The child killer

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The child murderess is a tragedy (drama) by Heinrich Leopold Wagner from 1776 and at the same time his most important work. In a socially critical way, it illustrates the problems of class separation between the bourgeoisie and the nobility and the status of women in society at that time. Last but not least, the work should address the problem of child murder in the 18th century and its harsh punishment.

The main characters are

  • Evchen: a young girl from the middle class
  • Von Gröningseck: a young noble lieutenant
  • Mrs. and Mr. Humbrecht: Evchen's parents
  • Magister: Mrs. Humbrecht's cousin, a clergyman

content

A costumed officer and two masked women enter a shabby room in a pub that is widely known as a brothel . However, this remains hidden from the women, mother and daughter Humbrecht. It turns out that Evchen and Mrs. Humbrecht took advantage of the absence of Mr. Humbrecht, a strict Strasbourg master butcher, to attend a carnival ball with Lieutenant von Gröningseck, who was billeted in their house. The officer then suggested a change of location in order to have a drink and breakfast with his companions at around two-thirty in the morning and then return to the ball.

Von Gröningseck flirts with his mother, but is actually targeting her 18-year-old daughter. He drugged Ms. Humbrecht with sleeping powder mixed with the punch and then raped Evchen in a chamber. Immediately afterwards, von Gröningseck promises marriage to the outraged and traumatized girl. In five months he will be "majorenn", that is, of legal age, and will then keep his promise to save her reputation. Until then, Evchen vows to keep quiet about what happened, but forbids any further trust.

It soon turns out that Evchen is pregnant, which she laboriously hides from her family and environment. As the five-month deadline approached, von Gröningseck let his comrade, Lieutenant von Hasenpoth, know about the matter. He now wants to take two months' leave to take up his inheritance. He then plans to marry the (not befitting) butcher's daughter Evchen, knowing full well that as a noble officer he will no longer be acceptable and will have to quit military service. During the conversation it was learned that von Hasenpoth had concocted the plan to rape Evchen and that von Gröningseck also got the sleeping powder for the mother.

Shortly before von Gröningseck's expected return, Evchen receives a letter in which the lieutenant unexpectedly terminates his marriage promise and passes it on to von Hasenpoth. The young woman feels deeply humiliated, fears the scandal of an illegitimate birth and therefore secretly leaves her parents' home. When the Magister, suspecting Evchen's tragic fate, called on Mr. Humbrecht to mediate between the choleric father and daughter, Evchen had already disappeared.

Evchen is staying anonymously with Mrs. Marthan's laundress. There she gives birth to her child, which unfortunately she cannot breastfeed. By Mrs. Marthan experienced young mother who barely leaves the house in the city you think Evchen Humbrecht is one of her mother verkuppelte whore who have now been drowned in the river. The mother died out of shame and grief. Desperately Evchen reveals her true identity and asks Ms. Marthan to reveal her whereabouts to her father, the butcher Humbrecht, and to collect the reward he has given him. In Frau Marthan's absence, Evchen kills the hungry, crying child with a pin.

In the last act, the main characters meet again. Von Gröningseck reveals that the farewell letter was actually written by the scheming von Hasenpoth under von Gröningseck's name. Evchen expects the death penalty, which she is willing to accept as a child and alleged mother killer. Von Gröningseck plans to obtain a milder verdict for Evchen. If necessary, he even wants to go to the French king for this (note: Strasbourg had been part of France since 1681, but remained German and Lutheran for a long time ). Mr. Humbrecht promises him every financial support for this.

History of origin

In the same year after it was published in 1776, Karl Gotthelf Lessing began to revise Wagner's original version for the Döbbelinsches Theater , because Lessing thought Die Kindermörderin was a work by Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz and despite the "indecent and immoral act" did not find it uninteresting and a performance should take place. He throttled Wagner's strength style. He deleted the first act completely, added the content to the rest of the drama and removed the dialect. After completing his amendment, he sent it to his brother, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , who “read it with pleasure”. Even Friedrich Schiller commented on Wagner's piece: It was touching situations and interesting features, but it does not rise beyond the level of mediocrity. There is "too much water". Wagner rejected Lessing's amendment after it was completed in 1777. The original version was performed in the same year in the Wahrschen Theater in Pest and Bratislava .

Also in 1777 he rewrote his play himself, which on September 4, 1778 as Evchen Humbrecht or you mothers remember! premiered in Frankfurt am Main and performed many more times until 1813. In Wagner's revision, as in Lessing's revision, the first act was deleted and incorporated into the further course. In the end, however, Evchen does not kill her child because her parents step into the room shortly beforehand and forgive her. On September 4, 1904, the original version was premiered for the second time at the Volksbühne Berlin .

In 1963, Peter Hacks revised the piece, drawing attention to the “existence of class barriers”.

background

Wagner orients himself very much towards the circumstances of the time in Strasbourg , where the plot takes place, and he also uses elements from other works by his contemporaries. Goethe , Shakespeare , Mercier , Rousseau and Richardson formed a basis for the characters of the child murderer. Goethe described the child murderer as a plagiarism of his original fist .

In his drama, Wagner presents four different social classes and criticizes their inequalities:

  • the middle-class Humbrecht family
  • the religious master
  • the worldly violence in fiscal and its fist hammers
  • the aristocratic military officer class (von Gröningseck, von Hasenpoth)

Because of the estates, Evchen and von Gröningseck cannot marry immediately, which forces Evchen to murder their child. Furthermore, the "bourgeois girl" is punished, but not the hammer for her offense. The nobility is criticized for its deceit (especially against the bourgeoisie).

Wagner was not afraid to portray a brothel scene and the depiction of a child murder on stage. He used a parallel technique: For example, Evchen is seduced like the daughter of a tenant. Through incidentally interwoven utterances, Wagner provides predictions for later actions. The comment by Gröningsecks about von Hasenpoth, who never wrote a letter to Evchen, foreshadows the tragedy. Her father's invitation to Evchen to go back to church enables the master to report on her faint. This avoids an intermediate act on stage.

The dialect and geographical names used from Strasbourg. Linguistically, the people are to be divided as follows: Humbrecht, the Magister, von Hasenpoth and the secondary characters are characterized by a consistent tone of voice. Ms. Humbrecht, Evchen and von Gröningseck change them very often.

Some of the personal names used actually existed in Strasbourg. There was a baker Michel, at whose door a child was killed, and a butcher Valentin Humbert. Furthermore, a Bavarian regiment ("Royal Bavière") was stationed in Strasbourg.

useful information

According to the German dictionary , Wagner's work is the oldest evidence of the word child murderer .

Secondary literature

  • Jörg-Ulrich Fechner: The child murderer. (= Reclams Universal Library. No. 5698). Reclam, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-15-005698-5 .
  • Matthias Luserke-Jaqui : The child murderer. (= Reclams Universal Library. No. 8410). Reclam, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-15-008410-5 , pp. 161-193.
  • Matthias Luserke: The child murderer and child murder as a literary and social topic. (= Reclams Universal Library. No. 17602). Reclam, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-15-017602-6 , pp. 218-243.
  • Ulrich Karthaus (ed.): Sturm und Drang. Epoch-works-effect. Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-46189-7 , pp. 113-123.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karl Lachmann (ed.): Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's all writings. worried v. Franz Muncker. Göschen, Leipzig 1907, Volume XXI, p. 148. Volume XVIII, p. 220 f.
  2. ↑ Fritz Jonas (ed.): Schiller's letters. Volume I, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt undated, Stuttgart p. 64. No. 34.
  3. ↑ CHILD KILLER. Retrieved March 11, 2018 .