Tubutsch

by Albert Ehrenstein

"Tubutsch" by Albert Ehrenstein is an expressionist novella written in 1908 and published in 1911. The story follows Karl Tubutsch, a man consumed by inner emptiness who wanders through Vienna in increasing isolation. As social connections fail and loneliness deepens, Tubutsch escapes into hallucinations, memories, and conversations with inanimate objects. He forms peculiar bonds with animals, whose deaths profoundly affect him. The narrative circles back to where it began, tracing one man's psychological disintegration in spare, haunting prose.