The Jewish grave

The Jewish Grave is a story by Ricarda Huch from the soap bubbles collection , which was published in 1905 by the Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt in Stuttgart and Leipzig.

Helene Baumgarten describes the narrow text in 1964 as "a story in which the old and again and again emerging hostility towards the Jews gives rise to a dispute over a grave and to mutual outwitting and deception of the two parties."

content

The Jew Mr. Samuel, a business owner, would like to leave the town of Jeddam on the Melk river again, because the customers are more willing to buy than to pay. There is no new business owner and Mr. Samuel did the bill without his wife Rosette. The Christian grew up in Jeddam and would like to stay in the small town with the children. When Mr. Samuel fell ill, there was no doctor in the purely Christian city of Jeddam who wanted to treat the Jew. Anitza, the patient's daughter, has an idea. The father is supposed to “die”, but in reality return to his Jewish homeland secretly alone. Meanwhile, Anitza's fiancé Ive - a Christian - is to calmly sell the father's business. Then, according to Anitza's plan, the entire family should follow the father. At the same time, Anitza wants to play a trick on those Jeddam Christians who have labeled their mother, Rosette, an apostate because she married a Jew.

Said and done. Mr Samuel travels back abroad unnoticed by night and fog. Mother Rosette, the children, and Ive put a life-size doll in Mr. Samuel's coffin. When Ive, as the guardian of the “bereaved” family, wants to report the death of his future father-in-law and order the funeral, he is referred to the pastor. The clergyman, a notorious Jew hater, does not want to desecrate the cemetery soil.

The residents of Jeddam and the farmers around the town split into two camps. Some want to allow the funeral of Mr. Samuel in an unkempt cemetery corner, in which the unbaptized deceased small children have found their final resting place. The others, led by a gigantic large farmer, do not want a Jewish grave in the Christian churchyard. There are physical disputes between the two parties. I've been fighting a lot. The mayor sees the next revolution coming and wants to ask the emperor. In reality, however, he is not addressing His Majesty, but summoning a small detachment of soldiers from a nearby garrison. This competes against the troublemakers. Ive and family can have the doll buried in the coffin in the cemetery corner mentioned above.

The pastor cannot tolerate this funeral. He has the "corpse" exhumed and thrown into the milking parlor. The delighted mayor declares the pastor's intervention as the reason that peace has returned to Jeddam. The military marches off into the garrison.

reception

Brekle and Baumgarten briefly discuss the text.

Book editions

First edition

Soap bubbles. Three funny stories. ( Curriculum vitae of St. Wonnebald Pück . From Bimbo's wanderings of souls. The Jewish grave ). Fracture. 225 pages. German publishing house Stuttgart and Leipzig 1905

Further editions

Ricarda Huch: The Jewish grave. From Bimbo's wanderings of souls. Two stories. Insel-Bücherei No. 193. Insel Verlag, Leipzig 1916. 61 pages
Ricarda Huch: The Gold Island and other stories. Selected and provided with an afterword by Wolfgang Brekle (contains: The Gold Island . The Huguenot . Devils . Patatini . Fra Celeste . The end of the world . The Jewish grave. The last summer ). Union Verlag, Berlin 1972 (Licensor: Atlantis Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau and Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main), 376 pages (edition used)

literature

Marie Baum : Shining lead. The life of Ricarda Huch. 520 pages. Rainer Wunderlich Verlag Hermann Leins , Tübingen and Stuttgart 1950 (6th – 11th thousand)
Helene Baumgarten: Ricarda Huch. About her life and work . 236 pages. Hermann Böhlaus successor, Weimar 1964

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Baum, p. 518, 6th entry
↑ Baumgarten, p. 101, 14. Zvo
↑ Brekle in the afterword of the edition used, p. 365, 2nd section vu
↑ Baumgarten, p. 101 middle
↑ Insel-Bücherei ( Memento of the original from October 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Dr. Steiner @1@ 2

[1] Baum, p. 518, 6th entry

[2] Baumgarten, p. 101, 14. Zvo

[3] Brekle in the afterword of the edition used, p. 365, 2nd section vu

[4] Baumgarten, p. 101 middle

[5] Insel-Bücherei ( Memento of the original from October 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Dr. Steiner @1@ 2