The wild Starost and the beautiful Jütta
The wild Starost and the beautiful Jütta is a novella by the Austrian writer Karl Emil Franzos , the writing of which was finished in 1874. First published in the volume Halb-Asia , it appeared in 1881 in the 3rd edition of the Jews of Barnow .
action
The small town of Barnow in Podolia : The kk official Mr. Janko Czupka ensures order in Barnow. He particularly oversees the sweeping of the streets through which the annual Corpus Christi procession will again lead. Czupka threatens the Jews for Corpus Christi: "... woe to you if you are in the street during the procession - we will kill you a bit." The procession will stop at three altars. One is being set up on the desolate castle of the old maniac starost Janko von Barecki near the Barnower Sereth bridge.
Whether a Catholic or a Jew, each of these Barnowers tells how the wild Starost was driven mad in 1832.
The castle administrator Stephan Wolanski, a shaky old man, tells one truth; curses at all "from this damned people" of the Jews, but does not let anything come of the poor Jewess Jütta, in German Jadwiga Holdberg. During that bad night before a Corpus Christi feast that we are talking about, little Janko that Jütta had with the lord of the castle was only a quarter of a year old. That night a couple of bold hooded Jews took advantage of the starost's absence, broke into the castle and kidnapped Jutta and her little son. The Starost was on his way to the Tarnopol District Court and wanted to prepare his marriage to Jütta there. Janko von Barecki had been warned. Leave wife and child with a two-man covering? Extremely daring! The Starost had just laughed. The "cowardly Jews", intimidated by him personally, would not dare kidnap. After it did happen, the courts, including in Hungary , Russia and Moldova , dealt with the robbery. Janko von Barecki, court lord in Barnow, held the heads of Jewish communities prisoner for six months and got nothing out of it. When the Starost released the Jews, who also had to starve in prison, he asks them for mercy, because he feels how the pain is driving him mad. But the Jews do not want to know anything about a Jütta Holdberg. While his master was humiliating himself, the narrator Stephan Wolanski had seen one of the freedmen, a certain Simon Grün, secretly smile scornfully. In winter, the Starost goes on a personal search. Vain. After the next Corpus Christi festival, Janko von Barecki and his men attack the Barnow Jews. Stephan Wolanski takes the opportunity to kill Simon Grün.
Sarah Grün, the mother of the slain, tells the other truth: We “took Jütta from the Polish gentleman so that God would not be offended.” After all, Jütta's father, the old Manasseh, had been the head of the Jews. The servants of the Starost wanted to steal the then 18-year-old Jütta. Janko von Barecki had stepped in and took the beautiful girl for himself. Old Manasseh had died a few hours after the robbery. The Jews elected young Simon Grün to be their chief. He went to court and was mocked. There was only violence against violence. After the kidnapping, the Jews first put Jütta and the child in a Russian village inn and we went on. The little one died on the way to Mohilew . Jutta did not give up the body and drowned after jumping into the Dnieper .
At the beginning, the preparation for the next Corpus Christi procession in Barnow was outlined. What can I tell about them? Well, Sarah Grün sits in the Jewish town of Barnow and crunches: "Curse the Christians!" In his castle on the river, the insane old Starost Janko von Barecki dances with joy and presses out: "Curse the Jews!"
reception
- 1964: Creutzburg ruled that both sides, Catholics and Jews, behaved inappropriately. But he rates the guilt of the gentlemen who did not shy away from any pogrom much higher than that of the humiliated Jews. Jütta had been kidnapped eastwards against her will at the instigation of Simon Grün. After all, after her first abduction by the Starost, she had turned this libertine into a man who respected his wife. Nevertheless, the starost's fault remains: the manasseh who had been attacked had died after his daughter was robbed. And the Jews had no right in court.
expenditure
- The wild Starost and the beautiful Jütta , pp. 112-141 in: The Jews of Barnow. Stories from Karl Emil Franzos . 11-15 Edition. Cotta'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1920 ( archive.org ).
- The wild Starost and the beautiful Jütta . P. 199–222 in: Günter Creutzburg (Ed.): The wild Starost and the beautiful Jütta. Novellas about love and marriage by Karl Emil Franzos. Illustrations: Wolfgang Würfel . Verlag der Nation, Berlin 1964 (edition used)
Web links
- The wild Starost and the beautiful Jütta online at Zeno.org
- The wild Starost and the beautiful Jütta online at Gutenberg-DE