NOTE 1/17/04: This handout has been superceded by a 2004 edition that includs a print-formatted pdf version (link).

UCSB Hist 133C	Prof. Marcuse
German History since 1945	Feb. 1, 2000

Handout on Böll: Billiards at Half-Past Nine

Charlotte Faehmel
1882-1894

Heinrich Faehmel
b. 1878

m.
1908

Johanna Kilb
b. 1887
(in asylum since 1942/43)

Captain Friedrich Kilb
d. 1916
at Verdun

Cadet
Bruno Kilb
d. 1916
at Verdun

Johanna F.
1908-1910

Heinrich F.
1910-1917

Robert F.
b. 1915

m.
1938

Edith Schrella
1919-1943

[Alfred] Schrella

Otto F.
1917-43

Marianne
b. 1940
(mother tried to kill)

Joseph F.
b. 1936

Ruth F.
b. 1939

Cast of characters
Leonore: secretary for Robert Faehmel, hired by father Heinrich on his 80^th birthday
Jochen Kuhlgamme, b. 1888: desk clerk at Prince Heinrich Hotel
Hugo: busboy at Prince Heinrich Hotel (has Ferdi's spirit, p. 268)
Bernhard "Old Wobbly" Vacano, b. 1900: fat coach, Nazi police commissioner
Ferdi Progulske: Robert's classmate who tried to kill Vacano with a bomb; executed
Erika Progulske: girl in Robert/Schrella's class who sleeps with any guy who wants to
Nettlinger: Robert's classmate, opportunist under Nazis, bigwig in 1958
Trischler: restaurant owner
Schrella father: waiter
General Otto "Field of Fire" Kösters, b. 1885: had abbey levelled in 1945; teaches J. about guns
Dr. Emil "Em" Droescher: Council President, went to school with Johanna Faehmel
Gretz: family that ran the butcher shop under the Kilb family residence

Allegorical symbols
Lambs, Sheep, Shephards, Beasts
Blood: of lambs, or boars
colors: red, white, green
The Abbey (also in effigy as cake): built in 1907, destroyed 1945, rebuilt 1958
The "soulless" game of billiards (ends with adoption of Hugo); note colors
First sexual intercourse of Johanna, Edith and Marianne (note colors)
Heinrich's piles of architectural drawings, sorted by year

Glossary
Heuss (13): postage stamps (with a picture of West German president Theodor Heuss
rounders: English game similar to baseball
Hölderlin (1770-1843): "Firm in compassion the eternal heart" (in original: suffering together, the eternal heart stays firm)
"everything according to Hoyle": author of popular books about game strategy
How weary these old bones: beginning of a Nazi song (Es zittern die morschen Knochen): the world is afraid of war, and we will keep marching, until everythings breaks to pieces.
124 Latin saying: "Heavens, thaw from above and clouds let justice rain" (Jesiah 45,8)
147 Latin: My guilt, my guilt, my deepest guilt!
150 Latin: "Remember that you are dust and to dust you will return."
239 Latin: "The Lord takes the sacrifice out of your hands" (prayer said by altar boys)