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Levin's Mill
From Publishers Weekly
Originally published in 1964, this first novel is almost a quasi-social the author has taken a minor incident in his own family's past―the time is 1874―and expanded it to dramatize the racial tension between the Germans and the native Poles of Western Prussia. Levin, a Jew, has the audacity to construct a mill downstream from the mill of a wealthy landowner, the narrator's grandfather. The latter, fearing competition, opens the sluice gates so that Levin's mill is destroyed. Levin takes the old man to court, but Grandfather cozies up to the German magistrates, suggesting that "we Germans should stick together." The fight eventually exhausts Grandfather, mentally and physically. Bobrowski's rhetorical, labored writing, and the obscurity of the plot, only hint at his intentions. What does come across is a portrait of a closed, provincial society and rampant ethnocentrism that would plague the Germans well into the 20th century.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Originally published in 1964, this first novel is almost a quasi-social the author has taken a minor incident in his own family's past―the time is 1874―and expanded it to dramatize the racial tension between the Germans and the native Poles of Western Prussia. Levin, a Jew, has the audacity to construct a mill downstream from the mill of a wealthy landowner, the narrator's grandfather. The latter, fearing competition, opens the sluice gates so that Levin's mill is destroyed. Levin takes the old man to court, but Grandfather cozies up to the German magistrates, suggesting that "we Germans should stick together." The fight eventually exhausts Grandfather, mentally and physically. Bobrowski's rhetorical, labored writing, and the obscurity of the plot, only hint at his intentions. What does come across is a portrait of a closed, provincial society and rampant ethnocentrism that would plague the Germans well into the 20th century.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- GenresGermany
230 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1964
About the author
Johannes Bobrowski
79 books15 followersJohannes Bobrowski was a German lyric poet, narrative writer, adaptor and essayist. Bobrowski was born in Tilsit in East Prussia. In 1925, he moved first to Rastenburg, then in 1928 on to Königsberg, where he attended the humanist Gymnasium (a type of German school). One of his teachers was Ernst Wiechert. In 1937, he started a degree in art history in Berlin. As a member of the Confessing Church, Bobrowski had contact with the German resistance against National Socialism. He was a lance corporal for the entire Second World War in Poland, France and the Soviet Union. In 1943 he married Johanna Buddrus.
From 1945—1949 Bobrowski was imprisoned by the Soviet Union, where he spent time working in a coal mine. On his release, he worked as an editor in Berlin, first for the Altberliner Verlag, a children’s publisher run by Lucie Grosner, and then from 1959 for the Union Verlag publishing house. His work was influenced by his knowledge of Eastern European landscapes and of the German and Slavic cultures and languages, combined with ancient myths. In 1964, Bobrowski became a member of the PEN Club.
In East Berlin in 1965, Brobowski died as a result of a perforated appendix. Since 1992, the Foundation for Prussian Maritime Trade (Stiftung Preußische Seehandlung) has donated funds towards the Johannes Brobowski Medal.
From 1945—1949 Bobrowski was imprisoned by the Soviet Union, where he spent time working in a coal mine. On his release, he worked as an editor in Berlin, first for the Altberliner Verlag, a children’s publisher run by Lucie Grosner, and then from 1959 for the Union Verlag publishing house. His work was influenced by his knowledge of Eastern European landscapes and of the German and Slavic cultures and languages, combined with ancient myths. In 1964, Bobrowski became a member of the PEN Club.
In East Berlin in 1965, Brobowski died as a result of a perforated appendix. Since 1992, the Foundation for Prussian Maritime Trade (Stiftung Preußische Seehandlung) has donated funds towards the Johannes Brobowski Medal.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 19, 2023
Auf die Frage, warum die Deutschen von ihren östlichen Nachbarn
nichs wissen wollen, kann uns dieser Roman auch keine Antwort geben.
Er liefert uns nur einen weiteren Beweis.
nichs wissen wollen, kann uns dieser Roman auch keine Antwort geben.
Er liefert uns nur einen weiteren Beweis.
September 21, 2018
"There are people and people."
You know you've found something wonderful when there are exactly 0 reviews on Goodreads.
Seriously though, having discovered Bobrowski through his wonderful poetry and one of his other short novels and thus discovered that he is wonderful, I naturally moved on to this, one of the only other works of his in translation.
Bobrowski is one of those singular, peculiar writers, like Flann O'Brien or Meir Shalev, who are simply unclassifiable. They are nothing like anything else, which makes straightforward "reviewing" nigh impossible.
What could I say to make you read this? Tell you the plot? It's about a bastard asshole who sabotages his Jewish neighbor's mill and tries to set up a kind of 1870s German mini-nation in his village in what is now Poland. The style? No indentation, minimal punctuation, voices flood together.
It is so much more than the sum of its parts, though, however you want to pull that apart. Books like this shouldn't be pulled apart, though. They're books, not sausage links.
You know you've found something wonderful when there are exactly 0 reviews on Goodreads.
Seriously though, having discovered Bobrowski through his wonderful poetry and one of his other short novels and thus discovered that he is wonderful, I naturally moved on to this, one of the only other works of his in translation.
Bobrowski is one of those singular, peculiar writers, like Flann O'Brien or Meir Shalev, who are simply unclassifiable. They are nothing like anything else, which makes straightforward "reviewing" nigh impossible.
What could I say to make you read this? Tell you the plot? It's about a bastard asshole who sabotages his Jewish neighbor's mill and tries to set up a kind of 1870s German mini-nation in his village in what is now Poland. The style? No indentation, minimal punctuation, voices flood together.
It is so much more than the sum of its parts, though, however you want to pull that apart. Books like this shouldn't be pulled apart, though. They're books, not sausage links.
February 4, 2023
I read this about ten years ago and enjoyed it. As an American that has never been in this area, it's sort of hard to understand completely, but I got the gist of it.
I remember that a lot of people with German names were Polish and visa versa.
The relationship between the different ethnic groups was interesting. I bought surplus valves from gypsies for about ten years, so I had come to understand them a little. Their traveling circus plays a pretty big part in the book.
The Jew and Gentile dynamic is interesting too, and it's a shame that in a generation or two that this delicate balance was crushed. The author was a poet from East Germany that lived under Communism, so he knew about crushed cultures.
I think that his grandfather represented the traditionalist culture and Levin the up and coming business culture.
My Dads Mom came from western Lithuania in 1914 at age two and was absorbed into her new culture with little to no trace of the old country carried forward. I enjoyed getting a taste of this world in this book.
I remember that a lot of people with German names were Polish and visa versa.
The relationship between the different ethnic groups was interesting. I bought surplus valves from gypsies for about ten years, so I had come to understand them a little. Their traveling circus plays a pretty big part in the book.
The Jew and Gentile dynamic is interesting too, and it's a shame that in a generation or two that this delicate balance was crushed. The author was a poet from East Germany that lived under Communism, so he knew about crushed cultures.
I think that his grandfather represented the traditionalist culture and Levin the up and coming business culture.
My Dads Mom came from western Lithuania in 1914 at age two and was absorbed into her new culture with little to no trace of the old country carried forward. I enjoyed getting a taste of this world in this book.
September 14, 2021
It is about poland, couldn't understand some of the words about landscape and about Gypsies.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews