In Hans Fallada’s novel Kleiner Mann – was nun?, published by Rowohlt in 1932, the clerk Johannes Pinneberg loses his job. In Berlin, Jachmann, the lover of Pinneberg’s mother, gets him a position as a men’s clothing salesman in the Mandel department store. There a consultant introduces a compulsory sales quota. Pinneberg falls behind it, and a customer’s complaint is used as the reason to dismiss him.
literature
Everyone Sweep Before Their Own Door
Goethe wrote a short verse called Bürgerpflicht, civic duty. Ein jeder kehre vor seiner Tür. / Und rein ist jedes Stadtquartier. / Ein jeder übe sein’ Lektion, / So wird es gut im Rate stohn! Let everyone sweep before his own door, and every quarter of the town is clean. Let everyone practice his own lesson, and all will be well in the council. The first line became a common saying.
The Castle
In Franz Kafka’s novel Das Schloss, written in 1922 and published in 1926, two years after his death, the land surveyor K. arrives in a village below a castle. His appointment may go back to a letter that went astray years earlier. The villagers are supposed to bring their concerns to the castle, aber es wird nicht klar, wie dies zu erfolgen hat, da die Zuständigkeiten unbekannt sind, but it does not become clear how, because the responsibilities are unknown.
I Am This Nobody
In 1759 Gotthold Ephraim Lessing answered a claim that nobody would deny that the German stage owed much of its first improvement to Professor Johann Christoph Gottsched. In the 17th of his Briefe, die neueste Literatur betreffend, dated 16 February 1759, he wrote: Ich bin dieser Niemand; ich leugne es gerade zu. I am this nobody. I deny it outright. Es wäre zu wünschen, daß sich Herr Gottsched niemals mit dem Theater vermengt hätte. It would be desirable if Mr. Gottsched had never got involved with the theater.
Where Is the Positive, Mr. Kästner?
In September 1930 Erich Kästner published the poetry collection Ein Mann gibt Auskunft. One of its poems is titled Und wo bleibt das Positive, Herr Kästner?, and where is the positive, Mr. Kästner? It begins: Und immer wieder schickt ihr mir Briefe, in denen ihr, dick unterstrichen, schreibt: And again and again you send me letters in which you write, heavily underlined. The letters ask him for something positive. Teaching materials list the poem for pupils from grade 11.
Is One Lying in German When One Is Polite?
In the second part of Goethe’s Faust, published in 1832, Mephisto tells a former student: Du weißt wohl nicht, mein Freund, wie grob du bist? You do not seem to know, my friend, how rude you are. The young man, the Baccalaureus, answers: Im Deutschen lügt man, wenn man höflich ist. In German, one lies when one is polite. The line became a common quotation about German bluntness, but the scene mocks the arrogant young man who says it. In 1986 the linguist Harald Weinrich received the Konrad Duden Prize. His speech asked whether one lies in German when one is polite, and he argued that politeness is part of normal language use.
The Critic Who Refused the Prize
Marcel Reich-Ranicki hosted the television program Das Literarische Quartett from 1988 to 2001 and was known as the Literaturpapst, the pope of literature. On 11 October 2008 he was to receive the German Television Prize for his life’s work. On stage, he refused it. He cited the Blödsinn, den wir hier heute Abend zu sehen bekommen haben, the nonsense we have seen here this evening.
Enough Words
In the prelude to Goethe’s Faust, a theater director talks with his poet and his comic actor about the play they must put on. He cuts the discussion short. Der Worte sind genug gewechselt, / Laßt mich auch endlich Taten sehn! / Indes ihr Komplimente drechselt, / Kann etwas Nützliches geschehn. Enough words have been exchanged, let me at last see deeds! While you are turning compliments, something useful could be done. The first two lines are often quoted.
Late, But You Came
Friedrich Schiller’s play Die Piccolomini, first performed in Weimar on 30 January 1799, opens with a greeting. Spät kommt Ihr – Doch Ihr kommt! You come late, but you come! The line became a common German saying. It is said, half as a reproach and half as a welcome, to someone who arrives late.
Three Days, Until Sunset
In Friedrich Schiller’s ballad Die Bürgschaft, published in 1799, a man condemned to death asks the tyrant: Ich flehe dich um drei Tage Zeit, I beg you for three days’ time. His friend stays behind as a pledge and will die if he does not return. On the way back, floods and robbers hold him up. He keeps going, because the bloody tyrant must not be able to boast daß der Freund dem Freunde gebrochen die Pflicht, that the friend broke his duty to the friend. Und die Sonne geht unter, da steht er am Tor. And the sun is setting as he stands at the gate. Da bin ich, für den er gebürget! Here I am, the one he stood bail for! The tyrant concludes: Und die Treue, sie ist doch kein leerer Wahn. And loyalty is not an empty illusion after all.