Fabian and Sebastian

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Fabian and Sebastian is a short story by Wilhelm Raabe that was published by Westermann in Braunschweig in 1882. At the end of 1881 the text had already been preprinted in " Westermannsmonthshefte ". According to Karl Fricker, Stuttgart is said to have stood as a model for the location of the action.

The 15-year-old orphan Konstanze Pelzmann, transplanted from the colony of the Dutch East Indies to snow-covered industrialized Germany, sets out three times in the city of her father's birth against the will of her uncle Fabian and brings consolation to two elderly lonely men.

content

At the end of the 1870s, Mr Fabian Pelzmann traveled to France with his factotum Knövenagel from his hometown, a solid residence. His niece Konstanze, coming from Batavia , lands on a ship from Singapore in Marseille. The girl's Dutch Creole mother died soon after Constance was born and was buried in Sumatra . Fabian takes the niece, daughter of Mijnheer de luitenant Lorenz Pelzmann, who died in the royal Dutch military service after a bad fever on Sumatra, under his roof, the house where the three brothers were born. Sebastian Pelzmann, the almost 50-year-old third among the brothers, the strict first boss of the large chocolate and jam factory Pelzmann und Co., wants the girl to be educated in the boarding school of the local Madame Printemps, but cannot assert himself against Fabian.

The workers tremble before the sharp inspection rounds of the first boss. In contrast to the late brother Lorenz, Fabian and Sebastian are bachelors. Fabian is the older and Lorenz was the youngest brother. Fabian and Sebastian run separate households. The senior principal was pushed from the front building to the rear building by the senior boss.

Konstanze is sad because she was greeted frostily by Uncle Sebastian. From the torrent of words of the conversational genius Knövenagel, the bright child would like to make sense of his tricky German family situation.

The first boss falls ill. Brother Fabian knows the cause of the illness. "A grim fear" has "struck its claws in the tough temper of Mr. Sebastian Pelzmann". Sebastian is worried about the day the shepherd Thomas' daughter will be released from the district prison.

Uncle Fabian takes care of Konstanze. For example, he goes on excursions with the girl to a good friend, the bailiff Peter Rümpler on Schielau. Duty calls. Soon Uncle Fabian has to go back to his factory. Meanwhile, the girl lives in the household of the bailiff's hospitable wife for more than a week and during this time meets the shepherd Thomas Erdener in the fields. This is the bailiff's sheepmaster. Konstanze asks the bailiff about the shepherd's suffering and is referred to her uncle. Fabian picks up "his child". On the way home, both day trippers pass the district prison. In response to insistent questioning, Fabian had to confess to the niece that the shepherd's daughter Thomas was locked in there. Fabian can't lie and drags the questioner past the detention center. Later, while visiting the market in town, Konstanze happened to recognize the shepherd Thomas and spoke to him. The old man evades her. On the way home he wants to visit his daughter in prison. Konstanze would like to accompany him on his “monthly visit”. He refuses. Konstanze believes she is too young to understand everything, but she doesn't want to have come to her friends from afar for nothing. So she just stays by the shepherd's side. He reluctantly lets it happen. But Konstanze has to wait in front of the prison. Shortly before the shepherd comes out again, the girl meets Uncle Sebastian in front of the prison gate. The shepherd says his contempt in the face of the entrepreneur and leaves. Konstanze has to support her uncle with her weak strength. After this scene, Uncle Sebastian's health deteriorates further. Fabian has to return to the front building and take over the business again. Konstanze finally learns from Knövenagel what she wants to know. The prisoner is called Marianne Erdener and is Knövenagel's godchild. Almost a quarter of a century ago he had brought his then 16-year-old Mariannchen from the village to the city for his amusement and her ruin.

Before Konstanze Knövenagel calls his godchild the Schielau witch. You have turned Constance's father Lorenz and Uncle Sebastian's heads. Knövenagel blames Marianne for the fact that Lorenz had to go into Dutch service and that the good civil reputation of the company was badly damaged. At that time Sebastian had taken his lover Marianne out of his brother Lorenz's and hung around with her for a long time in Italy. There the lovers would have separated forever. At that time, Fabian limited the damage to the company through high financial commitment and enabled Lorenz to pursue a "career" overseas.

On his deathbed, Sebastian confuses Konstanze with his own child. Marianne Erdener drowned their child in nearby Wiesenbach and was imprisoned for twenty years. Fabian wants to keep the niece away from the dying man's bed. Konstanze goes there anyway - "in her white night dress, trembling with the trembling lamp in her hand, but called by Uncle Sebastian in his last fear of life and distress." Before Sebastian dies, he says to Konstanze: "Give me your hand ... , let me feel your breath, my child, my big, beautiful, living child! “When the voice of the dying man becomes more and more incomprehensible, Konstanze can no longer distinguish whether she is actually talking about the child murderer Marianne or her mother in Sumatra is. Sebastian dies the day Marianne Erdener is released. The shepherd Thomas moves into miserable quarters with his daughter in the city. Fabian goes to the two of them. The now toothless Marianne, "an ugly, sick, broken, insanely staring woman", says Sebastian will take her to himself. The patient threatens: "And if he blocks himself, I'll send him our child every night." The shepherd does not inform the "poor sick" of Sebastian's death. Marianne Erdener dies. Against the will of her uncle Fabian, Konstanze goes to the shepherd after the funeral. Thomas replies to her word of consolation that no one can help him. Konstanze is not deterred and takes the Pelzmann family's guilt on herself. The girl promises the shepherd that it will apply to her child in his last hour.

Quotes

  • "Nobody just speaks with their tongue."
  • "Before man dies, man must live."

shape

“In this bitter story from the house of Pelzmann and company” Raabe's veiled narrative reaches a climax. According to the title, the reader expects arguments between two brothers, Fabian and Sebastian, who are fundamentally different in character. The mysterious thing about the story, however, is the hesitant-delayed disclosure of a child murder. Two characters play the central role. This refers to Thomas, the murderer's father and Knövenagel, her godfather. The ingenious thing about Raabe's construct: It really begins with the story of the two title-giving brothers. In addition to these two, Fabian's chatty Factotum Knövenagel appears almost omnipresent. The reader, however, cannot make sense of a tirade of hate from Sebastian. The first boss does not want to see Knövenagel's "wooden monkey face". Schäfer Thomas is drawn into history much more casually than Knövenagel. It begins with the factory owner Sebastian quickly retreating from the office window as the murderer's father walks past on the sidewalk.

The story is a historical document from the founding years . Konstanze was picked up by Fabian and Knövenagel from Marseille (see above). Knövenagel is asked later: “Well, old Holzbock, how was it in France? What did the dear French say to you? What? So what did you not get to choose from even in the seventies, when you had the whole sample card come to you? So tell me, Knövenagel! ”The factotum will never last long, please. Knövenagel reports from his trip to France: “It rained again like heaven's judgment on our dear French people's hairstyle, and as far as dry sitting was concerned, with their new free republic , which we had created for them, they had nothing ahead of us our dear country fathers and the new empire , to which they helped us. ”Of course, the lot of the workers in the factory of the Pelzmann brothers is only mentioned in a few sentences. For example, Konstanze, wrapped in cotton wool by Uncle Fabian, looks down from her overheated apartment onto the factory courtyard: "... while the working-class people are just returning from their short free period in dense groups and flocks from Fadengasse through the business gate and themselves, wet and probably also shivering, pushes across the courtyard. She also knows from her sunny homeland, from the factories and plantations that her blessed father and his soldiers had to protect against the wild people from the mountains, that the tame or half-tamed person has to torment himself badly, but - it was cold but not there and not so gray. And she has a deep pity for these workers of her European relatives and especially for their kind among them - although they are quite funny - and for the older women, of whom only a few, few make a happy face or even into the loud laughter and screeching of the younger ones tune in. "

As early as the 19th century, Raabe had clairvoyantly addressed the complication of the 21st century, one of the causes of global warming . The European manufacturers are constantly polluting our world: “Konstanze sat trembling, with hands folded on her knees, while outside the European autumn rain fell incessantly, the working noise of the big business sounded anew from the factory rooms and the heavy air the black lignite smoke of the both chimneys on the roofs and the courtyards. "

reception

  • Fontane , alias Adolf Hermes, reviewed 1881: “Ganz Raabe; shiny and tasteless, deep and dreary. "
  • In 1882, Theophil Zolling called the text “never ingenious, never sublime, small, petty and musty” in the “ present ”, but reads out “poetry” and “deep mind”.
  • JJ Honegger's review in the “ Blätter für literary entertainment ” in 1882 is full of praise. Among other things, the “truly excellent” inner development of the figures, “mood, coloring and mental drawing” and “mind” are highlighted.
  • HJ Köstlin noted in the "Deutsche Literaturblatt" 1882/1883 the "connection between idealism and realism".
  • In 1903/1904, Adolf Rude emphasizes in the “Pedagogical Control Room” the “poignant, psychologically extremely finely executed soul painting” of the “convict”.
  • In 1937 Hans von Wolzüge called the book his "Raabeliebling".
  • Oppermann writes that Raabe unconsciously gave Konstanze attributes of the Divine Child.
  • Sprengel refers to Fontane's review and criticizes Raabe's subjectivity; his partisanship.
  • Meyen names ten works.

literature

First edition

  • Wilhelm Raabe: Fabian and Sebastian. A story. 235 pages. Westermann, Braunschweig 1882. Linen with marble cut all around

Used edition

  • Fabian and Sebastian. A story. Pp. 5–190 with an appendix, written by Hans Oppermann, pp. 575–595 in: Rosemarie Schillemeit (ed.): Wilhelm Raabe: Fabian and Sebastian. Princess fish . Villa Schönow . (2nd ed.) Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1979. Vol. 15 in Karl Hoppe † (Ed.), Jost Schillemeit (Ed.), Hans Oppermann † (Ed.), Kurt Schreinert (Ed.): Wilhelm Raabe. Complete Works. Braunschweig edition . 24 vols., ISBN 3-525-20130-3

expenditure

  • Wilhelm Raabe: Fabian and Sebastian. A story. 228 pages, illustrated. Otto Janke, Berlin 1903 (2nd edition). linen
  • Wilhelm Raabe: Fabian and Sebastian. A story. 202 pages, illustrations: Regine Grube-Heinecke , epilogue: Siegfried Rentzsch. Greifenverlag zu Rudolstadt 1979 (Licensor: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1964)
  • Meyen names four issues.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ von Studnitz, p. 313, entry 54
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 577 below
  3. ^ Oppermann in the edition used, p. 576, middle
  4. ↑ Raabe withholds the name of the city. It has almost 80,000 inhabitants (edition used, p. 79 below).
  5. ↑ two to three hundred workers (edition used, p. 23, 13th Zvu)
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 67, 19. Zvu
  7. ↑ Edition used, p. 139, 15. Zvu
  8. ↑ Edition used, p. 50, 17. Zvo
  9. ↑ Edition used, p. 139, 6. Zvo
  10. ↑ Edition used, p. 137, 7th Zvu
  11. ^ Fuld, p. 289, 13. Zvo
  12. ↑ Edition used, p. 145, 11. Zvo
  13. ↑ Sprengel, p. 329, 20. Zvo
  14. ↑ after Schreinert, quoted by Oppermann in the edition used, p. 578, 6th Zvu
  15. ↑ quoted by Oppermann in the edition used, p. 578, 10. Zvo
  16. ↑ quoted in Oppermann in the edition used, p. 578, 20. Zvo
  17. ↑ quoted in Oppermann in the edition used, p. 578, 18. Zvu
  18. ↑ quoted in Oppermann in the edition used, p. 579, 19. Zvo
  19. ↑ quoted in Oppermann in the edition used, p. 578, 14th Zvu
  20. ↑ Oppermann 1970, p. 104, 3. Zvo
  21. ↑ Sprengel, p. 329 middle
  22. ↑ Subsection Reception in this article, first entry
  23. ↑ Meyen, pp. 331-332
  24. ↑ Meyen, p. 70