Charlotte of White. A beautiful woman's novel

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The historical novel biography Charlotte von Weiß , published by the German writer Clara Viebig in 1929, is dedicated to the life of the beautiful and naturally favored Charlotte von Weiß or Ursinus, who becomes a poisoner for several people.

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About 13-year-old Charlotte lives with her parents in the Prussian district town of Stendal , where her father holds a poorly paid office as a councilor. The stranger and his family are hardly respected, since he comes from the unloved Catholic Austria and at the time had entered Prussian service, since he had treacherously handed over some files on secret Austro-Russian agreements to Prussia. The mother, born Witte and of bourgeois origin, is a disappointed, emotionally cold woman.

Young Charlotte causes a sensation, portrayed as an apparition with a delicate face framed by blond curls. She looks out into the world with enigmatic, sea-green iridescent eyes with shiny pupils, which can, however, also narrow "like a cat to narrow lines". However, one only perceives the grace of the beautiful child.

The family lives in poverty, but tries to keep the appearance of prosperity outwardly. There is hardly any heating in winter and people prefer to starve to dress appropriately. “Nobody can see you in the stomach, mon enfant,…. but what one is wearing, people see, "the mother comforts the hungry daughter, and Charlotte dreams:" When she was only old enough, she married very quickly, a man who had money to eat enough could. ”The mother tries to enable the daughters to move up in society. She has already married her older daughter Henriette to a Hofrat von Hauke ​​in Spandau . In the hope of being able to marry Charlotte even better, the parents should also have a carefree future.

Charlotte has to attend early mass every day in the freezing church, where she looks at the wings of the high altar. There, the “faces of the saints with radiance” stand out against the “distorted, dark figures of the wicked […]: devils, demons, but people were too.” Charlotte is fascinated:

“She was holding her measuring book in both hands in front of her, but her eyes wandered over the pages. There was no devotion inside her, although it looked like it. Her delicate, slightly raised face shimmered like a white blossom from the dark hood that had been pulled over her curls because of the morning cold. "

Frau von Weiß tells a strange scene to a friend: The house cat's seven kittens are about to be drowned. When the servant refuses to do this, Charlotte takes on the task: “The good child says and smiles with tears that well up under her long eyelashes: 'I will do it. Immediately, before they know they are dying. '”Then Charlotte comforted the cat with“ that her kittens are now in heaven, and speaks to her so tenderly and in such a loving voice that it almost moves me. ” Even for her mother, Charlotte is a "strange child."

Charlotte's companion is Zéphire, a young maid from a Huguenot family, who is supposed to teach the daughter the French language and whom Charlotte finds affection for. Since Zéphire can write badly, Charlotte helps her to write letters to the fiancé. In the unheated room, both seek warmth by slipping into a bed together. Charlotte's tenderness ends with a bite in the maid's chest, and when she screams, she replies: “That should hurt too [...]. What hurts you, that is good for me. "But if the maid wants to flee, Charlotte asks:" Stay! You are soft and warm. I only love you! ”When the two girls are discovered by their mother one evening, Zéphire is chased out of the house amid violent protests by Charlotte, who then falls ill.

After her recovery, the mother decides to send Charlotte to Spandau to the house of the older daughter Henriette. With this decision, Ms. Weiß combines the hope that her beautiful daughter will soon find a rich man there, or that her wealthy and unmarried sister Christiane Witte, who lives in Charlottenburg, will appoint Charlotte as heiress. Charlotte undertakes the trip to Berlin in the company of Theodor Ursinus, a senior civil servant about 50 years old who is very impressed by her appearance. But when he witnesses that she attacks the food “like a starved young wolf”, the girl becomes scary to him.

The wealthy aunt actually makes Charlotte the sole heiress. The girl is less happy about the advances of Haukes, who would rather see the beautiful sister-in-law than his mostly pregnant wife next to him. Charlotte's proposal to convert to Protestantism follows directly, as Zéphire adhered to this belief. In preparation for the confirmation, Charlotte is sent to the vicar Gotthold Bange, on whom she practices her seductive skills and states: "So you have so much power that you can force a saint yourself."

During a chance encounter with King Frederick the Great on the promenade, Charlotte felt the desire, like him, to become a “personality”: “You weren't allowed to be soft, not sentimental, nothing to gamble away and nothing to give away, you had to do everything consciously. “Other kinds of encounters in Berlin also concern Charlotte. She is entranced by crime stories. One convict, a former soldier sentenced to twenty years in prison for insubordination, had frozen to death on the run; Furthermore, a fisher woman is convicted who has killed the newborn baby of her mentally handicapped daughter: "She [the fisher woman] always said: 'Too poor, too poor', hit her chest and repeated again, 'Too poor.' public decapitation of women is approved by the gentry as "a warning spectacle and very educative".

When she played Emilia Galotti on stage, Charlotte received huge applause and it was even discovered that she “had what it takes to become the greatest actor of the century.” Slipping into roles suits her, but ultimately she is not sure of her identity more certain: “Did Charlotte know herself? She only felt that it suited her and that she liked to pretend someone different from what she really was. ”When she fell passionately in love with Lieutenant von Revell, a man in debt, at a ball, brother-in-law Hauke ​​took this as an opportunity to choose one To avenge Charlotte's rejection. He sends her back to Stendal.

Charlotte hates life in her increasingly impoverished family and, at her mother's insistence, finally accepts a marriage proposal from Ursinus. The father doubts: "Was it Lotte's well-being if she married this elderly and also ailing man?", But he is not asked any further. Ursinus acts on the initiative of Aunt Witte, who recommended the girl to him as 'something very special'. Charlotte dreads this marriage. Shortly before the wedding, she cuts her wrists, but the suicide attempt is covered up as an accident by the mother, and the marriage takes place. Contrary to expectations, the two unequal spouses come to terms with each other in a harmonious way, since on their wedding night Charlotte "helped her husband out of a situation whose embarrassment would otherwise have brought a man to despair." Ursinus does everything to make his young wife's life pleasant to make, and she also appears as a caring wife. Secretly, however, she longs for a different life in Berlin .

Ten years later, Charlotte's long-awaited transfer of Ursinus to Berlin takes place . In the meantime, the 29-year-old has prepared for a life in urban circles. The couple's house becomes a center of social life, and Charlotte falls in love again with an attaché of the Dutch embassy named von Ragay. Ursinus takes the attaché and his servant Benjamin Klein into his house, deliberately ignoring the fact that the attaché is becoming his wife's lover. But the ailing von Ragay, who fears for his career, soon withdraws, with the help of his servant, from the unbridled love of Charlotte, whereupon she becomes ill. Soon afterwards von Ragay died of consumption.

Charlotte is tired of going on with her marriage and poisons her husband with arsenic on the evening of his 75th birthday . The murder goes unnoticed, and after a period of mourning, Ursinus once again makes her house the focus of social events. But the hoped-for happiness in the form of a male applicant does not occur. She is also plagued by nightmares in which Ursinus is omnipresent; “A tremendous burden sank with the darkness of the night on the darkness of her soul.” Charlotte is aware of her loneliness as an aging woman without children and thinks longingly of Zéphire, because “she had never again found someone who loved her so selflessly would have."

At that time, Christiane Witte was seriously ill. Since she wishes for death, Charlotte decides to help this wish with arsenic and later to kill herself. But when she witnesses her aunt's agony, she becomes unsure and throws away the rest of the powder. She makes another attempt to kill Benjamin Klein. This has become her confidante, because she sees: “You had to have a person in front of whom you don't tie a mask.” Nevertheless, Charlotte is offended that he sees through her, and she tries to get him out of the way with poisoned food . Klein had one of her dishes analyzed and it became obvious that it contained arsenic.

Charlotte's arrest and charge of three murders and one attempted homicide causes horror among the population. When she is taken to the cemetery in a carriage, where she is supposed to attend the exhumation of her aunt, everyone wants to see her: “It was a feast for the mob. The square in front of the city bailiwick was already black with people [...] She was coming soon, she was coming soon, the murderess, the accursed poisoner! "

The unjustified accusation regarding Ragay's death gives Charlotte strength so that she leads the amateur Justice Commissioner Blume to believe that she is innocent of Ursinus' death, especially since the autopsy findings for her husband are negative and for the aunt inconclusive. She cannot deny the attempt to kill Klein. Against the indictment, Charlotte herself formulated a brilliant defense in which she used her brilliant reasoning skills. She warns of a wrong judgment, refers to her ruined health and her suicide attempts and especially to her mother:

“She never loved me. I have been cheated of love all my life. I missed love, the love that makes you good and happy. I always wanted to flee from the life that gave me nothing. "

Ultimately, Charlotte succeeds in manipulating the men involved in the penal system in her favor, and she is only imprisoned for thirty years, which she has to spend in the fortress of Glatz. This verdict is enough for Charlotte to be lucky, especially since, as she leaves the courtroom, she sees Zéphire, "the companion of her innocent days", "whom she missed so painfully at the time". The shortened end of the novel shows Charlotte in her cell in the fortress custody, where she was allowed to furnish a cozy place and where she can take Zéphire with her as a companion. In the following years, Charlotte carefully managed her not inconsiderable fortune, even increased it and, with Zéphire as her extended arm in freedom, became the benefactress of the poor in the town. After her death she is mourned by the entire people.

Material history

The authentic story of the poisoner Ursinus, née Sophie Charlotte Elisabeth von Weingarten (1760–1836) culminated in a sensational murder trial that was negotiated in Berlin in 1803 and recorded in the legal case collection ' Der neue Pitaval '. Inspired by the figure of Ursinus, Willibald Alexis lets this figure appear as 'Privy Councilor Lupinus' in his novel Peace is the first civic duty , 1852. Despite her fascinating side, she is designed here as an abysmally evil woman, since Alexis' intention is to portray the moral decline of society and the political ineptitude of the era of the Napoleonic Wars of Conquest.

In 1929, Viebig intended to shed some light on the psychological component of the case. She asks whether Charlotte acted as a cold-blooded murderer or whether she herself was a victim of the circumstances.

Criminal literature in the Weimar Republic

With the creation of criminal literature, Viebig picks up on a trend of its time, which can be seen as a reaction to the virulent discussion about the judiciary and penal system of the late Weimar Republic. There was a need for reform in several respects, as the crime rate, especially among women, had skyrocketed. This was linked to the question of whether same-sex love among women was partly responsible for the increase in crimes.

During this time several works were created whose authors deal with judgments, wrongful judgments and the reform of the penal system. Ricarda Huch published her work on a poison murder trial ' Der Fall Deruga ' in 1917 ; In 1928, Jakob Wassermann published his novel ' The Maurizius Case ', which was about the uncovering of a misjudgment. Also to be mentioned are Alfred Döblin's novel Berlin Alexanderplatz, published in 1929, about the released convict Franz Biberkopf, as well as Friedrich Wolf's play Cyankali - § 218 , in which the problem of penniless pregnant women during abortion is discussed.

Viebig sees herself with her work in the tradition of crime literature, but also in that of historical novelists: "And when I tried, in the heroine of my last novel, in the 'Charlotte von Weiß', who as Privy Councilor Ursinus is a sad celebrity among the Criminals of all time has won to portray a real personality, so I believe I have found a form of the historical novel here too, which further develops the work of my predecessors in this field, Alexis and Fontane ”.

Biographical references

Viebig came into contact with crime topics early on, in her retirement year with the district judge Mathieu:

“This comes from the time when I lived in Trier [...] with one of our good friends who was an examining magistrate. When he was on site, he would often take me with him. While he was doing his chores, I went for a walk or I waited for him at the hostel and opened my eyes and ears. "

It was Mathieu who awakened her understanding to “investigate the reasons that make many innocent children the later guilty party.” This may be one reason why she is only interested in crimes that “have a psychological problem for her Viebig knows the Ursinus case from the Pitaval collection: “It was in 1890 [...] when I came across the 'New Pitaval' in the Storm house in Husum, and the trial of Privy Councilor Ursinus from the first years of the XIX. Century made a lasting impression on me. ". Furthermore, Viebig should have known the novel Alexis' rest is the first civic duty .

Viebig comments on her protagonist: “If in Charlotte von Weiß I portray a criminal, a poisoner, she too has something, something of me, of my own personality! Because in me, as in each of us, there is a bit of angel and a bit of the devil! ”There is also a possibility of comparison between the writer and her protagonist in other areas: Both are intellectually demanding female exceptional phenomena of their time. Charlotte's talent manifests itself in her literary talent, which she shows when formulating love letters for Zéphire and, last but not least, with her brilliant rhetorical skills, which ultimately save her head in her criminal defense. Furthermore, Charlotte's acting talent is mentioned in the performance of Lessing's ' Emilia Galotti '. Initially, both women only had limited opportunities to lead an independent life, although Viebig, who lived a century later, could afford to turn down the possibility of a money marriage, as she did in the fate of Nelda Dallmer in her novel 'Rheinlandtöchter'. Charlotte does not have this option, but ultimately also becomes an independent, successful woman.

Viebig may have used a process from 1923 as a further source of material that kept the whole of Berlin in suspense. The case of the two 'Lichtenberg poisoners', Ellen Klein and Margarete Nebbe, was negotiated, who had put their brutal husbands out of the way with arsenic in order to live out their mutual affection. The fact that Viebig did not write this process, but a historical case, could be related to the fact that Alfred Döblin had already made Nebbe and Klein the protagonists of his story ' The two friends and their poisonmord ' in 1924 .

The writer also emphasizes that her pet inspired her when designing her protagonist: "I want to reveal that in my last novel 'Charlotte von Weiß' my cat helped a lot to emphasize a character."

Numerous works by Viebig point out that the writing of this novel was preceded by a lengthy examination of the historical circumstances in Germany towards the end of the 18th century.

Position within Viebig's plant

'Charlotte von Weiß', from the late work of Clara Viebig, is a multi-faceted biography of a novel, so that it can be read as a socially critical, with reservations as a Berlin novel, as a criminal literature and especially as a historical novel.

If one counts 'Charlotte von Weiß' among the historical novels of the Viebig, one notices an entanglement of events around the turn of the French Revolution. Here are ' Prinzen, Prälaten und Sansculottes ' (1931), a novel about the events of the last Trier Elector Clemens Wenzeslaus, as well as' The much-loved and the much-hated ' (1935), in which Viebig Wilhelmine von Lichtenau , also the ' Enke ', the much maligned mistress of Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia, was rehabilitated.

An intertwining of 'Charlotte von Weiß' with 'The much-loved and the much-hated' is evident in several passages of the text: The encounter between the 14-year-old Charlottes and Frederick the Great , who appears in both novels, makes her want to become a 'personality'; In addition, she lives not far from the summer residence of the 'much hated' Wilhelmine von Enke-Lichtenau in Mohrenstrasse, which Charlotte envies. Despite her success, she asks herself: “Couldn't she have spent her childhood like the grandchildren in Berlin? What if 'she' had come under the eyes of the Crown Prince ?! ”After the arrest of the Enke, the coachman Charlottes expresses delightedly that 'the woman' is now in the Glogau fortress. A comparison is later made between the negative reactions of the people when the respective protagonist was arrested.

Considered as criminal literature, the novel's biography shows parallels to Viebig's 1907 novel 'Absolvo te', in which the protagonist also murdered her older husband by poison. Viebig has already dealt with the condemnation, living conditions, needs and longings of convicts, namely in the novellas' Der Wolf ', 1901 and' The last number ', 1905, which were used as preliminary studies for the depiction of the convict camp and its inmates in' Das Kreuz im Venn ', 1908.

Interpretative approaches

For Helga Abret, who has dealt intensively with Viebig's 'Charlotte von Weiß', this novel unites myth and at the same time contemporary relevance. A myth is the taking up of the fate of a poisonous woman as a bad woman, which has always aroused fear and fascination at the same time. The contemporary relevance consists in dealing with crime, especially female crime, and in the criticism of the judiciary.

In the judiciary of Viebig's day, little attention was paid to the reasons leading to an act. If the perpetrator's environmental factors are taken into account when reaching a judgment, a simplistic victim-perpetrator opposition can be broken up. Criticism is also leveled at a judgment that depends solely on the defense attorney's ability and the severity of the sentences. Last but not least, the portrayal of same-sex love for women, which was hotly discussed and stigmatized towards the end of the Weimar Republic, calls for a reassessment of the question of whether this could be seen as an additional factor in the criminalization of women.

By depicting perpetrator and victim as a mutually dependent unit, Viebig refers to the ambivalence of every person. In this sense, in her psychogram of the beautiful murderer, she portrays her protagonist as a torn woman who is angelic and diabolical, beautiful but also ugly, acts with warmth, but also calculates very coldly: “There seem to be clear opposites like good and Evil closer to one another, consciousness and madness alternate uncontrollably and decisive actions repeatedly fall out of the supposedly tightly knit network of responsible actions. "

On the one hand, Charlotte is clearly an active perpetrator. In this context, the drowning of the kitten has an exemplary function, as it is shown for the first time that the young girl presumes to decide about the life and death of creatures, which later continues with the poisoning or poisoning attempts. If Charlotte is seen as a victim, the poverty of the family, the resulting poor marriage opportunities, the emotional coldness of the mother and the powerlessness of the father are to be mentioned, furthermore a society that leaves a young woman no other choice than a much older man than To marry breadwinners. Another fact that Charlotte sees as a victim is her commitment by society to the image of the beautiful, good girl. Without already having a solid personality, she plays this role ostensibly, but undermines it everywhere through her dubious or even criminal acts.

Their criminal acts end after their conviction, because the negative influence of their environment is eliminated and their personality finds peace. She is allowed to occupy a prominent position and live with Zéphire, the only confidante in her life in whom she has found warmth. Only a few indications point to Charlotte's earlier split: In her cell hangs the copperplate after Da Vinci's Last Supper, a gift from Ursinus, who was poisoned by her, to which she often “[sends] a glance that glanced thoughtfully at Judas but lingered with pious ardor on the mild face of Christ. ”The dead woman is also lying in the coffin with folded hands,“ on which two wedding rings and a ring with a white pearl shine. ”Ultimately, however, Charlotte can live in this life free from social constraints to be the 'personality' she always wanted to be and to realize the form of life that is appropriate for her.

The portrayal of Charlotte's 'punishment' is also a subversive way of dealing with current criminal practice. Viebig's protagonist is ostensibly punished by law, but in the end she experiences “her happiest time” in fortress detention, in which she manages her assets and becomes the carer of the poor.

A parallel figure is the fisher woman who killed her disabled daughter's newborn. Since she cannot afford a defense attorney, her somewhat clumsy objection that she is 'poor' is disregarded. A one-dimensional judicial process obviously completely ignores the poverty and hopelessness of this person and their disabled daughter, which makes their conviction and execution appear unjust. Even the frozen former soldier, with his twenty years of imprisonment, but especially with his death on the run, seems to be receiving an all too harsh punishment for his offense.

The portrayal of the harmonious coexistence of Charlotte with Zéphire in fortress detention arouses a certain sympathy with the protagonists. This creates a positive image of same-sex love, which proves the idea that this could contribute to the criminalization of women to be nonsensical and encourages tolerance.

Narrative strategies

Viebig sticks to traditional writing techniques, whereby the attraction of the story comes from playing with perspective. While largely dispensing with authoritative comments, she allows her characters to come to the fore, making aware of what she criticizes, but does not express directly by describing the circumstances.

In several respects, Viebig does not use black and white drawings of her characters. Even the murders or the attempted murder of Charlotte make her appear not only as evil or as a psychopath, because she reacts - very humanly - with fear reactions and nightmares. In the relationship between women and men, too, she refrains from polarization and proves to be “a resolute opponent of the victimization of women”. Charlotte's mother is portrayed much more negatively than her father. By entering into marriage, Ursinus put Charlotte in a position she hated, but he makes life easier for her wherever he can. Benjamin Klein also appears as a seedy servant on the one hand, but on the other hand uses part of his income to help his needy family members.

Publication and reception history

Parallel to the preprint in the Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung from November 1929 to April 1930, the book was published in the yellow series of the Berlin Ullstein publishing house and a manuscript fragment was reprinted in a literary history.

The press reactions to the publication of the novel, which coincides with Clara Viebig's 70th birthday, are positive. There is talk of the author's unused creative power, who shows herself “at the height of her ability”, successfully approaching a contradicting person and creating a character image that is “both scary and attractive and extraordinarily true”. Parallels to ' Madame Bovary ' by the French naturalist Gustave Flaubert and to Viebig's novel 'Absolvo te!' drawn. References are made in Viebig's historical novels to the problems of the present and praise that she does not cling to the sensational, but rather “feels the deep connections” and gives “the soul image of a torn woman with brilliant disposition , comes into shame and misery. "

Meanwhile, however, it is also stated, without further justification, that Viebig is unable to show either the beauty of evil or the dark demonic powers of her protagonist. In a dissertation to be published soon, 'Charlotte von Weiß' in the context of Viebig's oeuvre is also assessed as “of lesser artistic importance”, also without further justification, and the choice of material is felt to be 'wrong'. Then the novel is initially forgotten.

In 1950 the Schaffer publishing house in Hanover decided to reissue it, but the novel continues to be counted among Viebig's “artistically completely flawed, figure-emphasized works that go into the human soul”. However, the interest in the novel enables another publication in 1989, in the second edition in 1991, by Moewig, and again in 1998 by Ullstein. Viebig's devotion to historical novels continues to be conspicuously interpreted as an escape from the misery of the present into an ideal past.

A deeper scholarly interest in this work arose in the 1990s, in the course of a general increased attention to Viebig's complete works, especially in French literary studies. In the context of his consideration of Berlin novels, Michel Durand also assigns 'Charlotte von Weiß' to the historical novels and states that Viebig has turned away from naturalistic contemporary novels as well as from the typical Berlin novel. The Franco-German literary scholar Helga Abret first examined the novel in 2004 in a rehabilitative manner and examined it in more depth in 2012.

Finally, in 2015, an excerpt from a novel will be included in a 'Clara Viebig Reader'.

expenditure

  • 1929: Advance publication in sequels, in: Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung , 38th vol. No. 46 from November 17, 1929 to April 3, 1930.
  • 1929: Berlin: Ullstein [283 S].
  • 1931: Reprint of a manuscript fragment, in: Illustrirte Geschichte der Deutschen Literatur v. the oldest times to the present , ed. v. Anselm Salzer, 4th vol .: From the new storm and stress to the present, 1st part, Regensburg: Habbel (printed between p. 1800 and 1801).
  • 1950: Hanover: Schaffer [271 p.]
  • 1989: 1st edition, Rastatt, Moewig [272 pages]
  • 1991: 2nd edition, Rastatt, Moewig [272 pages]
  • 1998: Berlin: Ullstein [348 pages]
  • 2015: Excerpt, in: Clara Viebig reading book , compiled. v. Bernd Kortländer, Cologne: Nyland (118–123).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 157.
  2. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 36.
  3. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 36.
  4. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 5.
  5. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 5.
  6. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 9.
  7. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 9.
  8. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 9.
  9. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 18.
  10. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 18.
  11. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 39.
  12. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 52.
  13. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 75.
  14. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 96.
  15. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 98.
  16. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 80.
  17. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 80.
  18. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 132.
  19. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 151.
  20. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 228.
  21. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 231.
  22. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 217.
  23. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 255.
  24. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 245.
  25. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 280.
  26. ↑ See Helga Abret: "Devil's Angel". The story of a “strange” girl - Clara Viebig's novel “Charlotte von Weiß”, in: Renate Möhrmann (Ed.): Rebelliously desperate infamously. The girl as an aesthetic figure, Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2012 (227-246), here p. 228.
  27. ↑ See Julius Hitzig and Wilhelm Häring: The new Pitaval. A collection of the most interesting crime stories from all countries from earlier and more recent times, Vol. 1–60, here Vol. 2, Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1842–1890. Willibald Alexis (= Wilhelm Häring) and Annette von Droste-Hülshoff also used this collection of texts to write their novella ' Die Judenbuche '.
  28. ↑ According to Viebig, Michael Kirchschlager placed the Ursinus at the center of his story in 2008 under the title “The poisonous privy councilor”, which is a modernized version of the original text from the “Pitaval”. Michael Kirchschlager: The poisonous privy councilor, in: Berliner Verbrecherinnen - historical criminal cases, Berlin: Kirchschlager (251 p.), Here p. 13–57.
  29. ↑ Helga Abret: Charlotte von Weiß - a historical novel of contemporary relevance, in: Volker Neuhaus and Michel Durand (eds.): The province of the feminine. On the narrative work of Clara Viebig, Bern: Peter Lang 2004 (125-157), here p. 129.
  30. ↑ Ricarda Huch: The Deruga case, Berlin: Ullstein 1917 (407 pp.).
  31. ↑ Jakob Wassermann: The Maurizius case, Berlin: Fischer 1928 (577 pp.).
  32. ^ Alfred Döblin: Berlin Alexanderplatz. The story of Franz Biberkopf , Berlin: Fischer 1929 (528 pages).
  33. ^ Friedrich Wolf: Cyankali - § 218, Berlin: Internationaler Arbeiter-Verlag 1929 (93 pp.). See also Helga Abret: Charlotte von Weiß - a historical novel of contemporary relevance, in: Volker Neuhaus and Michel Durand (eds.): Die Provinz des Weiblichen. On the narrative work of Clara Viebig, Bern: Peter Lang 2004 (125-157), here p. 139 f.
  34. ↑ Clara Viebig: From my workshop, in: Sankt Galler Tageblatt v. July 15, 1930. Presumably it relates to the design of the Ursinus fate in Alexis and to novels such as ' Unterm Birnbaum ' or ' Grete Minde ' in Fontane.
  35. ↑ Clara Viebig: Clara Viebig about herself, in: Clara Viebig. Mein Leben (1860–1952), ed. V. Christel Aretz, Hontheim: Mosel-Eifel-Verlag 2002 (85-100), here: p. 98 f. (Translation of the essay 'Clara Viebig se raconte elle-même / Esquisse autobiographique', first published in: La Révue Rhénane 1929 (13-29).
  36. ↑ Clara Viebig: Lebens-Abriss, in: Berliner Tageblatt of July 12, 1930.
  37. ↑ Clara Viebig: Clara Viebig about herself, in: Clara Viebig. Mein Leben (1860–1952), ed. V. Christel Aretz, Hontheim: Mosel-Eifel-Verlag 2002 (85-100), here: p. 98 f. (Translation of the article: Clara Viebig se raconte elle-même / Esquisse autobiographique, first published in: La Révue Rhénane 1929 (13-29)).
  38. ^ Document in the Berlin State Library, Nachlass 127, Box 1,2; quoted from Charlotte Marlo Werner: Writing life - The poet Clara Viebig, Dreieich: Medu 2009, p. 134. Abret suspects that Viebig had already had access to the ' Pitaval ' in Mathieu's library in Trier . See Helga Abret: "Devil's Angel". The story of a “strange” girl - Clara Viebig's novel “Charlotte von Weiß”, in: Renate Möhrmann (Ed.): Rebelliously desperate infamously. The girl as an aesthetic figure, Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2012 (227-246), here p. 228 ff.
  39. ↑ Mini Vriesländer: Visiting Clara Viebig. On her 70th birthday, in: Neue deutsche Badische Landeszeitung Mannheim und D. (reprinted in: Clara Viebig: Mein Leben (1860–1952), edited by V. Christel Aretz Hontheim: Mosel-Eifel-Verlag 2002 (183-186 ), here p. 184.)
  40. ↑ Cf. Clara Viebig: Rhineland Daughters, Berlin: Fontane (571 pp.), Cf. also Helga Abret: "Devil's Angel". The story of a “strange” girl - Clara Viebig's novel “Charlotte von Weiß”, in: Renate Möhrmann (Ed.): Rebelliously desperate infamously. The girl as an aesthetic figure, Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2012 (227-246), here p. 240 f.
  41. ↑ See Helga Abret: "Devil's Angel". The story of a “strange” girl - Clara Viebig's novel “Charlotte von Weiß”, in: Renate Möhrmann (Ed.): Rebelliously desperate infamously. The girl as an aesthetic figure, Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2012 (227-246), here p. 229.
  42. ↑ Cf. Alfred Döblin: The two friends and their poison murder (outsiders of society, vol. 1), Berlin: Die Schmiede 1924 (117 p.).
  43. ^ HL: Untitled (Interview with Clara Viebig), in: 8 Uhr-Blatt Nürnberg v. July 15, 1930.
  44. ↑ Helga Abret: Charlotte von Weiß - a historical novel of contemporary relevance, in: Volker Neuhaus and Michel Durand (eds.): The province of the feminine. On the narrative work of Clara Viebig, Bern: Peter Lang 2004 (125-157), here p. 130.
  45. ↑ Cf. Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiss. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 162.
  46. ↑ Cf. Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiss. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 193 and p. 238.
  47. ↑ Clara Viebig: Absolvo te, Berlin: Egon Fleischel, 1907 (392 pp.)
  48. ↑ Clara Viebig: Der Wolf, in: Die Nation 19. Jg. No. 28, 1901 (446-448), dies .: The last number, in: dies .: Naturgewalten, Berlin: Fleischel 1905 (187-211), and this: The Cross in the Venn, Berlin: Fleischel, 1908 (491 p.)
  49. ↑ Helga Abret: "Devil's Angel". The story of a “strange” girl - Clara Viebig's novel “Charlotte von Weiß”, in: Renate Möhrmann (Ed.): Rebelliously desperate infamously. The girl as an aesthetic figure, Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2012 (227-246), here p. 227.
  50. ↑ Helga Abret: "Devil's Angel". The story of a “strange” girl - Clara Viebig's novel “Charlotte von Weiß”, in: Renate Möhrmann (Ed.): Rebelliously desperate infamously. The girl as an aesthetic figure, Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2012 (227-246), here p. 228.
  51. ↑ Cf. in Helga Abret: "Teufelsengel". The story of a “strange” girl - Clara Viebig's novel “Charlotte von Weiß”, in: Renate Möhrmann (Ed.): Rebelliously desperate infamously. The girl as an aesthetic figure, Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2012 (227-246), here p. 245 f.
  52. ^ Hugo Aust: Clara Viebig and the historical novel in the 20th century - A sketch, in: Volker Neuhaus and Michel Durand (eds.): The province of the feminine: On the narrative work of Clara Viebig, Bern: Lang 2004 (91-93 , here: p. 91 f.)
  53. ↑ See Helga Abret: "Devil's Angel". The story of a “strange” girl - Clara Viebig's novel “Charlotte von Weiß”, in: Renate Möhrmann (Ed.): Rebelliously desperate infamously. The girl as an aesthetic figure, Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2012 (227-246), here p. 235.
  54. ↑ See Helga Abret: "Devil's Angel". The story of a “strange” girl - Clara Viebig's novel “Charlotte von Weiß”, in: Renate Möhrmann (Ed.): Rebelliously desperate infamously. The girl as an aesthetic figure, Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2012 (227-246), here p. 234 f.
  55. ↑ See Helga Abret: "Devil's Angel". The story of a “strange” girl - Clara Viebig's novel “Charlotte von Weiß”, in: Renate Möhrmann (Ed.): Rebelliously desperate infamously. The girl as an aesthetic figure, Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2012 (227-246), here p. 234 f. Werner notices a break in the character of the protagonist, whose hysterical attacks are more likely to be set in the late 19th century, while the character itself comes from the late Rococo. She considers Charlotte's poison attacks "only plausible because of her clinical picture." Cf. Charlotte Marlo Werner: Writing life - The poet Clara Viebig, Dreieich: Medu 2009, p. 134 f.
  56. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 281 f.
  57. ^ Viebig, Clara: Charlotte von Weiß. The novel of a beautiful woman, Berlin: Ullstein 1929, p. 283. With the reference to Ursin's wedding ring and Aunt Witte's pearl ring, according to Abret, there is a “last perfect and perfidious staging [before] with which this woman is still wants to impose exactly the image on her environment in death that she has consistently built up in her last thirty years. "Helga Abret:" Devil's Angel ". The story of a “strange” girl - Clara Viebig's novel “Charlotte von Weiß”, in: Renate Möhrmann (Ed.): Rebelliously desperate infamously. The girl as an aesthetic figure, Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2012 (227-246), here p. 244.
  58. ↑ Helga Abret: Charlotte von Weiß - a historical novel of contemporary relevance, in: Volker Neuhaus and Michel Durand (eds.): The province of the feminine. On the narrative work of Clara Viebig, Bern: Peter Lang 2004 (125-157), here p. 139.
  59. ↑ See Helga Abret: "Devil's Angel". The story of a “strange” girl - Clara Viebig's novel “Charlotte von Weiß”, in: Renate Möhrmann (Ed.): Rebelliously desperate infamously. The girl as an aesthetic figure, Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2012 (227-246), here p. 235.
  60. ↑ Helga Abret: Charlotte von Weiß - a historical novel of contemporary relevance, in: Volker Neuhaus and Michel Durand (eds.): The province of the feminine. On the narrative work of Clara Viebig, Bern: Peter Lang 2004 (125-157), here p. 139.
  61. ↑ See Helga Abret: "Devil's Angel". The story of a “strange” girl - Clara Viebig's novel “Charlotte von Weiß”, in: Renate Möhrmann (Ed.): Rebelliously desperate infamously. The girl as an aesthetic figure, Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2012 (227-246), here p. 238.
  62. ↑ Helga Abret: The women and the city: Clara Viebigs Berlin-Romane, in: Kerstin Wiedermann and Elisa Müller-Adams (ed.): Paths out of the marginalization. Gender and spelling in German-language novels by women 1780-1914, Nancy: Presses Universitaires de Nancy, 2013 (217-238), here p. 236.
  63. ↑ See the collection of press reviews on Clara Viebig's 70th birthday, in which the writer is consistently rated positively, in: Christel Aretz (Ed.): Clara Viebig im Spiegel der Presse, Bad Bertrich: Mosel Eifel Verlag 2000, p. 19-173.
  64. ↑ See Käthe Schultze: Clara Viebig. On the old master's 70th birthday, in: Braunschweiger Latest News from July 17, 1930.
  65. ^ EM: Clara Viebig on her 70th birthday, in: Berliner Zeitung am Mittag on July 16, 1930.
  66. ↑ See Ilse Reicke: Clara Viebig, the seventy-year-old, in: Hannoverscher Kurier from July 15, 1930.
  67. ↑ See Oskar Walzel: Clara Viebig on her 70th birthday today, in: Münchner Latest Nachrichten of July 17, 1930.
  68. ^ Else von Hollander-Lossow: Clara Viebig on her 70th birthday on July 17th, in: Flensburger Nachrichten of July 17th, 1930.
  69. ↑ See Maria Prigge: Frauenromane, in: Die Literatur, 32nd vol., H. 11, August 1930 (631-635), here p. 634.
  70. ^ Sascha Wingenroth: Clara Viebig and the women's novel of German naturalism, Freiburg im Breisgau 1936, p. 91.
  71. ↑ Cf. Sascha Wingenroth: Clara Viebig and the women's novel of German naturalism, Freiburg im Breisgau 1936, p. 92. Wingenroth demands that Viebig appreciate naturalistic novels that do not do justice to the diversity of their productions.
  72. ↑ Urszula Michalska: Clara Viebig. An attempt at a monograph, Diss. Poznań 1968, pp. 133f.
  73. ↑ Cf. Barbara Krauß-Theim: Naturalism and Heimatkunst with Clara Viebig, Frankfurt a. M .: Lang 1992, p. 134.
  74. ↑ Michel Durand: Les romans berlinois de Clara Viebig (1860–1952). Contribution à l'étude du naturalisme tardif en Allemagne, Bern, Berlin a. a .: Lang 1993, p. 132 and p. 320.
  75. ↑ See Helga Abret: Charlotte von Weiß - a historical novel of contemporary relevance, in: Volker Neuhaus and Michel Durand (eds.): The province of the feminine. On the narrative work of Clara Viebig, Bern: Peter Lang 2004 (125-157) and this. "Devil Angel". The story of a “strange” girl - Clara Viebig's novel “Charlotte von Weiß”, in: Renate Möhrmann (Ed.): Rebelliously desperate infamously. The girl as an aesthetic figure, Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2012 (227-246).
  76. ↑ Bernd Kortländer (Ed.): Clara Viebig Reading Book, Cologne: Nyland (118-123).