The pagans of Kummerow
Die Heiden von Kummerow is the title of a novel by Ehm Welk . The first edition was published by Ullstein Verlag in Berlin in 1937 .
content
The novel consists of 22 chapters that depict episodes from the everyday life of a group of village boys. The location of the action is the Western Pomerania village of Kummerow (meaning the village of Biesenbrow , which today belongs to Angermünde ) before the First World War . Events are described that take place in the period from Palmarum to Michaelis of a year between 1900 and 1910. The place name is borrowed from the nearby village of Kummerow , which is also located on the river Welse .
The protagonist of the episodes is the ten-year-old farmer's son Martin Grambauer. Pastor and teacher strive to raise him and his friends to be godly citizens who are loyal to the government. Old pagan traditions and customs are more important to the village youth - and their parents - than the Wilhelmine spirit. In addition to the boys' games, pranks and fights, it is their relationship to the adults that determines the plot of the individual episodes. The central event is their outlawing of an animal cruel, with the boys being supported by the village cowherd. When he himself becomes a victim of the authorities, the solidarity of the children cannot prevent him from having to leave the community.
meaning
The youth of the protagonists is a reason to classify the novel as youth literature. Welk's simple and realistic style makes the text suitable for young readers, even if phrases and dialogues in the Pomeranian dialect make it difficult for today's readers to understand.
It can be assumed that Welk processed autobiographical elements in the figure of Martin Grambauer. Martin's father Gottlieb also bears the features of Welk's father Gottfried.
Despite the tendency towards idyllization, the novel provides a realistic insight into life in the provinces of the German Empire .
Socially critical aspects of the novel are also noteworthy. Martin's friendship with Johannes from the poor house and her solidarity with the cowherd who is on the fringes of society give rise to narrative comments on several occasions; Representatives of the authorities - pastor, count and sergeant - are occasionally portrayed in a disrespectful manner.
Continuation
- Die Gerechten von Kummerow , Roman, 1943. The main hero of this novel is not Martin Grambauer, but his friend Johannes Bärensprung, who lives with his grandfather, a war invalid from 1870/71, and his unmarried mother in the poor house of the village. The book is less of a sequel than a new version a few years later from a different angle. The book is much more socially critical than the “Heiden”, as is the DEFA film based on it.
- Gottlieb Grambauer's clock , Roman, 1938. The main character here is Martin's father. "A century of Prussian-German history, observed from a distant corner of the village", so the foreword.
- My country that shines far away , novel, 1952. The adult Martin Grambauer looks back on his previous life and touches on his childhood in Kummerow, the friendship with Johannes and the life of his father. More of a philosophical flashback.
filming
The novel was filmed in 1967 by the director Werner Jacobs as a joint production (German Democratic Republic / Federal Republic of Germany) under the title The Heiden von Kummerow and their funny pranks . The main location was the small village of Vilmnitz , now a part of Putbus , on the island of Rügen , where most of the scenes were filmed.
In 1982 DEFA filmed the second novel Die Gerechten von Kummerow .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Where is Kummerow? TV production by NDR, Landesfunkhaus Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, 1997, re-broadcast on December 26, 2011 on RBB
- ↑ Die Heiden von Kummerow , chapter The cuckoo calls
- ↑ Die Heiden von Kummerow - The Ehm-Welk novel was filmed on Rügen 40 years ago. ( Memento of the original from June 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Interview with Jörg Resler , the actor who played Martin Grambauer), Der Rüganer - Ostsee-Anzeiger, September 19, 2007, last accessed on October 22, 2009
