Agnes Günther

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Agnes Günther
Agnes-Günther-Haus in the forest near Langenburg

Agnes Günther (née Breuning) (born July 21, 1863 in Stuttgart , † February 16, 1911 in Marburg an der Lahn ) was a German writer .

Life

Agnes Breuning was the daughter of the businessman and banker Hermann Otto Breuning and his wife Anna Maria Barrell, who came from England. She attended schools in Geneva and London. In 1887 she married the theologian Rudolf Günther, with whom she had two sons. From 1891 to 1906, her husband was the parish priest of Langenburg , a small town in Hohenlohe above the Jagst with a castle, ancestral seat of the princes of Hohenlohe-Langenburg . She followed her husband to Marburg in 1906, where he was appointed professor of church art in 1907. In 1911 she died of a lung disease after a long illness.

Literary work

Inspired by the landscape of the Hohenlohe Plain , she wrote her only novel there, The Saints and Her Fool , with which she achieved a legendary success that extends into our time.

With over 140 editions, the number of printed copies has long since exceeded the million mark, to which the film adaptations certainly contributed.

The melodrama , published posthumously in 1913 , describes the love and life of the princess (and half-orphan) Rosmarie, whose happiness is destroyed by the jealous stepmother. The much-loved and - as too sentimental - just as vigorously reviled bestseller has moved generations of primarily female readers to tears. The locations of the novel are Langenburg Castle (in the novel Brauneck ), Tierberg Castle ( silence ) near Braunsbach and Morstein Castle ( Thorstein ) near Gerabronn .

memorial

In the Carl Julius Weber memorial room in the Langenburg town hall, some objects by Agnes Günther are also on display.

Works

  • The saint and her fool , Verlag JF Steinkopf , Stuttgart 1913; last: 144th edition. Steinkopf, Kiel 2011, ISBN 978-3-7984-0813-5
  • About the witch who was a saint . With 12 illustrations by Tilla Ebhardt. Verlag der Christian Welt, Marburg an der Lahn 1913.

literature

  • Christa Braun: In the footsteps of Agnes Günther , Langenburg History and Culture Association, Langenburg 2011
  • Dorothea Demmel: The woman with the colorful wings - The Agnes Günther biography , JF Steinkopf, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-7984-0820-3
  • Karl Josef Friedrich : The saint. Memories of Agnes Günther, the poet of "The Holy and Her Fool" , FA Perthes, Gotha 1915.
  • Gerhard Günther: I think of the old days, of previous years; Agnes Günther in letters, memories, reports. JF Steinkopf, Stuttgart 1972, ISBN 3-7984-0276-0
  • Rudolf Günther: Under the veil of Gisela; from Agnes Günther's life and work , Verlag JF Steinkopf , Stuttgart 1936 DNB
  • Hans Dieter Haller: Agnes Günther (1863 to 1911) . In: Pegasus in the country - writers in Hohenlohe , Baier, Crailsheim 2006, pp. 56–61, ISBN 978-3-929233-62-9
  • Felix Hollenberg: In Agnes Günther's footsteps; six landscapes from Langenburg and the surrounding area after watercolors. , JF Steinkopf, Stuttgart 1916.
  • Rudolf hose:  Günther, Agnes Elisabeth, née Breuning. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1966, ISBN 3-428-00188-5 , p. 267 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Agnes Günther  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Agnes Günther  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg (HStAMR), Best. 915 No. 5700, p. 69 ( digitized version ).
  2. ^ Gisela Brinker-Gabler, Karola Ludwig, Angela Wöffen: Lexicon of German-speaking women writers 1800–1945. dtv Munich, 1986. ISBN 3-423-03282-0 . P. 116.
  3. ^ Rudolf Günther (* October 6, 1859 in Liebenzell; † July 17, 1936 in Marburg, GND 136153402 )
  4. ↑ Karl Josef Friedrich , her young friend and later editor of its bestseller, wrote in 1912 to the then editor of the Suddeutsche Monatshefte , Josef Hofmiller : "Agnes Günther was without same a charming, witty woman. When I saw her for the first time, I knew straight away that she was one of those people who wore invisible crowns. In a short time she was able to cast a spell over everyone in a society through the liveliness of her story, so that everyone listened breathlessly. She was a poet from childhood, a poet, when she first made friends with her 'ghosts'. The flooding of all life around her was the most genuine poetic power. The fairy tales she told her children were the stories of those of her ghosts, her 'friends', her ancestors, who all lived on in their blood and spoke to her in an understandable and trusting way and begged her for life. Agnes Günther was always full of feeling, so she was always very collected and never alienated. It was from the blood of the women who told us the most beautiful German fairy tales ... "(My colorful life, p. 82 f.)
  5. ↑ Deutschlandradio Kultur from May 31, 2011: The Stuttgart antiquarian Frieder Weitbrecht, grandson of the then publisher Friedrich Weitbrecht at the Steinkopf publishing house , has opened the handwritten book - the words "mit Gott" are emblazoned on the first page - and he takes from it the development of the circulation: "We see 3,200 copies here in April 1913, 3,300 in September and 3,300 in December. So 10,000 in the first year. That's pretty quick. In 1914 in February it was 6,600, and in June 10,000, in September 1914 alone 20,000 and in December Another 20,000. How expensive was the book? 4 Mark 50. 1921, in November, another 10,300, 1923 6,600 and so it goes on. And I think there are 1.7 million copies on the market to date. Of the 1.7 million, perhaps 1.65 million were sold before 1960. After that it has already subsided a lot. The publisher is now still selling the edition that was printed in 2001. " (online at dradio.de)
personal data
SURNAME Günther, Agnes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Breuning, Agnes (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH July 21, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH February 16, 1911
Place of death Marburg