The uproar over the junker Ernst

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Jakob Wassermann * 1873 † 1934

The uproar surrounding Junker Ernst is a historical story by Jakob Wassermann . Written in autumn 1925 and winter 1925/26, the novella was published in spring 1926 by S. Fischer Verlag in Berlin .

Junker Ernst gained numerous followers as a storyteller in Würzburg and the surrounding area during the Thirty Years' War . These free him from the clutches of the Inquisition .

A number in round brackets refers to the page in the source or in the literature reference.

characters

time and place

The story takes place in the fictional Ehrenberg Palace and in Würzburg during the term of office of Bishop Philipp Adolph von Würzburg (1623 to 1631). After the bishop's death (1631), the witch trials in Würzburg were over . Jakob Wassermann writes (117, 119) that Ehrenberg Castle is north of Würzburg near Rimpar .

action

At the age of six, Junker Ernst became a half-orphan . The mother cannot get over the fact that the son was more attached to the fiendish father (35) than to her. Having escaped the marriage prison unexpectedly, the unstable leaves the boys to the old nanny Lenette at Ehrenberg Castle and moves from one family to the next across the Reich for years . Meanwhile, Magister Molitor takes on the upbringing of the nobleman’s son (58) at home and reluctantly tolerates the fantasy Junker’s inclination to tell stories. Junker Ernst can't stand it at the castle. He wanders around the neighboring villages and tells the children fairy tales. When the mother finally returns from her travels to Ehrenberg Castle, she asks her brother-in-law, the Bishop of Würzburg, for financial support. The stingy bishop never thought much of the impoverished Dame. When he appears for an announced visit to Ehrenberg Castle to speak to the 15-year-old Junker Ernst, he is back in the villages. Annoyed, the visit asks the educator Magister Molitor about the Junker. Molitor, cornered, gives answers that are grist to the mill of the Jesuit Father Gropp. The priest, judge in Würzburg witch trials, accompanies the bishop.

When Junker Ernst comes home, the bishop takes a liking to the boy and takes him to Würzburg. There the suddenly generous bishop dresses the Junker. Father Gropp, of whom even the bishop is afraid, has an ear for the Junker's hexic chatter (75). With the age-old astonishment of the innocent (76) the boy looks into the granite features (75) of the witch hunter and for the first time feels human fear (76). Despite the ban, Junker Ernst regularly leaves the bishop's old palace to tell his fairy tales to the Würzburg children, to move the tired and uplift the oppressed (84). The bishop can no longer do without the company of his nephew (76), and at night he even overhears the slumbering several times in his sleep (88). Father Gropp will not give up. Junker Ernst is supposed to confess to him whether he has any contact with the evil spirits , of whom he keeps telling in his lust for words (96). Gropp wants to put the storyteller on trial and demands a written order from the superior bishop. The bishop hesitates, wants to have the Junker kidnapped, but Gropp takes precautions. Finally, the bishop and father agree - the Junker Ernst is only a demonic ghost with the appearance of corporeality (106). The bishop signs.

The news of the Junker's imprisonment for sorcery (112) spreads like wildfire and also reaches Ehrenberg Castle. The baroness sets out with Lenette, presses on to the bishop and demands her son back. The mother threatens the brother-in-law: Otherwise I will tell the people above all that you are in league with the devil (125). The Baroness is, of witchcraft suspicion , imprisoned and in the presence of the Son embarrassing interviewed , d. H. tortured .

Magister Molitor obtained through his friend, Provost Lieblein, that Father Spe was allowed to visit the Junker in the dungeon. Gradually the two get closer. During the Thirty Years' War, wandering through Main Franconia, the father had to experience many war scourges, plague, delusion and zealots for faith (142). Looking back on his fairy tales, Junker Ernst has to admit: I didn't know anything about people (145). But just these people, children. The thousands and thousands (149) move towards Würzburg and free their storyteller and his tormented, steadfast mother with clubs (160). The bishop, who never wanted to send the nephew to the stake, who had fled Würzburg after realizing that he too could be accused of witchcraft, had given Gropp the order to release all those accused of witchcraft from prison. Gropp had resisted. He wanted to have Junker Ernst judge with the sword that night (155).

The first message from the liberated Junker Ernst to his liberators can be understood as a rejection of telling fairy tales: Soon the Junker wants to give his followers a true, i.e. H. tell his, life story (165).

Quotes

There is a time for everything, her delight and his sorrow (65).
Bad conscience makes bad (116).

Self-testimony

The author sees the story in retrospect of his childhood as well as his early prose works. With the Junker's joy in telling stories, he also remembered himself - his apparently innocent innocent drive to make stories.

reception

De Mendelssohn refers to the autobiographical features (172) of the novella and to the young Jakob Wassermann's realization that words can be used to make Franconian homeland impossible to lose (170).

literature

source

  • Jakob Wassermann: The uproar about the Junker Ernst. Narrative. With an afterword by Peter de Mendelssohn . Unabridged edition. dtv, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-423-12080-0 .

expenditure

  • The uproar over the junker Ernst. S. Fischer Verlag, Berlin 1926

Secondary literature

  • Clemens Heydenreich: Trutzgesang in the Zährental. Telling as a counter-speech in Wassermann's "The Riot about the Junker Ernst" . In: Daniela Eisenstein, Dirk Niefanger, Gunnar Och (eds.): Jakob Wassermann. German, Jew, writer. Wallstein, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-8353-0158-0 , pp. 157-179.
  • Rudolf Koester: Jakob Wassermann . Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-371-00384-1 .
  • Gero von Wilpert : Lexicon of world literature. German Authors A - Z . Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-520-83704-8 , p. 651.
  • Jakob Wassermann: Self-Contemplation. Appropriated to Marta. Salzwasser Verlag, Paderborn 2011, ISBN 978-3-8460-0022-9 (first edition 1933 (Koester, p. 90 above, entry 1933))
  • Reason versus witchcraft. Contributions to Jakob Wassermann's short story "Der Aufruhr um den Junker Ernst" . Würzburg 2017 ISBN 978-3-8260-6312-1 (not viewed)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Self- Contemplation . P. 12 below.