The way of love and death of the cornet Christoph Rilke
The way of love and death of the cornet Christoph Rilke is the title of a short story by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926). According to the author, it was created under the title Der Cornet within one night in 1899 in the "Villa Waldfrieden" in Berlin-Schmargendorf . In 1904 he gave a revised version to Stefan Zweig ; the (not very successful) first book publication in 1906 by the Axel Juncker publishing house was based on it . In May 1912 Insel Verlag announced that it would publish a new series of books with a price of 50 pfennigs per volume . After Juncker acquired the rights, Rilke's story became number 1 in the Insel-Bücherei (see illustration). In this edition, like many other works in this series, it immediately became a bestseller.
action
The starting point of the story is a regest (the summary of a document) in an old chronicle . The document reports on the transfer of Christoph Rilke's share of the property, who died in the Turkish War in 1663 , to his brother Otto. As an alternative to the short chronicle entry, Rilke offers the story of Christoph Rilke's train from Langenau to Hungary and his death there.
The 18-year-old aristocrat rides with other soldiers to Hungary to fight the Turks who invaded there. A French marquis becomes his friend. When he parted, von Langenau gave von Langenau a rose petal from a rose that the Marquis had received from his lover to protect him. On the basis of a letter of recommendation, von Langenau is appointed Cornet , the flag bearer. He then proudly wrote a letter to his mother, which he kept next to the rose petal. Beyond the border river Raab - on whose banks the decisive battle near Mogersdorf was to take place - von Langenau and his company stayed overnight in a castle. He spends the night with the countess in the remote tower room. During the night the castle is attacked by the Turks and set on fire. In order to save the flag and to get to his troops, who have already set out, he does without a tunic and helmet, runs through the burning walls and rides out of the castle. With the burning flag he finds himself alone among the enemies and falls.
effect
The lyrical-impressionistic prose conveys feelings of youth and hunger for life, love and death. The soldier ballad from the 17th century enjoyed particular popularity during the two world wars. The ultimately timeless and universal fate of the young soldier fluctuates between the glorification of heroic death and the senselessness of (young) dying, feelings of excessive honor, loss and sadness. According to the Langemarck myth , the “young” regiments had the Deutschlandlied on their lips and “Rilke's Cornet in a knapsack ”. Rilke's Cornet had a special effect on Alexander Lernet-Holenia , who took up motifs from it in his scene for the funeral for Rainer Maria Rilke (1927) and his novella The Baron Bagge (1936).
Book editions
On May 23, 1912, Rilke's work was published as the first volume in the Insel-Bücherei with an edition of 10,000 copies, which was immediately sold out and made the series successful. 200,000 copies were printed during Rilke's lifetime, making it his most successful book. By 2006, the Cornet had 54 editions with 1.14 million copies. 1987 one of appeared Max Schwimmer in World War II during a front activating private illustrated edition in a small edition bibliophile Reprintedition. For the 100th anniversary of the Insel-Bücherei in 2012, an illustrated normal series edition of the “Cornet” with scrapbooks by Karl-Georg Hirsch followed (anniversary program, number 1350).
Settings
The piece was set to music several times:
- 1918/1919 as a cantata by Paul von Klenau
- 1919 as a symphonic poem by Kurt Weill
- 1936 by Will Eisenmann (Chamber Choir)
- 1942/43 by Frank Martin
- 1944 by Viktor Ullmann in the Theresienstadt concentration camp shortly before his deportation and murder in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp
- 1950 by Douglas Lilburn
- 1952 and 1980 by Oskar Werner
- 1983/84 as an opera by Siegfried Matthus
- by Henri Sauguet
- by Hermann Reutter
- by the music group Von Thronstahl on the album "E Pluribus Unum".
- by the music group Saltatio Mortis on the album "Zirkus Zeitgeist".
Movie
- 1955: The Cornet - the way of love and death , German historical film drama by Walter Reisch with Götz von Langheim in the title role
Web links
- The way of love and death of the cornet Christoph Rilke as a freely available e-book at Project Gutenberg
- Book cult and cult book in the world wars by Bettina Krüger (with discussion forum on work and interpretation)
Individual evidence
- ^ Joachim Güntner: Manipulation der Massen , Neue Zürcher Zeitung, July 8, 2006.
- ↑ On the work and its reception, see also Horst Nalewski's epilogue to the IB edition of the Leipzig publishing house in 1987 (Insel-Bücherei 1 / B, p. 77 ff.)
- ↑ Rainer Maria Rilke: The way of love and death of the cornet Christoph Rilke. In: Manfred Engel (Ed.): Kindlers Literatur Lexikon. 3rd, completely revised edition . JB Metzler, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-476-04000-8 , pp. 691-692. [Biogram, article on The Book of Pictures by Jutta Heinz , article group on The Book of Hours by Manfred Engel, etc.]