913 he met Rahel Sanzara, a dancer and actress and their relationship lasted until she died of cancer in 1936. In the same year he met Franz Kafka and they became close friends. Kafka wrote in his Diaries 1914: "January 2. A lot of time well spent with Dr. Weiss". Weiss was in touch with a lot of other writers of Prague Circle such as Franz Werfel, Max Brod, and Johannes Urzidil. In 1914 Weiss returned to Austria to start a military physician career. Near the end of World War I he received a golden cross for bravery. After the war he lived in Prague, then the capital of Czechoslovakia. He gave up medical career in 1920 when he finished working in a Prague hospital. In 1921 he moved to Berlin but in 1933 he returned to Prague to care for his dying mother. He could not enter Nazi Germany and so he left for Paris in 1934. There he lived a poor life dependent on the help from authors such as Thomas Mann and Stefan Zweig. He applied for, but did not receive, a grant from the so-called American guild for German cultural freedom. He committed suicide on 14 June 1940 when German troops invaded the city.

Reviews

[Irene Pérez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unha fermosa e coidada tradución o galego por iso as 5 estrelas, quería destacar ese traballo. Para a obra un 3/5 😅

[Chequers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mumble mumble, impresa veramente ardua commentare questo libro di Weiss, specialmente dopo aver letto i commenti precedenti:a me, sinceramente, non e' piaciuto.
C'e' una tale disperazione, un tale senso di sconfitta dalla prima all'ultima pagina, che anche tenendo conto del contesto storico mi ha fatto quasi rabbia, mi veniva voglia quasi di prendere il protagonista Boetius e scrollarlo per bene dicendogli "Su, la vita non e' tutta rose e fiori ma non e' neanche tutta una catastrofe!Ogni tanto c'e' qualcosa di buono di cui riempirsi gli occhi e l'anima!"
Ovviamente, leggendo poi la vita di Weiss ci si rende conto del perche' di tanta disperazione, ma non posso fare a meno di pensare agli altri scrittori dello stesso periodo che almeno una volta hanno descritto qualcosa di piacevole, di lontanamente felice, mentre per Weiss tutto e' sempre buio e senza redenzione: manca la speranza, se non nella sua, nelle future generazioni, e di questa mancanza di speranza e completa arrendevolezza e' intriso tutto il racconto, tutta la sua vita ( e infatti morira' suicida)
Qua e la' ci sono delle frasi toccanti ("“Ora sono solo e rimarrò solo. Non avrò più paura della morte. Ormai non mi morirà più un padre! Nessuno vive la propria morte”) e, quasi me ne vergogno a dirlo,sinceramente non mi bastano per scaldarmi il cuore.
Quindi quattro stellette perche' e' comunque una scrittura profonda ed una ulteriore, elevata testimonianza dei suoi tempi travagliati (anche se troppo intrisa di quel "pessimismo cosmico" di cui parlava Werfel), tre stellette perche' non mi ha, e lo dico a malincuore, "toccato l'anima".

[Edu · Rating 3 out of 5]

La valoración que le doy no es justa del todo. Hay partes del libro de 4/5 e incluso de 5/5 también (la doma de Cyrus, el incendio, la emancipación del protagonista, la tormenta, etc). Pero también las hay de 2/5 e incluso algunas de 1/5. En conjunto es un libro especial, que tiene una luz diferente sin duda. Pero es muy variable, hay capítulos muy buenos frente a otros muy tediosos. De ahí mi valoración final de 3/5.

A mí me ha gustado más la segunda mitad del libro, donde se combinan reflexiones, descripciones y acciones del protagonista de una manera equilibrada.

Frente a esa segunda parte nos encontramos una primera más reflexiva, carente a veces de entretenimiento e incluso un tanto irreal por estar asociando semejantes pensamientos al que no deja de ser un adolescente de 1913. Se me ha hecho en algunos momentos pesado de leer.

[Teresa Barbado · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fiel a la literatura del momento, El aristócrata narra, en primera persona, tres meses en la vida de un adolescente aristócrata en un internado del corazón de Europa en las postrimeras de la I Guerra Mundial, un mundo decadente y caduco. Boetius su protagonista pertenece a una familia aristocrática que lo ha perdido todo menos la dignidad de pertenencia a una clase privilegiada. La ausencia del padre, la inutilidad de su existencia en un mundo que se desvanece y el temor a la muerte son el leitmotiv de esta novela. Las minuciosas descripciones de una naturaleza exuberante, la monta y doma de los caballos y el amor a los animales se reflejan con gran precisión en este bonito relato.

[Meme · Rating 4 out of 5]

Devorado por el fuego, el internado desaparece y con él toda conexión con una antigua dignidad intrínseca: ya la inocencia y la juventud son cenizas. Entonces, la muerte tan temida, al acercarse, al fin podrá nombrarse. Sólo queda resignarse, como el aire en las corvas de un caballo delgado, como la cola chamuscada de un gato que ha huído de la estufa.

[Sylvia · Rating 2 out of 5]

La primera obra traducida al español del gran amigo de Kafka, que literariamente no está a la misma altura. La historia es bastante anodina, aunque hay que reconocerle una gran maestría en describir escenas como una tormenta, un incendio o la doma de un caballo.

[Manolis P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

O Weiss αν τον συγκρίνεις με τον φίλο του τον Κάφκα είναι χείμαρρος, πολύ λυρικός , σε πρώτο πρόσωπο και αρκετά υπαρξιακός.
η υπόθεση δεν είναι κάτι ιδιαίτερο αλλά το ύφος σε κρατάει

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ernst Weiss’s THE ARISTOCRAT: BOËTIUS VON ORLAMUNDE is a novel about death, the decline of the nobility, and fathers and sons.

Boëtius, the last of the noble but impoverished Orlamunde family, is a student at the Onderkuhle School, where he studies horsemanship, fencing and apparently little else.

When the school finally burns down, Boëtius lacks the courage to rescue a friend from the fire, which further alienates him from the other members of the school, who have existed in a different world from the start.

The school having been forced to close, Boëtius returns to his family in Belgium, where he rejects the education he has had and decides to support himself by going to work in a turbine factory.

When his father, whom he worships, takes ill, Boëtius splits his time between nursing his father and working in the factory. By contrast, he feels nothing whatever for his mother. When his father dies, she moves away to live with an aged relative, and he is simply rid of her for good.

I found the development and interplay of the various themes in the novel to be engaging, and the writing is vigorous and quite vivid. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in early 20th-century literature in German.

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this after I had read The Eyewitness, because I enjoyed his writing so much.

The story of a young man in a military school in western Europe pre-WW1. He is a product of his environment.

Ernst Weiss was admired by Thomas Mann who described his writing as having a "pearlescent sheen". I wanted to see what he meant. I came away from reading this satisfied but disturbed. He does not flinch from reality.