Božena Němcová

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   Božena Němcová
photo around 1850
signature

Božena Němcová ([ ˈbɔʒɛna ˈɲɛmt͡sɔvaː ]) (born February 4, 1820 in Vienna – † January 21, 1862 in Prague ) was a Czech writer .

Life

The exact date and place of Božena Němcová's birth is not known. It is usually stated that she was born on February 4, 1820 in Vienna, Alservorstadt 206, as Barbara Nowotny , the illegitimate daughter of Theresia, daughter of Georg Nowotny, and was baptized on February 5, 1820 in the Alserkirche in Alservorstadt. In the summer of 1820 Theresia Nowotny (1797–1863) with her daughter Barbara came to Ratibořice on the Nachod estate , then owned by Duchess Wilhelmine of Sagan , where she got a job as a manorial laundress in the chateau. On August 7, 1820, in the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Skalička, now part of Česká Skalice ( German  Böhmisch Skalitz ), she married the manorial coachman Johann Pankl (1794–1850) from Gainfarn in Lower Austria , which legitimized Barbara. Johann Pankl is already entered as the father in the duplicate of the baptismal register of the Alserkirche.

In the years 1824–1830, Němcová attended school in Česká Skalice, after which she was sent to the family of the chateau administrator in Chvalkovice, Augustin Hoch, "for education" in order to deepen her general education, perfect her knowledge of German, piano, needlework and manners to learn. She spent three years there before returning to Ratibořice. Based on these facts, based on the entries in the school books and Němcová's statements in her private correspondence, it can be assumed that she was actually born earlier than 1820. This year, which was on her baptismal certificate, was only given as the official year of birth after her marriage. The historian Helena Sobková cites the year 1816, the Němcová researcher Jaroslav Šůla 1818.

500 koruna banknote with Božena Němcová

In 1837, at her mother's urging, she married Josef Němec (1805–1879) , a Czech patriot from Červený Kostelec , a tax clerk who had a decisive influence on her national consciousness. The connection turned out to be unsuccessful; this is not least due to the constant financial difficulties of the family. Josef Němec lacked the will to serve, but his highly nationalistic activities were unpleasantly noticed by his superiors. His flaunted Czech identity negated the supranationality of the imperial and royal civil service, which saw itself as an important instrument of integration in the multinational state. There was no professional advancement, but the frequent change of place of work, which his family had to go through, should not be interpreted as a punitive measure. In the first five years of marriage, Božena Němcová gave birth to four children, each in a different city. The first child, son Hynek, was born in 1838 in Josefov , the second, son Karel, in 1839 in Litomyšl . In 1840 Josef Němec was transferred to Polná , where their daughter Theodora was born in 1841. In 1842 Prague became the birthplace of the third son, Jaroslav. In the capital of the Czech kingdom, Němcová met leading members of the Czech national movement, such as František Palacký and Václav Bolemír Nebeský . Under her influence, she began writing and adopted the Czech first name Božena . Between 1843 and 1847 the family lived in Domažlice , then briefly in Všeruby and Nymburk . In 1850 Josef Němec was transferred to Hungary . His wife refused to follow him and moved to Prague, also to enable the children to attend Czech schools. Němec' official problems culminated in 1856 when he was forced to retire from his last office in Villach after suspected embezzlement . He returned to his family in Prague. Soon there were arguments about the children's professional future and even violent outbursts. Božena Němcová twice fled from their shared apartment, after the second time she refused all attempts at reconciliation and in 1861 moved to Litomyšl.

Božena Němcová
Last photo (around 1860)

In the years 1842-1845 she mainly wrote fairy tales and poems. Her first published text was the nationally tuned poem To Czech Women ( Ženám Českým ) in 1843; The fairy tale About Cinderella ( O Popelce ), which was filmed in 1973 under the title Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella in a co-production between Czechoslovakia and East Germany , also dates from this period . The fairy tale film has been an integral part of the Christmas program on public television for years and is considered by many to be a cult film .

From 1845 she published Travel Pictures from the Taus Region ( Obrazy z okolí domažlického ) as well as many short stories and various series of fairy tales and legends that she had collected and introduced into Czech literature. Her most famous work is Babička ( Grandmother ), which appeared in 1855 and describes impressions from Němcová's childhood in Bohemia under the formative care of her grandmother. This work is now considered one of the most important in Czech national literature .

Němcová monument in Prague
Němcová's grave in the Vyšehrad cemetery

Němcová visited her husband several times for long periods in Hungary. In 1857 and 1858 she collected fairy tales ( Slovenské pohádky ) in the Slovak language . This was unusual for a Czech, since at the time Slovak was not considered an independent language by many of her compatriots.

Božena Němcová died after a serious illness in 1862; She was buried with great sympathy in the Slavín Cemetery of Honor near Vyšehrad Castle in present-day Prague. This is worth mentioning, among other things, because she spent the last years of her life abandoned and impoverished in Prague, and none of the important personalities who tended her coffin took care of her at this time. As a woman, she had striven for an independent life, an attempt to escape the limiting conventions of her century and an expression of being far ahead of her time.

assumptions about their origin

The rumors that spread later, according to which Božena Němcová's father was not Johann Pankl, but a nobleman - the conversation was with the parents' employer, Count Karl Rudolf - could never be proven. It was also repeatedly speculated that Němcová was an adopted child of the Pankls and actually an illegitimate daughter of the Pankls' cheerful employer or her younger sister Dorothea von Sagan . The Russian Tsar Alexander I , Klemens Wenzel Fürst Metternich and other high lords of the Austrian Empire were traded as potential fathers .

The variant according to which Dorothea von Sagan is said to have been the mother of Božena Němcová and Count Karl Clam-Martinic her father seems more plausible. The two are said to have met at the Congress of Vienna and later also in Paris and had a passionate affair until March 1816. According to a current source, Dorothea gave birth to a child from this union in September 1816 in France, in the spa town of Bourbon-l'Archambault , and registered it under the name Marie-Henriette Dessalles. The child would then later (around 1820), possibly through the mediation of Dorothea's sister, Duchess Katharina Wilhelmine von Sagan , have been adopted and recognized as their daughter Barbara by Johann Pankl and Theresie Novotná.

factories

Babicka

Božena Němcová became famous with the novel Babička ( The Grandmother ), published in 1855, with which she helped the Czech language to break through. The work has so far appeared in over 350 editions in Czech and in numerous translations. It is probably the most popular prose work in Czech literature. The novel has strong autobiographical traits. The focus is on the kind Babička , who became a national-romantic role model. The story tells of the idyllic country life in the Aupatal , in the Babiččino údolí ( Grandmother's Valley ), with the village and chateau of Ratibořice. The lady of the castle , Wilhelmine von Sagan , is also idealized as an understanding princess ( paní kněžna ).

When Božena Němcová was writing at Babička , she had physical, psychological and financial problems. The romantic and idealized descriptions of the characters in the novel and the landscape can be interpreted as an escape from one's own bitter reality - as Němcová's idealized look back at his sheltered childhood. The novel has been successfully filmed several times.

Kávová společnost

The short text first appeared in 1855 and is a satirical depiction of society with many autobiographical elements. The title literally means coffee company in German , meaning coffee party . The large number of German expressions – both dialectal and standard – in the work is remarkable. On the one hand, they serve to characterize the characters and, on the other hand, they reflect the linguistic situation in the Austrian Empire at the time. The content of the text is a meeting of seven ladies from society in a small town for coffee, where there is a lot of gossip and gossip - especially about a lady whose behavior the ladies criticize the most violently . This person bears a strong resemblance to Božena Němcová, she too experienced such talk and ostracism during her stay in Nymburk .

  • Kavová Společnost . In: M. Meřman, F. Váhala, B. Havránek (eds.): Básně a jiné práce. Spisy Boženy Němcové. Sv.11, SNKLHU, Prague 1957, pp. 177-185

Other works

  • Nothing compels me but love
  • From a small town
  • The Lord Teacher ( Pan učitel )
  • Czech fairy tales
  • Through That Night I See Not a Single Star , ISBN 3-932109-03-1

fairytale collection

From the collections The Golden Spinning Wheel , The Time King and from Fairy Tales

film adaptations

literature

Movie

web links

Commons : Božena Němcová  – collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Božena Němcová  – sources and full texts

itemizations

  1. ↑ Baptismal register Alservorstadtpfarre, signature 01-12a, http://data.matricula-online.eu/de/oesterreich/wien/08-alservorstadtpfarre/01-12a/?pg=4
  2. ↑ Baptismal register Alservorstadtpfarre, signature 01-11, http://data.matricula-online.eu/de/oesterreich/wien/08-alservorstadtpfarre/01-11/?pg=194
  3. ↑ Helena Sobková : Tajemství Barunky Panklové. Horizon, Praha 1991, ISBN 80-7012-047-9 .
  4. ↑ Jaroslav Šůla: Sedm úvah historika o původu, datu a místu narození české spisovatelky Boženy Němcové aneb Je Babička rodopisným pramenem?. In: Milan Horký, Roman Horký: Božena Němcová: Život – dilo – doba. Muzeum Boženy Němcové, Česká Skalice 2012, p. 226 f.
  5. ^ Reference to Charles Maurice de Talleyrand's biographer, Johannes Willms, without mentioning the later identity of the child; see Johannes Willms: Talleyrand. Virtuoso of Power. CH Beck, Munich 2011, p. 226.
  6. ↑ These latter fairy tales by Božena Němcová: The golden spinning wheel ; translated by Günther Jarosch; Paul List-Verlag Leipzig, oA; circa 1960.
  7. ↑ The latter fairy tales in Božena Němcová: The Time King – Slovak Fairy Tales translated from Slovak by Peter Hrivinák; Bratislava 1978; pp. 80-86
  8. ↑ The latter fairy tales in Karel Jaromír Erben and Božena Němcová: Fairy Tales ; illustrated by Josef Lada translated by Günther Jarosch and Valtr Kraus; Albatros Publishing House, Prague 2001; ISBN 80-00-00930-7
  9. ↑ [1] ; [2] ; [3] ; [4] ; [5] Various scenes from the film adaptation of Babička with Libuše Šafránková
personal data
SURNAME Němcová, Božena
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pankel, Barbara; Novotna, Barbara Betty
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech writer
BIRTH DATE February 4, 1820
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 1862
PLACE OF DEATH Prague