The Lex von Gutenhag
The Lex von Gutenhag is a short story by the Austrian writer Peter Rosegger from 1871, which appeared in 1873 in the volume Aus dem Walde bei Hartleben in Pest .
content
Lex von Gutenhag is the 15-year-old Alex Großpfleger from the Oberland. There his father owns the largest farm in the village of Gutenhag, a settlement of ten houses and a church.
Rosegger describes the boy's first year in the boarding school of a modern agricultural school in the capital. The father drives stubborn, defiant Alex to the train station. The school principal personally picks up Alex from the train station. Classmates start teasing on the first day of school. Alex, who doesn't take the teasing for what it is - harmless rough jokes - is soon gripped by homesickness. That does not remain hidden from Miss Dorothea, the housekeeper. The spinster wants to help Alex get over the worst with her superstitious habits. In vain, the boy flees, but is intercepted by the director at the station before the train leaves. Alex had already bought a ticket. The homesickness remains. He thinks of his dear sister Anna, whom he hit and injured when she was little. When Alex doesn't get an invitation home for Christmas, he is sad. The described first year at school is not a story of suffering. Teachers teach science subjects and the practical training in the main subject of agriculture appeals to the student. The subject matter and exercises in the latter are familiar to him. At the Gutenhager Großpflegerhof, which Alex will one day take over as the only son of his father, he has already tried or “studied” some of them. The director has forbidden the boy to enter the train station, but since the father, as a wealthy farmer, is a paying customer, son Alex does not have to endure anything from the school management. It is completely different with the new pupil Raimund, an orphan with no relatives. The director cannot collect school fees for Raimund and treats the newcomer accordingly cool, but not downright unfriendly. Raimund is the only one among the students who has spoken to Alex from the start. Both of them be friends of about the same age and go on excursions in their free time, on which Alex talks exuberantly about his beloved Gutenhag. In any case, under the influence of his more independent friend, Alex gradually overcomes obstinacy and defiance. After the first year of school, Alex takes his friend with him to Gutenhag for the summer vacation. It looks as if Anna will be more interested in Raimund than in her dear brother.
reception
The text reminds Wilkending of the “girl's literary pension stories” of that literary era. Often the alternation between experienced speech and inner monologue can be observed.
literature
expenditure
- Peter Rosegger: From the forest. Selected stories for the more mature youth. A. Hartleben's Verlag, Pest 1873.
- The Lex von Gutenhag. A youth life in the institute . In: The book of short stories . 6th edition. tape 3 . A. Hartleben's Verlag, Vienna 1898, p. 382-444 ( archive.org ).
- The Lex von Gutenhag. A youth life in the institute . DC Heath and Company, Boston 1911.
- The Lex von Gutenhag . In: Peter Rosegger: The book of novels. Third volume, L. Staackmann. Leipzig 1916, pp. 66–121.
Secondary literature
- Gisela Wilkending: From the last third of the 19th century to the First World War: Only marginal: life stories with male protagonists . In: Reiner Wild (ed.): History of German children's and youth literature . JB Metzler, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-476-01980-6 .
- Gisela Wilkending: Narrative literature. General generic characteristics. Dissolution of authorial narrative concepts in he / she narrative situations . In: Otto Brunken (Hrsg.): Handbook for children's and youth literature. From 1850 to 1900. JB Metzler, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-476-01687-4 .