Aquis submersus

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Publisher's cover of the first book edition

Aquis submersus is a novella by Theodor Storm . It was first published in 1876 in No. 9 of the Deutsche Rundschau magazine and, slightly corrected, was published as a book in 1877. In 1886 the story reappeared with others in Before Times .

background

When writing the novella, Theodor Storm was inspired by a picture in the church in Drelsdorf . The picture showed a family of preachers there. Another picture was dedicated to the son of the family with the inscription: " Henricus Bonnix, aquis incuria servi submersus obyt Ao 1656, 7 May, aetatis 10 " (Heinrich Bonnix died as a result of the carelessness of a servant in the water, in 1656 on May 7th at the age of 10).

Storm came up with the idea for the novella on a trip in autumn 1875. He also used the Husumische Nachrichten as well as the Kieler and Hamburger Nachrichten as cultural-historical sources .

The village church in Aquis submersus is not in Drelsdorf, but in the nearby village of Hattstedt . Storm was often there with the pastor's son in his youth, as described in the novella. The inscription was also changed, from the carelessness of the servant ( incuria servi ) Storm makes the father's guilt ( culpa patris ).

Theodor Storm probably began work on the work in November 1875. After five months of work, he sent the manuscript to the publisher in April 1876. The first edition appeared in October of the same year in volume 9 of the Deutsche Rundschau , a year later Aquis submersus came out as a book. In 1886 the poet combined these and four other short stories to form the collection of short stories Before Times .

content

Aquis submersus is a love story with a tragic ending, told against the backdrop of a north Germany destroyed by the Thirty Years' War , in which mercenaries , who became marauding robbers, still terrified the country. From this time, the story of the love between Katharina and the painter Johannes, which failed due to malice and class arrogance, is told with an ancient choice of words, which is presented as a recording by the painter from a framework narration . The reason for writing the amendment was probably the annexation of Schleswig-Holstein by the Kingdom of Prussia after the German War .

The narrator of the frame story finds the painter Johannes' notes, which point back to the 17th century. Johannes, who is now the narrator of the internal story , arrives at the castle of the Junker and fatherly friend Gerhardus in 1661 and falls in love with his daughter Katharina. When Gerhardus dies, his son and heir Wulf now marries his sister to the neighboring nobleman and drinking companion Kurt. A joint escape planned by the lovers is then revealed. Johannes is driven from the court and Katharina is locked behind the walls of the castle.

Before that, however, the relentless demeanor of Junkers Wulf had driven the painter's lover into the arms, so that the unequal couple could father a child on a first and last night of love before their forced separation. When Johannes later returned to the castle after continuing his training in the Netherlands , he could no longer find his lover. It wasn't until five years later that he discovered Katharina again, who had been married to a preacher . A rapprochement between the two fails: While the couple tries to find each other again, their unsupervised son drowns in a pond.

interpretation

In Aquis submersus Storm tells vividly, almost drastically. Already at the beginning of the novella there is the scenario of a landscape devastated by war and misery, wolf and griffin are lurking predators. The love story that develops under these conditions is doomed to failure. War and social class, brutality, economic necessity and religion all speak against such a liaison without being able to prevent it. Instead, Johannes, who has been disqualified as a painter, tries to force fate and this is precisely what promotes doom. When the painter visits the hated Junker in the tavern, this act escalates.

The Junker shows himself in the tavern in the place to which he seems to belong. Drunk, as part of the mob who only knows how to use the primacy of their origins to make the common peasant boys feel their arrogance due to the manorial rule, even when they are intoxicated, but who otherwise hardly know how to do justice to an emphatic concept of nobility. The enmity between the Junker and the internal narrator then culminates in a solid scuffle, in which the latter is defeated, but still knows how to abuse his power here by inciting his bloodhounds on the painter.

The escape, in which the narrator now goes into the forest, fluctuates between hope and fear, is a hunt without it being certain whether the "hellhounds", who operate here as the cattle assistants of the increasingly unquestionable evil, are now up have left the track of the hunted at all - until they actually catch up with their victim at the castle wall.

Here, however, the malicious Junker becomes part of the production of the fate , as his assistants rushed the painter up the planting of the homestead. Exactly in the room of the beloved, in which - after a few words and oaths - confession of love, sexual act and fate take place in equal measure. The escape planned for the next day, however, fails because the disillusioned Junker finds out about it and does not hesitate to unfold his bad senses even outside the influence of alcohol. Storm then gives a lesson in abbreviation and gathering as a means of the novella: The painter, who now sees his lover in grave danger, goes to the Junker against all advice, asks him for his sister's hand and is immediately shot down by him. who quickly announces that he wants to finish the unfinished work of the dogs. The painter is convalescing in the village, the beloved was no longer seen, and finally Johannes moves back to Dutch regions in the hope of doing one last thing to increase his reputation, so that he can then catch up with the beloved.

At this point the first part of the record breaks off. The appearance of the frame narrator lets the reader catch their breath and the story gains time, in order to then return the painter, already situated and now very well able to outdo a Junker in the open air, to the village - to include him and the readers shortly afterwards to confront a shock: Not only that Katharina can no longer be found on the estate; the villagers are astonished to see the painter again, since they all assumed that he had brought their lover home long ago and that this explains her absence.

The uncertainty that now lies over the story lays itself over the protagonist in the same way as over those who followed him through reading. Memories of the castle pond, of the aquis submersus of the beginning, feed fears just as the state of mind of the Junker suggests his murderous hand.

The Buhz now circles over the whole story. The village is left and a search for the beloved begins. But all searches are unsuccessful. Finally, the painter begins some commissioned work - including those for a Calvinist pastor from the neighborhood, who appears with little time and a graceful boy, reluctantly and only to have himself portrayed at the request of the community. And only now does the fateful circle at the beginning of the novella come full:

The painter soon recognized the child as his son. Dishonored by the premarital pregnancy, Katharina had to flee and became the wife of the Man of God. And so the painter's brief, deceptive joy over the found beloved is quickly masked with that wall of marriage, which turns out to be even more insurmountable than that of the origin:

At a favorable opportunity, when the whole village indulges in the cruelty of a witch to be burned at the stake , who had previously "maliciously" taken her own life, now at least as a dead person into a spectacle - at the occasion that Also, like all such occasions, the presence of the Man of God requires the presence of the Man of God, John approaches his beloved with all his hopes and fears, his wishes for a common future and his dark premonitions of the impossibility of such plans. And also Katharina, albeit defensive, lets the still waking love feel through many things. It is a brief moment of intimate closeness and intimacy in which the two lovers are once again enough - during which their son drowns.

The scene, in which all the threads of the plot come together, is just as dramatic and moving as it is masterfully designed: once again Katharina, who once failed to resist and thus became a sinner, fought off the last desire of the lover - and she fended off it stopped, since she was no longer alone, not even single, but above all now: was a mother, had a child who was loved (also by his stepfather), although it grew out of sin. In this last, momentary togetherness, the little one drowns. Shortly before, he could be heard singing with a sense of death:

"Two angels who cover me,
Two angels who stretch me
And two, so tell me
into the heavenly parade iron "
(447)

The supposed signal of well-being, the singing child, becomes the farewell melody. The lovers are torn apart by the breaking of the bond that appeared to be the product of their lust. The painter also creates a picture of his dead son, here he puts the cpas , which at the beginning of the novella still puzzled the storyteller and now actually means: culpa patris aquis submersus - drowned in the water through his father's fault. From now on the painter heard “no bird's call” (454) any more, and immediately, because the record, which is supposed to remain the only information of his fate, then ends, he too will sink into the oblivion of history.

With the last demand of this novella, if there is one, interpreters have had their troubles since then: On the one hand there is the arrogance of a noble mob, who does not take off against the backdrop of destroyed landscapes, but appears as another tumor of the war. On the other hand, there seems to be a fatefulness beneath everything that is inescapable. In the end, however, in the face of death and from the depths of hopelessness, when this fate has already come true, John again thwarts his work and takes all the guilt on himself - a last act of love, moreover, full of hopelessness, which nevertheless shows a person who is here can only be considered morally human. After all deeds have failed, suffering becomes liberation; not for fulfillment, not for happiness , but for a peace of mind that is parallel to that of the drowned child. But even this remains uncertain - because the story breaks off here.

Appreciation

The novella Aquis submersus , a novella in that required moment of unheard-of news in several ways, initially appears as a love story with a continuous arc of tension and a dramatic outcome. Failure is confirmed both in social conceit and in front of the backdrop of destroyed landscapes. Love, it seems, has no place in the world, or at least it has lost its place - the only institution of marriage that legitimizes love and lust is not only closed in a murderous society, the above-mentioned conceit against inappropriate connections even appear as merely still pushable, barely hiding the raw economic ulterior motives.

Behind it, however - embracing this internal motif - there is the question of guilt, which can not only be asked again and again at every important point in the development of the novella, but according to which this novella was also symbolically developed. The starting point from which the story unfolds is a multi-layered picture, in the middle of which there is again a picture: within a multi-marked idyll is the parish area, in turn the church protrudes from within the walls of which a painting. And this in turn is remembered by the narrator as “the place of my youth” (378) . Here “the imms hummed on the blossoms […], butterflies […] floated” (379) , then at the pastor's house there is the “silver poplar” (ibid.) , Which is now “like the apple tree of paradise ” (ibid.) already suggests evil. But only inside the church, guarded by a strict sexton, is that appealing, dreadful painting that combines frame and interior narration:

"[...] the innocent portrait of a dead child, a beautiful boy about five years old, who, resting on a lacy pillow, held a white water lily in his pale little hand. From the tender face spoke next to the horror of death, as if pleading for help, one last lovely trace of life [...] ” (381)

And what is remembered in the boy - whom he is remembered looking at here - arouses his “pity” (ibid.) - and also brooding over a strange abbreviation “cpas” in one corner of the painting, from which im Conversation with the pastor, the friend's father, who quickly deciphered the "as" as "aquis submersus", "sunk in the water", but the "cp" remains indefinable - although two possible resolutions are mentioned: The narrator himself names " culpa patris ”, his spiritual counterpart“ casu periculoso ”,“ through misfortune ”as a possibility (see 383) . At the end of the story (see 453) the narrator is said to be right. But whether this acknowledgment, which is “through the guilt of the father”, is justified, as this supposed assumption of guilt is to be understood, remains a matter of dispute among the interpreters.

Even the name of the painter "Johannes", as Gerhard Kaiser noted in 1983, is in the New Testament context, reminiscent of Jesus' favorite disciple, who is passed down as "Little children, love you". The name of the beloved, Katharina, ("the pure one"), suggests a Marian motif, as it is then also found, has similar echoes. On the other hand, there is their brother, the Junker Wulf, who seems to implement Hobbesian “ homo homini lupus est” (“man is a wolf to man”) in the roughest possible way; then the Junker Risch (the vilified suitor) who physiognomically finds himself in one with the "Buhz" (389f.) , the bird of prey, and "Bas Ursel" (the she-bear) always alert and at the end of an ancestor who Seems to have brought evil into the family tree, which was now expressed again in Wulf, not dissimilar.

Johannes becomes the molester of the pure Katharina, he makes her a victim of his lust twice: The first of these encounters has their child. The second, which is much more clearly characterized by lust and the desire to possess - "[...] took her hand and pulled it like a willless person to me in the shade of the bushes" (446) , then: "[...] If I became almost impotent, I suddenly pulled it to my chest, [...] held it as if with iron clamps and finally had it, finally again! " (448) - briefly turns into an erotically charged reunion with:" Your eyes sank into mine , and her red lips tolerated mine [...] "," Glances full of bliss "," [...] suffocated from my kisses " (ibid.) , in between then, culminating:" I would have liked to kill her, if we did could have died together " (ibid.) , but then quickly repentance - which Katharina first formulated:

“It's a long, anxious life! O, Jesus Christ, forgive me this hour " (ibid.) -

and which is then left to both of them when they lose their child, culpa parentum , a few minutes later .

But the question of guilt is far from opening up here, because the supposedly pure Katharina has long been waiting for Johannes. And for this the moment of fulfillment and a reunion is necessary at the same time, to get his fatherhood discovered first. And ultimately both resistance is so low, because they still love each other, have always loved one another, is not Johannes the villain, but first Junker Wulf, then the clergyman who marries Katharinen and, as Kaiser calls it, "legalized rapist" (1983, 60) becomes a "rapist", who is also absent for the spectacle of a witch burning and in this cruelty only makes it possible in nuce.

So there remain the social conventions on this level that obstruct the happiness of love without right, because “love overcomes everything”, “ama et fac quod vis” (after Augustine ).

But the interpretation is not exhausted here either. Because the “rapist” marries the sinner without need. Although he is otherwise characterized as calvinistic , he is a loving father to the stepson and - after his death - his wife is a humble forgiver. Finally, there remains (and this is often overlooked) a Christian motif of a completely different kind: John, who paints his dead son, takes on all the guilt: He does this and thereby negates the fall into sin, which was hinted at in the casu periculoso , a coincidence, arose out of danger (the hunt), which in its inevitability points back to the first case - the paradisiacal error - which brought original sin into the world.

The actual act of redemption, however, "covered by angels", lies in little John, who, as if the history of creation were being reversed, enters the "sea" from which he came, eradicates the sin of his existence, Catherine the purity, the John the washing baptism will come to be venerated in the future in the sacred rooms of the church - with the difference, however, that it will sink the greatest possible misfortune on the so purified; they, who as lovers - albeit separate and sinful - are alive, have a story, now likewise and relentlessly sink into the darkness of the disinterest of history.

quoted from: Theodor Storm, Complete Works ; 4 vols., Ed. v. Karl Ernst Laage u. Dieter Lohmeier, Frankfurt a. M. 1987

Primary literature

Secondary literature

  • Wm. L. Cunningham, On the role of water in Theodor Storm's “Der Schimmelreiter” ; in: Writings of the Theodor Storm Society 27 (1978), 2f.
  • Heinrich Detering, "Aquis submersus". Art, religion and art religion with Theodor Storm , in: Manfred Jakubowski-Tiessen (ed.), Religion between art and politics. Aspects of secularization in the 19th century, Göttingen 2004, pp. 48–67.
  • Günther Ebersold, Politics and Social Criticism in Theodor Storm's novels ; Frankfurt a. M. u. Bern 1981
  • Rüdiger Frommholz, Theodor Storm. To the self-image of a poet in realism ; in: Gunter E. Grimm (ed.), Metamorphoses of the poet. The self-image of German writers from the Enlightenment to the present ; Frankfurt a. M. 1992, 167-183
  • Gerhard Kaiser, reading pictures. Studies of literature and fine arts ; Munich 1981
  • Johannes Klein, History of the German Novella - from Goethe to the Present ; 3rd, improve. u. extended Ed .; Wiesbaden 1956
  • Franz Koch, Idea and Reality. German poetry between naturalism and romanticism ; 2 vol .; Düsseldorf 1956
  • Josef Kunz (ed.), Novella ; (= WdF, 60); Darmstadt 1968
  • Karl Ernst Laage, Theodor Storms Chroniknovellen - an unromantic return to the past ; in: Klaus-Detlef Müller (ed.), Studies on German Literature since Romanticism. (FS Hans-Joachim Mähl ) , Tübingen 1988, 336-343
  • Gerd Eversberg , explanations on Theodor Storms Aquis submersus : ISBN 3-8044-0311-5
  • Hildegard Lorenz, Variance and Invariance. Theodor Storm's stories: figure constellations and action patterns ; (= Depending on art, music and literary studies, 363); Bonn 1985
  • Fritz Martini, The German Novelle in ›bourgeois Realism‹. Reflections on the historical determination of the form type ; in: Kunz 1968, 346-384
  • Norbert Mecklenburg (Ed.), Nature Poetry and Society ; Stuttgart 1977
  • Birgit Reimann, Between the Need for Harmony and the Experience of Separation: The Human Relationship to Nature in Theodor Storm's work. For poetic design of nature and landscape in poetry and novellistics ; Diss .; Freiburg i.Br. 1995
  • Wilhelm Steffen, Powers of Inheritance and Environment in Storm's Life and Poetry ; in: Euphorion 41 (1941), 460-485
  • Wiebke Strehl, Inheritance and Environment: The children's narrative motif in Theodor Storm's narrative work ; (= Stuttgart papers on German studies, ed. By Ulrich Müller et al., 332); Stuttgart 1996
  • Benno von Wiese, The German Novelle from Goethe to Kafka. Interpretations ; 2 vol .; Düsseldorf 1965

Film adaptations

The novel has been filmed twice under different titles , first as a feature film , later as a television play .

art

Audio book

Web links

Wikisource: Aquis Submersus  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Aquis submersus , staedelmuseum.de, accessed on June 10, 2012