Der Baron Bagge

Der Baron Bagge is a psychological fiction novella by Austrian author Alexander Lernet-Holenia, originally published in German in 1936 by S. Fischer Verlag. The first English translation by Richard and Clara Winston was released in 1956. Set against the backdrop of World War I, it deals with the title character's ride through the Carpathian Mountains that turns more and more unreal as he encounters love, death and war.

"Baron Bagge"
AuthorAlexander Lernet-Holenia
Original title"Der Baron Bagge"
TranslatorRichard and Clara Winston
CountryAustria
LanguageGerman
Genre(s)Novella
First publisherS. Fischer Verlag, 1936

Plot

The novella starts at some point during the 1930s. At an official reception in Vienna, there is a dispute between Baron Bagge and a young man, Von Farago, who forbids Bagge to speak with his sister. Bagge, Von Farago claims, was responsible for the suicides of two women. Bagge challenges him to a duel, but the situation can be cleared and Von Farago agrees to apologize. Bagge however finds he has to explain himself and tells his story. Both women did indeed kill themselves, because he would marry neither of them. This was, Bagge says, because he was actually already married.

He was a Cavalry officer back in 1915 and found himself with his unit on a reconnaissance mission in the buildup to the Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive in Eastern Europe. His mentally unstable commanding officer, Rittmeister von Semler, orders an attack on a bridge held by Imperial Russian Army. Even though Cavalry normally wouldn't stand a chance against machine-guns, the charge miraculously succeeds with minimal casualties. Bagge is only hit by a small rock that is swirled up during the attack. Afterwards, the recoinassance unit advances further into what nominally must be enemy-held territory, but finds only peace and a welcoming civilian population. At the Ukrainian town of Nagy-Mihaly (nowadays called Michalovce), Bagge meets Charlotte Szent-Kiraly, the daughter of a friend of his late mother's, and immediately falls in love with her. Her beauty as well as her confidence deeply impress Bagge. Rittmeister von Semler however, tries frantically to find the enemy and orders his unit to leave the town. Bagge resolves to marry Charlotte and proposes to her. He says that he will come back as soon as possible, but she, although agreeing to marry him, tells him that she is sure that he would never return.

From there on, the Cavalry Unit rides on for five more days until they get to a river where they see a bridge made of pure gold. Most of the soldiers cross the bridge but Bagge refuses, finally convincing himself that this could not be real. Then he awakes. He is still at the first bridge, where the attack was catastrophic and he has actually been hit by a bullet, not just a small rock. He is transported to a field hospital and slowly recovers. He realises that the peaceful land, the town of Nagy-Mihaly and his marriage to Charlotte occurred only in a dream in a land between dying and being dead.

After the war, he travels back to Ukraine and finds the land looking strangely similar to his dream. There was even a real Charlotte in Nagy-Mihaly, but she died during the war. All those he saw in his dream were already dead, including Semler and his fellow soldiers. He even encounters the bridge from his dream, which is not made of gold but a simple wooden bridge. Bagge however, still does not dare to cross the bridge.

Reception

Widely regarded as Lernet-Holenias finest work, Der Baron Bagge has a narrative structure similar to the famous Civil War story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce, even sharing the symbol of the bridge as border between life and death.

The book was lauded by, among others, Argentine magic realist author Jorge Luis Borges.[1]

Phyllis Rose noted both the creation of a world not quite real, unfamiliar yet believable and the mesmeriszing storytelling.[2]

Further reading
  • Robert von Dassanowsky: Phantom Empires: The Novels of Alexander Lernet-Holenia and the Question of Postimperial Austrian Identity. Ariadne Press, Riverside, California 1996, ISBN 1-57241-030-2

References
  1. Gerhard Drekonja-Kornat: Gabriel Garcia Marquez in Wien und andere Kulturgeschichten aus Lateinamerika. Lit Verlag, Wien 2010 ISBN 978-3-643-50141-7, p. 138
  2. Phyllis Rose: The Shelf. From LEQ to LES. Adventures in Extreme Reading. New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroud, 2014 pp. 143ff.

Note: Some of the text in this article may be based closely on the articles in the French and German WPs

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