Rock crystal (donor)

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Rock crystal - (The holy evening) is a tale of Adalbert Stifter ( 1845 / 1853 ).

overview

Illustration from the first edition of the Colorful Stones ( Ludwig Richter )

The story Bergkristall first appeared in 1845 in the magazine Die Gegenwart and was still titled The Holy Evening . In 1853 it found its way into the colorful stones collection in a revised version under the title Bergkrystall (then: Bergkristall ) . The story is said to have been inspired by a picture by the founder friend Friedrich Simony , which shows children who have fled into a cave. He also met a couple of children in Hallstatt who had been surprised by a storm while they were collecting strawberries and who had sought shelter under a rock.

Bergkristall is considered to be the most poignant story that Stifter wrote. On the one hand he describes the nature in which the children get caught and on the other hand the effect on them and on the adults who fear and seek them out. The author uses religious motifs: At Christmas, the children get lost in the high mountains , and when they return to their families alive and safe, it's like a resurrection for Easter . This story, which takes place on the holy night , conveys the preparations for the upcoming birthday of Jesus ( Christmas ), the danger of death ( Good Friday ), the rescue from the danger of death (Easter) and the subsequent reconciliation ( Pentecost ). The characters in the action not only celebrate the church festivals, but also experience their meaning in their own body and soul. The first sentence of the story is therefore to be understood as a “program”: “Our church celebrates various feasts which reach the heart” .

content

Reading by Bergkristall , LibriVox 2016 (2 h 7 min 35 s)

Brother and sister get lost in the mountains on Christmas Eve, they spend the night in a stone cave. That night the men left two mountain villages to look for the children. On the morning of Christmas Day, the children are found unharmed. The residents of the two mountain villages, who have previously viewed and treated each other as strangers, are reconciled due to this joint rescue operation. The plot frames donors with reflections on the church festivals. The “happy ending” shows: the celebrations and active concern for the children in danger change people in such a way that they come closer to each other. However, there is no word about this ethical dimension in the narrative; rather, Stifter describes natural phenomena and their effects on people's minds. The narrative has the following content:

Two mountain villages - Gschaid and Millsdorf - are separated from each other by a mountain, the residents regard each other as strangers. Regardless of this, the shoemaker from Gschaid married the Millsdorf dyer's daughter. The couple have two children, Konrad and Sanna. On Christmas Eve, the mother sends Konrad and Sanna to the grandparents in Millsdorf to give them Christmas greetings and gifts. To do this, the children go over the pass called "Hals" that separates the two villages. For her part, the grandmother sends the children home in good time so that they have to be home before dusk.

On the way home they get caught in heavy snowfall. They get lost on their necks and don't find the usual signpost: a red column that stands there as a memorial for a hiker who had died in a fatal accident. Instead of going down into the valley, the children wander up into the bare rock and ice region. When it gets dark, they climb into a stone cave to spend the night there. Against the cold, they drink from the coffee that grandmother packed for their parents. Now Konrad, the older of the siblings, is overwhelmed by the impressions of nature. The children hear the ice crack; they see a northern light wafting in the night sky. At dawn, Konrad and Sanna set out to find a way down into the valley.

In the meantime the men from both villages, Gschaid and Millsdorf, have set out to look for the children. When they are found, they are driven home on a sledge. All friends and neighbors meet in the parental home, even the grandmother from Millsdorf has come.

Now it can be Christmas for the people from both villages. Sanna: "Mother, this night when we were sitting on the mountain, I saw the holy Christian." - "O ... you, my dear ... child," answered the mother ... The common rescue of the children becomes a topic of conversation in the inn. “From that day on, the children really became the property of the village, from now on they were no longer regarded as foreigners but as natives who had been brought down from the mountain. Her mother too ... was now a native of Gschaid. "

Now it can be Christmas: on Christmas Day the parents will take their children back safely. After the danger of death in the mountains, the children are now among the living again; it's like Good Friday (death of Jesus) and Easter (resurrection). The residents of the two villages set out on a joint rescue operation and therefore no longer regard each other as strangers: an example of the effects of Pentecost. Stifter only mentions the church festivals in his introduction. He describes the effects on the character of people solely on the basis of being exposed to the forces of nature.

Quotations from the Goldmann edition of "Bunten Steine", 6th edition 1998, pp. 183f.

Film adaptations

The first film adaptation was made by the later Winnetou director Harald Reinl in 1949 under the title Bergkristall (also known under the alternative title Der Wildschütz von Tirol ) exclusively with amateur actors. In 1954 a 50-minute television film Bergkristall was made , directed by Albert Lippert with Hermann Kner and Emmy Percy-Wüstenhagen . In 1974 Paul Stockmeier shot another television film for ORF in which Leopold Rudolf was the narrator.

A fourth film adaptation, again for ORF, was made in 1999 under the title Bergkristall - Verirrt im Schnee , starring Tobias Moretti among others . In 2004, the narrative served as the - very freely used - basis of the film of the same name by Joseph Vilsmaier , which includes Daniel Morgenroth , Dana Vávrová and Katja Riemann .

expenditure

  • Adalbert Stifter: Colorful stones . Bd. 2. Heckenast, Wigand, Pest u. Leipzig 1853 ( digitized version and full text in the German text archive ).
  • Adalbert Stifter: Colorful stones. Narratives . With an afterthought, a timeline. on founder, note and bibliogr. Advice from Hannelore Schlaffer. Complete Edition (6th edition), Goldmann, Munich 1998, ISBN 978-3-442-07547-8 .

Audio books

Literature (selection)

  • Paul Hankamer : Adalbert Stifter's "Bergkristall". In: Theodor Steinbüchel , Theodor Müncker (ed.): From theology and philosophy. Festschrift for Fritz Tillmann on his 75th birthday. (November 1, 1949). Patmos-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1950, pp. 84-99.
  • Otto Jungmair: The origin of Adalbert Stifter's masterpiece “Bergkristall” , Oberösterreichische Heimatblätter 1968, online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at
  • Theo Rosebrock: Explanation of Adalbert Stifter's “Das Heidedorf”, “Bergkristall”. 2nd Edition. Bange, Hollfeld 1978, ISBN 3-8044-0154-6 ( König's explanations and materials 250).
  • Hugo Schmidt: Ice cave and stone house. On the Christmas symbolism in Stifter's "Bergkristall". In: monthly books for German teaching. 56, 1964, ISSN  0026-9271 , pp. 321-335.
  • Egon Schwarz : On the style in Stifter's "Bergkristall". In: Neophilologus. 38, 1, 1954, ISSN  0028-2677 , pp. 260-268.
  • Margit M. Sinka: Unappreciated Symbol. The "column of misfortune" in Stifter's "Bergkristall". In: Modern Austrian Literature 16, 2, 1983, ISSN  0544-6465 , pp. 1-17.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harald Reinl: rock crystal. Retrieved July 8, 2018 .
  2. ^ Albert Lippert: rock crystal. Retrieved July 8, 2018 .
  3. ^ Paul Stockmeier: Bergkristall. 1974, Retrieved July 8, 2018 .