Bernauerin (folk ballad)
The Bernauerin is a folk ballad that tells of the tragedy of traditional class differences with a historical theme .
Start of text of a variant
1. Three gentlemen ride out of the gate,
they are probably riding a bath lady in front of her house.
2. "Andel Baderin, you should get up early
and go out a little before the gentlemen,
Duke Albrecht is coming."
3. Andel Baderin pulls on a snow-white shirt,
so you can see her body as white as snow ,
she must have stepped in front of the gentlemen.
[...]
19 stanzas, based on a transcription by Jacob Grimm, February 1815 [modernized writing].
Plot of the folk ballad
Action elements of different variants are in round brackets (compare variability ), explanatory additions are in square brackets. - Three horsemen (from Munich) come to Straubing in front of the house of Andel Baderin (Bernauerin), who wears a (elegant) snow-white, transparent shirt [probably signals her innocence here, but is also considered seductive in other contexts; historically this is Agnes Bernauer , the daughter of a baker from a lower, despised social class, from a "dishonest" class { dishonest profession }]. She should do without Duke Albrecht [historically Albrecht III. of Bavaria, with whom she was secretly married in 1432]. But she refuses.
Tied, she is led to the water; Pushed in, she calls on Maria (St. Nicholas) for help. But even the executioner, whose wife she is offered to become [previous legal custom: executioner's wedding], does not have mercy on her. When Duke Albrecht comes, she is dead. Albrecht asks the fishermen to look for the dead woman and rescue her; he laments them. He wants revenge with a campaign against his father. The father [historically the reigning Duke Ernst] advises him to look for another girl ("over the Rhine" [in a foreign country]), just not under his class ( class rules ) as with the Bader's daughter. (Duke Ernst [!] Commits suicide or is dead after three days.) [According to a folk tale, Albrecht died "three days" later.] Duke Albrecht mourns the woman from Bernau.
Historical background and ballad-like adaptation
State interests force Albrecht III. of Bavaria to forego the improper Bernauerin. She is slandered as a witch and drowned in Straubing in 1435. The historical facts are narrative redesigned and processed in a ballad-like manner (in the style of the folk ballad): there are “three” horsemen, the duke is dead after “three” days; Use of "once ... as" surprise formulas and other stereotypical stanzas which, as epic formulas, form a dramatic structure ; Dialogues, closing formula, etc. The fact that the father Duke Ernst and the son Albrecht allegedly commit suicide is a ballad-like transformation of historical facts in the sense of “compensatory justice” or the medieval retribution mentality.
The form of the death penalty imposed on the Bernauer woman corresponds to the medieval conception of punishment rituals and judicial practice: executions were seen as “a kind of cleansing rituals for society”. "The killing was not carried out by the hangman's hand, but by the force of nature ... The main people who were drowned [as punishment for women] were people who had violated moral norms or the church order ... Preference was given to running water ... [ with a guilt-washing symbolism and with elements of the] divine judgment ... The bound woman was thrown into the water, whereby a hangman still pushed her under the surface of the water with long poles ”(Richard van Dülmen, Theater des Schreckens, Beck, Munich, o. J. , Pp. 121-123).
Lore
The well-known tradition has been orally documented since around 1750, the first documented record in 1782. The melody was handed down in Regensburg in 1817. We know of a handwritten record by Jacob Grimm in 1815 [see above]; on printed song pamphlets (see leaflet ) the folk ballad is documented before 1812 and in Vienna 1817. It is possible that all of the song references go back to a single source which can be dated after 1752. Before that there are older mentions of songs with this material.
Notes on interpretation
The special thing here is that a really historical event underlies a song, with a text that clearly takes sides in favor of Agnes Bernauerin, i.e. stands against the authorities. In the sense of Wolfgang Steinitz , it is a “democratic folk song”. It is reported that a song was composed for this event as early as 1500.
The problem presented is, as in so many other popular ballads, the difference in class (compare, for example, “ Count and Nun ” and class rules ). The future, reigning duke is not allowed to associate himself with the daughter of a simple bath. Like the executioner, the bather is a "dishonest" profession. But she does not want to do without the Duke and in the folk ballad does not allow herself to be dissuaded from being offered a castle and another “gentleman”. In 1435 she was executed as a witch, namely drowned in the Danube near Straubing. The help you received first from St. Nicholas before she is cruelly pushed back, signals in the song that she is innocent. According to the text of a chronicle from around 1550, she is said to have called Saint Peter and promised him a chapel (again, according to other variants, Mary).
But wrong happens to her that is not prevented. The “common man”, perhaps even more strongly the “common woman”, could identify with the victim of such a perversion of the law, and empathize with her. The authorities didn't like that: for example, around 1650 a corresponding song with this content was banned in Bavaria. However, pamphlets continue to report about it around 1750.
literature
- Wolfgang Steinitz: German folk songs of a democratic character from six centuries , Volume 1, Berlin 1954, p. 189 f., No. 76 (Melodie Regensburg 1817, text Thuringia 19th century).
- German folk song archive and individual editors: German folk songs with their melodies. Ballads [DVldr]: Volume 3, Freiburg i.Br. 1957, No. 65. - Cf. Otto Holzapfel u. a .: German folk songs with their melodies: Balladen , Volume 10, Peter Lang, Bern 1996 (to DVldr No. 65 in the Volksballaden-Index C 1).
- Lutz Röhrich, Rolf Wilhelm Brednich: Deutsche Volkslieder , Volume 1, Düsseldorf 1965, No. 61 a – c (including a recording by Jacob Grimm 1815; Liedflugschrift Vienna 1817).
- Interpreted by Rolf Meier in: Paths to Ballade , ed. by Rupert Hirschenauer, A. Weber, Munich 1976, pp. 115–121.
- Interpreted by Walter Hinck, in: Walter Hinck, Geschichte im Gedicht , Frankfurt / M. 1979, pp. 42-50.
- Folk Music Archive of the Upper Bavarian District : Ballads, Moritats and Sung Stories , Heft 3, Munich 1992, pp. 11-13 (“Three riders ride out to Munich ...” with 18 stanzas used in folk music care in Upper Bavaria since 1991; Munich song arches Number 1).
- Bertrand M. Buchmann: That somebody sings or sait ... The folk song as a source for the history of mentalities in the Middle Ages , Frankfurt / M. 1995, pp. 307-313.
- Otto Holzapfel : The great German folk ballad book , Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf 2000, p. 26 (with commentary).
- Folk music archive of the district of Upper Bavaria: CD Bavarian history in song . Historical folk songs, 1. HSCD 030 101, Munich 2003, No. 1 (sound recording).
- Otto Holzapfel: Liedverzeichnis , Volume 1–2, Olms, Hildesheim 2006 ( ISBN 3-487-13100-5 ) = Otto Holzapfel : Liedverzeichnis: The older German-language popular song tradition . Online version since January 2018 on the homepage of the Folk Music Archive of the District of Upper Bavaria (in PDF format; further updates planned), see song file "Es reiten Drei Herren ..."; see. Lexicon file "Bernauerin".
