German Authors and Genres

Portraying the end of the world has always been a major theme in art and literature. The Swiss author Christoph Braendle, who lives in Vienna, picks up on it once again in his brilliant novel “Der Meermacher”, one of German-language literature’s most explosive works dealing with the global economic crisis.

The Beatles once sang “When the rain comes / they run and hide their heads”. That was still relatively harmless – but what if it just keeps on raining? “Who will stop the rain?” is the no longer quite so harmless title of an almost equally old song by one-time cult band Creedence Clearwater Revival.

The theme of rain that never stops was not invented by the Woodstock generation, of course. It is older – much older in fact. It is one of mankind’s great mythical stories, and thus a wide-ranging focus for art and literature. The topic, quite simply, is the end of the world, the apocalypse, aka the Flood or, as in the title of the Max Dauthendey (1893) and Alfred Kubin (1924) plays – which are hardly ever performed these days – “Sündflut” (i.e. The Flood).

The Flood and art

Even if one confines oneself to post-1945 German-language literature, there is a great deal to be found: Stefan Andres provided a literary setting for this huge Old Testament topic, as did Hugo Loetscher, Wolfdietrich Schnurre, Herbert Achternbusch, Urs Widmer, Günter Kunert and many other writers besides – and now Christoph Braendle, who was born in Switzerland in 1953 and since 1987 has lived mainly in Vienna, has done the same. He brought out, bang on time for the beginning of the global financial crisis, a novel whose central theme is its causes – and which consistently boils down to the Flood scenario.

According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, this most recent literary apocalypse, written in “timelessly floating prose”, actually appears quite “charming”; German weekly Die Zeit published an almost euphoric review. This Meermacher is quite clearly good literature, but has had little impact so far. Perhaps Braendle’s unusual, thrilling and brilliantly written book will only be properly discovered and appreciated once his prophecy comes true – but who will then be able to .... …?

The sea on one’s doorstep

“At that moment the first drops fell from the sky. The great rains started”. An entirely normal middle-aged married couple, not exactly aglow with happiness, sit in their detached home with the pretty name “Zur Augenweide” (i.e. a feast for the eyes). Gustav is thinking that there must be more to life than this house, this neighbourhood and perhaps even this marriage. If the planned holiday to the South Seas has to be cancelled because of Gerlinde’s ridiculous fear of flying and one is never going to be able to see the incredible coral reefs for oneself, one has no choice but to pursue one’s “thirst for the sea” in the “Postwirt” pub that is crammed full of aquariums. While enjoying several glasses of wine there, Gustav imagines in detail how the sea, which he has never seen and probably never will see, could be brought to him at home.

“What do you need the South Seas for?”, an aquarist in the pub asks him. “For me at least, spending an hour with the fish here at the ‘Postwirt’ is like a week’s holiday”. That’s the answer: first of all an aquarium, with ornamental fish! And thus the matter begins to take its quite unexpected course: step by step, Gustav becomes a Meermacher, a sea-maker: “When I want sea, I will not rest until I have sea, thought Gustav”.

Thoughtlessly into the brink

Jens Jessen, a literary critic for Die Zeit, was quite rightly impressed by the considerable artistic expertise and skill with which the author, following this fairly simple initial idea, unfolds “the entire panorama of thoughtlessness in our way of doing business”. Because now Gustav’s school friend André turns up, a successful businessman and project implementer of today (or perhaps already of yesterday?). “Anything is possible, he said; most importantly, Gustav’s sea brings prosperity to a community that as yet is still very sleepy”.

In short, André and his assistant, the attractive Frau Schneider, take charge of the matter, and what now happens “destroys in one fell swoop” all the good thoughts of the naive Gustav. For André always wanted to “have more”, and Gustav’s idea seems to him to be very much in keeping with current trends: “At this time many people still would not have the courage to proclaim out loud their dislike of this general obsession with all that is foreign, and many would not dare to do something more sensible with their time and, for example, stay at home”.

“The four horsemen of the Apocalypse are on their way”

Braendle’s exciting story takes a number of twists and turns, yet pursues an entirely logical course, unfolding in virtuoso style the aforementioned “panorama of thoughtlessness”. The vision of the sea on one’s doorstep is mercilessly made reality, with a whole host of nasty tricks, including the everyday brutality, so to speak, that an economic system that imposes virtually no limits on unadulterated greed for profit is capable.

“My dream, he thought, has become a nightmare.” While it continues to rain incessantly, the community is ruined step by step, and with it the pub and its awkward landlord who even has to pay for his resistance with his life. Yet the end of them all is no longer far off. “The four horsemen of the Apocalypse are on their way” is how a guest at the “Postwirt” sums up the situation. “All I can call it is arrogance, hubris, presumption. We always want more. We never have enough. So now we are getting our sea, but it is a lot more sea than we wanted.”

End of the world without an ark

Running away will no longer help, and nor will the ark, which comes into full literary play by the end – this catastrophe is irrevocably the last one. Gustav does indeed see the sea for the first time, which appears so calm and still “that it looked as if it were frozen”. Yet it is no longer an earthly sea “because two suns hung over the water”. Perhaps Franz Kafka had in mind a novel like Meermacher when he talked about a book being an axe for the frozen sea inside us? We do not know for sure, but it is certainly possible.