An old argument
An old dispute is a novel by Wilhelmine von Hillern from 1898, which deals with the Haberfeld bustle, which was still common in the Bavarian Oberland in the 1860s .
General
The novel was published more than 20 years after Hillern's great success Die Geierwally , in which the heroine Walburga Stromminger appears emancipatory in a typical male role. In An Old Quarrel , the protagonist is the young miller's daughter Wiltraut , who despite male resistance enforces (her) rights, loses a lot, but is rewarded for it in the end. Opponent is the brewery owner Bissinger , who wants to take possession of the mill in a questionable way and thus brings the miller to the grave.
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The plot is based on a very conservative historical event , the Haberfeldttrieb, and is linked to modern demands of the women's rights movement. This results in a multi-layered subject that the author also connects with a love affair between Wiltraut and Lorenz , the son of the brewery owner.
In addition to the portrayal of this individual fate, the author is also concerned with addressing the Haberfeld drift, which is forbidden in the course of the plot by a ban . According to the novel, Haberern is an ancient privilege that can no longer be proven by the loss of a document during the Peasant War . Wilhelmine von Hillern is interested in a realistic representation of this type of violence, which was a regulatory element outside of ordinary jurisdiction .
In preparation for this novel, the author has carried out a number of studies: In addition to the research on the Haberfeld drift, in which she was tutored by Oskar Panizza , she also cites a work on Bavarian ethnology and two pastoral letters from the archbishop. Furthermore, she must have consulted the current penal code of the Kingdom of Bavaria and a history book by Lorenz von Westenrieders .
The subtitle reads: "A novel from the Bavarian folk life of the sixties." This incident was already 30 years ago when it was first published, but it was highly topical at the time. Other authors such as Oskar Panizza also honored the story with a report (1897) : The Haberfeld drift in the Bavarian mountains. A study of moral history. Fischer, Berlin. She may have become aware of the subject through Panizza.
The motto comes from Sophocles' Antigone :
“Οἷα πρὸς οἵων ἀνδρῶν πάσχω, τὴν εὐσεβίαν σεβίσασα.”
"What a fee I suffer from worthy men, whom I am caught in the fear of God"
With this ancient quote, Wilhelmine von Hillern clarifies her concern, to want to span far beyond the popular with the role of women. Antigone had also resisted the traditional role model and buried her brother, who had fallen in battle, contrary to the order. In this respect, the author herself suggests that the reader draw a parallel to the conflict between one's own conscience and expected role behavior, which was already discussed in this ancient tragedy.
Important persons
- Miller's daughter Wiltraut
- her brother Sebald
- Bissinger, brewery and land owner
- Lorenz, his son
- Habermeister, leader of the Haberfeld drivers
- Pastor
action
The action takes place in the district of a village in Upper Bavaria, the name of which is not mentioned and which, like the characters, should be fictional. The narrative perspective is authorial , that is, the narrator does not belong to the story, as the subtitle “from the people's life” has already indicated. Through this perspective and narrative style, a distance becomes clear that does not clearly reveal the author's attitude towards the events: she neither endorses the Haberfeld bustle with all its accompanying circumstances, nor does she criticize it. The course of action is strictly chronological. The story is written in High German , the direct speech in dialect, which conveys a strong local color . The novel is carried through direct speech, it makes up more than half of the content. In addition to the Bavarian dialect, it is told in an elderly, clumsy manner, which makes the plot even more haunting.
prehistory
Wiltraut lives with her ailing brother Sebald, who is lovingly cared for by his sister, on a secluded water mill far outside the village. The brewery owner Bissinger almost drove the millers to ruin by clever business maneuvers with his own mill. The mill wheel is broken, the mill stands still. The household is described as impoverished. The miller, an honest, respected and righteous man, could not prevent this and was grieved to death. The bailiff's visit is now imminent.
Bissinger's son, Lenz, wishes to marry Wiltraut, but his father himself has an eye on her, who could take the place of his wife, who died early, and take care of the household. Wiltraut has already given the elder a basket, whereupon he threatened to disinherit his son, he married her in his place.
introduction
At a meeting of the Haberer, it is announced that the Haberfeldtreib should be banned. On Sunday the pastor would read out the ban. The Haberer are still thinking about how this could be prevented with cunning, when someone from their circle arrives late who knows how to report that the miller has died. Now it is planned to initiate another Haberfeld drive against the brewery owner when Lenz storms in completely unexpectedly, whom the group had missed for a long time at their meetings. He says that he has now finally broken up with his father and is immediately ready to participate in the bustle against his father. This meets with the greatest skepticism and even rejection, as this would ultimately violate the Fourth Commandment . But Lenz is not convinced by the objections and claims to be responsible for this at the Last Judgment .
Bulk
The preparations and the goings-on itself with all its rituals and ceremonies are described in detail. Around three hundred people are present. After the “visit” to the brewery owner, there is a second rendezvous with the pastor, who does not show the usual fear and remorse and does not defend himself. Carelessness causes a fire to break out in the rectory and it burns down, which according to the strict Haberer rules should not happen; neither people nor property should be harmed. Meanwhile, Lenz rushes to Wiltraut to change clothes and to help his father, who has been destroyed by the force of the hustle and bustle, as quickly as possible. Lenz regrets his deed, in which he had to see how destroyed his father's state of mind was by the hustle and bustle. But soldiers are after him and at his request, Wiltraut's brother Sebald is immediately ready to go to prison instead of Lenz as Haberer. Wiltraut is desperate and very afraid because of his weak constitution. Lenz reproaches her very much and no longer feels love for him.
During the scramble in front of the rectory, the Haberermeister was shot by soldiers and had to have his right arm amputated. Wiltraut takes care of him lovingly over weeks of care. In gratitude, the promissory note from the mill is bought back from a Haberer fund and handed over to Wiltraut. She does not really take note of this, as she is constantly worried about her brother and has her daily errands about the care of the entrusted to her.
Six months after these events, a community servant arrives to announce that her brother is arriving at the nearest train station. He was released because of good conduct and poor health. The shadowless construction site of the recently completed Kochelseebahn is the place where Sebald has had to wait for his sister for hours because the news hadn't reached her earlier. And in fact he dies on the hour-long carriage ride back in her arms, but can assure her beforehand that he is sure that he owed Lenz this, “because he is dear to you. And he would have done the same for me if it had happened the other way round, that I still had a father and he had none! "
The End
Her brother is buried as a banned Haberer - officially nothing else is known - non-ecclesiastical, i.e. without a blessing and outside the cemetery. Wiltraut is beside himself with anger, sees no wrong on Sebald's side - the expression "like a saint" has already been used several times - and commits one of the worst sins that the Catholic Church knows: desecration and corpse robbery by the fresh grave Sebald opens at night and puts him in her parents' grave. Of course, this activity does not go undetected. With the disclosure of this sacrilege after the Sunday sermon, Lenz finally breaks his silence and confesses both his Haber character and his participation against his own father. Wiltraut is rehabilitated and Lenz is disinherited, but the two finally find each other.
expenditure
- An old argument. Novel from the Bavarian folk life of the sixties. JG Cotta descendants. Stuttgart 1898 ( archive.org , 1st, 2nd and 3rd editions appeared identically in the same year).
Individual evidence
- ^ Hillern, Wilhelmine von . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . 6th edition. Volume 9, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1907, p. 338 .
- ↑ Peter Czoik: Wilhelmina of Hillern , Bavarian Literature Portal Bavaria, State Library, (biography).
- ^ Wilhelmine von Hillern: An old dispute: a novel from the Bavarian folk life of the sixties . JG Cotta descendants, Stuttgart 1898, p. 255 ( Text Archive - Internet Archive ).