The Concept «War» at the H. Boell’s Novel “House without Guardians”

Abstract

This article deals with the cultural heritage of the famous German writer Heinrich Böll (Boell) (1917–1985), who represents a moral conception in literature. This article examines some specific issues of his creative work, based on the novel “House without Guardians”, which are related with the problems of the German people after the Second World War and of the modern world. It is so because human society is still suffering from wars, racial intolerance and the broken souls of people who have faced such conflicts. The postwar German literature was the starting point of a new era – a new turn, when the past couldn’t exist anymore, and something new should be created. The first step for literary inspiration was the newspaper “Der Ruf”, it was a magnet for the new generation of authors – pioneers, for example W. Borchert was published here, he spoke out as the new against-war-generation. Therefore, it was not a surprise that Heinrich Boell joined the magazine too, so he wished to be a part of that new Literature of the Ruins (Trümmerliteratur). The next landmark union was the Group 47, which gave a rise to many young, unknown authors, who supported the democratization of society and the creation of a literature free from the ideological influence of Nazism. The interest toward such an issue like the individual fault for the war was shown many writers (I. Bachmann, H. Grass, Z. Lenz, H. Richter, M. Walzer, etc.). Heinrich Boell was among them. His creative life was closely connected with the activity of the Group 47. The short story “Black Sheep” (Die schwarzen Schafe, 1951) “went public” during one of such meetings. The talented writer was rewarded and asked to join the organization without delay. In the 1950s, he wrote the novels “Der Zug war pünktlich” («The Train Was on Time»), “Wanderer, kommst du nach Spa...” (1950), “Wo warst du Adam?” (“And Where Were You, Adam?” 1951), “Und sagte kein einziges Wort”, (“And Never Said a Word” 1953), “Billard um halbzehn” (“Billiards at Half past Nine” 1959), in each of them one can find the author's concept of “futility”. According to him, the meaninglessness of war is measured by its destructive power and mass murder. The war can’t be a “noble mission” using the idea to «clean» the society from the evil ideologies. The war has no patriotism and faith. Boell had a strong interest to the psychology of the young people who were in the center of tragedy. They had a very unpleasant choice – to be cannon fodder or defectors. The writer brought up the wrong ideals situation. He spoke categorically about glorifing heroic deaths, calling them a fiction or a bargaining coin of the politicians. The writer's works were in opposition to the official optimistic ideology. Boell wanted to emphasize not only physical, but first of all the psychological scars of the survivors. His characters had no place in stable life of the present reality, all their thoughts were about the past. A bitter taste of their past was the guarantor of their humanity.