The holy year
The Holy Year brings together five short stories by Ernst Wiechert , which were published in Berlin in 1936. The author writes in the preface that the title alludes to the church year , its prayers and saints. Accordingly, the five stories with their plot times, the Holy Three Kings (Regina Amstetten), Fastnacht (Veronika), Easter (Simple Death), Pentecost (Musketeer Wiedegang) and Christmas (The Maid) are arranged. Veronika and Musketeer Wiedegang are anti-war stories.
action
Regina Amstetten
For ten years, since the death of her husband, the 47-year-old farmer Regina Amstetten has courageously been running the farm. She is not supported by the three adult sons living in cities. Because Jürgen, who is married to a lady, will soon become a magistrate. And Karsten, the bridge builder, also married - albeit with a lovely little woman - also aims high. Karsten becomes a factory owner. Only Johannes, her youngest, remained a farmer; a studied one, however. Regina Amstetten cannot get one anxious question out of her mind: How should she tell the children? Soon after Christmas she will be a mother again. An unemployed man knocked on her door last winter; had told her about the student. Sin with him had been so sweet. The "student" had run away as soon as his future fatherhood was made known to him from the mouth of the mother-to-be. Regina Amstetten has no regrets. But there are the three sons who will surely say: "A shame!"
In the city, in her need, the woman finds a doctor who would legally abort the womb . Regina Amstetten takes a deep breath, but thinks about it and says no to the doctor. When the children arrived for Christmas, it turned out as the mother had foreseen. “Have you gone mad?” The lawyer Jürgen rumbles as the first of the children to hear the bad news from the mother's mouth. "Aren't you ashamed?" Asks the civil engineer Karsten screaming. And John, turning pale, inquires about his beautiful court. Regina Amstetten has already given it to him. At the Epiphany, the farmer's wife gives birth to her fourth son. Fortunately, as a grandmaid, she finds a job on the farm of a quiet farmer in the neighborhood, who once coveted her when she was young.
Veronica
For forty years the narrator Andreas thinks back to the time when he was ten; of a visit by his aunt Veronika for Shrovetide. The aunt had a prophetic streak; could predict the boy's profession: poet. She tailors carnival costumes for the rich and promises Andreas a costume by which he would be recognizable if his brothers sold him to Egypt. In addition, that salvation is tied to the magic word “Hamulaima”.
The first-person narrator had not been sold, but ten years later - again on Shrovetide - he was in the land of death ; more precisely, found in the forest of St.-Pierre-Vaast . During a break in the fight, the commander dressed up the young painter Bergengrün as a jester. In that forest of the dead, the narrator Andreas thinks of the word Hamulaima, and he tells the childlike, listening mountain green from Aunt Veronika's fairy tale repertoire. A little later, the painter - still in a carnival costume - is fatally hit in a fire attack. Andreas helps the comrade to die with the magic word.
After the war, Andreas remembers his dead on Shrovetide - Aunt Veronika and the painter Bergengrün. He opens the Bible and reads: "Everything has its hour ..."
The simple death
Easter on the Volga . The farmer Wladimir Wladimirowitsch Merslikow lies in his bed and waits to die. The paschal "conquering death" means for the old man to die in peace. But Vladimir is restless. The fly on the wall bothers him. He has something to complain about in everything. The Easter cake doesn't smell right this year. New-fashioned - the godless young people "from the village soviet " thunder across the field in a tractor. At his request, Dunjascha brings the dying grandfather an image of a saint. Vladimir realizes the cause of his restlessness. A farmer or a raftsman , who he had been for years, cannot die under one roof . At night, Vladimir torments himself trembling outside. Suddenly the farmer becomes “an open vessel. The stars threw themselves into him, a whole sky full of stars. Warm air that smelled of earth and forest ... It was nice to sit, at the gate of the world, before you had to get up to look for death. "Then the farmer drags himself down to the bank of the calm river:" It is nice to die on mother's breast. ”In the face of the rising sun, Vladimir finds eternal rest.
The Pentecost of the musketeer Wiedegang
It seems as if neither the narrator nor the musketeer could believe in the mission of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost 1918 - the “stronger grinding front ” in front of their eyes . In the past, after his wife had died in childbirth, the former pastor Wiedegang hung up his gown. Because the promised Pentecost miracle did not materialize at the time. Now - a few years later - the attack on the first holiday: “They were heavy calibers and they fell like houses into a howling abyss. And then it screamed outside, like the creature screams in horror. “A sergeant is missing the legs below the knees. Wiedegang helps and is hit. The narrator writes: “We buried him alone, without a pastor ... We didn't have much time ... the hills steamed in front of us ... it seemed to us as if none of us could return to the lives of the people stayed behind. "
The maid
The maid is fired in late autumn. Farmer and farmer have no mercy. The couple's youngest son had impregnated the girl. The maid ties up her wretched bundle and goes out into the pre-winter in the evening. On the way she knocks at her pastor. A celebration is taking place in the rectory. With displeasure, the clergyman finds a minute for the maid in front of the hall door. She wants to take the unborn with her to death. But it should be baptized beforehand. “You sinful person,” the priest escapes when he understands. Of course the Lord does not baptize. The Christmas story is played inside the hall . The maid - confused - penetrates to the stage, kneels down and prays - her forehead on the boards. It takes a while for the guests to realize that the maid is not part of the game. Rather, that is real life. The maid is leaving. Nobody holds it.
filming
Regina Amstetten 1954 by Kurt Neumann with Luise Ullrich , Carl Raddatz and Carl Esmond filmed .
Text output
- Ernst Wiechert: The holy year. Five novels. G. Grote'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung , Berlin 1936. 71 pages (first edition).
- Ernst Wiechert: The holy year. Five novels. ( Regina Amstetten . Veronika . The simple death . The Whitsun of the musketeer Wiedegang . The maid .) Verlag Kurt Desch, Munich 1953. 60 pages (used edition).
Web links
- The five texts online at ernst-wiechert.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Edition used, p. 5
- ↑ Edition used, p. 15, 12. Zvo
- ↑ Edition used, p. 22, 9. Zvo
- ↑ Edition used, p. 22, 16. Zvo
- ↑ Old Testament : The brothers sell Joseph to Egypt for 20 pieces of silver ( 1 Mos 37 EU )
- ↑ The preacher Solomon in the Bible : ( Koh 3,1 EU )
- ↑ Edition used, p. 42, 16. Zvo and 5. Zvu
- ↑ Edition used, p. 45, 13. Zvo
- ↑ Edition used, p. 51, 9. Zvo
- ↑ Edition used, p. 52, 8th Zvu
- ↑ Edition used, p. 57, 13. Zvu
- ↑ Regina Amstetten ( English ) IMDb.com, Inc. Retrieved on February 14, 2019.