Šumava sketches

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Böhmerwaldskizzen is a volume of stories by the German-Bohemian writer Karl Klostermann (1848–1923), which was published in 1890 . It is the only German-language book by the author that was published during his lifetime.

content

The author, the German-Czech writer Karel Klostermann, who later only written nor Czech, makes in the book Sumava sketches a fictional journey through his homeland, the Bohemian Forest . He speaks to the reader as if he were accompanying him on an extended hike and shows him the unspoilt landscape with its sights. This hike (from Böhmisch Eisenstein via Hurkenthal, Stubenbach , Rehberg and Mader to Rachel , Lusen and the Vltava source , finally to Buchwald and Aussergefild ) also gives him ample opportunity to report about the country and its people, about the tough living conditions in the remote area, which he often sprinkles in anecdotes or short stories. The reader learns how dangerous life in the Bohemian Forest used to be, in whose infinite primeval forests and swamps it was easy to go wrong and which was especially threatening in snowy winter. Here the common people lived a hard life in their huts. It was mostly wood cutters, glassmakers or smugglers and poachers who came over the Bavarian border and settled their conflicts with the locals here. It is not possible to give an actual table of contents for the book, as it does not have a continuous plot, but appears like a chat with topics that follow one another in rapid succession. Throughout the book there is a certain sadness about the changes that have occurred in the Bohemian Forest since the author's youth. Bark beetle plague and increasing deforestation have reduced the former jungle or changed its face. Where there used to be ancient giant trees, there were now often only young wood or bare areas to be seen, where there used to be impenetrable thickets, there were now paths and roads through the forest. In addition, there was the growing tourism, which also brought changes with it and which the author cannot report on without a certain mockery and scorn concerning unsuspecting urban summer visitors. The language of the book is mostly humorous and characterized by an idiosyncratic mood. Nevertheless, it is a serious book that gives a realistic and unadorned picture of the Bohemian Forest.

Emergence

Karl Klostermann, who worked as a journalist, published stories from the Bohemian Forest in the magazine Politik under the pseudonym Faustin in 1885 , which appeared in 32 sequels under the title Heiteres und Saduriges aus dem Böhmerwalde in the features section of the magazine. The first part of these sequels, namely 1–16, was published by Klostermann in book form in 1890 under the title Bohemian Forest Sketches. The stories were well received in the magazine, but hardly noticed in book form. Due to the failure, the remaining episodes of the series no longer appeared as a book. The moderate Karl Klostermann, who always advocated a balance between Germans and Czechs in Bohemia, subsequently found greater interest among the Czechs than writers, which is why he only wrote his subsequent books in the Czech language. The Šumava sketches therefore remained Klostermann's only book written in German.

expenditure

  • Šumava sketches . Pilsen: self-published, 1890
  • Šumava sketches . Berlin (East): Rütten & Loening, 1987
  • Šumava sketches . Passau: Karl Stutz, 1996 (2nd edition 2001)

Czech translations

  • Ze Šumavy (črty) . Praha: Nakladatelství Jos. R. Vilímek, 1925
  • Črty ze Šumavy . Plzeň: Západočeské nakladatelství, 1986
  • Črty ze Šumavy . Sušice: Radovan Vine, 2006