Reinhard Kaiser-Mühlecker (39) has recently been nominated for the German, Austrian and Bavarian book prizes for his novel “Wilderer”. In spring 2021 he took over his parents’ farm in Eberstalzell with 16 hectares of land. Although he works physically every day, he also walks his rounds every day – almost always the same ones. This process takes about an hour, without which he would not be able to write.
OÖ Nachrichten: How did walking become a process for you?
Reinhard Kaiser-Mühlecker: When one writes books or lives as a writer, as I have done exclusively for many years, there are very few avenues that actually need to be done. You rarely have to get from A to B urgently. Many means of transport have become uninteresting for me because I didn’t have to be fast. So walking became the normal way of getting around, also to be alone and not to have to get on a subway or a bus.
How do walking and writing relate to each other?
If I stop walking for a day, then the writing stops. It is very difficult for me to enter this space that contains the story to be written. I can crack it open with walking. Away from urban and populated areas, this has always been an integral part of my writing work, although the profession of a writer is supposed to take place at a desk. But this kind of sitting doesn’t suit me at all, it doesn’t fit my upbringing, it doesn’t fit my origins. i need the movement Still, it took me a while to discover that thinking is best done while walking. It’s a kind of state of limbo that I can only achieve when walking – namely detaching myself from conscious thought processes. It’s like a parallel universe that I have to go into first.
Walking as a distraction – or walking as a deepening?
These two processes are intertwined. I recently read an interview with a hiker. It was about the question of how to meet oneself. Or even better: to find yourself. And then this hiker says it’s best if you completely dissolve yourself while hiking. This is an experience very similar to what I experience when I walk. And my walking is always with the desire to get to the bottom of history. To make it more comprehensible: If I have forgotten while walking why I actually started, the decisive doors usually open in my mind.
Do you write while walking?
No, I remember that, although I always have a notebook with me. Every now and then I dictate something into my cell phone. But I only need a picture or a sentence, then I can write for a few hours the next day.
Albert Einstein swore by cycling when he thought about it.
I don’t understand that at all. So far, not a single useful thought has occurred to me while cycling. Maybe there used to be less traffic, maybe you didn’t have to be as afraid of being run over back then. I love cycling, but I’ve never rolled into a state of limbo. Not even on an exercise bike (laughs).
Friedrich Nietzsche says that one should not believe any thought that was not born outdoors and with free movement, in which the muscles do not celebrate a feast. The seat meat is the sin against the Holy Spirit.
Nietzsche also said: “I don’t write with my hand alone: my foot always wants to be a co-writer.” But that wasn’t a role model for me, it was my restlessness that made me walk. You have to structure your days somehow so that you have a regular daily routine, otherwise you go insane.
On the other hand, walking has meanwhile become a status symbol of a freedom to be regained. Is that plausible for you?
The very developed society brings to light extremely unusual manifestations. But walking is fortunately not a bad development. I am very happy when there are more pedestrians. Anyway, I don’t understand why you need a car in big cities where there is an excellent public transport network. On land, I only do my rounds while writing, otherwise it’s no fun. Because in the country you are fair game in constant danger.
To what extent fair game?
Nobody expects pedestrians. No motorist is prepared for pedestrians on land.
What requirements does your walkway have to meet?
I always do the same loop and sometimes I wonder why not in the other direction – but then I don’t do it. If something works for me, then I keep it. I don’t give a damn whether this round is nice or not. It lasts about an hour, which is a good stretch to get thinking. This is where the actual writing happens. I always start when it gets dark. This gives me the feeling that I’m in a tunnel and right in the middle of things, without looks from outside – and without my own gaze anywhere. It also has to do with the fact that day-to-day business is over at this end of the day.
How did you come to this route?
It happened by accident, it could go around the house 100 times, only I prefer to walk away from the house. Still, I keep asking myself if I wouldn’t be better off walking on my own property. There is a large meadow that would be suitable. However, it is only mowed once a year. That means I’d be walking in tall grass for much of the year—that’s impractical. I thought about mowing a path there, but that’s more complicated than the road.
How do you define flaneur or vagrant?
When I think of Flaneur, I immediately think of someone in the city who is interested in art and who is in no hurry but interested in looking at the world. When I think of tramps, I think of my uncle.
How was your uncle?
Although he had a place of residence, he was always on foot. He walked from tavern to tavern, presumably he was the only real walker far and wide. Also not entirely voluntarily, because he often stopped cars, but he wasn’t picked up.
How do you feel about pedometer apps and recommendations to walk 10,000 steps a day to stay healthy?
It doesn’t harm anyone. I’ve had a new phone for a while and found it has this pedometer too. But in the summer in agriculture, you have reached those 10,000 steps by 9 a.m. in the morning. In the farming world, the hardship used to be so great that no one would have installed an app to check their own movement out of sheer bad conscience. You were happy if you could eat well, cheaply and enough. To be healthy, to mortify oneself – these were not categories. Nobody has lived according to a precautionary principle, neither in terms of health nor financially. And I think I’m still a bit from this world.
The word pedestrian zone may be understood as a deceptive promise – what do you associate with it?
It’s a foreign word, it sounds artificial – my first pedestrian zone that I can remember was in Wels. My only connection to Pedestrian Zone is shopping – not walking.
How do you feel when you walk on your own piece of land?
That depends very much on the situation. In everyday life I go because there is something to do. But when I’ve been away for a few days, the first thing I get when I come home is to go for a walk. Something always happened – and then I usually regret that I was away for four or five days. Because it’s my place and I don’t want to leave either. It’s very much tied to these patches of land, not people.
- Reinhard Kaiser-Mühlecker: “Poacher”Roman, S. Fischer Verlag, 352 pages, 24.95 euros
Source: Nachrichten
