Der Bankier reitet über das Schlachtfeld : Erzählung by Johannes Robert Becher
"Der Bankier reitet über das Schlachtfeld: Erzählung" by Johannes Robert Becher is a narrative written in the early 20th century. The story centers on Mr. Branting, an American banker and millionaire, portraying his experiences and observations as he journeys through postwar Europe, particularly visiting former World War I battlefields now turned into sites of commercial tourism. The likely topic of the book is a sharp, satirical examination of wealth, war, and the
commercialization of tragedy, explored through encounters with a diverse array of characters and the transformation of war’s devastation into spectacle for the privileged. At the start of the narrative, we follow Mr. Branting, who, after a luxurious vacation in St. Moritz, embarks on the opulent ocean liner "Columbia" from New York to Europe. The beginning paints the ship as a "floating fairy-tale castle," brimming with luxury for its wealthy passengers, starkly contrasting with the hardships faced by its international crew deep in the engine rooms. The story shifts from scenes of decadent onboard entertainment and socializing—including a grotesque masquerade party—to a special film screening about executions following an assassination attempt in Bulgaria, highlighting the voyeuristic consumption of violence. Upon arriving in Europe, Branting joins a tourist excursion to World War I battlefields, now commercialized as attractions, where he and other visitors are guided through reconstructed trenches and gruesome relics, their reactions oscillating between fascination and self-congratulatory pathos. The opening sets a tone of dark irony, exploring themes of alienation, the commodification of suffering, and the unsettling ways in which contemporary society processes the aftermath of catastrophe. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Read or download for free
For an overview of the different reading options, see our Reading Guide
| Reading Options | Url | Size | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read now! | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75793.html.images | 212 kB | |||
| EPUB3 (E-readers incl. Send-to-Kindle) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75793.epub3.images | 324 kB | |||
| EPUB (older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75793.epub.images | 324 kB | |||
| Kindle | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75793.kf8.images | 1.2 MB | |||
| older Kindles | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75793.kindle.images | 1.2 MB | |||
| Plain Text UTF-8 | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75793.txt.utf-8 | 186 kB | |||
| Download HTML (zip) | https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/75793/pg75793-h.zip | 804 kB | |||
| There may be more files related to this item. | |||||
About this eBook
| Author | Becher, Johannes Robert, 1891-1958 |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Grosz, George, 1893-1959 |
| Illustrator | Heartfield, John, 1891-1968 |
| Title | Der Bankier reitet über das Schlachtfeld : Erzählung |
| Original Publication | Wien: Agis-Verlag, 1926. |
| Credits | Jens Sadowski and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net. This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library. |
| Reading Level | Reading ease score: 74.2 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. |
| Language | German |
| LoC Class | PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures |
| Subject | World War, 1914-1918 -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 75793 |
| Release Date | Apr 5, 2025 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 293 downloads in the last 30 days. |
| Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free! | |