Der Jaeger und sein Meister

St. Pauli Trilogie #2

by Rocko Schamoni

Nach "Große Freiheit" taucht Rocko Schamoni erneut ein in die brodelnde Szene der sechziger und siebziger Jahre in Hamburg, wo jenseits der bürgerlichen moralischen Vorstellungen ein freies, ungezügeltes Leben gefeiert wird. Im Zentrum steht die Freundschaft von Joska Pintschovius zu Heino Jaeger, einem hochbegabten Künstler, Stimmenimitator und Satiriker, der kultisch als "Meister" verehrt wird. Und am Ende an seiner seelischen Durchlässigkeit verglühen wird. Die Verbindung aus Genialität und Wahnsinn fasziniert den Erzähler und Chronisten Schamoni, der sich in der Ergründung dieses Lebens persönlicher und verletzlicher zeigt als je zuvor.

Genres: Roman

282 pages, Hardcover

Published August 23, 2021

About the author

Rocko Schamoni, real name is Tobias Albrecht, is a German entertainer, author, musician, club proprietor and member of the comedy ensemble Studio Braun.

Reviews

[Meike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rocko Schamoni has not only written a homage to underground artist Heino Jaeger, but also a comedy of manners of the seedy underbelly of Hamburg in the 60's and 70's, a scene that featured cultural icons like beat poet and queer pioneer Hubert Fichte, boxer / actor Wilhelm von Homburg, infamous sex worker and hippie Wolli Köhler (the star of Schamoni's Große Freiheit), and many other fascinating rebels and outcasts. The author evokes the atmopshere and the spirit of this particular time and place, and while I thought that the first part of the trilogy tended to glorify the lifestyle too much, I found this rawer approach to be more honest and, overall, impressive.

Jaeger, the difficult, enigmatic painter and humorist, is the star of the book, he is the factor that keeps the many scenes together - and the way the author has crafted those scenes shows how much Schamoni (himself a multi-faceted artist) has grown as a fiction writer: The set-up and dialogue in the "Palais d'amour" (this establishment is exactly what you think it is), the boxing match, and, as a grand finale, the tremendously written posh party our anti-heroes visit with powerful cultural critic Fritz J. Raddatz and where they witness the leftist cultural elite act like the worst of the bourgeoisie, all these chapters are so smart and absolutely hilarious - you will never think the same of Rudolf Augstein, Marcel Reich-Ranicki and Ernst Bloch after hearing these vignettes! Also, the friendship between Jaeger and his co-worker at the museum, Pintschovius, is so touching and full of suspense, it's just a pleasure to read. The examples for Jaeger's work as humorist and as a comedic performer exude the same vibe as the early audioplays by Schamoni's friend Heinz Strunk, and it's apparent how the odd humor of their project "Studio Braun" relates to Jaeger.

The most touching part though is how Schamoni starts and ends his book: The novel is based on true events of course, he carefully researched people, places, and stories. How he came to do so, and why he is interested in outsider art in the first place, is revealed right at the beginning, when Schamoni talks about the death of his father, about their relationship and what he found out after his dad passed. The writing here is stellar, and it all comes together perfectly. Also, the way Schamoni inserts himself, the interviewer, in the text, is highly effective and devoid of any vanity.

Apparently, there is a movie project in development that is supposed to star Olli Dietrich as Heino Jaeger, with a screenplay by Rocko Schamoni - I hope it gets made, I want to see it. Which leads us to what's lacking in the book: We get many descriptions of Jaeger's drawings and paintings, but, unfortnately, no images, which is a shame. Still, I can't wait to read part 3 of this saga.

You can listen to my radio piece (feat. Karl-Heinz Schmieding, who advanced Jaeger's career and features in the novel as a character) here.

[Steffi · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, I love Rocko Schamoni. Full stop. It’s a little impossible to categorize the kind of books he writes and this is probably what I like the most. So I am not sure what exactly his latest novel “Der Jaeger und sein Meister” (2021, Hansa) is.

I guess it's a sort of literary monument created by Schamoni for one of his comedic idols and 'humor revolutionary' Heino Jaeger (1938-1997).

I never heard of Jaeger before and, gee, this book sent me down a YouTube rabbit hole extraordinaire (I also managed to find an actual biography of Heino Jaeger online in some second hand book store).

I can definitely see some influence of Jaeger's very unique humor in some of Schamoni's and Studio Braun's stuff. In a fucked up world, all it takes is to exaggerate the real just a tiny bit to create a sense of absurdity that's funny although it also exposes the full horror that is much of our civilization (especially in its German variant and its brutal technocracy) and what's considered 'normal' - it's humor without a punchline, at times it's difficult to tell whether this is even real or fiction.

So, the 'novel' (reality or fiction?) includes some episodes of Jaeger's life in the 1960s and 1970s BRD und Hamburg's Kunst und Kulturszene im weiteren sinne, mit dem best of Hamburg's underbelly of pimps, boxers, artists and others not quite willing to conform mit der ordentlichen bürgerlichen (deutschen) existenz.

Enjoyed the book thoroughly, in dieser welt aus nicht mehr unterscheidbaren sich ständig selbst-optimierenden ethically consuming hobby-köchen, menschen wie Jaeger retten einem den verstand 😍

[Zweiundvierzig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schöne, gut zu lesende "Biographie" über Heino Koehler und sein Umfeld. Letztlich springen die Episoden etwas hin und her, das mag man gut finden, das mag man kritisieren. Mir persönlich hat "Große Freiheit" da in der etwas lineareren Erzählweise besser gefallen.
Aber gut und flüssig zu lesen ist "Der Jaeger und sein Meister" in jedem Fall auch.
Sehr witzig und unterhaltsam geschrieben, gleichzeitig einfühlsam und sensibel.
Sicherlich nicht der letzte Schamoni, den ich vor die Augen bekomme.

[Dan Zilic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second part of Schamoni's Kiez' trilogy. Last one was all about brothels, Beatles and alcohol, this one is years later and mainly about a bizarre artist and his entourage (the entourage consisting of many folks we know from book one), who all live in St. Pauli. Took me a while to get into, but certainly has its moments. Some chapters the artist barely features. Also, like book one, it's over just like that. Anyway, decent book.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

So sehr ist mir lange keiner mehr auf den Sack gegangen; kleinere (anschauliche) Stellen mit Humor, einer guten Formulierung, habe ich dennoch gefunden.

Er hat Szenen für mich nicht anschaulich geschildert, sondern eine Beschreibung nach der anderen aneinandergereiht, so wie Regieanweisungen im Theaterskript.


Glatte 2 Sterne

[Donata · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 weiß Rocko ist. Und weil er zum Schluss noch was sehr wahres über Hamburg sagt.

[Subliminal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warmherzige und mit einer Prise Ironie geschriebene Hommage an den Humoristen Heino Jaeger. Ob es ihn wirklich gab habe ich noch nicht gründlich recherchiert.

[Silke · Rating 5 out of 5]

eintauchen in eine andere Welt.

[Rieka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Das wohl persönlichste Buch von Rocko Schamoni ❤

[Jan Dirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stellenweise ziemlich witzig, in seiner erzählerischen und glorifizierenden Ausgestaltung aber nicht besonders überzeugend.