Headwind ship

The novel "Gegenwindschiff" by Jaan Kross, the most significant Estonian writer of the second half of the 20th century, was published in 1987. The main character of the narrative, which Kross prefers to be understood not as a biography but rather as a "romanticized biography," is the eccentric tinkerer and inventor Bernhard Schmidt. As a teenager, Schmidt loses his right hand while experimenting with gunpowder. Nevertheless, he perfects the manual production of lenses and mirrors for astronomical instruments and invents a completely new type of reflecting telescope that is successfully used in astrophotography. This creative mind, who worked at the Hamburg-Bergedorf observatory from 1926, also devises other inventions: the titular "Gegenwindschiff" is a uniquely designed sailing ship that performs particularly well when sailing against the wind. The novel follows two narrative threads: the first features Schmidt—torn between self-doubt and arrogance—narrating in the first person the dramatic ups and downs of his life. Interwoven with this is the second thread, which recounts the exciting research of the author as he seeks out people who personally knew Schmidt. Through his impressively psychological portrayal, Kross not only creates a striking portrait but also a vivid panorama of Germany during the interwar years from 1926 until Schmidt's death in 1935.