The pastor's boy

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Peter Rosegger in 1893

Der Pfarrersbub is a short story by the Austrian writer Peter Rosegger that appeared in August and September (issues 11 and 12) 1888 in the Graz monthly Heimgarten .

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The records of the Reverend Abbot von Elmau are dated from Sunday, October 7th, 1866 to Monday, June 15th, 1885. The pastor of St. Anna was only elected abbot in May 1885.

The pastor, the diary writer, promises little Theodor Ringel's dying mother that he will take care of the little one. If no one wanted the boy, the pastor would take him to himself. After the promise, the mother, the young Ringel shoemaker from Bavaria, dies. Her husband was drafted in May 1866 and died in the battle of Königgrätz . The pastor keeps his promise.

For the merciful clergyman, the never-ending complications begin immediately after Theodor has moved into his household. The housekeeper Ottilie protests vehemently against the admission of the youngest child, cannot assert herself and quits the service. The pastor has to owe the 105 guilders of unpaid wages. The maid Maria, who had already served the Ringel shoemaker without payment, is now looking after the child and looking after the household. The clergy of Elmau Abbey, headed by the abbot, had inspected the church of St. Anna. The priest would have liked to invite the gentlemen to lunch. The cooking skills of Mary spoke against it.

The pastor is looking for a foster mother outside the home for the child. When, after a long search, he was able to win Miss Peselka, his brother Isidor Limasch from Sachsenberg urgently advised him against. Because Theodor, a child belonging to the Roman Catholic Church, would then be brought up in a household of Protestant denomination. So Theodor stays with the pastor.

The people in the village talk that the scarlet fever comes from the rectory. Thereupon even a dying maid refuses the holy sacraments for fear of infection. And from now on the pastor reads mass in front of empty benches.

Theodore gets one illness after another. The doctor cannot save the child's right eye during an operation.

Maria is released and Mamsell Klara is hired as housekeeper. Mamsell hates Theodor. The now eight-year-old mostly avoids boys of the same age and turns out to be an animal abuser. The pastor punishes the boy with fasting . Theodor helps himself by stealing his mouth . The pastor hears a conversation that Theodor is said to have had with a schoolmate when he was nine. The comrade did not know what to do about a money matter. The grandfather refused him the money for a toboggan. Theodor's advice: "So you have to stab him [grandfather] and take it yourself." For the sake of public opinion, the pastor punishes Theodor more sensitively than he actually intended after every complaint that comes in almost every day - concerning a swear word or a black eye could answer. In all of this, the student Theodor is gifted and hardworking, but bad behavior is certified. The pastor adamantly chastises the little sinner to the screeching applause of Mamsell for the school year-end certificate. But Theodor turns out to be made of harder cloth than expected. After school, the hard work at a farmer is said to wear down the boy. When the head teacher misses his clock and he is able to convict Theodor of theft, the pastor doesn't know what to do next. On the instructions of the clergyman, the community servant locks the thief in the kotter for one night . Before Theodor is released from custody, the pastor overhears Theodor screaming horribly during the final caning - carried out by the community servant. At home he speaks to the boy's conscience: Such a path leads straight under the gallows. Theodor replied: "If only you had hung me up today!"

In the early summer of 1876, Theodor left the pastor's house never to be seen again. Nine years later, on the day before the above-mentioned election of the pastor as abbot, a one-eyed lad commits a serious robbery of the church at Saint Anna - a desecration that is usually punished with 20 years of imprisonment. The robber cannot be found. On June 29, 1885, the abbot was murdered by robbery in Mühlhölzel. Two days later the perpetrator, a depraved 19-year-old boy, is caught. His name is Theodor Ringel.

Social criticism

Rosegger has the pastor write: “His [Theodor's] father had to be shot for his fatherland. One should actually box the worm [Theodor] well and send it to Count Bismarck ... "

expenditure

  • The pastor's boy . From the notes of a country clergyman. Communicated by PK Rosegger In: Heimgarten . tape 12 . Leykam, Graz 1888, p. 801-809, 895-903 ( archive.org ).
  • The parish boy . From the records of a country clergyman In: Peter Rosegger: The book of novels. Third volume, L. Staackmann. Leipzig 1916, pp. 155-188.

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