H. Adler - Panorama

Frau Director can only recommend that Josef study the books of Freud and those of his students, especially when he has something to do with children and wants to become a teacher. She believes the story of man is one about the transition from sleep to waking, awakening being something that happens gradually, sleep and waking two powers that can be observed competing for the human spirit, since even when man is awake he still often slips into a dream state, and thus exists between the two. The challenge for man is to destroy all dreams and illusions in order that an awake and healthy generation arises, something that Frau Director would like to write a book about, if only she didn’t have so many things demanding her attention, though perhaps Josef could someday put her thoughts into good form and publish it himself, for which she will need no thanks, there being no gratitude in the world anyway, although that was the one good thing that religion did when it came to power, and that was somehow to make men feel grateful, previously man having always been focused on eternal retribution and the triumph of justice, but with what success? It is easily seen if one studies the Middle Ages, for better conditions first arose then through education, and through classics such as Goethe and Schiller, though Spinoza was in many ways the earlier herald of the new age. Frau Director takes a breath and says that this has been at least a bit of an introduction and she’d love to keep talking with Josef, but she has way too much to do and must beg his pardon, though the pleasant chat had helped give her a better idea of Josef and she can see that he is a gifted man who will feel right at home here, for everyone who has lived here has always felt at home. Working with the boys is not really hard, one must only gain their love and attention, which is easy enough, Irwin will soon be seventeen, Lutz has just turned fourteen, the boys are very close to each other, and even if they fight now and then that’s just the way it is with children, though one can intervene before it goes any further and with a bit of reasoning get them to make up.

Frau Director rings a bell and the maid arrives, she introducing him to Sophie and her to Josef, who is already almost a doctor, so the servants should call him Herr Doctor. Josef wants to protest, saying that he cannot allow himself to be called a doctor, but Frau Director explains that all he needs to do is pass a few more exams, and so the servants should address him as Herr Doctor, and she didn’t want to hear anything more about it, because that’s the way it’s done here, as without the existence of a certain distance bad habits can be incurred, Madame Forbette being the exception, she can simply call him Josef, though with the regular servants that’s not to be tolerated. Then Frau Director looks with warmth at the maid and says, this is our dear Sophie, who is excellent, and then Frau Director asks, you’re always happy to be here, aren’t you Sophie? Sophie blushes, and then she’s asked to call Irwin and Lutz, the girl bowing slightly and heading off. After a while the boys arrive, gangly and ill-mannered, as they kiss their mother’s hand. The boys need to introduce themselves and greet the doctor, Frau Director explains, saying this is Josef the tutor, though he is actually a philosopher, and though they don’t have to bow to him they must shake hands each time they meet. Frau Director wants Irwin and Lutz to sit down, saying that she hopes the boys will make their parents proud in making such an ideal older friend, for Josef is the right choice out of a large number of applications. Irwin and Lutz sit there uncomfortably quiet, squirming with impatience in their chairs and feeling shy, looking brazenly at their mother and bashfully at the new tutor. Josef suggests that perhaps it would be a good idea for them to get to know one another a bit, and that perhaps he could come to their room. Frau Director agrees, she warning the boys to be nice, and that she didn’t want to hear any fighting, though Josef says that surely won’t happen, he hopes to make good friends of Irwin and Lutz. Then Frau Director sends the three of them off with the remark, “Of course, you can have your snack on your own, but I’ll see you all at dinner.”

Josef asks the boys to show him their room. Irwin corrects him, saying it’s two rooms, they share a bedroom and a living room. Lutz opens a door to the bedroom, and the boys look at Josef inquisitively to see what he will say. He wants to know if they clean their own rooms. No, Sophie does all of that, it’s her job to, and in the morning there’s often not enough time to clean up, for Irwin especially likes to sleep in, though Lutz does get up earlier, but as soon as Irwin is up the Madame arrives, though they didn’t know if Josef had seen her yet. That’s the French woman who is there for Robert, but that’s by now the end of a long story that begins with Sophie knocking at their door first and Irwin shouting “Come in!” yet Sophie doesn’t open the door and says only, “Irwin, it’s already late, time to get up!” That does no good, and then usually Mother arrives, saying that it’s unhealthy to lie in bed so long, and Irwin should see what his father has already done today, at which Irwin begins to make motions toward getting up, breakfast already laid out in the small dining room, the father sitting there with a newspaper, he needing to know what’s going on with the market, the mother sitting down as well after she has walked through the entire house and told the cook what she should prepare for that day, Madame also arriving in the room with her lips smeared in red, the mother doing her makeup a bit later, Father wanting to speak with Madame in French, but Mother says to him in English that Madame is there for Robert, who is sitting next to her, at which Lutz arrives wearing a hairnet if he feels like making his mother angry, for she cannot stand the hairnet and makes Lutz take it off. Then Anton, wearing white gloves, serves breakfast, there always being coffee, tea, and cocoa to choose from, Robert always having cocoa with an egg mixed in, since Robert is so frail and because the family doctor has said that he should eat a lot of eggs, but Robert doesn’t like eggs, especially hard-boiled ones, or even soft ones, though Mother doesn’t allow sunny-side eggs to be served in the morning, she says that they are too hard to make and Robert hardly eats any of them, though scrambled eggs are the worst of all, they disgust him and lead to a scene as Madame squeals, “Sweetheart, you have to eat everything,” the father urging him on as well, though Robert howls that he won’t, and Mother makes an unhappy face, Robert should just eat it, why indeed won’t he eat? She harangues him, saying how sad it makes her when he won’t eat, he is indeed a lovely child, but he will always be pale and weak, and never as big as Irwin and Lutz, if he doesn’t eat. Nonetheless, Robert doesn’t touch the scrambled eggs, and then the mother says to the father that the boy must have a complex, which nothing can be done about, but the father replies that no one has ever gotten sick from scrambled eggs, she’s only imagining things, and you shouldn’t coddle the children, though the mother responds that indeed it is a question of the imagination, many have become quite sick simply through imagining things, these being part of the sick complexes that the mother has many books about, but the father says that he doesn’t believe in complexes, he recommends a good spanking or the rod. The mother is not at all pleased by this and says, “Quiet, I ask you to be quiet in front of the children,” which she indeed says in front of Robert, who then gets his eggs how he likes them, always just one mixed in with his cocoa, this all happening at the last minute, for Robert likes to see how it curdles, his mother saying to him, “Look, that’s the same thing as a scrambled egg.”