Franz forces himself on Minna and reenters her life in a scene where reunion is not consent: newly released from the Tegel penitentiary, he goes to the home of Ida’s sister and assaults her. The episode joins his return to freedom with a repetition of earlier violence, then follows him into a fraught series of visits that leave Minna distressed and exposed to suspicion. What looks, from Franz’s exhilarated perspective, like coming back to life remains for Minna a source of fear and unhappiness.

Return to Minna’s home

On the third day after his release, a Wednesday, Franz puts on his jacket and sets out for the place where Minna lives with her husband. He blames Ida for his imprisonment, recalling that he broke Ida’s ribs and went to prison afterward. The narration gives this thought the force of an accusation, but his destination is not Ida: he runs through Invalidenstrasse and Ackerstrasse to Minna’s home, entering the building and finding his way to the second courtyard almost automatically.

The journey is rendered as a return to a past he seems to mistake for the present. Franz thinks that there was never a prison and never a conversation with the Jews in Dragonerstrasse; at Minna’s door, he insists that he has served his time and has been released. His words establish the immediate circumstance of the visit, while his repeated, stumbling movement and the sensation of something stuck to his tongue make his return seem disoriented rather than settled. Minna, by contrast, asks what he wants and warns that someone may have seen him on the stairs.

Violence and the return of Ida

Minna tells Franz to leave and threatens to call for help. When she invokes her husband’s imminent return, the narration abruptly expands into images of mountains, armies, and an upheaval rising from below. That disturbance cuts across the domestic encounter rather than explaining it away: Minna cannot free her hand, Franz’s eyes are fixed in front of hers, and the image of an express train running from Berlin to Hamburg-Altona turns his physical force into something she cannot stop. She cries for help and lies on the carpet as he presses his face against hers and kisses her while she turns away and begs him for pity.

The narration then makes the connection to Ida explicit through Minna’s recognition of her sister’s place in the scene. Franz seems, in his altered perception, to be holding Ida; the memory of an earlier, affectionate courtship intrudes, recalling Treptow, a fireworks display, and the first kiss with Ida after she won a vase throwing dice. The contrast is severe: the remembered beginning of a relationship is set against Franz’s present assault on Ida’s sister. His apparent happiness cannot make the encounter mutual. Minna resists, then the narration describes her resistance weakening; that change in her physical response does not undo her cries, pleas, or inability to escape his force.

Franz’s elation and Minna’s fear

Afterward Franz laughs, spins around, and celebrates his release as though the encounter has restored him to life. He calls himself free and human again, while Minna sits looking close to tears and says she will tell her husband. She fears that Franz has left her with a black eye; he responds lightly and tells her not to let her husband bully her. The mismatch between their interpretations is part of the event’s consequence: Franz treats his own exhilaration as the measure of what has happened, whereas Minna must account for a visible injury and the danger of being disbelieved.

Minna orders him out and tells him not to return. The next morning he comes back with a parcel of aprons. She initially refuses to open the door, and he wedges his foot into it; once inside, he throws the parcel into the room and jumps around while she holds a sweeping brush and tries to drive him out. She eventually looks at the cloth and chooses three aprons, but keeps her distance when he takes hold of her hand. The exchange gives Franz a practical reason to return and gives Minna something she accepts, yet neither gesture amounts to a reconciliation: she continues to direct him toward the door.

A renewed, uneasy attachment

On a later visit, Minna explains why the assault has made her life harder. Her husband did not believe her explanation for the black eye, and red marks on her neck have prompted further questions. Franz suggests an excuse and tells her not to be bullied, again treating the problem chiefly as something she must manage. Minna says his repeated appearances make her miserable and worries that neighbors have seen him. Her concern makes clear that his return is not a private matter with no cost to her: the marks and the visits expose her to suspicion in her household and community.

Franz takes her by the neck, but, when he does not let go or squeeze, begins stroking her. He gently draws her toward the room; she resists, then follows step by step. They sit together on the sofa and talk peacefully for a while, and this time Franz leaves of his own accord. At the door Minna says not to come back while crying and resting her head on his shoulder; when he agrees to stay away, she clutches his hand, then lets go and gently pushes the door closed. The gestures register a real tenderness or attachment in the aftermath, but they do not erase the coercion that began the renewed contact or settle what Minna wants him to do next.

Significance and immediate aftermath

From the street, Franz sends Minna two large pieces of veal fillet. The gift follows the scene at the door and echoes his repeated attempts to make material offerings part of his return, from the aprons to the food. It cannot resolve the unequal terms of the reunion. The event ends not with a stable restoration of intimacy but with Minna’s conflicting signals, Franz’s parting gesture, and his renewed insistence to himself that he will live decently in Berlin. The oath that follows is set against conduct that has already violated another person’s safety, giving his declared reform a sharp and unresolved contradiction.