A study of The Good Soldier Švejk’s manuscript suggests that at least one person came close to having his name included in the famous novel, only to be left out at the last moment.
Johannes Merten: the man Lukáš overlooked
Johannes Merten as an Ottoman officer.
In chapter [I.14,3], Oberleutnant Lukáš tells hop trader Wendler about three decorated Turkish officers: Enver Paşa, Usedom Paşa, and Cevat Paşa. Most of his monologue was taken verbatim from Kronika světové války, although Národní politika and other publications also carried the story. Here, however, a fourth officer appears: rear admiral Mertens. Unlike the other three, he is not named by Lukáš.
In Jaroslav Hašek's handwriting: Merten was only a few dots away from having his name mentioned in Švejk.
© LA-PNP
Study of the novel’s manuscript shows that the admiral came remarkably close to securing a place in it. In Hašek’s handwriting, the letters “a kon” appear after “Dževad paša”, but they have been crossed out, suggesting that the author changed his mind at the last moment. The “kon” is almost certainly the beginning of “kontredmirál”, the exact wording used in Kronika světové války.
It should also be noted that “Mertens” is a misspelling, and that in 1915 his rank was Vizeadmiral, not Konteradmiral (rear admiral). This German naval officer in Ottoman service was actually Johannes Merten (1857-1926). He retired in 1910, but after the outbreak of war took up a command in the Turkish army at the Dardanelles. He was also a well-known pilot; in 1912, newspapers referred to him as President of the German Airmen's Association.