Saint Hies
The holy Hies , with subtitle: Strange fates of the Reverend Mathias Fottner von Ainhofen, Studiosi, soldiers and later Pastor von Rappertswyl , is a satirical story by the German writer Ludwig Thoma , published in 1904. The story describes the spiritual career of a completely untalented farmer's son.
content
Mathias Fottner is the son of a small farmer. Because of his conscience due to an old perjury , the rich and childless Brückl farmer decides to save his soul by enabling a penniless boy to train as a pastor. It was more by chance that Mathias was chosen.
So the boy is sent to grammar school; there he shows himself inclined to his profession, but not very talented. During the holidays he knows how to sit in a pub at the expense of his surroundings, but fails at school - especially because of the Greek. Much to the annoyance of his patron, he has to leave after sitting twice.
He does his military service in Munich, is quickly promoted to NCO and initially feels very comfortable. Only when his superior changes and he experiences multiple disciplinary punishments does he embark on a resumption of his spiritual career.
A resourceful priest pointed out to the Brückl farmers the possibility of receiving ordination from the Jesuit order through training at the Collegium Germanicum in Rome, even without major academic achievements. After initial hesitation, Mathias negotiates a success bonus of three thousand marks with the Brückl farmer. He is ordained and celebrates his primacy on a grand scale in his home village . With the success bonus and two thousand marks from donations on the occasion of his primacy, he finally bought himself a comfortable pastor's position in Switzerland, while those around him assumed that he would go to Africa as a missionary .
background
The story takes place around the time of its creation in Upper Bavaria. Thoma traces the external life of his school friend from Burghausen, Georg Pauliebl, quite accurately. While Thoma von Burghausen moved to the Wilhelmsgymnasium in Munich , Pauliebl attended the Dom-Gymnasium Freising , then served in the army, began his studies in Rome and after his ordination worked as a pastor in Aargau, Switzerland , where he died in 1945.
Language and style
Hies or Hias or Hiasl is the Bavarian short form of Mathias. The story is in South German tinged, visually powerful, simple written German. There are far fewer dialogues than in Thomas' other prose works, especially his peasant novels. However, the Brücklbauer speaks his familiar Bavarian dialect when he explores Hies' career opportunities with the pastor of Sünzhausen.
Thoma uses an authoritative narrator who also addresses the reading public several times. While he vividly describes the needs of the Brückl farmer's soul, there is no deeper reference to the thoughts of the main character, who is shown again as simple.
For the first time in the Holy Hies the stylistic device of the awkward letter style of a dialect-speaking farmer can be found, which Thoma later perfected in Jozef Filser's Briefwexel . Father Fottner dictates the letter to Sergeant Mathias for his maid, in which he describes the possibility of training in Rome:
“Dear Hias! After a long time I want to write to you publicly, that the Brigglbauer is against it and that you become a wailer and yet you don't need to learn anything except to go back to Rome. "
Origin and reception
The holy Hies is the first story Thoma published after the success of his play The Local Railway (1902). The first edition was illustrated by Ignatius Taschner and was another sales success for Thoma and his publisher Albert Langen .
The humor of the story is based on the fact that none of the characters, who jointly make the spiritual career of Hies possible with great effort, value the inner calling. Hies himself is a simple mind; he is only interested in the most comfortable lifestyle possible. The Brücklbauer just wants to see the vocation as pastor somehow completed in order to settle his own moral debt in the sense of an indulgence trade . Father Fottner is interested in his own prestige gain. The landlord wants to make sales at Primiz. Thoma unabashedly describes this motivation for granted and contrasts it with the unctuous speeches of the bishop at mass.
Ludwig Thoma himself was intended for the priesthood by his mother, but showed no inclination to do so. One can interpret the holy Hies as a subsequent justification of Thomas decision against the spiritual career towards his mother.
Work editions
- First edition: The holy Hies. Strange fates of the Reverend Mathias Fottner von Ainhofen, Studiosi, soldiers and later Pastor von Rappertswyl , illustrations by Ignatius Taschner, Munich, Albert Langen, 1904
- Full text at Projekt Gutenberg
The works of Ludwig Thoma are no longer protected under German copyright law. Therefore there are some inexpensive (or free) e-books of the Holy Hies . The short story is usually printed in anthologies.
Individual evidence
swell
- Martin A. Klaus : Ludwig Thoma. A fictional life . dtv, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-423-28103-4 .
- Michael Lerchenberg : Of hypocrites and saints - priests, pastors and pastors at Ludwig Thoma . Langen Müller, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-7844-8328-3 .