Emma, the mysterious maid
Emma, the mysterious housemaid is a parodic colportage novel by Julius Stinde , which was published in 1904 by the Berlin publisher Freund & Jeckel.
action
Countess Smoltopska, born Siebenklietsch from Ackerstrasse in Berlin, has to endure the most dangerous adventures in all parts of the world in search of her husband, Count Smoltopska, in which the treacherous woman Roldemolde threatens the virtue of the noble Emma, while the noble one Mr. Nordhäuser strives to neutralize these threats. Stinde piles up improbabilities and monstrosities, ghastly stories of murder and crude seduction situations in order to make Emma, who emerges like an angel unscathed from all dangers and whose mysterious background remains undiscovered for a long time, appear as a luminous figure exposed to all conceivable dangers. All antics and stylistic exaggerations of the backstairs novels and Kolportag literature come here in repeated exaggeration lavishly applied. The book ends with many open questions and unsolved puzzles for the reader. The good and conciliatory end is also missing, in which the bad guys are punished and the good guys get their deserved wages, rather it is foreseeable that Emma and the other characters in the novel will face further bizarre adventures.
The servants theme
It is noticeable that the themes of "servants" and "theater" are often used in close connection in Emma . You can already read on p. 4:
“Just at the time when the people of the theater were placed under the rule of servants , a devastating criticism appeared of Emma's artistic achievement, which stated that when the flower girl choir performed, her skirt would have been at least two centimeters longer than that of her colleagues, which means the aesthetic feeling of old people on the parquet floor had been severely injured. The next morning the director said: "Siebenklietschen, you have hereby given notice. Take your service book and avoid my art institute." The countess smiled. She believed it was a joke. But when she opened the service book and read: "Dismissed for exceeding theatrical decency", she fell senseless to such an extent that the diamonds flew out of her real tortoiseshell comb. When she came to, she only mumbled the one word: "Breadless!" "
In the foreword, Stinde writes, "that the first deliveries from Emma appeared on the occasion of the brilliant servants' balls arranged by the stage members of Berlin as a demonstration against the introduction of the so-called servant paragraph in the theater laws ." The five surviving Kolporta books with Emma texts were written and printed especially for these servants' balls. In 1896 the booklets were given out in exchange for a donation in favor of Wilhelm Raabe, whereby at least 400 marks were raised. The so-called servants 'paragraphs, which gave rise to the servants' balls and Stinde's Emma , can be found in the 1st extra supplement to the 15th issue of the Official Gazette of the Royal Government of Potsdam and the City of Berlin. Issued April 10th, 1885 . The theater agents who put the actors on stage were also affected by these regulations. The stage performers were classified as servants to be mediated and, like the housemaids, should keep a servants' book. Only after ten years was a small, very insignificant correction printed in the Official Gazette of the Royal Government of Potsdam and the City of Berlin, Item 24, June 14, 1895, with which this defamatory provision for actors was repealed . The text of the novel contains (in addition to the constant allusions to the servant status of the actors) a great abundance of time references, from satirical swipes to the unpleasant and ridiculous in politics, society and culture. The further these daily topicalities move into the distance, the less these allusions can still be perceived and understood. After another 100 years, Emma will only be understandable with the help of commentary explanations.
Shape and style
Stinde studied the Kolportag literature of his time and as early as 1874 published an article on junk literature with the title "Spieß und seine Gesellen" in the Hamburg newspaper Reform , in which he warns against the ghost and horror novels of Christian Heinrich Spieß , but in a tone which suggests the fun of dealing with this literature. In his role as director of a "Dicht-Lehrinstitut for adults", which he had acquired in the Allgemeine Deutsche Reimverein , he published under the pseudonym "Theophil Ballheim" a lesson on the subject of the sensational novel in which he wrote recipes for making one such a literary product.
“For those who want to make a living from it, the first question asked is: which novel should one write? The answer is. The one that is most widespread. This is the gossip or sensational novel. He is brought into the house, or, as they say in German, circulated. - Sensation means something like gruesome appearance. The student must remember this well, because only in this way will he progress successfully. Second, what does the sensational novel consist of? we ask further. Answer: From the mysterious, the lovely, the hideous and the moral conclusion. The narrative itself does not matter much if one only ensures that the noble, rich and noble are portrayed as consummate villains and villains, while the lower classes are portrayed as noble and good. Otherwise the people will not like the novel and the coporteur-publisher will not do business. The student should keep this in mind at all times. "
A selection of the chapter headings gives an impression of Stinde's parodic performance in this genre:
“The curse of the degenerate daughter. - Arisen from death. - The skeleton in the prompter box. - The lecher. - Johanna, the girl in steel armor. - The count in the polyclinic. - Julchen in the morgue. - The detective. - Marinka in the executioner's hand. - The poisoned glasses. - nemesis. - The theatrical agent's revenge. - The diamond garter. - On the management board. - The foreman. - No mercy. - The poisoner's cook. - The dancing dead leg. - The victory of innocence. - The one-legged maniac. - Love reconciles. "
On the cover of the third copy of the coportage there is an advertising text that praises the advantages of the novel in the style of colportage:
“Emma, the mysterious housemaid, has become a family treasure in the true sense of the word. Not read, no, Emma is devoured as soon as she appears. Wherever it shows itself, young and old, high and low, feel that it is alone called to remedy an urgent need. The century is crying out for education !! But the ears were deaf, the senses blind, frozen in the dreary schematism of those to whom the goods of humanity were entrusted. They walked lonely on the inaccessible heights of civilization, the misery of the disinherited went unheard. Then it was day, light, shine and brightness, the bells rang to proclaim a new doctrine, the solution to all anxious questions of the time in the symbolic saying: "The self-punished victory of innocence over virtue." Who this thought fully understands, he is no longer a mystery, he looks clearly from the present into the future, trusting the inner self, purposefully, unwaveringly holding up the banner of progressive development. The simplest cook becomes a superman, the lowest house servant becomes a follower of master morality. And all of this through Emma, the mysterious maid! Thousands of letters of recognition are available. "
Position in the literary work of Stinde
As a parodist and polemicist, Stinde had already emerged in other literary fields. This genre makes up a significant part of his production. It begins in his Hamburg time (1863-1875) with the Wagner parody Lohengrün or Elsche von Veerlann (text unfortunately lost), of which Theodor Gaedertz provided a vivid report, is continued in the Victims of Science , in which dubious developments in the natural sciences are targeted, and culminates in the family drama Das Torfmoor , in which Stinde parodies and mocks the naturalists and their dependence on Nordic and Nietzsche influences. Stinde himself wrote in an autobiographical text: " I don't dare to openly confess that I love Emma in particular, although fathers of naughty children would understand and excuse me, because they are tough."
expenditure
- Emma, the mysterious housemaid, or The self-punished victory of innocence over virtue. Historical servant novel of the present. 5 booklets, based on the model of the Koportageroman booklets. Berlin: Batzenmacher, 1885–1896.
- Emma the mysterious housemaid or the victory of virtue over beauty. Parodistic Colportage novel. With terrible illustrations by Hans Mützel. Berlin: Carl Freund 1904. 224 pp. 13. – 15. Tausend, Berlin: Brandussche Verlagshandlung, 1913.
- Emma, the mysterious housemaid, or the victory of virtue over beauty. Parodistic Colportage novel. With terrible collages by Titus. Newly published by Gert Egert. Berlin 1972. 224 pages. 2nd edition, Berlin: Edition der Zwei, 1974.
Web links
- Emma page ( memento from June 6, 2011 in the web archive archive.today ) by Ulrich Goerdten
- PDF file
Individual evidence
- ^ Julius Stinde: Emma , Berlin 1904, p. 4.
- ↑ Julius Stinde: Spit and his journeymen . In: Reform 27 (1874) No. 67 of March 19, p. 2.
- ^ Julius Stinde: News from Theophil Ballheims Dicht-Lehr-Anstalt for adults . Bargfeld, 1991, pp. 28-29.
- ↑ Julius Stinde: Emma , passim
- ↑ Julius Stinde: Emma . Issue No. 3. Berlin: Batzenmacher o. J., 3rd cover page
- ^ Theodor Gaedertz: The Low German Comedy in the 19th Century . 2nd, increased edition. Hamburg: Verlags Anstalt, 1894. (Das Niederdeutsche Schauspiel. On the cultural life of Hamburg. Volume 2.) pp. 183–215.
- ↑ Forming spirits . Our most important poets and writers of the present and the past. Edited by Fritz Abshoff. Berlin-Schöneberg: Oestergaard, 1905, p. 120.