Home » Austria » Joseph Roth » Das falsche Gewicht (Weights and Measures)
Joseph Roth: Das falsche Gewicht (Weights and Measures)
Our hero is Anselm Eibenschütz. He had been a soldier for twelve years and liked the life. He had done his job well and was a decent man. But. like many of his fellow soldiers, he had married. She was an indifferent woman. As a long-serving soldier he was entitled to a position but it meant giving up the uniform he dearly loved. He was originally from Nikolsburg, now Mikulov in the Czech Republic and hoped to get a job as a bailiff or lawyer’s clerk there. However he was unable to find any such position in Moravia.
However, he did not give up. When the Inspector of Weights and Measures in theZlotogrod district died, he received a glorious funeral paid for by the merchants whose false weights he never checked. However when Anseim took over they were worried because, unlike his predecessor, he was neither old nor inform nor a drunk.
the There was his wife but what was she to him? For the first time he asked himself why and to what end he had married her .
He meets the other officials but they were suspicious because he was honest. They themselves were lost souls. They suffered themselves to be bribed and they bribed others. They defrauded God and the world and their superiors. The merchants did not like him as he had taken several to court.
He received letters threatening him and denunciations, passed on to him by his clerk Josef Nowak. He blames his wife for dragging him out here as he had to leave the army on marriage.
Part of his remit covered The Village of Szwaby. The tavern there was run by Leibusch Jadlowker. It was not his real nsme. He took over the tavern when the previous owner died in mysterious circumstances. he had previiusly killed a man in Odessa and was not ashamed to admit it. His frontier tavern was the rendezvous of all the ne’er-do-wells and criminals. In particular deserters from the Russian army passed through the tavern, a very lucrative trade. All papers were seemingly in order and though he was associated with various crimes in the district, no proof could be found. He had also managed to get a licence to run a shop.
meanwhile Anselm notices that Regina, his wife, has become much more flirtatious. He receives an anonymous letter telling him that she is having an affair with Josef Nowak, his clerk. He carries out a clever investigation and finds that it is true and she is pregnant with Nowak’s child. Nowak is transferred and Regina is banished to the kitchen and though he pretends to be happily married he has little contact with her, even when her son is born. His home life now miserable.Even the cat hated him. Only Jacob his horse liked him.
Hpwever there is Euphemia. She is Jadlowker’s mistress. He had never in his life had a definite idea of what one calls ‘sin’, but now he believed he knew how sin looked. It looked like this, it looked exactly like Jadlowker’s mistress, the gypsy Euphemia Nikitsch. Visits to the tavern become more frequent.
One day he is inspecting the market with his sergeant. He arrests an old Jewwish woman for using false weights. She makes a terrible fuss. Leibusch Jadlowker is there selling fish (without a licence). However, to everyone’s surprise he goes beserk, shouting filthy oaths against the Emperor, against the State, against the Law and even against God. He is arrested.
Anselm tells Euphemia. Leibusch Jadlowker is sentenced to two years in prison. But who was to run the tavern? The authorities appoint Anselm. For him the benefit was not just running the tavern but Euphemia. she loved him. She also loved money, security, the inn, the shop that was part of it, as well as poor Jadlowker who was now sitting in the penitentiary, but the last named only in remembrance of the good times she had enjoyed with him. He essentially moves into the tavern with Euphemia.
And then Sameschkin turns up. He is also something of a gypsy. He comes in winter laden with chestnuts which he roasts and sells. Hw is also Euphemia’s lover and has priority over her other lovers. Do you love Sameschkin?’ ‘I belong to him.’ ‘Why?’ ‘I don’t know.
But that year Spring came much earlier than usual and with it the usual summer cholera. Many people catch it and die. As there are so few men left to do the necessary work, convicts are used including Leibusch Jadlowker and some of them manage to fake their death. Meanhwile Anselm is becoming a serious alcoholic. His new sergeant is now running the show and he is very strict, leading to conflict.
This novel starts fairly straightforwardly but gradually gets darker and darker. Anselm had been used to the strict military life where everything is ordered and structured. However once out of the military, things do not work out. He made a poor choice of wife and in his new profession he finds that most people are crooks. There were, in fact, few murderers or violent robbers in this district. There were only swindlers. And as nearly everybody was a swindler, no one reported anyone else. He struggles to cope and when his wife becomes pregnant by his clerk, he has lost any structure he might have and aided by drink and another poor choice of lover, things can only get worse. As always Roth tells an excellent story.
First published in 1936 by Querido Verlag, Amsterdam
First English translation in 1982 by Peter Owen
Translated byDavid Le Vay