The ugly duchess

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The Ugly Duchess is a historical novel by Lion Feuchtwanger that was published in 1923 .

Emergence

Lion Feuchtwanger was looking for a publisher for his manuscript Jud Suss , which he completed in 1922 . Through the mediation of the writer Bruno Frank , Robert Achenbach, founder of the book association Volksverband der Bücherfreunde (VdB), received the manuscript. The book club was reluctant to publish a novel with a Jewish theme. The novel Jüd Suss was published in 1925 by Drei Masken Verlag in Munich. Instead, the VdB commissioned the writer Lion Feuchtwanger to write a new historical novel and left him to choose the subject. Feuchtwanger decided to write the novel after the life of Margaret of Tyrol and wrote the manuscript from October 1922 to March 1923 . The book was published that same year. In the second edition it was given the title "The Ugly Duchess Margarete Maultasch". The plot of the novel has little in common with the historical figure of Margarete Maultasch.

action

Margarete is the daughter of Duke Heinrich of Tyrol . Since he has no male descendants, Margarete is supposed to take over the government of the country after his death. The twelve-year-old Margarete marries Johann Heinrich von Luxemburg , who is several years her junior , but the two do not get along well and Johann treats her very roughly.

A rivalry between Agnes von Flavon, a Tyrolean noblewoman, and Margarete emerged early on. Agnes is admired for her beauty and is popular with everyone, Margarete with her "monkey bulging mouth" is respected but not loved and often mocked behind her back. Only Chretien de Laferte, a page from her husband, shows her something like adoration. When Margarete and some of the Tyrolean nobles plan to disempower the Luxembourgers and chase Johann out, Margarete entrusted Chretien de Laferte with a leading role in the rebellion. But de Laferte secretly marries Agnes von Flavon. When Margarete finds out about this, she feels betrayed and at the last moment betrays the rebellion. Johann has de Laferte killed and delivers the severed head to Margarete.

But the Tyrolean nobles make a second attempt to disempower the Luxembourgers, and this time they succeed. When Johann returns from a hunt, he stands in front of locked gates and a raised drawbridge. He's leaving the country. The marriage is declared invalid by the Tyroleans because it was never consummated. However, the Pope does not recognize the divorce. Margarete remarries: Ludwig the Brandenburger , son of Emperor Ludwig IV. Bavaria . Thereupon the Pope imposed the church ban on them and the interdict on the state of Tyrol.

Johann returns with his brother Karl and an army in order to forcibly retake Tyrol. Margarete is besieged, but is able to defend the castle and comes closer to Konrad von Frauenberger, the commander. Frauenberger is an albino and therefore ugly in the eyes of others. Gradually a relationship develops between them. At the same time, Margarete's initially good marriage with Ludwig deteriorated. He takes Agnes von Flavon as his lover and moves the center of his life more and more to Bavaria. On the way to Munich, Frauenberger poisoned Ludwig with a poison that Margarete gave him.

Meinhard, the only son of Margarete and Ludwig, is the successor. But Meinhard is good-natured and not very intelligent and quickly falls under the influence of Bavarian noblemen, under the leadership of Agnes von Flavon. Konrad von Frauenberger travels to Munich to bring Meinhard back to Tyrol. They set off secretly, but Agnes finds out about it and sends soldiers after them. The weak Meinhard does not manage to climb the mountains and Frauenberger decides that it is better to kill him than to let him fall back into the hands of the Bavarians. Margarete is deeply affected by the death of her son and is looking for someone to blame. She has Agnes arrested and sentenced to death, but Konrad von Frauenberger poisons Agnes before the sentence can be carried out and thus deprives Margarete of her revenge. She lost control of the country and left the administration and government to the Austrian Habsburgs. In the novel, she spends the last years of her life withdrawn in the Frauenchiemsee monastery .

expenditure

  • First edition: Volksverband der Bücherfreunde / Wegweiser Verlag, Berlin 1923. 336 pp.
  • English translation: The ugly duchess. A historical romance. Translated by Willa and Edwin Muir. Secker, London 1927
  • Collected works in individual editions Vol. 1: The ugly Duchess Margarete Maultasch. Jud Suss. Two novels. Structure, Berlin 1959
  • Single edition: Aufbau, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-351-02352-9
  • Paperback: Construction Taschenbuch Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-7466-5026-7

literature

  • Hansjakob Hefti: Power, Spirit and Progress. The novel "The Ugly Duchess" in the development of Lion Feuchtwanger's image of history. Dissertation, Zurich 1977

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joseph Pischel: Lion Feuchtwanger . Röderberg, Frankfurt am Main 1984, p. 66.