Brigitte and Regine
Brigitte and Regine is a novella by the Austrian writer Franz Karl Ginzkey that first appeared in 1922. The first single edition appeared in 1923 with seven color pictures by Erwin Tintner on handmade paper . In the novella, Ginzkey addresses the changed man-woman relationship at the beginning of the 20th century.
content
The author and first-person narrator invites his fellow writer Helbing to his cabane in the Strombad Kritzendorf . You watch the numerous bathers, who are lightly clad, crowd along the water. Helbing is strangely touched by the bathers, whose femininity is barely veiled. Then he decides to tell the author his story to make him understand why he has such strange feelings here. By describing the past events, he would also like to carry out a kind of soul purification, since he had never talked about it before and had carried everything around with himself.
Helbing's relationship with Brigitte ended here in the Kritzendorf power pool. She looked very much like a woman he had known before. He was engaged to Brigitte. Like the other women, she only dressed lightly for bathing, which Helbing disliked. The thought that others could see what was dear to him was hard to bear. A man who was chatting with Brigitte in the bathroom measured her shapes very carefully, as Helbing noticed. He could no longer contain himself and offered his bride a bathrobe, which she refused. After this seemingly insignificant incident, the two separated.
The reason this relationship had ended was with a woman Helbing had known before. At the invitation of a well-known baron, he stayed at his castle in the Hochschwab area in order to be able to work there undisturbed and in peace. When he went to his room, a door caught his eye, which he followed out of curiosity and came to a small staircase that led to the ground floor. On the way back he noticed a little window that he hadn't noticed at first. When he looked through (it was already dark), he saw a woman in a house across the street who was undressing and washing in her room. Fascinated by this sight, Helbing tried to find out what kind of house it was and what woman it was. He observed her secretly evening after evening, and the initial physical attraction was soon followed by a deeper sensation for her. It was a single teacher named Regine who lived in the schoolhouse next to the castle. The lock wall on this side appeared to be windowless as the hatch could not be seen. When he wanted to speak to her, she had set out on a hike on the Hochschwab. He followed her but could not catch up with her. When he returned, he learned that she had crashed and was now dead. He didn’t leave her side until the funeral, and even after that he had continued contact with Reginen’s mother. She told him a lot about her childhood and youth and at the end even gave him her diary, which she had kept until shortly before her death. On the one hand, Helbing didn't know Regine at all and, on the other hand, he knew her so well. He was so taken with the incidents that he even wanted to ask her mother for the hand of her dead daughter.
That was the reason why Helbing felt so strange when he saw scantily clad women. He continued to be a hopeless romantic in this regard.
expenditure
- From strange ways . Seven stories. L. Staackmann, Leipzig 1922.
- Brigitte and Regine . Novella. Staackmann, Leipzig 1923.
- Brigitte and Regine and other seals . With an afterword by Stefan Zweig . Reclam, Leipzig 1924.
- Brigitte and Regine . Novellas. With an afterword by Karl Hans Strobl . New edition. Reclam, Leipzig 1934.
- Selected works in four volumes . Vol. 2 novellas. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1960.
literature
- Robert Blauhut : Austrian Novellistics of the 20th Century , Braumüller, Stuttgart 1966, p. 61 [1] and studies on Austrian literature of the 20th century , volumes 1–3, S. Braumüller, 1963, p. 61 [2] .
- Franz Kadrnoska: Aufbruch und Untergang: Austrian culture between 1918 and 1938 , Europa-Verlag, Vienna 1981, ISBN 3-203-50785-4 , p. 212 [3]
- Rudolf Wolkan: History of German literature in Bohemia and in the Sudetenland , Stauda, 1925, p. 137 [4]
- Politics and Gender : Documentation of the 6th Women's Ring Lecture at the University of Salzburg, WS 1999/2000, p. 100 [5]
Individual evidence
- ^ Ginzkey, Franz Karl . In Killy Literaturlexikon , Volume Fri - Hap , Walter de Gruyter, 2009, p. 220, ISBN 978-3-11-021390-4