The great hunt
The great hunt is a historical novel by Ludwig Ganghofer , which takes place during the Counter Reformation in the second third of the eighteenth century in the prince-provost of Berchtesgaden . It is the writer's last great novel, first published in 1918 by Verlag Adolf Bonz in Stuttgart .
Historical background
The novel takes place in the last decades of the Counter Reformation in the Berchtesgadener Land. He describes the fate of the Protestants who were expelled from the Berchtesgaden provost under the rule of the Prince- Provost Cajetan Anton Notthracht von Weißenstein . Following the example of the expulsion of around 30,000 Protestants from the neighboring Prince Archbishopric of Salzburg , who had to leave their homeland due to an emigration patent issued by Archbishop Leopold Anton von Firmian , Cajetan Anton also ordered the expulsion of the Protestants, who predominantly belonged to Lutheranism , in 1733 . The expellees, also known as exiles , were accepted into what was then the Kingdom of Prussia at the behest of King Friedrich Wilhelm I , but also to Kurhannover .
content
The Great Hunt is the last of Ganghofer's great historical novels. Ganghofer draws a grandiose picture of culture and time from the eighteenth century. The eviction and persecution of the Protestants (but also the hatred of a Jewish minority) form the central focus of the novel. Here, too, the author has thoroughly familiarized himself with the material and has succeeded in truthfully bringing the historical background of the plot closer to the reader. Historical personalities such as the leader of the Salzburg Protestants Joseph Schaitberger as well as Carl Ludolph von Danckelmann , who was in Prussian service and who was the President of the Corpus Evangelicorum in Regensburg (to which the protection of the rights of Protestants guaranteed by the Peace of Westphalia in southern Germany) was entrusted described in the novel.
The main characters in the novel are the monastery hunter Leupolt and Luisa, the daughter of the sculptor Nicholas. Leutpolt, a staunch supporter of the Evangelical Lutheran faith, falls in love with Luisa, who, fanatically blinded by her monastic upbringing, only sees Leutpolt as the “Lutheran heretic ”, but nevertheless feels a strong affection for this man. That is why Luisa has to fight a violent inner struggle of conscience, which wrestles a decision between her love for Leupolt and the teachings and dogmatics of the (then) Catholic Church that she learned in the monastery.
Despite a time marked by hatred and slander, which dominated all of Berchtesgaden, the author also finds people here who triumph over the mean after almost insurmountable obstacles. One of the positive figures is the retired Catholic pastor Ludwig, who met his friends, the Jewish doctor Simeon Lewitter, and Luise's father - the master Nikolaus - who has a strong affinity for Protestantism - in front of the henchmen of the monastery (who called themselves “soldiers of God "Denote), saves. With the fate of Simon Lewitter, who is portrayed positively and sympathetically, Ganghofer's anti-Semitism is clearly rejected. In the book, the motto “stay human” reminds us of the tolerance between the individual religions.
At the end of the novel, Leupolt and Luisa find each other. Luisa decides to emigrate with Leupolt, although she maintains her Catholic faith. Many of the main characters of the novel suffer a bad fate, the novel ends sadly and pessimistically - since the old homeland is forever lost for the expelled emigrants.
In the book Ganghofer had - how could it be otherwise - woven a series of great descriptions of nature. A precise, skilful description of the seasons in the forest, mountains and fields, as well as the description of flora and fauna have seldom been so masterfully portrayed as with Ganghofer.
Others
The novel, like all of Ganghofer's works, has not been protected under German copyright law since the 70th anniversary of his death in 1990. Therefore, several inexpensive print editions and electronic versions are offered. In 2005, The Great Hunt was also linguistically revised on the occasion of the writer's 150th birthday by his grandson Stefan Murr (* 1919, † 2008). These revised editions - now published in “Contemporary German” and referred to as “modern versions” - were not able to convince real Ganghofer fans because Ganghofer's zeitgeist and the linguistic flair of the original are lost.
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References and comments
- ^ The prince provosty Berchtesgaden existed until the secularization in 1803 as an imperial direct spiritual principality . In 1810 it was annexed to the Kingdom of Bavaria .
- ↑ Of the 9000 inhabitants of the prince-provost of Berchtesgaden at that time, approx. 1100 people left their homes. Their assets were confiscated and sold by the monastery without compensation.
- ↑ Ganghofer told the history of the Berchtesgadener Land between the 12th and 18th centuries in a total of seven loose historical novels. Originally nine were planned by Ganghoher, but two of them could not be realized.
- ^ HP Karr: Stefan Murr, in HP Karr: Lexicon of German crime authors. Internet edition, online at www.krimilexikon.de/murr.htm, accessed on March 2, 2019.