The women of Wesenberg or the uprising of the citizens

Rakvere romaan (Estonian, literal translation The novel by Rakvere ; German translation: Die Frauen von Wesenberg or Der Aufstand der Bürger , 1997) is the title of a historical novel by the Estonian writer Jaan Kross (1920–2007).

Origin and publication history

Jaan Kross wrote the novel immediately after the completion of Kolme katku vahel's last volume , which was published in 1980. Politically, this was the climax of the stagnation period when Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was at the head of the Soviet Union , which had occupied Estonia at the time. In 1980 there had been school riots in some Estonian cities, which later led to the Letter of Forty . It was precisely at this time that the novel was written.

The novel was published in advance over three issues in the literary magazine Looming (3/1981, pp. 307–358; 4/1981, pp. 453–509; 5/1981, pp. 616–679) and in 1982 by the Estonian state publisher. In 1992 the novel came out as an audio book and in 1999 a new edition was published as part of the collected works of Kross.

Novel plot

The Rakvere Manor

The novel is set predominantly in the 1760s in the town of Rakvere (German name: Wesenberg) in northern Estonia and deals with the long legal battle between the urban population and the landlady, Gertrud von Tiesenhausen , who resides in the manor house . The subject of the dispute is nothing less and nothing more than freedom: the city was founded in the 13th century and was owned by the Danish King Erik VI. 1302 received the town charter of Luebeck . This was confirmed again and again in the following period by various new rulers in Estonia, including Gustav Adolf when Estonia belonged to Sweden. It was also the Swedish king who gave the city and its surroundings to the Dutch ambassador Brederode in gratitude for his support in the Peace of Stolbowo . A branch of the Tiesenhausen family later bought the estate from Brederode's daughters.

This is the prehistory based on historical facts and on this the absolutistic legal claim of the local landlady is based. She also feels strengthened by the fact that the city was razed to the ground in the Northern War (1700–1721). Only the ruins of the former Ordensburg still bear witness to a former city.

Ruin of the Ordensburg in Rakvere

However, the residents insist on their old rights (and thus freedoms) and want these higher places, i.e. H. sue the central government in Saint Petersburg . For this, however, they need written support, which they find in the form of the main character of the novel, Berend Falck. This is a fictional person who uses Kross as the first-person narrator. Berend Falck is an Estonian, but studied law for a few semesters at the University of Jena . He had to break off his studies due to lack of money and had returned to Estonia. Here he found a job as a tutor for the landlady mentioned, whose grandchildren he is raising.

First, as a representative of the landlady, he has to answer the letters of the townspeople, which he does in the interests of his client. Soon, however, Falck, who has read Jean-Jacques Rousseau , Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Christoph Martin Wieland , discovers that his sympathies are actually with the other side. When he falls in love with a city dweller - who is already engaged to another - he gets caught between the fronts as a kind of double agent in several ways. But the landlady also has opponents in her estate who Falck knows how to use. Ultimately, however, it is a coincidence that the city - temporarily - won a victory: a high-ranking official in Saint Petersburg promised to ensure a corresponding resolution to redeem a lost bet. In the end, however, the city succumbs. Ultimately, however, this is secondary, "the power of the novel lies in the dazzling tangle of intrigues and affairs, which creates a vivid picture of the aristocratic world and the rural world in Estonia in the 18th century."

rating

The novel has been dubbed Kross' "most pessimistic novel" because the prospects at the end of the book are actually bleak. With a “woman who may never be my wife before the world”, but who is still the mother of his son, “who may never be my son”, Berend Falck leaves the city with his lover and child and moves into an uncertain place Future. He ponders the rumors according to which the Tsarina is planning a reform in Estonia: “Should one day in the colleges and departments - the mere mention of it disgusts me - the Wesenberg case should really be re-examined, God knows, maybe the Senate decision will be made , the product of my vain endeavors, [...] to break the backbone of the Tiesenhausens [...]? Empty dreams! "

This is the end of the novel, the author of which of course knew that around ten years later, in 1783, in the course of the reforms of Catherine the Great, the city actually became free. But he deliberately lets his novel end before that. Seen in this way, the novel also takes on a visionary dimension, because around ten years after its publication in 1991, Estonia regained its freedom. The contemporary criticism in Estonia has already recognized that it was primarily about freedom and was able to formulate it under the conditions of censorship: “Here the city is a bastion of freedom, the symbol of freedom. The measure of progress can only be freedom, the liberation from any yoke again, be it a social, material, ecological or some other yoke. "

Foreign reception

Reception in Germany

Interestingly, an article by the Finnish- based writer and essayist Anne Fried appeared in the magazine Sinn und Form as early as 1984 , in which a summary of the novel is given. It may have been based on the Finnish version that appeared in 1984. Because the title of the article is not very meaningful, no connection to Jaan Kross or any of his novels was made.

The German translation was provided by Helga Viira and was published by Carl Hanser Verlag in 1997 . Since, in the opinion of the publisher, a title like “The Roman von Rakvere” or “Der Wesenberger Roman” would have been meaningless, an effort was made to use a different heading. The author himself suggested the title “Love in a non-existent city”, but the publisher chose the somewhat “lurid headline” “The women of Wesenberg or the uprising of the citizens”.

Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675) - The Girl with the Pearl Earring (1665)

It was the fourth book by Jaan Kross in the Carl Hanser Verlag, who did not skimp on superlatives on the blurb: "One of the most beautiful historical novels by the great author from Estonia, told clearly and sensitively, a book of world literature". Jan Vermeer's famous Girl with the Pearl Earring from 1665 was reproduced on the dust jacket . It was also noticeable that the name of the author on the dust jacket was twice the size of the title of the novel.

Although the sales figures of the book with 8,000-10,000 copies were not worse than the other Kross titles half a year after its publication, there was no new edition in the dtv-Verlag , which was the case with the Tsar's madman , Professor Martens' Departure and Das Leben des Balthasar Rüssow had certainly been the case. The reason for this is likely to have been some not particularly positive reviews. One reviewer complained that the book was "easy to read because it was written conventionally [...] The love story in the novel is not carried out, its end remains open." Another critic said it was a "soap opera", a "village vacillation and the story of a disillusionment."

But there were also positive voices, who praised the “highly complex plot, the interweaving of the facts and their criminological unbundling” and recognized that the novel was “primarily read as a pamphlet against the Soviets”.

Translations into other languages

• 1984: Finnish - Pietarin tiellä (Juhani Salokannel). Porvoo, Helsinki, Juva: WSOY. 390 pp.
• 1988: Swedish novels om Rakvere (Birgitta Göransson, Ivo Iliste). Bromma: Fripress. 438 pp.
• 1989: Russian - Раквереский роман (Olga Samma). Moskva: Sov. Pissatel. 589 pp.
• 2019: Dutch - Strijd om de stad (Frans van Nes). Amsterdam: Prometheus. 375 pp.

literature

• Martin Carayol (Ed.): Jaan Kross: bilan et découvertes. Actes de la journée Jaan Kross, November 28, 2008 (Bibliothèque finno-ougrienne, 20). L'Harmattan, Paris 2011, ISBN 978-2296-56073-4 .
• Cornelius Hasselblatt : The Germans in the work of Jaan Kross, in: Estonia 1/1990, pp. 6–13.
• Jaak Jõerüüt : Kakssada aastat hiljem, in: Looming 5/1983, pp. 710–711.
• Tiina Kirss: History and narrative. An introduction to the fiction on Jaan Kross . In: Cross Currents , Vol. 6 (1987), pp. 397-404, ISSN  0748-0164
• Hendrik Markgraf: memory and poet of the Estonians. Jaan Kross . In: FAZ Magazin of February 22, 1991 (8th week, no. 573), pp. 13-18.
• Lea Pild: Valgustussajandi kangelane ja rahvuslik müüt Jaan Krossi "Rakvere romaanis", in: Keel ja Kirjandus 2/2015, pp. 100–110.
• Juhani Salokannel : Sivistystahto. Jaan Kross, we have teoksensa yes virolaisuus . Söderström, Helsinki 2008, ISBN 978-951-0-33540-6 .
• Arvo Valton : Rakvere raskused, in: Keel ja Kirjandus 3/1983, pp. 156–159.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jaan Kross: Omaeluloolisus yes alltekst. 1998. a. Tartu Ülikooli filosoofiateaduskonna vabade kunstide professorina peetud loengud. Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus 2003, p. 96.
2. ↑ Jaan Kross: Rakvere romaan. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat 1982. 302 pp.
3. ↑ Jaan Kross: Rakvere romaan. Helisalvestis. Tallinn: Eesti Pimedate Ühing 1992. 1 CD (17 hours, 6 minutes) DAISY 2.02
4. ↑ Jaan Kross: Kogutud teosed 6 (Rakvere romaan). Tallinn: Virgela 1999. 381 pp.
5. ↑ Lea Pild: Valgustussajandi kangelane ja rahvuslik müüt Jaan Krossi "Rakvere romaanis", in: Keel ja Kirjandus 2/2015, p. 106.
6. ↑ Cornelius Hasselblatt: History of Estonian Literature. From the beginning to the present. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter 2006, p. 691.
7. ↑ Juhani Salokannel: Sivistystahto. Jaan Kross, we have teoksensa yes virolaisuus. Helsinki: WSOY 2008, pp. 212, 221.
8. ↑ Jaan Kross: The women of Wesenberg or the uprising of the citizens. Novel. Translated from Estonian by Helga Viira. Munich, Vienna: Carl Hanser Verlag 1997, p. 380.
9. ↑ Jaan Kross: The women of Wesenberg or the uprising of the citizens. Novel. Translated from Estonian by Helga Viira. Munich, Vienna: Carl Hanser Verlag 1997, p. 379.
10. ↑ Lea Pild: Valgustussajandi kangelane ja rahvuslik müüt Jaan Krossi "Rakvere romaanis", in: Keel ja Kirjandus 2/2015, p. 107.
11. ↑ Jaak Jõerüüt: Kakssada aastat hiljem, in: Looming 5/1983, p. 711.
12. ^ Anne Fried: Visit to Tallinn, in: Sinn und Form 4/1984, pp. 878-881.
13. ↑ Cornelius Hasselblatt: Estonian literature in German translation. A reception story from the 19th to the 21st century. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2011, p. 332.
14. ↑ Jaan Kross: Omaeluloolisus yes alltekst. 1998. a. Tartu Ülikooli filosoofiateaduskonna vabade kunstide professorina peetud loengud. Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus 2003, p. 97.
15. ↑ Cornelius Hasselblatt: Estonian literature in German translation. A reception story from the 19th to the 21st century. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2011, p. 332.
16. ↑ Cornelius Hasselblatt: Estonian literature in German translation. A reception story from the 19th to the 21st century. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2011, p. 333.
17. ↑ Paul Michael Lützeler: Power wants to be in power. Jaan Kross' historical novel "Die Frauen von Wesenberg", in Die Zeit , October 17, 1997, p. 22.
18. ↑ Fritz Göttler: Pants down for a happy ending. Jaan Kross tells a "soap opera" about the struggle for a city, in: Süddeutsche Zeitung , November 12, 1997, supplement, SV
19. ↑ Beatrice von Matt: Journey to an uncrowned king. Conversation with the Estonian writer Jaan Kross, in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung (international edition), December 8, 1997, p. 23.