Σλουμπ: Ιστορίες και περιπέτειες από τη ζωή του άγνωστου μουσκετοφόρου Εμιλ Σουλτς, όπως τις αφηγήθηκε ο ίδιος

by Hans Herbert Grimm, Κατερίνα Τζιναβά (translator)

Η πορεία ενός αγαθού έφηβου από τα μετόπισθεν στο πεδίο της μάχης, στη συνέχεια στο νοσοκομείο και ξανά στα μετόπισθεν. Ο Σλουμπ, που έλαβε κατά τύχη το γελοίο παρατσούκλι του από έναν αστυφύλακα, πορεύεται στον κόσμο του πολέμου όπως μέσα σ’ ένα όνειρο.
Αρχικά καλείται να διοικήσει μια περιφέρεια της γαλλικής επαρχίας και μετατρέπεται σε αντικείμενο ερωτικού πόθου των νεαρών γυναικών. Περνώντας από περιπέτεια σε περιπέτεια, αναγκάζεται να λάβει τις πλέον δίκαιες και συμβιβαστικές αποφάσεις για τα πιο επώδυνα ζητήματα. Όταν αργότερα μεταφέρεται στο πεδίο της μάχης και βρίσκεται μέσα στην κόλαση του πολέμου, μοιάζει να χάνει την πίστη του στην καλοσύνη του κόσμου, όμως παρ’ όλα αυτά διατηρεί την ανθρωπιά του. Η λήξη του πολέμου βρίσκει τη Γερμανία συντετριμμένη. Εντούτοις ο Σλουμπ διατηρεί το χιούμορ του και την αισιοδοξία του και πιστεύει με μια υπέροχη σιγουριά ότι, σε τελική ανάλυση, όλα θα πάνε καλά.

Genres: Fiction, German Literature, War, Classics, Germany, Historical Fiction, World War I

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1928

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ο πόλεμος είναι ένα στυγνό, κακό αστείο που αποκαλύπτει την αθλιότητα της ανθρωπότητας. Οι γερμανοί στρατιώτες του πρώτου παγκοσμίου πολέμου δεν είναι ηρωικοί, ο κάιζερ ήταν ένας δειλός που την έκανε νύχτα για την Ολλανδία, η γερμανική πολεμική στρατηγική γεμάτη λάθη. Και ο Χανς Χέρμπερτ Γκριμ, βετεράνος δύο παγκοσμίων, μας προσφέρει ένα βαθιά αντιπολεμικό έργο, ένα κρυμμένο διαμάντι που ανήκει στα λογοτεχνικά αριστουργήματα του 20ου αιώνα.

Το "Σλουμπ" είναι η προσωπική μαρτυρία του δημιουργού του, μια εκ των έσω ματιά στην ζωή του άσημου στρατιώτη που έζησε τον "Μεγάλο Πόλεμο" από την αρχή ως το τέλος. Είναι στιβαρό και πυκνογραμμένο χωρίς όμως να έχει κάποια ακαδημαϊκή αναλγησία που το κάνει στείρο. Δημιουργεί φοβερά έντονες εικόνες με έναν αφοπλιστικό τρόπο που δεν επιδέχεται αμφισβήτηση, ζωντανές και γεμάτες χρώματα, όσο οξύμωρο και αν ακούγεται. Απλά, τα χρώματα αυτά είναι μουντά και ζοφερά, χρώματα απελπισίας και θρήνου.

Βέβαια, απουσιάζει το μελόδραμα και οι φτηνοί συναισθηματισμοί, χαρακτηριστικό που το φέρνει πολύ μπροστά από την εποχή του - σχεδόν έναν αιώνα μπροστά (μιας και μόλις μετά το 1990-2000 η τέχνη άρχισε ενεργά να απομακρύνεται από τέτοιες φθηνές τακτικές μάρκετινγκ, παραμένοντας όμως στρατευμένη - βλέπε Γιος του Σαούλ). Το Σλουπ περιγράφει την σαπίλα του πολέμου όχι για να κουνήσει το δάχτυλο σε όσους δεν τον έζησαν και να τους δημιουργήσει τύψεις, αλλά γιατί απλά, έτσι ήταν. Παραμένει σε κάθε σελίδα αμερόληπτο και δεν παίρνει πολιτικές πλευρές, χωρίς όμως να γίνεται ισαποστάδικο. Απλά, περιγράφει την ζωή του "προλεταριάτου" της γερμανικής πολεμικής μηχανής, του πεζικάριου στρατιώτη ο οποίος δεν τάσσεται κάπου, απλά υπακούει.

Ο Πρωταγωνιστής, ένας αμούστακος δεκαεφτάχρονος Γερμανός ονόματι Εμίλ Σουλτς ή "Σλουμπ", ένα παιδί εύθυμο που μέσα στην πλάνη μεγαλείου δηλώνει το 1914 εθελοντής και κατατάσσεται, αγνοεί τις μηχανορραφίες του κόσμου. Είναι η χαρά της ζωής και ζει τον πόλεμο με τα σκαμπανεβάσματα του, περνώντας και από βυσματικές θέσεις και από τα χαρακώματα. Καταφέρνει να ερωτευτεί, να τραυματιστεί σχεδόν θανάσιμα (δις), να γλυτώσει, να γίνει μαυραγορίτης - ποτέ δεν κάνει τα στραβά μάτια στον ανθρώπινο πόνο, ακόμα και αν ήταν του εχθρού.

Αλλά πάνω απ'όλα, αυτό το φοβερό μικρό βιβλίο του Γκριμ, αυτός ο αντιπολεμικός ύμνος αποτελεί το μεγαλύτερο κωλοδάχτυλο σε κάθε πλανεμένο πολεμοχαρή επικίνδυνο μαλάκα που εύχεται πολέμους από τον καναπέ του σπιτιού του κάνοντας όνειρα "εσχάτων λύσεων".

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 3 out of 5]

The history of this novel is more fascinating than the novel itself—bricked into a wall by its author for fear of Nazi reprisals, the text was unearthed in the early 2010s and hurried back into print as a cult classic. The story itself is a toothless picaresque, a mix of happy-go-lucky war reportage, a gemütlich depiction of the soldier’s life with many kissing maidens and mess-hall brawls, fairly courageous at the time, tame in 2020. If we take the impeccable The Good Soldier Švejk as the standard-bearer against which all comical military romps are set (and we will, for that novel is a colossus), this is an anaemic, streptococcic cousin with rickets and bad shins. Written with a mass audience in mind in the manner of All Quiet on the Western Front, the prose is intentionally simple and likeable, like the froth on a cappuccino, though does depict the violence, horrors, and hypocrisies of war in its own humble way. A shame the author never completed the long-awaited sequel, The Sophomore Schlump.

[George K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Τρία χρόνια πέρασαν από τότε που το βιβλίο αυτό κυκλοφόρησε στα ελληνικά (καθώς επίσης και από τη μέρα που το αγόρασα), και επειδή είχα όρεξη να διαβάσω μια ιστορία που να διαδραματίζεται στον Α' Π.Π., διάλεξα το συγκεκριμένο που είναι από τα πιο κλασικά του είδους, αν και μάλλον κάπως παραγνωρισμένο. Λοιπόν, πρόκειται για ένα απολαυστικό μυθιστόρημα, ή τουλάχιστον όσο απολαυστικό μπορεί να είναι ένα μυθιστόρημα που έχει να κάνει με τον πόλεμο. Οι αναγνώστες γίνονται μάρτυρες διαφόρων τραγελαφικών καταστάσεων με πρωταγωνιστή έναν έφηβο Γερμανό στρατιώτη, τον Σλουμπ, που από τα μετόπισθεν πάει στα πεδία της μάχης, μετά στο νοσοκομείο και μετά ξανά στα μετόπισθεν, φτάνοντας πολλές φορές κοντά στον θάνατο, γνωρίζοντας ένα κάρο περίεργους τύπους (αλλά και κάμποσα όμορφα κορίτσια!) και κάνοντας διάφορες μικρές βρωμοδουλειές, μάλλον απαραίτητες για την αξιοπρεπή επιβίωσή του. Το βιβλίο γράφτηκε πριν από ενενήντα και πλέον χρόνια, όμως αποπνέει μια... φρεσκαδούρα, διαβάζεται ευχάριστα από την αρχή μέχρι το τέλος, και είναι γεμάτο χιούμορ και ζωντανές περιγραφές. Τολμώ να πω ότι η γραφή του δεν δείχνει καθόλου τα χρόνια της! Από κει και πέρα, κάποια πράγματα μπορεί να φανούν υπερβολικά (π.χ. η ευκολία με την οποία ο άβγαλτος Σλουμπ "έριξε" τόσες κοπέλες), ενώ όσοι θέλουν να διαβάσουν μια ωμή ιστορία που να αναδεικνύει τον τρόμο και το σοκ που προκάλεσε ο Α' Π.Π., δύσκολα θα βρουν κάτι τέτοιο σ'αυτό το βιβλίο. Όμως δεν το συζητάω, πρόκειται για ένα πραγματικά πολύ ωραίο και καλογραμμένο (αντί)πολεμικό μυθιστόρημα.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

I might have liked this even more if I hadn't already read twenty or so books about life in the trenches in World War I, about the senselessness of war. But I liked Schlump, the novel and the character, a seventeen year-old who grows up quickly. It's just . . . it's just . . . Schlump was no Švejk .

Humming along, though, I did a double-take when I came upon this passage, spoken by a dick of a character, the philosopher Gack: after the war there will be a great united Europe in which the soul of every people will be free to unfold itself. Its leader will be a man with a superhuman soul, a man from our nation, which has suffered more than any other. Written in 1928, and perhaps meant to be farcical, that nevertheless was certainly prescient.

[José · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un libro que estuvo entre las hogueras nazis. Es un alegato antibelicista y se critica el patriotismo exacerbado.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Schlump – A Book that will always Burn

Schlump when published back in 1928 had to compete with another book which would steal away the limelight that should have been shone on to this book. All Quiet on the Western Front which was published at the same time went from strength to strength and Schlump was slowly forgotten. Well not completely forgotten the Nazis had not forgotten this anti-war book and promptly burnt it in 1933.

When Hans Herbert Grimm wrote Schlump it was published anonymously and this was his first and last ever novel. What he did leave us after his death in 1950 is a book that is ultimately a thoroughly unconventional novel on the First World War that mixes the best of fiction writing with part documentary of those times in Germany and at the front. What Grimm leaves us is a book that is completely non-nationalistic, astute, and accurate about the leadership and quite Francophile, everything the Nazis would dislike about the book.

What I enjoy about this book is that Grimm is encouraging the reader to underestimate the novel and that is partly down to the way he has written the book. Schlump stands out against other war novels both pro and anti that were written at the same time in that at times it comes across of somewhat of a fairy tale with heavy emphasis on the truth about the war.

For those that think there would be too much blood and gore all over the book will be disappointed in that the war does explode before our very eyes, but the descriptions and the depictions of the war and its horrors does not run over too many pages. The war is happening around Schlump and it is mentioned but the characters of the German Army come to a fore.

It is easy to see why the Nazi censors would take against this book in that for a start it did not suit their narrative of being stabbed in the back by a Jewish leadership. Through Schlump, Grimm describes the German soldiers of the war as less than heroic, the military strategy as senseless, foolish and completely misguided, and the Kaiser of a coward who runs away in defeat. Grimm uses Schlump to describe the war as very cruel very poor joke in which all suffered no glory in this war for all.

His descriptions of the officers not being leaders of men who kept themselves better fed and well away from the front lines and ask did you ever see an officer eat out of a mess tin? A question which men of that era were asking on both sides. The one occurring theme throughout the novel is ‘Only the fools end up in the trenches, or those who’ve been in trouble.’ Schlump then goes on to describe life behind the lines and one can clearly see the difference.

This Schlump is a wonderful novel that deserves its day in the sun and ought to be more widely read as it also adds to the First World War canon of literature and looks at the war from a different perspective. A wonderful erudite book, short, sweet and delivers its own knockout punch against war.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 5 out of 5]

Certainly one of the best novels about World War I from the German perspective you'll find out there. Written and published anonymously, some major cultural coup found the novel rediscovered after decades and Grimm identified as the author, and thank fate! "Schlump" is, I assume, a semi-autobiographical tale of a young German sent to France during WWI where he administers little French communes, gets sent to the trenches, works as a postal censor, and generally fucks off the entire war as much as he can, falling in love with and screwing every French and German girl he meets. Picklely, this unprickly licentiousness basically can sum up the whole novel: war sucks and let's all fall in love and fuck in hay lofts? Along the way we can run schemes with war materiel and dodge every possible responsibility we can! Sort of a more fucky, whimsical, truncation-less "Johnny Got His Gun" in that it is also a superlative anti-war novel.

[Siv30 · Rating 4 out of 5]

לסקירה בעברית -

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[Maricruz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yo conocía ya al soldado Švejk, pero no tenía idea de que además existía un soldado Schlump. No me sorprendería nada descubrir que la literatura europea de entreguerras está llena de soldados con apellidos que parecen onomatopeyas, todos con historias profundamente antibelicistas.

El prólogo a esta novela, escrito por el crítico Volker Weidermann, me hizo esperar una historia ligeramente distinta, algo más humorística (o quizás estaba yo esperando otro soldado Švejk pero en versión teutona, vaya tontería). En todo caso, sitúa muy bien en su contexto la figura de su autor, Hans Herbert Grimm. Grimm tuvo la desgracia de ser una de esas personas que solo intentan sobrevivir como puedan y a quienes, al final, la Historia acaba pasándoles por encima. En el caso concreto de Grimm, dos veces, una de ida y otra de vuelta, y la última resultó fatal.

La historia en sí de Schlump, que tiene cierto carácter autobiográfico, comienza de una manera bastante jocosa para al poco tiempo helarte la sangre con toda la brutalidad de la Primera Guerra Mundial y las condiciones inhumanas en que vivían los soldados de las trincheras, zombis desnutridos y deprivados de sueño. Es sin duda la parte más interesante, junto con la visión que ofrece de los períodos de calma lejos del frente, los intentos de la población civil por seguir con su vida o el modo en que las guerras, al final, no son sino una versión más descarnada de una desigualdad de clases donde lo peor siempre recae en los mismos. Luego hay numerosos fragmentos dedicados a los idilios de Schlump pichabrava, así como los lances amorosos de otros personajes, muy del tipo «Era rubia y encantadora, la amaba con toda mi alma, la dejé preñada, ¡no volveré a verte nunca más, amada mía!», que en mi opinión son lo más rollo de la novela.

Otra de las desgracias de Hans Herbert Grimm fue que publicó Schlump no mucho antes de que saliera Sin novedad en el frente de Erich Maria Remarque, con lo que el éxito demencial que esta novela tuvo obliteró cualquier interés del público alemán por el libro de Grimm. Y mira que este tenía ganas de obtener aunque fuera un poquito de notoriedad como escritor. Yo no he leído lo de Remarque con lo que no puedo hacer comparaciones, pero creo que merece la pena leer Historia y desventuras del desconocido soldado Schlump. Aunque solo sea por hacerle un poco de justicia póstuma a su autor.

[Calzean · Rating 3 out of 5]

In its time it might have been quite sacrilegious showing that not all German soldiers were strong and brave, Generals were rarely seen and their tactics poor, there was a lot of malingering, war was hell and the damage to men indescribable.
The book does describe life behind the lines, the starvation of the German nation, and how survival was all about luck.
The writing was supposedly black humour but it is full of Dad jokes, poor one-liners and stuttering prose.

[Aggeliki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ο Σλουμπ μου έκανε παρέα σε μια δύσκολη περίοδο όπου θα ήθελα περισσότερη αισιοδοξία. Παρόλα αυτά αποδείχθηκε ένα βιβλίο που μου έδειξε τον Α Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο μέσα από μια διαφορετική ματιά. Λίγο πιο αφελή, πιο ονειρική και σαφώς πιο ιδεαλιστική. Δεν πρόκειται για ένα αμιγώς ιστορικό βιβλίο, καθώς όλα τα γεγονότα παρουσιάζονται από μια τελείως αλλιώτικη προοπτική από όσες έχουμε συνηθίσει όταν το θέμα μας είναι ο πόλεμος. Ναι, είναι ένα ουσιαστικά αντιπολεμικό βιβλίο γεμάτο αντι-ήρωες που σε καμία περίπτωση δεν αντλούν χαρά από το παράλογο του πολέμου.
Εκδόθηκε με ανώνυμο συγγραφέα καθότι ο Grimm φοβόταν ότι θα χάσει τη δουλειά του και νομίζω ότι δεν αναγνωρίστηκε ως πολεμικό ή αντιπολεμικό έργο ακριβώς λόγω αυτού. Σε οποιαδήποτε περίπτωση, ο Σλουμπ περιγράφει την πορεία του από το ιδεαλιστικό σκεπτικό του που δικαιολογεί την επιθυμία του να γίνει εθελοντής στρατιώτης ως τα περίεργα που βίωσε μέχρι να φτάσει στο πεδίο της μάχης. Η φρικαλεότητα που έτσι κι αλλιώς γεννάει ο πόλεμος μετριάζεται κάπως στις περιγραφές του αφού ο Grimm μου δίνει την εντύπωση ότι δεν έγραψε αυτό το βιβλίο για να σοκάρει και να εγείρει τον τρόμο που συνεπάγεται του πολέμου αλλά περισσότερο για να μας δώσει μια εξιστόρηση του πώς έζησε τον πόλεμο ο Σλουμπ και οι όμοιοί του.

[Jerome · Rating 5 out of 5]

Schlump ist der Spitzname eines deutschen Soldaten an der Westfront des 1. Weltkriegs. Wahrscheinlich mit starken autobiografischen Elementen beschreibt Hans Herbert Grimm seinen Weg als junger Kriegsfreiwilliger, über ein französisches Dorf im Hinterland der Front bis in die vordersten Schützengräben und wieder zurück. Das Thema interessiert mich eh total, und ist einer der Gründe warum ich bis heute "Im Westen nichts Neues" von Erich Maria Remarque als eins meiner Lieblingsbücher halte - aber Schlump ist mindestens genauso gut.

Viele kleine Episoden beschreiben seine Erlebnisse im Krieg, und oft haben sie wenig mit Krieg zu tun. Es geht um Mädchen in französischen Dörfern, Verwaltungsaufgaben die er durchführen muss und Streit mit seinen Kameraden. Die Ausführungen über tatsächliche Kriegshandlungen im Schützengraben sind nur im Mittelteil des Buches prominent, aber da extrem gut beschrieben. Generell hat mich die Sprache total überzeugt, die grausamen Momente in denen Schlump mit seiner jugendlichen Naivität irgendwie doch noch was positives sieht sind wirklich toll dargestellt. Das ganze kann auch ziemlich metaphorisch werden, vor allem wenns um Frauen geht die er kennenlernt - kann jeden verstehen dem es dann zuviel wird aber mir hat es sprachlich sehr gefallen, auch wenn die Beschreibungen der Frauen manchmal etwas zu detailliert sind.

Als kleiner Fun Fact am Rande ist gut zu wissen das das Manuskript jahrzehntelang versteckt und anonymisiert war, weil Grimm Angst vor Repressalien in der Weimarere Republik und im Nationalsozialismus hatte. Schlump ist dementsprechend auch ein klarer Antikriegsroman, in dem deutsche Soldaten alles andere als heldenhaft beschrieben werden und der Krieg in seiner bitteren Grausamkeit geschildert wird. Kombiniert mit der illustren Sprache hat mir das richtig gut gefallen - und da meine Mutuals hier ja alle "Im Westen nichts Neues" mochten gibts hier ne klare Leseempfehlung.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Schlump is a WWI novel, kind of a cross between All Quiet on the Western Front and The Good Soldier Švejk. Horrific battle scenes alternate with some very funny picaresque tales. Grimm, can go from the poetic, like this description of autumn:

"Summer was long past, and autumn too. It was that time of year when you couldn’t tell if winter had arrived yet. At times a humid wind rustled the treetops, the bushes dripped with the perpetual fog, door handles were wet, and thick drops of water fell incessantly from gutters on to the street."

To the horrific, as in this scene from the trenches:

"Schlump pictured himself back in the trenches, surrounded by dead soldiers in pools of their own blood. Lying on their stomachs, they turned their heads to look at him. As he fled, he came across ever more green faces staring into his eyes. He had to stumble over horrifically mutilated bodies, and everywhere before him the ground crumbled away, exposing mass graves where men rotted and decayed in their thousands. He waded through these bodies, some of which were still moving, having been buried alive. Worms crawled out of others and up his boots. Dying men staggered towards him with terrible injuries and lay down at his feet."

Very readable, very enjoyable, and a fantastic story of trench warfare and all the insanity of WWI. Highly recommended, and a book deserving to be read and known.

[James Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schlump is more than anti-war novel. It makes the charge, startling for the time of its publication, that despite the sacrifices made at the front and at home the German effort during the Great War was characterized by a misguided strategy and fought by soldiers who were not only poorly led but were less than heroic themselves. Finally, it implied the Kaiser was a coward. Published at about the same time as Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, another anti-war novel, Schlump never caught on while Remarque's novel was a phenomenal success.

Much of the 2d half of the novel is made up of several long stories by other soldiers Schlump the protagonist meets. It's like Grimm tries to capture the brutality and suffering of the war--hardships at home as well as in the trenches--through a variety of experiences which reflect all experience. At times I thought it approached polemic. On p240 is perhaps the main theme expressed by Schlump: "This entire war is nothing but the cruellest, vilest slaughter, and if mankind can put up with such an atrocity for years, or stand by and look on, well, it deserves nothing but contempt. But he who fashioned mankind, he ought to be thoroughly ashamed of himself, for his creation is an utter disgrace!" This is counterpointed by the view of his captain, a kind of ur-Nazi who predicts their suffering will ensure that a leader with a "superhuman soul" will arise to lead Germany in uniting Europe in distinction and glory, prefiguring the political atmosphere between the wars.

The cover blurb of my edition suggests that Schlump, the young soldier whose story this is, is "maybe even a new type of man." To me he's as old as fiction itself--though I'd first seen him as a kind of blundering sad sack, I came to think of him as a Sancho Panza without a Don Quixote. He's an optimist, a man who has a native intelligence backed by resolve and resourcefulness and a belief in the basic good of humanity. The trouble is I grew tired of Schlump before the end. Sure he possesses all the practicality of Sancho Panza, but in the end he's innocent (in fact, the "Afterword" by Volker Weidermann calls the novel a fairy tale), and innocence isn't always interesting.

[Peyton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The prosperity or despair of a nation depends on the moral conduct of its leaders.

Schlump is a little-known German WW1 novel that was banned and burned for its anti-war message. Schlump was intended to appeal to the general public, but experienced little success before the author hid it away. The titular main character is an idealistic seventeen-year-old from a German tailor family, who volunteers to join the army and initially has an administrative role overseeing poor French farmers who are being forced to work for the German cause. After a few months, he transferred to infantry and sent to the Western front. About halfway through the book, a serious shoulder injury leaves Schlump lying on a battlefield for days with no clean water. The second half of the book details his long recovery from surgery in a series of military hospitals, and it is left ambiguous at the end whether Schlump will regain the use of his arm or if the partial paralysis is permanent.

The author, Hans Herbert Grimm, frequently uses what could be described as an ambivalent dark humour to explore different attitudes towards war. In one memorable scene, Schlump is on the toilet in the latrine, simultaneously trying to delouse his shirt and helmet. He hears a shell heading for the latrine and jumps out shirtless, helmet-less and with his pants down and is knocked unconscious, presumably by a piece of the latrine structure hitting him on the head when it explodes. This book also contains a scene of literal bootlicking (though in this instance, the person doing the licking was the aggressor). Grimm leaves it up to the reader whether we laugh and turn the page uncritically or recognize the grim reality in these moments.

The writing in this novel has a couple of noticeable flaws. Firstly, the staggering number of one night stands in this novel was quite improbable. I understand that few healthy young men were around to be had during the war and so multiple women would often chase after the same man, but come on. I also found the translation quality lacking at times. Several sentences were incongruously ambiguous in their meaning in a way that I assume the original was not, and there is a surprising dearth of profanity given the historical context. A future translation could easily address these issues.

Volker Wiedermann’s afterword to this edition of Schlump includes both biographical details about Hans Herbert Grimm’s life and analysis of their relevance to the novel. Grimm was a philosopher by trade. He published Schlump anonymously following his military service in WW1. Grimm later joined the Nazi Party despite his strong anti-war views, which Wiedermann argues was a way for Grimm to hide in plain sight. Following the fall of the Third Reich and the formation of the GDR, Grimm was interrogated by the Stasi, and then immediately took his own life. This afterword provides notable context to Schlump as a character and novel. For example, Schlump witnesses two separate suicides, a topic that is always discomfiting to encounter in fiction when one knows that the author later met the same fate.

Wiedermann argues that the most socially transgressive aspect of Schlump, the core reason that the Nazis burned it, was Grimm’s attribution of the heroism of soldiers not to collective military success, but to their ability to survive trauma as individuals. This, far more than the impartial depiction of draft dodging or the unflattering portrayal of officers, challenged the underlying logic of the war itself. Schlump is not inoffensive, and one cannot ignore the glaring fact that the main character believes that the deaths he witnesses are tragic because they are of Germans specifically and not because they are of human beings period. Nevertheless, Schlump provides a fascinating glimpse into the mindset of German WW1 veterans who returned home with a staunchly anti-war outlook. Overall, a bold, troubling, and deeply sad novel.

Side note: I really like the artwork on the cover of this paperback edition. It fits the tone of Schlump perfectly.

[Henry Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

An anti-war book that avoids the hyperbolic and remains grounded. A great read for anyone but especially those who know little about the First World War.

[Joel Pinckney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some books captivate you as much for the story of their creation as the content between their covers. Hans Herbert Grimm’s Schlump is one of those books. Published anonymously in Germany in 1928, Grimm’s anti-war novel was overshadowed by another of the anti-war genre, Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, published around the same time. Schlump never got the attention it deserved. That didn’t keep the Nazis from noticing it, however, and in 1933, copies of the book were burned throughout Germany, along with other texts by “un-German authors.”

Grimm’s personal history is complicated and tragic. Despite Schlump and other evidence that suggests he was anything but an impassioned Nazi, He joined the Nazi party in the ‘30s. Volker Weidermann, who wrote the afterword to New York Review Books’ republished version of the book, believes Grimm did this so that he could “stay in his beloved Altenburg and keep teaching for as long as possible … in safety.” As copies of the book few knew he had written were burned across Germany, Grimm, now a member of the Nazi party burning his book, hid copies in the walls of his home. After the war, though Grimm revealed his authorship of the novel and others vehemently defended him and argued that he “cannot be regarded as a Nazi,” Grimm was not allowed to teach again because of his membership in the party. That blow seems to have hit him hard. After a meeting with the SED (Socialist Unity Party) in 1950, a meeting the contents of which no one knows, Grimm seems to have regarded himself as condemned. He killed himself two days later in his beloved home in Altenburg.

The novel itself is quirky, filled with whimsical tales of the life Schlump lives during the war years, events which make the brief scenes of trench warfare all the more jarring. Schlump is, at one point, a kind and companionable administrator of three picturesque French villages; at another, he works in a postal censor’s office in Bohain with a Corporal Jolles, a period in Schlump’s life filled, due to Jolles’s connections, with leisure and all the best food—“The arrangement was perfect; the war could go on for as long as it liked.” Throughout the text are tales of the women Schlump meets, surprisingly tender relationships that feel more intimate than the tales of wartime liaisons often told.

The echoes of the war are always there, however. During Schlump’s time in Bohain, as Schlump and Jolles lead their “easy and comfortable existence,” the war will not leave them alone. “In fine weather they could hear the rumble of cannon from the Front in the west, a reminder that every day thousands of young men were losing their lives in the most grisly ways. You had to train yourself to banish such thoughts.” By this time in the novel, Schlump has already had his experience of the trenches. The reader is not privy to the psychological damage that has been inflicted upon him, however; that’s not what Grimm is up to.

Instead, Grimm’s work moves through the greatly varied experiences of its protagonist almost emotionlessly. Schlump becomes a canvas upon which the story of the war can be painted, in all its strange and tragic happenings. It is to him that a number of German soldiers tell their stories. Each of these stories last several pages in length, and taken together, provide their own fascinating look into what it was to be a German soldier in the First World War. Schlump almost never comments on these stories or responds when he hears them; he is merely the recipient, the eyes and ears that Grimm uses to tell the story of a foolish and gruesome war. It is a book worth reading, a story that tells, in its own way, of the disordering and the sorrow of war, in any time and place.

[Dimitri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een schelmenroman in de lijn van "De lotgevallen van de brave soldaat Švejk". Hij biedt een levendige kijk op het dagelijks leven in de rangen van het Duitse leger, maar vooral in het achterland. De verschrikkingen van de loopgraven komen veel minder naar voor dan bij Remarque - wat volgens mij het verschil in commercieel succes destijds verklaart.

[D'Ailleurs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Όπως και το "Ουδέν νεώτερον από το δυτικό μέτωπο" έτσι και το "Σλούμπ" περιγράφει με απλά λόγια το χάος του πολέμου, χωρίς φτηνούς μελοδραματισμούς ή γλαφυρές λογοτεχνικές περιγραφές. Αντίθετα έχει μια νότα αισιοδοξίας, όπως πρέπει να έχει κάθε τέτοιο βιβλίο και λίγο χιούμορ. Πολύ όμορφο ανάγνωσμα και αρκετά καλή έκδοση.

[Andrew Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The novel was published anonymously in 1928. Her author, Hans Herbert Grimm, worked as a schoolmaster in Altenburg in Thuringia, creates a young man Schlump, who volunteers in the First World War and describes his experiences both at the front and at his administrative roles both in France and Germany. The book has been declared unGerman by the Nazis and burnt. They did not know the real author and Grimm continued in his teaching profession. During the war he worked as a French translator and and returned to Altenburg after the war. Despite the fact that he was revealed the author of the book and people certifying his enmity towards Nazi ideology, he was prevented from resuming his work as a teacher. He was allowed to work as a dramaturg. After eighteen months the theatre was closed and Grimm was forced to work in a sand mine. In summer 1950, Grimm was summoned by the authorities of the newly established GDR. A few days after his return he killed himself. He never told anyone what was discussed at his meeting. One can hope a researcher one day will analyse Stasi files and the truth will be told.

The short novel, about 260 pages, is a satire of the war, showing its uselessness and suffering of innocent victims drawn to it by chance or fate. The book is divided into three parts. In the first, seventeen years old Schlump volunteers to participate in the war. Due to his knowledge of French he becomes an administrator of a few French villages and is responsible for organising French labour, used by the occupiers. This unfortunately finishes and in the second part Schlump is sent to a front line, where he experiences futility of war,the soldiers forced to fight and die in an uncomprehended filth and without any decency. The innocent civilians are blown to smithereens in the continuous artillery barrage. Having been injured, he ends up in a hospital and after long convalescence sent to work in a military currency exchange office in Maubeuge. After while he finds most of his co-workers engaged in making money on side and gets himself involved in black market. He looses it all when the war is lost and en-masse deserting soldiers return to Germany.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, another semi-random pickup, came with such a fascinating backstory I couldn't resist it when I picked it off the shelf.

The tale is of Schlump, a young German rapscallion with an eye for the frauleins, who goes naively off to World War One in the hopes of getting in a little snogging. He encounters some of that, and horror, as he endures injury and starvation and the blind incompetence of the German war effort.

The book, published to only modest acclaim in 1928, was enough to get the author in hot water with those who wanted to believe Germany could do no wrong. It meant a lifetime of despair and oppression for Hans Herbert Grimm, first at the hands of the Nazis, and then at the hands of East German Communists, who for some reason saw it as decadent literature. So, oppression, despair, and ultimately death. Just what every author hopes a book will yield when they get it published.

It's a fascinating, earthy, sometimes frustratingly meandering book, as one minor character after another leads us on an excursus. Still, Grimm's tale is oddly hopeful even in the face of horror, as Schlump endures what so many young men of that era endured.

Good to remember, now that war again burns across Europe, and I'm glad I read it.

[Moshe · Rating 4 out of 5]

ביוגרפיה של חיל. של כל חיל באשר הוא!

הסיפור אומנם מסופר מנקודת מבטו של שלומפ, אך בקלות אפשר לייחס אותו לכל
אחד מהחיילים המתגייסים - איש, איש באמונתו, מחשבתו ודרך חינוכו -במחשבה
שהוא בא בשליחות משמעותית במטרה להגן על האומה שממנה. אם אפשר שזה
יעבור בקלות ובמהירות.

בתחילה, אכן, הדברים מתרחשים פחות או יותר בהתאם לציפיות. אך, במהרה,
גיבורנו, לומד על בשרו שהדבר אינו פשוט כפי שחשב שיהיה. לא כל שכן,
כשהחלטה אינה עוד נמצאת אצלו - מעכשיו הוא שייך לצבא (למדינה) והאחראים
הם שיחליטו מה יהיה גורלו. גם כשהוא חצי שבר כלי.

לאורך הספר, בין רגעי שמחה קטנים, גיבורנו חווה תלאות וזעזוע שיטלטל את עולמו
מצד לצד. ובכל זאת, נדמה, שהוא חסין להם.

[am]

Je me suis tellement ennuyée que j'ai fini par lire ce livre en diagonale. Je n'aime pas faire ça mais je n'en voyais pas le bout. Je voulais vraiment l'apprécier, surtout que c'est une période qui m'intéresse. Raté. Le personnage de Schlump est détestable. Bref, j'ai vraiment essayé mais ce livre n'est pas pour moi.

[Gkats5513 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a "sweet tooth" for WWI novels and German literature of the Interwar period — the fact I enjoyed reading "Schlump" was no surprise. Published in the same year as "All Quiet On The Western Front" of Erich Maria Remarque, "Schlump" is more optimistic and humorous. Make no mistake, it has its (very) dark moments and makes little effort to mask the atrocities of the trenches and constant artillery fire, but they are not a big part of the story since the protagonist was lucky enough to spend most of the war away from the frontlines. The best part of "Schlump" is the large number of minor, colorful characters and the feeling you never know what comes next. The uncertainty that comes with long-lasting war is present without major and unrealistic plot twists. Emil, the protagonist, is a common man who survives by doing what needs to be done, without ever investing his soul or becoming too involved. He remains hopeful and apathetic at the same time towards the future. That was his way to keep the war from breaking him, but not from changing him.

[Owlseyes]

http://visao.sapo.pt/actualidade/cult...

[Homunculus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolut zu Unrecht in Vergessenheit geratener Klassiker der erste (Anti)Weltkriegsliteratur.
Auch das Nachwort von Volker Weidemann rückt das Buch noch einmal in das richtige Licht.

[Nourhan Jamal · Rating 5 out of 5]

'He was filled with a wonderful sense of bliss, delightfully certain that everything would turn out all right in the end.’

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

comfort book

[JacquiWine · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1928, German schoolmaster Hans Herbert Grimm anonymously published his first and only book, the semi-autobiographical anti-war novel, Schlump. Despite its obvious literary merits, Schlump was somewhat overshadowed at the time by the success of another WW1 novel, Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front (somewhat ironically, the two books were issued within weeks of each other). In the early 1930s, Schlump was burned by the Nazis. In an effort to keep his authorship of the book a secret, Grimm concealed the original manuscript of Schlump in the wall of his house in Germany where it remained until its discovery in 2013. Now, thanks to the efforts of Vintage Books, NYRB Classics and the translator Jamie Bulloch, a whole new generation of readers can experience this rediscovered classic for themselves.

The novel itself focuses on the wartime experiences of Emil Schulz (known to all as ‘Schlump’), a bright and eager young man who volunteers for the German infantry on his seventeenth birthday. In August 1915, Schlump sets off for the barracks in readiness for the adventures ahead. Perhaps like many other young men at that time, he has a rather romanticised vision of life as a soldier, a view which is typified by the following passage.

He could picture himself in a field-grey uniform, the girls eyeing him up and offering him cigarettes. Then he would go to war. He pictured the sun shining, the grey uniforms charging, one man falling the others surging forward further with their cries and cheers, and pair after pair of red trousers vanishing beneath green hedges. In the evenings the soldiers would sit around a campfire and chat about life at home. One would sing a melancholy song. Out in the darkness the double sentries would stand at their posts, leaning on the muzzles of their rifles, dreaming of home and being reunited with loved ones. In the morning they’d break camp and march singing into battle, where some would fall and others be wounded. Eventually the war would be won and they’d return home victorious. Girls would throw flowers from windows and the celebrations would never end. (pp. 6-7)

As luck would have it, Schlump’s first experience of war turns out to be a fairly gentle one. Armed with his school-leaver’s certificate and a grasp of the local language, Schlump is posted to Loffrande in France where he is put in charge of the administration of three villages, a task he soon gets to grips with, overseeing the work of the villagers and intervening in various matters in need of his attention. A good man at heart, Schlump gets on well with the locals, especially the rather high-spirited young girls who see to it that he is not short of female companionship.

Everything is relatively peaceful here in the countryside, so much so that it would be relatively easy for our protagonist to forget his true status as a soldier were it not for the faint rumble of cannons in the background. Sadly though, all good things must come to an end, and after a season in Loffrande, Schlump hears that he is to be sent to the Front. Somewhat understandably, he feels a mixture of anger and disappointment; in some ways, it is almost like leaving home for a second time. As a sergeant from the service corps says before Schlump departs for the battlefield, ‘Only fools end up in the trenches, or those who’ve been in trouble.’

You can read the rest of my review here:

https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2016...

[Philippe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schlump werd in 1928, bijna op hetzelfde moment als Remarques Im Westen Nichts Neues gepubliceerd door de prestigieuze uitgeverij Kurt Wolff. Het was een debuutroman van een leraar, Hans Herbert Grimm, die als jonge man de Eerste Wereldoorlog meemaakte en er levend maar gedesillusioneerd uit terugkeerde. De titel van het boek was voluit Schlump. Geschichten und Abenteuer aus dem Leben des unbekannten Musketiers Emil Schulz, genannt 'Schlump', von ihm selbst erzählt en Grimm ondertekende het ook met het pseudoniem Schlump. Het boek kende een matig succes maar viel vijf jaar ten prooi aan de nazi boekverbrandingen. Grimm voelde zich bedreigd, werd lid van de NSDAP, metselde het boek in en claimde pas na de Tweede Wereldoorlog het auteurschap. In 1950 beroofde hij zich van het leven. De situatie in de DDR scheen hem uitzichtloos toe. In 2008 publiceerde Volker Weidermann het Buch der verbrannten Bücher waarin Grimms boek werd besproken. Stiefdochter Christa Grimm nam vervolgens contact op met Weidermann en uiteindelijk werd het boek in 2014 in Duitsland opnieuw uitgegeven. De Nederlandse vertaling volgde dan snel.

Een boek met een grillige en grimmige levensloop. Maar is het een heruitgave waard? Dat is het zeker. Schlump is een eigenzinnige anti-oorlogsroman. De 'held' is een jongen van 16, een 'reiner Tor' die zich vrijwillig voor de dienst meldt en de hele oorlog meemaakt, daarbij meermaals wordt verwond en zich in een eindfase uiteindelijk in veiligheid weet te stellen in de 'etappedienst' ver achter de frontlinie. Het verhaal heeft deels het karakter van een burleske en deels van een apocalyps. Grimm heeft die twee aspecten zonder stijlbreuk met elkaar weten te verbinden. Het resultaat is een beklijvende parabel waarin bitterheid en mededogen naadloos in elkaar opgaan.

Ik voeg er nog aan toe dat de Nederlandse vertaling heel verzorgd is en, net zoals de nieuwe Duitse uitgave, de gestileerde cover overneemt van het oorspronkelijke boek.