Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrem
Anna Eufemia Carolina Countess von Adlersfeld-Ballestrem (born August 18, 1854 in Ratibor , † April 26, 1941 in Munich ) was a German writer . Around 1900 she was one of the most popular German entertaining writers.
It has come to the fore above all with family and romance novels, many of which contain elements of horror and crime fiction or fantasy. Adlersfeld-Ballestrem is one of the most important Marlitt epigons. In contrast to Marlitt's work, the location of her work is always the world of the nobility.
Life
Eufemia von Adlersfeld- Ballestrem was born the fifth of six children of Count Alexander Karl Wolfgang von Ballestrem di Castellengo , landscape director in Ratibor, and Mathilde von Ballestrem, née von Hertell , in Ratibor. The family belonged to the nobility in Silesia, the ancestors had moved from Piedmont to Silesia in 1745.
In 1860 the father resigned and the family moved first to Brieg and then to Hirschberg . Here Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrem had a carefree childhood and was brought up by various tutors. Her father awakened a love of literature in her. She received singing lessons from the Dresden chamber singer Jenny Bürde-Ney and subsequently developed "a beautiful soprano voice of rare magnitude"
After her father's death in 1881, Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrem traveled with her mother to Italy for a few years. This trip had an inspiring effect on her artistic work, especially she devoted herself to portraiture. In Rome she was even accepted as a member of the Accademia dell'Arcadia .
After returning from Italy, Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrem and her mother took up residence in Breslau . Until her wedding, she was honorary canons of the royal imperial monastery of Maria Schul there . There she met Rittmeister Joseph Fritz von Adlersfeld at a reception, whom she married in 1884 and with whom she moved to the garrison town of Militsch . Their daughter Dagmar was born in 1885. Due to the transfer of the husband, which almost always resulted in a promotion, several moves followed, for example to Karlsruhe in 1889 and to Durlach in 1894 .
In the summer of 1897, Joseph von Adlersfeld retired as a lieutenant colonel. The couple moved to Baden-Baden and after long journeys settled in Vevey in Switzerland from 1899 to 1903 . In 1907 Joseph von Adlersfeld died and Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrem moved to Karlsruhe a year later. After the First World War she moved to Munich , where she died on April 21, 1941. She was buried in the old part of the Munich forest cemetery. Her grave on the wayside is designed as a massive stone cross.
plant
Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrem was one of the few German authors of the 19th century who did not write her works under a pseudonym. She published her first work The Niece of the Cardinal at the age of 17 in 1871 under her maiden name Eufemia Countess Ballestrem. This was followed by poems, short stories, humoresques and in 1878 her first novel, Lady Melusine , which was soon followed by 39 other novels. She also published small forms in magazines such as the Leipziger Illustrirten Zeitung ; Preprints of novels appeared in the Library of Entertainment and Knowledge and novellas at times exclusively in the family magazine Reclams Universum .
Her early novels, which with their titles ( The Legacy of the Second Woman , Haideröslein ) partly referred to the successful work of E. Marlitt , followed Marlitt's spelling with their characterization and horror elements more faithfully than was the case with other Marlitt epigones. While the plot of Marlitt's works was often set in the middle-class milieu, Adlersfeld-Ballestrem's characters always belonged to the nobility; also the morality, the plot and characters followed, was different from Marlitt, never that of bourgeois society, but always that of the nobility. While Marlitt has always avoided marriages between blood relatives in her characters, with Adlersfeld-Ballestrem, for example, marriages between first cousins ( Violet ) are also no problem. While with Marlitt characters who are wronged openly complain about it, with Adlersfeld-Ballestrem heroines are the rule that in comparable situations also remain silent towards their closest relatives in order not to burden them with the agonizing knowledge of a family disgrace ( Lady Melusine ). While Marlitt's characters who have committed a crime are “punished” by the author at least with exile, but more likely with death, or confronted with legal consequences, Adlersfeld-Ballestrem's criminals occasionally get away with acts of atonement ( Lady Melusine ).
The concept of the Marlitt succession turned into the aristocratic milieu turned out to be extremely profitable. Adlersfeld-Ballestrem's greatest successes were the novels Die Falkner vom Falkenhof (over 40 editions), Trix (around 70 editions) and one of the bestsellers of his time, The White Roses of Ravensberg from 1896, of which over 120 were published.
One of her greatest successes in the field of small forms was the Komtesse Käthe collection of humores , which appeared in 1894 and had its 30th edition as early as 1903; the sequel Komtesse Käthe in der Ehe from 1899 was published in 1907 in the 40th edition. In 1897, Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrem brought Countess Käthe onto the stage as a Schwank.
From the 1910s on, Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrem wrote exclusively fictional literature; at least one novel a year was published until her death. Her love and crime novels, occasionally even her humorous novels, often draw their tension from cleverly used fantastic motifs that can be accessories (for example in Das Rosazimmer ), but also relevant to the action (for example in Palazzo Iran ). While almost all of the author's novels have motifs from the crime novel, with the “Windmüller novels” she also wrote quite explicitly a series of crime novels that the “gentleman detective” Dr. Franz Xaver Windmüller can pursue and solve precarious cases in aristocratic circles (e.g. Djavahir ) and diplomatic milieus (e.g. The Pink Room or The Waving Light ).
Her novels, some of which contained traditional haunted elements of the Biedermeier tradition, were panned by critics as antiquated. From a purely technical point of view, Adlersfeld-Ballestrem has actually been writing professional prose since the 1890s, which contrasts positively with the sweet garlands of words of a Nataly von Eschstruth or an Aloysia Kischner (pseudonym: " Ossip Schubin "). In the “trash and kitsch debate” in Austria in the 1920s, the novels Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrems were nonetheless, alongside those of Eugenie Marlitt and Hedwig Courths-Mahler, as typical works that “covered the brain with trash and kitsch ... n] ".
The author's “kitsch” lay less in the form of her literary presentation than in a corporate image of society: all the literary individuals in the novels and stories of Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrems still move firmly within the framework of a Biedermeier style in the publications of the Weimar period. Founding feudal order, beyond which the zeitgeist, of course, had long since outgrown. As a noble author whose works addressed to a female reading public are populated by noble figures, Adlersfeld-Ballestrem can be compared with Nataly von Eschstruth (1860–1939), among others .
In the times of the economic miracle up to the 1980s, numerous novels by Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrems were reprinted by Meister Verlag (occasionally even as paperback) - albeit with different titles, heavily abridged and edited. The escapist moment of her works, the literary escape into an orderly world of estates, in which blood "flows" differently in aristocrats than in his servant, appealed to dreamy readers in the 1960s, but could not assert itself against the ensuing upheaval in gender roles.
Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrem had been the editor of a yearbook of German art and poetry since 1881. As an honorary donor , she published the commemorative publication In the Sign of the Red Cross in 1882 , which contained autographs of German princes and princesses. She also wrote biographies on Maria Stuart , Empress Augusta and Queen Elisabeth Christine of Prussia, among others , and devoted herself to historical research, for example on pedigrees for the history of European dynasties , which historians of her time held in high regard: It was “a work to which hardly a man wants to approach [and who] will probably never be outbid. "
Of importance that should not be underestimated was the catechism of the good tone and the fine custom , which Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrem published in 1892 and which was constantly being reprinted, later under the shortened title The good tone and the fine custom . Tens of thousands of middle-class climbers learned here the 'fine' table arrangement, the art of social appearance and nobility-compliant conversation. In doing so, the Adlersfeld-Ballestrem (as in her novels and stories) assumed the position of 'enlightened traditionalism', i. That is, she set herself apart from the court ceremony, which she saw as too stiff and distant from life, but maintained order that was accentuated by class.
She also appeared as a translator and published, for example, Édouard Simons L'Empereur Frédéric in 1888 under the title Kaiser Friedrich III. in German.
A part of her letter estate is now in the possession of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek .
Awards
- Art and Science Gold Medal for her biography of Mary Queen of Scots. from the hands of King Karl von Württemberg
- Honorary member of the Paris Société Archéologique de France
- Member of the Roman Accademia Letteraria dell'Arcadia
Works
year | title | publishing company | Type | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|
1876 | Leaves in the wind. Novellas | Wroclaw | Short prose | Content: The Princess's Diamonds, A Nameless Story, The Cardinal's Page, A Surprise, Orchidea. |
1876 | Winding paths. Novellas | Wroclaw | Short prose | Content: Jadviga, A frost fell in the spring night, The wild Margareth, A sacrifice, Sal viola. limited preview in Google Book search |
1878 | Lady Melusine | Decker, Berlin | Crime and romance novel | |
1878 | The legacy of the second wife . A family story | Costenoble, Jena | Crime and romance novel | |
1878 | Drops in the ocean | Pierson, Dresden | Poetry book | |
1878 | One meter | Mutze, Leipzig | drama | Drama in 4 acts based on a story by Emile Mario Vacano. |
1880 | Haideröslein | Schott countries, Wroclaw | Crime and romance novel | |
1880 | Jadwiga | drama | Dramatized novella | |
1880 | Charitas | Schott countries, Wroclaw | Editor | An almanac in words and pictures compiled and edited by Countess Eufemia Ballestrem. |
1880 | What the flowers say. A herbarium in songs collected and compiled from contributions by German poets | Baumann, Düsseldorf | non-fictional | |
1881 | Raoul the Page. A song from the old days | Albrecht, Leipzig | Poetry book | |
1881 | Memoirs of Baron Dubislav Gneomar von Natzmer | Greaves, Berlin | biography | |
1882 | In the shine of the crown. Biographical sketches of ruling princesses of all times and countries | Greaves, Berlin | biography | |
1882 | Under the sign of the Red Cross. A self-written album of German princes and princesses for the benefit of the Patriotic Women's Association of Gleiwitz O.-Schl. Established institutes to raise the house industry | Entrich, Berlin | non-fictional | |
1882 | Old biblical images | Holy, Hirschberg | non-fictional | |
1883 | From deep borne. | Schott countries, Wroclaw | Short prose | Contents: gypsy blood; Sauve qui peut, A broken rose, At the fireplace, The pale lady, The speaking portrait, Tannhauser, It was a dream, The ancestor's bridal jewelry, Dr. Dorothea Schlözer, The veil of Maria Stuart. |
1883 | Violet | Scottish, Wroclaw | Crime and romance novel | |
1883 | Skald sounds. A book of ballads by contemporary poets | Breslau, Leipzig, Scottish people | Editor | With Hermann Lingg |
1886 | The eyes of Assunta and other short stories | Pierson, Dresden and Leipzig | Short prose | Content: The eyes of Assunta, Titania - an artist's story, A song that has faded away, The shadow of the eagle. limited preview in Google Book search |
1889 | Sol and other short stories | Bechtold, Wiesbaden | Short prose | Content: Sol, Found Abroad, Juno Ludovisi, Donna Virginia |
1889 | Datura sanguinea and other short stories | Bechtold, Wiesbaden | Short prose | Contents: Datura sanguinea, The Secret of the Seealm, The Ring of Maria Stuart. |
1889 | The blond women of Ulmenried. A family story spanning four centuries | Pierson, Dresden | Crime and romance novel | |
1889 | Mary Queen of Scots Queen of Scots. Leaves in her memory and in her honor | Publishing company, Hamburg | biography | |
1890 | A royal crown and other short stories | Short prose | Content: Around a royal crown, a Tsar's idyll, Dieudonnee, La Traviata, The White Lady, Beate, feature pages, Lady Iris. | |
1890 | The falconers from the Falkenhof | Hauschild, Dresden and Vienna | Crime and romance novel | |
1891 | Lances fell to the attaque. Cheerful stories | Reclam, Leipzig | Short prose | Contents: field service exercises, billeting, porte bonheur, Comtesse Hans, on remontecommando, the butter woman's pedigree. |
1890 | Countess Kathe. Humoresques | Reclam, Leipzig | Short prose | Contents: Quark's favorite name, Der Bärenführer, Syndetikon. |
1896 | The white roses from Ravensberg | Reclam, Leipzig | Crime and romance novel | |
1897 | Pommery & Greno and other cuckoo nest stories. Military humor | Reclam, Leipzig | Short prose | Contents: Pommery & Greno, Murks, The Millet Popel, Heureka, Schauzel's Vengeance, The Ugly and the Diagonal. |
1897 | Countess Kathe | Bloch, Berlin | drama | Stagger in three acts. By E. von Adlersfeld and H. Stobitzer |
1890 | Countess Kathe in marriage. Humoresques | Reclam, Leipzig | Short prose | Content: Aunt Kuki's wedding present, Anna, So speaks Zarathustra. limited preview in Google Book search |
1890 | Memories from the Tuileries by Mad. A. Carette, freely transferred. 2 volumes. | Schott countries, Wroclaw | non-fictional | |
1892 | The good tone and the fine manners | Weber, Leipzig | non-fictional | Later under the title Catechism of Good Tone and Morality . limited preview in Google Book search |
1895 | From the junk room of world history. Sketches and studies | Book Friends Association, Berlin | non-fictional | |
1899 | Cream puffs and other cheerful stories | Reclam, Leipzig | Short prose | Content: Cream puffs, how Berger-Karle got his wife, August Paddemann's only wish, a ride for life and death. |
1901 | Pension Malepartus, a crazy story | Reclam, Leipzig | Short prose | limited preview in Google Book search |
1901 | Pedigree tables on the history of European dynasties | Strong, Grossenhain | non-fictional | |
1902 | Halali. The Stachelberg case. 2 crime novels | Reclam, Leipzig | Short prose | |
1902 | Empress Augusta. A picture of life | Grote, Berlin | biography | With illustrations and drawings by Alexander Frenz ( digitized version ) |
1903 | The blonde Ida and other humoresques | Reclam, Leipzig | Short prose | Content: blonde Ida, a brilliant idea, Odysseus and Penelope, bad luck. |
1903 | Trix | Reclam, Leipzig | Crime and romance novel | |
1904 | Animals and people. Cheerful stories | Reclam, Leipzig | Short prose | Content: Triumphant! L'Aiglon, Scoundrel and Scoundrel, Tiddlywinks, Donner and Doria! |
1904 | Ca 'Spada. A tragedy from ancient Venice and a mystery from modern Venice | Pierson, Dresden | Fantastic novel | |
1905 | Gypsy blood and other short stories | Schlesische Verlags-Anstalt, Breslau | Short prose | Content: Gypsy blood, A broken rose, The pale lady, The speaking portrait. |
1905 | Major Fuchs on his travels. The "Pension Malepartus" other part. Tragic-comic experiences | Reclam, Leipzig | Short prose | limited preview in Google Book search |
1905 | Tannhauser and other short stories | Scottish, Wroclaw | Short prose | Content: Tannhäuser, It was a dream, The ancestor's bridal jewelry, Dr. Dorothea Schlözer, The veil of Maria Stuart. |
1906 | The abbess. The mirror of Lucretia Borgia. Two stories | Reclam, Leipzig | Short prose | |
1906 | Djavahir. Lucifer's tear Two short stories | Reclam, Leipzig | Short prose (Windmüller) | limited preview in Google Book search |
1907 | YZ100 and other humoresques | Reclam, Leipzig | Short prose | Content: YZ100, the insult, the bewitched 'alpine rose', this is how it works! |
1907 | Maria Snow. The novel of a riddle | Seyfert, Dresden | Fantastic novel | limited preview in Google Book search |
1907 | Diplomats. A novel in 45 hours | Reclam, Leipzig | Detective novel (Windmüller) | limited preview in Google Book search |
1908 | The lady in yellow. A strange story | Seyfert, Dresden | Fantastic novel | |
1908 | Elisabeth Christine, Queen of Prussia | biography | Digitized | |
1909 | Scary stories | Reclam, Leipzig | Short prose, fantastic | Content: The sign of the ring, great-grandmother's bride-to-be, the wreck of the "Mercedes". |
1909 | The Maiden Tower. A story from the turn of the century | Seyfert, Dresden | Fantastic novel | |
1909 | Palazzo Iràn | Reclam, Leipzig | Fantastic novel | |
1910 | Your Majesty | Seyfert, Dresden | Crime and romance novel | |
1910 | Margarita Margaritarum . The novel of a pearl | Seyfert, Dresden | Fantastic novel | |
1911 | Monrepos Castle | Seyfert, Dresden | Crime and romance novel | |
1912 | White doves | Seyfert, Dresden | Detective novel (Windmüller) | |
1913 | The green pompadour | Seyfert, Dresden | Crime and romance novel | limited preview in Google Book search |
1914 | The surging light | Seyfert, Dresden | Detective novel (Windmüller) | |
1916 | When the devil drives | Seyfert, Dresden | Detective novel (Windmüller) | |
1917 | Ave | Seyfert, Dresden | Fantastic novel | |
1917 | The stories of the eleven | Seyfert, Dresden | Short prose, fantastic | Content: How the eleven came together, The mirror of Aah-Hotpe, The man with the helpers in need, Roasted almonds, The striped carnation, A state secret, The famous centerpiece, On the chronicle of the castle in the green meadow, The Buchensee scourer, The gruff one Lion and the sweet boy, The "Babylu", The St. John's Beetle, How nine of the eleven broke up and two stayed together. |
1918 | The Amönenhof | Seyfert, Dresden | Crime and romance novel | |
1919 | The bill without the host | Seyfert, Dresden | Crime and romance novel | |
1919 | The fly in the amber | Seyfert, Dresden | Fantastic novel | |
1919 | The fly in the amber | Seyfert, Dresden | Detective novel (Windmüller) | |
1920 | The heiress of Lohberg | Seyfert, Dresden | Detective novel (Windmüller) | limited preview in Google Book search |
1921 | The truth about Donna Centa | Seyfert, Dresden | Detective novel (Windmüller) | ( Digitized version ) |
1921 | Windmill stories | Seyfert, Dresden | Short prose (Windmüller) | Content: The Man in the Mirror, The Great Elector, Young Blood, Schoschnonüfoffofelnonasose, The Little Finger, The Case that Wasn't, Roccadiana. |
1922 | The niece from Florida | Seyfert, Dresden | Crime and romance novel | |
1922 | Aspen. The novel of a royal dream | Seyfert, Dresden | Crime and romance novel | |
1923 | In the twilight. Scary stories | Seyfert, Dresden | Short prose, fantastic | Contents: The Florentine Lute, The Giustina of Doge Nicolo da Ponte, The Begging Princess, Between Lipp 'and the edge of the chalice, Paulownia Imperialis, Why ?, Poor Peter, The mirror in Castell Tarquino, The New Year's Ghost. |
1924 | The Duchess of Santa Rosa | Seyfert, Dresden | Crime and romance novel | |
1924 | Chrysantis Oleander | Seyfert, Dresden | Crime and romance novel | |
1924 | The Duchess of Santa Rosa | Fantastic novel | ||
1925 | Resin violets and other funny plants | Sonnemann, Halle | Short prose | Content: Harzveilchen, Thilo, The Mutton Addiction, Red Roses, A day with Privy Councilor, It's him, In the fog. |
1925 | The guy and the others. A very suspicious story | Seyfert, Dresden | Short prose | Content: The guy and the others, a highly suspicious story, the hysterical collar and the cat's paw, boxing beard versus Aschau. |
1925 | The reasons of Doctor Pompeo Carcioffi | Seyfert, Dresden | Crime and romance novel | |
1926 | The masked ball in the Ca'Torcelli | Seyfert, Dresden | Crime and romance novel | limited preview in Google Book search |
1926 | The scarab | Seyfert, Dresden | Crime and romance novel | |
1926 | The pink room. Venetian novel | Seyfert, Dresden | Detective novel (Windmüller) | limited preview in Google Book search |
1928 | The third | Dresden, Seyfert | Crime and romance novel | |
1929 | With violet blue silk. The novel of the left cat's eye and the lady in the blue dress | Seyfert, Dresden | Detective novel (Windmüller) | |
1930 | Stuffed dates | Seyfert, Dresden | Fantastic novel | With the six spooky stories interspersed with the ax on the wall, heliotrope, in the Scheechhaus, the open gate, three white roses, the princess of Otrobarrio. |
1931 | Povera Farfalla (Poor Butterfly) | Seyfert, Dresden | Detective novel (Windmüller) | |
1932 | The spider, the web and Anneliese Holderbusch | Seyfert, Dresden | Crime and romance novel | |
1933 | Over night. Detective novel. | Seyfert, Dresden | Detective novel (Windmüller) | |
1934 | The Siebenbuchen inheritance | Seyfert, Dresden | Crime and romance novel | |
1935 | Why not wisteria? | Seyfert, Dresden | Crime and romance novel | |
1936 | That tip the scales. Detective novel | Seyfert, Dresden | Detective novel (Windmüller) | |
1938 | Black opals | Seyfert, Dresden | Crime and romance novel |
Film adaptations
- For Lack of Evidence (1916)
- The Amönenhof (1919)
- The white roses by Ravensberg (1919)
- Circassian Blood (1919)
- The white roses by Ravensberg (1929)
literature
- Heinrich Groß: Germany's poets and writers. A literary historical sketch . Gerold, Vienna 1882, p. 139.
- Rudolf Eckart: The modern literature. Eufemia Countess Ballestrem di Castellengo . In: Rudolf Eckart: The German nobility in literature. Biographical-critical essays . Berlin 1895, pp. 17-19.
- Arthur Kleinschmidt : Eufemia von Adlersfeld, née Countess Ballestrem. A sketch of life . In: universe. Illustrated family magazine . Volume 14, No. 1, 1898, Col. 389–392.
- Arthur Kleinschmidt : Eufemia v. Adlersfeld-Ballestrem. For his 60th birthday on August 18th . In: Illustrated Universum Yearbook 1914 . Leipzig: Reclam, [1914], pp. 354–358 (with picture).
- Franz Brümmer : Lexicon of German poets and prose writers from the beginning of the 19th century to the present . Volume 1. Lexicon Reclam, Leipzig 1913, p. 33f.
- Reichs Handbuch der Deutschen Gesellschaft - The handbook of personalities in words and pictures . Volume 1. Deutscher Wirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1930, p. 9. (Microfiche edition: Munich: Saur, ISBN 3-598-30664-4 )
- Urszula Bonter: The popular novel in the successor of E. Marlitt : Wilhelmine Heimburg , Valeska Countess Bethusy-Huc , Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrem . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2005, pp. 115–173.
- Franz Rottensteiner : The ghostly Eufemia Adlersfeld-Ballestrem , in: Franz Rottensteiner: In the laboratory of visions. Notes on the fantastic literature. 19 articles and lectures from the years 2000–2012 , Verlag Dieter van Reeken, Lüneburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-940679-72-7 , pp. 221–235.
- Adlersfeld, Eufemia von , in: Elisabeth Friedrichs: The German-speaking authors of the 18th and 19th centuries , 1981, p. 2
Web links
- Literature by and about Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrem in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrem in the Gutenberg-DE project
- Portrait and biography of Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrem on ballestrem.de
- The white roses from Ravensberg. (1919) or (1929) on filmportal.de
- Website of the Ballestrem company and family archive
Individual evidence
- ↑ Brümmer, p. 3.
- ↑ a b Bonter, p. 116.
- ↑ See Jörg Jungmayr. In: Hans-Gert Roloff (Ed.): The German literature. Biographical and bibliographical lexicon. Series VI: German literature from 1890 to 1990 . Stuttgart 1997, p. 296ff.
- ↑ In: Bildungsarbeit. 16, 1929.
- ↑ Kleinschmidt, p. 391.
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Adlersfeld-Ballestrem, Eufemia von |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Adlersfeld-Ballestrem, Anna Eufemia Carolina von (full name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German writer |
DATE OF BIRTH | August 18, 1854 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Ratibor |
DATE OF DEATH | April 26, 1941 |
PLACE OF DEATH | Munich |