Page - 366 - in Wien und die jüdische Erfahrung 1900-1938 - Akkulturation - Antisemitismus - Zionismus

Sandra Goldstein to live his perfect acculturation by celebrating Christmas he feels a strong revulsion upon reading the New Testament : As a “perfect acculturated Jew“ he celebrates Christmas together with his newly wed wife and to make his wife happy, Gordweil proposes to read to her from the New Testament, which he does in a low and pleasant voice. But then he feels the unpleasant aftertaste of over-masticated chewing-gum. He does not have a line of ancestors or descendants that make the protagonist’s identity accessible. He only has a wife, who really is his oppressor. When his long awaited child is born, he learns that he is not the biological father. He decides to ignore that fact, but his son dies. He is situated in a historical and geographical space that is not stable, has no center and is in a constant state of flux. He is a dweller of the coffee houses, but in Vogel’s depiction coffee houses are but another vacuum of the modern metropolis. He has no property, only his room which is shared with others — first with Ul- rich, then with Thea, and ultimately with Thea and her lovers, turning him into an observer at her mercy. He is a writer, but his wife and the metropolis prevent his creativity rather than stimulating it. In order to provide for his wife’s eccentric needs, he accepts a dull job in a publishing house. Then he becomes a houseman and takes care of his son. Finally he is a wanderer on earth. His sexual identity is doubtful. He is small, feminine, ridiculous just as antisemites of the time would describe it, and soon turns into an observer of Thea’s sexual performances with her lovers. Does he have a present, a conscious existence ? Gordweil does not engage in intro- spection, rarely thinks over the course of his adventures, and gives them superficial coherence and meaning. He passively endures the accidents and adventures that befall him and move him forward. Thus he never learns from his experiences but re-experi- ences the same events only in a deteriorated situation. His subconscious existence is like that of all Viennese according to Vogel and other Viennese writers of the time — Gordweil lives his life “hypocritically“. Moreover, his sense of reality vanishes in the course of the book. His refusal to face reality and the truth of his life are masoch- istically directed against himself alone. Robert Musil wrote that the Man without Qualities combines them all within himself, but they dissolve him into a multiplicity of divergent selves. Gordweil is Vogel, Eine Ehe in Wien, pp. 194–195. In this episode, Gordweil as a perfect acculturated Jew celebrates Christmas together with his newly wed wife and to make his wife happy, Gordweil proposes to read to her from the New Testament, which he does in a low and pleasant voice. But then he feels the unpleasant aftertaste of over-masticated chewing-gum. Titel des deutschen Originals : Robert Musil, Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften, erstes Buch erschienen 1930. Robert Musil, Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften. Roman/ I. Erstes und zweites Buch, 17. Aufl., Reinbek bei Hamburg 2003, pp. 35–41.