The end of the world
The end of the world is a story by Ricarda Huch , which appeared in the collection " Fra Celeste and other stories" by Hermann Haessel in Leipzig in 1899 .
The quintessence of the narrative: large possession of gathered material goods can be fatal.
content
The first-person narrator, a mathematics and astronomy professor, tells his friend, Pastor Wolke, that on July 13, 1599 (exactly three hundred years before the story was published) the world will end because of a roaring tail star. The pastor builds the news into his next sermon about the ungodliness of men and is particularly heard by the rich in his congregation.
The very rich fear that the devil could take them during the impending end of the world . Concerned for their eternal happiness , these money bags part with their gold and silver; just cart it to market. Smart citizens help themselves a little. But what will happen when the tail star roars past Mother Earth? Herr Mümmelke, the fur king, turns to the learned first-person narrator with this remote problem. The professor sells the Fur King and a couple of other extremely wealthy gentlemen each a mandrake root with instructions for use for an almost unlimited amount of money.
All the money in the market has to go. The fur king wins Mr. Brausewein, a sculptor. The artist uses the coins to make the golden calf . The godless image is on the market.
After waiting in vain for the end of the world for the appointment, the professor falls asleep in his house, exhausted, and is woken up by the noise of the indignant rich. The mandrake roots do not work; no wonder - they are a fake. The scholar gets away with his life because a new culprit is targeted. Pastor Wolke is slain by the once rich people in front of his rectory.
The golden calf is made of lead with a wafer-thin gold coating. Brausewein has run away with the money. Anyone who has "sacrificed" their gold and silver is now on the throat. Ricarda Huch writes: “They would probably all have killed each other if those level-headed men who had nothing to do with the end of the world had not come together now, formed a new government and did public affairs quickly and efficiently It looks like this: The rich are caught, judged and hanged. All around the golden calf, their "bare skeletons dangle with the whistling of the wind and the rattling of bones in a hopping dance ..."
reception
- Brekle discusses the text.
Book editions
First edition
- Ricarda Yikes. Fra Celeste and other stories (also contains: Poor Heinrich. The end of the world. The May meadow ). H. Haessel, Leipzig 1899
Other issues
- 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.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hermann Haessel
- ↑ Baumgarten, p. 230, 3rd entry vo and Baum, p. 517, 3rd entry vu
- ↑ Edition used, p. 235, 3. Zvo
- ↑ Edition used, p. 236, 1. Zvo
- ↑ Brekle in the afterword of the edition used, p. 366 middle to p. 367 middle.
- ↑ Copy from 1899, Zurich Central Library