Der Kompaß ist kaputt

“Der Kompaß ist kaputt” (“The compass is broken”) is Fabian’s diagnosis of a world without reliable direction, delivered in a confrontation with a school director who believes education and a rounded character can still prepare a young person for life. The expression turns institutional certainty into the target: the school continues to move through its orderly routine while failing to notice the larger disorientation around it.

The phrase in context

Fabian responds after the director suggests that, had he taken his state examination, he would not now be without a profession. Fabian rejects the premise that a credential or occupation would have secured him a meaningful place. Even if he had practiced a profession, he argues, he would still be without one in any deeper sense: humanity, apart from pastors and educators, no longer knows where its head is.

The compass image gives that claim a compact form. It presents confusion not as Fabian’s private misfortune but as a general condition. The director’s school, however, remains insulated from the diagnosis: its occupants travel up and down in the lift, progressing from Sexta to Prima, and therefore see no need for a compass.

A clash with institutional confidence

The director answers Fabian’s protest with a prescription for personal cultivation. He says there would be no task for Fabian, urges him to form his character, and invokes the study of history and the classics as means of rounding out his personality. His response treats the problem as an individual deficiency that education can remedy; Fabian’s image instead points to a broken orientation that the institution itself cannot recognize.

The closing exchange sharpens the contrast. Fabian looks at the well-fed, self-satisfied director, smiles, and mocks the ideal of a “rounded personality” before leaving. His departure gives the phrase its immediate dramatic force: he does not accept the school’s assurance that established instruction can supply direction in a society whose bearings, as he sees it, are lost.