The great war in Germany
The Great War in Germany is a prose work by the German writer Ricarda Huch (1864–1947). It was published in three volumes between 1912 and 1914 by the Leipziger Insel-Verlag . It was reissued in a more streamlined version under the title The Thirty Years' War .
The extensive work is considered a major work by the German poet. The plot spans around seven decades on more than 1,500 pages and illuminates the time before and during the Thirty Years War . Its structure in short episodes means that it is neither a historical novel nor a scientific work in literary criticism.
Contents of the three volumes
The first volume is entitled Das Vorspiel and illuminates the period between 1585 and 1620 in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation . The plot is heavily centered on the religious background of the war. Towards the end, the plot culminates in the second lintel in Prague and ends with the execution of the Bohemian nobles who had conspired against the emperor .
The second volume, The Outbreak of Fire. 1620-1632 , focused on the conflict between the imperial general Wallenstein and the Swedish king Gustav Adolf . At the end there is the battle of Lützen, in which Gustav Adolf is killed, the premonition that Wallenstein's star will "stagger and go out completely after a while of disorderly flickering", and a scene in which Heinrich Schütz is standing in front of it, given the horror of war to put the lament before God in music.
The third volume, The Collapse. 1633-1650 , describes Germany that was completely worn down, impoverished and bled to death by the war. The historical narrative ends two years after the Peace of Westphalia with a single scene that is symbolic of time and place and is played on Easter Sunday 1650 on the edge of the battlefield of the Battle of Lutter . The Lutheran pastor, Christian Hohburg, forgives the Catholic murderer of his daughter; the Catholics take the Lord's Supper from the hand of a Protestant : a resurrection feast as a “sign of peace that has finally been established”.
expenditure
Complete editions
- First edition in three volumes under the title The Great War in Germany. Insel-Verlag, Leipzig 1912–1914.
- Volume 1: The Prelude. Insel-Verlag, Leipzig 1912 ( digitized in the Internet Archive ).
- Vol. 2: The outbreak of the fire. 1620-1632. Insel-Verlag, Leipzig 1912 ( digitized in the Internet Archive ).
- Vol. 3: The collapse. 1633−1650 Insel-Verlag, Leipzig 1914 ( digitized in the Internet Archive ).
- Edition in two volumes under the title The Thirty Years War. Insel-Verlag, Leipzig 1937.
Abridged editions
- in one volume under the title The Great War in Germany. Insel-Verlag, Leipzig 1929.
- in two volumes under the title The Thirty Years War. Insel-Verlag, Leipzig 1952.
- in a volume under the title The Thirty Years War. Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1962.
- in two volumes under the title The Thirty Years War. Insel Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1974. (Volume 1: ISBN 3-458-01722-4 , Volume 2: ISBN 3-458-01723-2 ).
- in a volume under the title The Thirty Years War. 4th edition. Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig 1997, ISBN 3-458-31722-8 .
- in the version by Christfried Coler under the title: The Thirty Years War. In: Walter Jens , Marcel Reich-Ranicki (Hrsg.): Library of the 20th century. German Book Association, Stuttgart 1990.