LiteraturSchweiz

Reading tip

Hans Schumacher, Die Stunde der Gaukler: Hans Schumacher's novel is a true find. It tells the story of Tatorimi, a jester and impressionist who, finding himself embroiled in the machinery of a totalitarian regime, makes it his personal quest to defeat the system from the inside. Schumacher presents a brilliant anatomy of totalitarian power and its apparatus of «correcters» by revealing the functioning of its «aesthetic and spirit» and concluding that such a system cannot be fought by passivity or towing the line: it has to be met with resistance, violently knocked out of keel and eliminated. The juggler to whom this task falls does not really represent a single individual, but rather a collective rising up in rebellion. With no interest in fame and acknowledgement and free of any personal longing for power, he thus sacrifices himself to his cause. Schumachers' novel combines parable-like generalisation with stylistic precision to allow striking insights into the psychological workings of fascist rule. The novel closes with a passionate appeal to all fools and jesters, and to everyone's sense of honour: don't let us become the lackeys of power! (Beat Mazenauer, transl by Andrea Mason)