Agnes

Agnes is a gaunt, impoverished woman whose eviction forces her out of a self-imposed seclusion lasting almost twenty years. Known by the cruel bar nickname Akne, she arrives at Zum Goldenen Handschuh with Inge and Hildegart, two other women living by precarious means. Her encounter with Gisela offers a brief possibility of shelter and rest, but the account leaves her future unresolved.

Identity and Background

Agnes is described as thin and marked by what the narration calls a postwar, bony appearance. Her nickname, Akne, is particularly ugly, and the narration observes that she does not understand it, just as Anus does not understand the resemblance. The names reduce women to bodily mockery, turning a person into a joke that she may not even recognize as one. In the bar’s social world, nicknames can also be a form of distinction: Fiete, newly given a nickname of his own, takes pride in it. The contrast is sharp. A name that makes Fiete feel special becomes, for Agnes, an insult imposed without comprehension.

Her history explains how abruptly her circumstances have changed. For almost twenty years she barely left her apartment, barricading herself against a world she regarded as dangerous. That arrangement nearly held until her landlord terminated her tenancy. Suddenly without a home, she is on the street. When an opportunity arises, she prostitutes herself; Inge and Hildegart get by through smaller scams. They know they will die sooner than other people, yet even the remaining time feels too long. The narration imagines them disappearing from view from one day to the next, a forecast of social erasure rather than a reported later outcome.

At Zum Goldenen Handschuh

When Agnes enters with Inge and Hildegart, the bar’s regulars have mostly returned after successive waves of drinking customers. The three women sit by the jukebox, set apart as newcomers to this circle. The narration dwells on their differing appearances: Inge’s imposing, unevenly proportioned body; Hildegart’s weathered but ordinary-weight figure; and Agnes’s thin, postwar-bony frame. Agnes is thus introduced within a scene that makes bodies conspicuous and available for classification, but her private history complicates that surface view.

Gisela approaches the women cautiously. She stands near them with her coffee first, allowing them to get used to the sight of her uniform before she speaks. She knows Agnes and Hildegart may be receptive to kind words, while expecting resistance from Inge. Inge’s hostility soon fills the exchange: she speaks of the people in the bar as already decaying, and Agnes’s laugh provokes her anger. Agnes laughs in a way the narration describes as wet and wavering; Inge rebukes her, while Gisela answers that there are other things in a person’s throat besides laughter and vomit. Agnes’s laugh is a small, visible response in a conversation otherwise dominated by Inge’s aggression, though the text does not explain what Agnes means by it.

Inge, Hildegart, and Gisela

Agnes is relieved when Inge leaves to find cigarettes. She can hardly endure Inge’s hatred, violence, and foul language, and wonders how she came to be with her, though she can no longer remember clearly. Hildegart, by contrast, has not been listening closely and appears indifferent to who is present. The moment distinguishes the women without turning them into a unified group: Agnes is frightened and exhausted, Inge is forceful and suspicious, and Hildegart is absorbed in the effort of simply remaining upright.

Gisela uses Inge’s absence to speak to Agnes gently. She has learned from earlier mistakes not to advance too quickly or make people feel cornered; pressure can undo the work of gaining their trust. Inge returns, but a broken cigarette machine sends her away again, giving Gisela more time. Agnes has no answer when Gisela asks where she will sleep that night. Her uncertainty is literal: after losing her apartment, she does not know where she will go.

The Offer and Its Significance

Gisela invites Agnes to come with her, promising that she can sleep properly and eat her fill. The offer answers the immediate facts of Agnes’s homelessness and hunger rather than demanding that she first explain or reform herself. Agnes welcomes the prospect and is also afraid that Inge will take her anger out on her and Hildegart. She quickly gathers her few belongings, then asks Hildegart to come too. The scene records a decision taking shape under pressure: Agnes is drawn by the chance of safety and relief, but also acts in response to fear for herself and her companion.

The episode does not establish what happens after Agnes gathers her things, so the invitation cannot be treated as a lasting rescue or a settled change in her life. Its importance lies in the brief opening it creates. A woman who spent decades trying to keep danger outside her door has been pushed onto the street; now, in a bar where contempt and exposure are routine, she is offered a bed and a meal. The account gives her more than the nickname attached to her body: it gives her a history of retreat, a present shaped by eviction, and a moment in which she can choose to leave with someone who has approached her carefully.