The horn of Wanza

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The Horn of Wanza is a story first published in 1881 by Wilhelm Raabe at the height of his storytelling.

On the surface, it is a very lively, often exciting, occasionally perplexing story about the condescending visit of the Göttingen student Grünhage in the [fictional] town of Wanza in the southern Harz region to find an aunt who disappeared 50 years ago from the family circle. He meets them in good health, as does the one - for him a stronger motive for his hike - the formerly most famous senior in his student union , now mayor. He gets to know a number of people from their dealings, including the night watchman from Wanza - who is no longer allowed to blow his traditional horn at night - hence the title of the story. Skillfully intertwined with narrative, he learns their life stories from all of them, and does more than good about his deceased uncle. Everything leads - in a varied interweaving of the curriculum vitae - back to the "old days" that were long believed to have been plowed under. It is around 1815, the time of the Napoleonic wars that have just been overcome. Everything now seems to be calmed down and settled. Grünhage's heady family is kindly invited and arrives towards the end by stagecoach , even a marriage is in the very last paragraph.

It reads humorous and cheerful, even with a happy ending . But underneath it is a bad panorama of old suffering. The focus is on the slowly forming, sharply contrasting résumés of two women. Both became deeply unhappy in their early ties, they report about it in old age - and everyone else from their point of view. Everything is still there. Since then they have had to learn to live with their terrifying scars. Open end : A new marriage is looming.