Old nests

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Alte Nester is a development novel by Wilhelm Raabe , which was written between 1877 and 1879 and published in 1880 by George Westermann in Braunschweig. A year earlier, the novel had been preprinted by the same publisher in “ Westermanns Monatshefte ”. Raabe experienced reprints in 1897, 1903 and 1905. The fifth edition came out in the year of Raabe's death.

The Berlin philologist Friedrich Langreuter - called Fritz - tells from his life. Old nests in these memories are the Werden Castle and the Steinhof - located on both sides of the Weser near Bodenwerder . Old nests are also tree houses that the youthful heroes built on large Italian nut bushes in the kitchen garden of Castle Werden in the early 1940s . After all, old nests are places of childhood to which three of the five now adult protagonists around 1858 do not return.

content

Salt smugglers shoot the riding tax inspector Hermann Langreuter on the border of a small state on the Weser around 1840 . The latter is the father of the narrator Fritz, who was still five at the time. The half-orphan is lucky in misfortune. The widower Friedrich Graf Everstein, lord of Werden Castle, takes the widow Langreuter in as the tutor of his only daughter, Countess Irene, and puts Fritz on a higher education path. During the holidays Fritz plays with Irene, Ewald and Eva in the kitchen garden of the castle. Nests are built in tall bushes and trees. The half-orphans Ewald and Eva are the children of the chief forester Sixtus. Sometimes the high-spirited youngsters leave the castle grounds, cross the Weser - the "honest yellow river" and wander over to the Steinhof. Irene's cousin Just Everstein sits there and studies with a view of the state of Westphalia . Just the "von" in the name has been lost over the centuries. He doesn't want to be a farmer like his father and grandfather.

After a few years those nests are still hanging in the nut bushes, but the children have flown out. Fritz graduated from high school and then studied philology in Berlin. Ewald Sixtus is studying engineering at a polytechnic .

The ideal world of childhood breaks. Count Everstein is hit after receiving news that his property is over-indebted. The lord of the castle dies. The castle and the stone courtyard are auctioned below their value. Eva Sixtus stays with her old father. Irene marries Baron Gaston von Rehlen in Vienna. Ewald works as an engineer in Ireland . The a little overgrown Fritz is doing his doctorate. phil., received the venia docendi at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin , became a teacher in the Rhineland, went back to his place of study as a private lecturer and advanced to become a medieval source researcher. His mother dies. After graduating, Just, who didn't want to be a farmer at home, set up a farm in the middle of Neu- Minden / Wisconsin in the wilderness. Finally, the citizen of the United States of America buys back the stone courtyard and triumphantly moves in.

Von Rehlen, a villain, dies in a duel. Baroness Irene von Rehlen now lives in Berlin with her little, seriously ill daughter Leonie von Rehlen. The child dies. The cousin Just, the last ancestor of the Eversteins, arrives and takes his relative Irene home with him. During his stay in Berlin, the learned farmer from the Steinhofe had thrown the narrator Fritz off balance with one aside: Eva Sixtus had once been very fond of Fritz Langreuter. Cousin Just can't understand why Fritz didn't want to notice.

When the cousin has already "returned from America for over a year", the "German-Irish agricultural and hydraulic engineering artist" Ewald Sixtus from Belfast returns to the forest house in Werden. “The Irish bridge builder and tunnel digger” travels via Berlin and takes Fritz with him. The engineer confesses to his friend that Mrs. Irene is one of his reasons for traveling. Ewald surprises the meanwhile 28-year-old sister Eva and the father in the Werden forestry department. The “English fool” has bought Werden Castle, which has been uninhabited for five years. When the chief forester Sixtus got the news, he wonders what the countess - Mrs. Irene, who is sitting with cousin Just in the stone courtyard - will say about the purchase of the ruined walls with its cleared avenues.

Eva Sixtus wants to marry Just. Fritz wishes Just luck with all of his heart. Half of the village of Werden crowded into the forester's house. Everyone wants to wish the new lord of the castle Ewald luck. After a joint inspection, Ewald informs his friend Fritz of his decision. He will not build Schloss Werden again for Irene and himself, because "unfortunately it is not the right thing" anymore. The park and palace are hardly recognizable. A country road now leads across the site.

Eva Sixtus and Just Everstein become a couple. Eva still runs the household in her father's forester's house. Fritz has to realize that he doesn't belong to the Weser, but to Berlin. Just watching Ewald and Irene. He calls them cowards. The most cowardly of the two is Ewald. Irene angrily rejects this.

Forester Sixtus had an accident on duty. Irene wants to help her friend Eva and hurries to the forester's house. Ewald and Irene finally find each other at the forester's sickbed. Old Sixtus dies. Eva leaves the forester's house and goes to Just in the Steinhof. Irene follows Ewald across the canal to England. Cousin Just has become master of Werden Castle. He suggests that Fritz turn it into an “educational institution for incorrigible boys from the best families”. Fritz refuses. Just keep thinking. A permanent bridge could be built near Bodenwerder - with the blocks from the demolition of the Werden castle.

Quotes

  • "A flower that opens up makes no noise."
  • "There will come a time for all people when they will no longer be afraid of anything."
  • "We all swing on swaying branches between heaven and earth."

shape

Around 1860 Fritz speaks of his "life report" and calls himself the "biographer of the people of Schloß Werden". "The Historiographer of Castle and Village Werden" asserts that he is not writing a novel, but rather "life histories" that go back to childhood. He openly admits his writing weaknesses - for example: “This will be another chapter of repetition; But this time too, I really can't help it. ”With prominent chapter introductions, Fritz captivates the reader. The 16th chapter in the second book begins with the double question: “And Ewald and Irene? What did they say and do? "

reception

In vol. 14 of the Braunschweig edition, Hoppe quotes the author's personal testimonies and the differing statements made by Raabe's contemporaries about the work. While Paul Heyse praises the novel very much, the text in the " Neue Freie Presse " of February 1880 is panned as unpoetic.

More recently, for example, Oppermann and Sprengel have commented on the novel. While the narrator Fritz resigns and fails, the other four protagonists find their "real nature" acting. Sprengel points to some of Raabe's symbols - the “rushing past” Weser “as the river of time” and Werden Castle as a symbol of the becoming of the characters in this development novel.

  • References to further work can be found at

Oppermann :

Gerhart Meyer (1958)

Meyen :

Heinrich Keck (Halle 1880), Friedrich Dietert (Berlin 1905), Paul Gerber (Leipzig 1905), Karl Dietrich, Wilhelm Brandes , Franz Hahne (Wolfenbüttel 1913, 1917, 1922), Paul Sommer (Leipzig 1927), Hans-Joachim Bock ( Würzburg 1937 (Diss. Bonn)), Wilhelm Fehse, (Braunschweig 1937, Leipzig 1942) and Aribert Steffen (Braunschweig 1964).

expenditure

First edition

  • Old nests. Two books of life stories. 340 pages. Westermann, Braunschweig 1880

Used edition

  • Old nests. Two books of life stories . Pp. 5–269, with an appendix, written by Karl Hoppe , pp. 453–483 in: Karl Hoppe (arr.): Wilhelm Raabe: Alte Nester. The horn of Wanza . (3rd edition) Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005. Vol. 14, ISBN 3-525-20127-3 in Karl Hoppe (ed.), Jost Schillemeit (ed.), Hans Oppermann (ed.), Kurt Schreinert ( Ed.): Wilhelm Raabe. Complete Works. Braunschweig edition . 24 vols.

Further editions

  • Old nests. Two books of life stories
    • 294 pages. Otto Janke , Berlin 1897 (2nd edition)
    • 294 pages. Otto Janke, Berlin 1903 (3rd edition)
    • 320 pages. Otto Janke, Berlin 1905 (4th ed.)
    • 320 pages. Otto Janke, Berlin 1910 (5th edition)
    • 298 pages. Hermann Klemm, Berlin 1919
    • 298 pages. Hermann Klemm, Berlin 1922
    • 269 ​​pages. Hermann Klemm, Freiburg im Breisgau 1955
    • 196 pages. Zenodot Collection, 2007, ISBN 978-3-86640-207-2

literature

  • Hans Oppermann : Wilhelm Raabe. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1970 (1988 edition), ISBN 3-499-50165-1 (rowohlt's monographs).
  • Fritz Meyen : Wilhelm Raabe. Bibliography. 438 pages. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1973 (2nd edition). Supplementary volume 1, ISBN 3-525-20144-3 in Karl Hoppe (Ed.): Wilhelm Raabe. Complete Works. Braunschweig edition . 24 vols.
  • Hans-Jürgen Schrader (Ed.): Wilhelm Raabe: Höxter and Corvey . A story. 215 pages. Reclam, Stuttgart 1981, RUB 7729, ISBN 3-15-007729-X
  • Cecilia von Studnitz : Wilhelm Raabe. Writer. A biography. 346 pages. Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1989, ISBN 3-7700-0778-6
  • Peter Sprengel : History of German-Language Literature 1870–1900. From the founding of the empire to the turn of the century . CH Beck, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-44104-1 .
  • Hans-Jürgen Schrader : Poetic theory of poetry in Raabe's work. Copied to "Alte Nester". In: Hans-Jürgen Schrader: Wilhelm Raabe. Studies on his advanced, realistic storytelling. Wallstein, Göttingen 2018, pp. 135–163.

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ von Studnitz, p. 313, entry 52
  2. ↑ In Schrader, p. 188, the place can be found in the old spelling “Werden” on a map of the spiritual principality of Corvey after an engraving by Gigas .
  3. ↑ Old nests: 1st book, 1st chapter.
  4. ↑ Old nests: 2nd book, 1st chapter.
  5. ↑ Old Nests: Book 2, Chapter 12.
  6. ↑ Alte Nester: 2nd book, 15th chapter.
  7. ↑ Old Nests: Book 2, Chapter 16.
  8. ↑ Hoppe in the Braunschweiger edition, pp. 459–462
  9. ↑ Oppermann, p. 101 below
  10. ↑ Sprengel, p. 332
  11. ↑ Oppermann, p. 154, 11. Zvu
  12. ↑ Meyen, pp. 314-316
  13. ↑ Meyen, pp. 40-41