Mrs. Bertha Garlan

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Title page of the first edition

Mrs. Bertha Garlan (since the 1912 edition Mrs. Berta Garlan ) is a novel by the Austrian writer Arthur Schnitzler , which was written in 1900 and published in 1901 in the literary magazine Neue Deutsche Rundschau in Berlin . A few weeks later, the publisher S. Fischer , editor of the magazine, published the text as a book.

The protagonist Bertha Garlan, a widow who lives in a small town, meets her childhood sweetheart, the celebrated violin virtuoso Emil Lindbach, again in Vienna . For a brief moment she hopes to escape the provincial narrowness of her existence.

content

The history that is told in the course: Before her marriage, Bertha was friends with Emil Lindbach, a student at the Vienna Conservatory . After Bertha had to break off her studies on the orders of her father, the two lost sight of each other, partly because Emil's advances were too direct for her. After the death of her parents, Bertha married the elderly insurance officer Victor Matthias Garlan, more out of a sense of duty than out of love, and moved with him to a small town not too far from Vienna to live with his relatives.

The action begins after she has mourned her husband, who has suddenly died, for three years. Since then, the young woman has lived alone with her little son Fritz. She gives piano lessons and depends on the benevolence of her brother-in-law and sister-in-law. She has an admirer in town with a dubious reputation, Mr. Klingemann, but in whom she shows no interest. She feels the need to break out of the small town atmosphere. Anna Rupius is her model. Her husband, Herr Rupius, sits paralyzed at home while Anna keeps traveling to Vienna, which is a few hours away by train. One day Bertha joins Mrs. Rupius and travels with her to have her new clothes made. Despite an unsatisfactory reunion with her cousin, she thrives. A concert poster announces a charity concert with the participation of Emil. After that, her thoughts return to her childhood love again and again.

Back in the small town, Bertha took a newspaper note about Emil's appointment as royal Bavarian chamber virtuoso as an opportunity to write to him. You will receive an answer within a very short time. As a result, they arrange a meeting for their next trip to Vienna. On the day of her departure she found out that Mrs. Rupius wanted to leave her husband. In Vienna she meets Emil at the Kunsthistorisches Museum . The conversation runs rather hesitantly at first, Emil hardly talks about himself. They arrange a second meeting for the evening. After dinner in a séparée room , Emil and Bertha spend a passionate night in an apartment that he rented especially for this purpose. Bertha would like to spend more time with him until the return trip, but he cancels her because of other obligations.

After her return, Berta openly declares her unreserved love in a letter, for which she intended to move to Vienna. She confesses her affair to Anna Rupius, but is ridiculed by the latter and explained about events behind the facade of the place; for example, Bertha's sister-in-law had a relationship with Klingemann. Mrs. Rupius travels to Vienna again, and Mr. Rupius Bertha explains that she will leave him forever. Nevertheless, Anna returns after a day. As a result, she becomes seriously ill.

Bertha receives a letter from Emil advising her to move to Vienna, but explains that he would like to meet her once every four to six weeks. She realizes that she only exists as an affair for her former childhood sweetheart and that she does not need to hope for a new life with him. During a visit to the Rupius couple's house, she learns that Mrs. Rupius' condition has worsened and that she dies a little later. From an overheard conversation between two doctors, Bertha deduces that the cause of death was blood poisoning after an abortion . The text closes with a moral statement, of which it remains unclear whether it is the opinion of the narrator or the inner view of the protagonist: “And she sensed the tremendous injustice in the world that the longing for bliss is also placed in women was as in the man; and that it becomes sin in women and demands atonement when the longing for bliss is not at the same time the longing for the child. "

main characters

  • Bertha, married Garlan, widow, around 32 years old at the time of the story
  • Victor Mathias Garlan, insurance officer, distant relative and husband Bertha, died at the time of the story
  • Fritz, their son, five years old

Town

  • Mr. Garlan, wine merchant, brother of the late Victor Mathias G.
  • Albertine, his wife
  • Richard, her son, high school graduate
  • Elly, her daughter
  • Brigitte, her cook
  • Anna Rupius, friend of Bertha
  • Mr. Rupius, her paralyzed husband, 42 years old
  • Mr. Klingemann, bachelor
  • his housekeeper and lover
  • Married couple Martin
  • Married couple Doctor Friedrich
  • Mahlmann family

Minor characters: Dr. Rellinger, Lieutenant Baier, tobacco shop assistant, assistant doctor

Vienna

  • Emil Lindbach, violin virtuoso. Bertha's childhood sweetheart
  • Agathe, cousin and childhood friend of Bertha
  • Your husband, lawyer
  • Georg, their son
  • Two daughters

Time levels and action stations

date Event / notice First edition
1865/66 Birth of Bertha P. 5
around 1868 Birth of Emil Lindbach (in 1886 he was slightly older than a high school graduate) P. 30
circa 1880 Richard is born P. 10 and 17
circa 1884 Birth of Elly P. 10
1886 Relationship with Emil (Twelve years before the action time) P. 20
? End of the visit to the conservatory P. 6
? Then a few years passed P. 6
circa 1890 Last meeting Bertha / Emil before their wedding (7, 8 years ago, 2 years before the wedding) P. 60
1891/92 Death of parents, 26th birthday and marriage proposal Pp. 5, 6f., 8f.
1892 Wedding (the marriage lasted three years) P. 4
1892 Relocation to the small town (6 years ago) P. 4 and 35
1893 Birth of son Fritz, followed by two happy years (5 years old at the time of action) P. 10, P. 90
June 6, 1895 Victor Mathias Garlan's death P. 238
1898 Duration of widowhood: 3 years P. 4 and 137
Mid May 1898 Time of action P. 3
1st day, Saturday Cemetery, walk, meeting with Klingemann and Richard P. 32
2nd day, Sunday Dinner with brother-in-law, a visit to Rupius, a concert, Klingemann's window promenade Pp. 33-45
3rd day, Monday 1. Trip to Vienna, with Anna Rupius. Seamstress and cousin, dream Pp. 38-73
4th day, Tuesday Letters in the attic, walk, conversation with Garlan and Frau Martin, 1st letter to Emil Pp. 73-92
Day 6, Thursday 1. Letter from Emil, decision and announcement of the trip, short conversation with Ms. Mahlmann, hesitant communication with Ms. Rupius, at his sister-in-law, 2. letter to Emil, Klingemann's proposal of marriage, dinner with brother-in-law P. 92–117 (weekday: P. 92)
7th day, Friday Conversation with Mr. Rupius, afternoon 2nd trip to Vienna, walk Pp. 118-129
Day 8, Saturday Encounter with Emil in the museum, 2nd meeting in the evening, chambre separée and love night in a rented apartment Pp. 129-180
Day 9, Sunday Attending the concert in the Lerchenfelderkirche, 2nd letter from Emil (refusal), 3rd letter to Emil, 3rd letter from Emil (refusal), journey home Pp. 180-204
10th day, Monday Visit to the family of the brother-in-law, piano lessons with Mahlmanns, Mrs. Martin, invitation to dinner by the sister-in-law, 4th letter to Emil, confession to Mrs. Rupius at the train station, walk, Klingemann, evening with the brother-in-law's family Pp. 204-230
Day 11, Tuesday In the evening with Rupius, Anna Rupius returns Pp. 230-236
Day 12, Wednesday Ms. Rupius fell ill, waiting for a letter, visiting Rupius, visiting the cemetery, going to Rupius again, asking again Pp. 236-241
Day 13, Thursday 4. Letter from Emil, outrage, last conversation with Frau Rupius, overheard the doctor's diagnosis, briefly out on the street, then back in, Anna Rupius died, Herr Rupius complains, menstruation has started Pp. 242-256
May 24, 1898 Emil's charity concert has been announced for this day P. 19, p. 241
July 1898 Richard's Matura, he is 17 or 18 years old P. 17

Biographical background

The autobiographical reference to Schnitzler's re-encounter with his childhood sweetheart Franziska Reich (1862–1930) - “his little fan” - was emphasized several times. On May 22, 1899, Franziska Lawner, who was now widowed in Bielsko-Biała, met again for the first time in the Secession . The brief affair that took place in the following days was more significant to her than to him, as can be seen from her letters and his diary.

analysis

Contemporaries already suspected Krems an der Donau as a template for the nameless small town ; as such it appears in the sketches for the work, and inferences inherent in the text also allow for the '' decryption '' with Krems.

As in Schnitzler's later novella Ms. Beate and Her Son (1913), despite the chosen narrative form of the third person , the events are portrayed exclusively from the perspective of the protagonist, and include not only external events but also their detailed thoughts and dreams. Both stories focus on a young widow who, after a long period of abstinence, throws herself into a love affair, enjoys overwhelming erotic feelings, but is both disappointed by her lover and cannot resolve the contradictions and double standards of social codes of conduct . Le Rider writes about Anna Rupius' saying that men are "rabble" that the misogyny of men is answered by women with anti-virilism .

Konstanze Fliedl writes in her epilogue to the 2006 edition of Reclam that Ms. Berta Garlan was the very first prose text based on psychoanalysis ; Immediately beforehand, the author had read Sigmund Freud's interpretation of dreams and processed the findings in the text. This was again applied in 1913 by the Freud student Theodor Reik , who examined the text according to the rules of psychoanalysis.

reception

Hugo von Hofmannsthal judges: "So much power and warmth, overview, tact, world feeling and a knowledge of the heart is in this Bertha Garlan , it is so nicely held together and so good and clever."

In December 1936, after reading it, Klaus Mann wrote in his diary: "In the world of this poet-doctor there is nothing nothing - except death and gender."

expenditure

  • Arthur Schnitzler: Mrs. Bertha Garlan. Novel. Berlin: S. Fischer Verlag 1901.
  • Arthur Schnitzler: Mrs. Berta Garlan. Novella. Fischer's library of contemporary novels, 4th series. S. Fischer Verlag Berlin [September 1912]. 180 pages. Cardboard tape
  • Konstanze Fliedl (Ed.): Arthur Schnitzler: Mrs. Berta Garlan. Reclams Universal Library No. 18427. Stuttgart 2006. 215 pages, text on pages 5–168. ISBN 978-3-15-018427-1
  • Mrs. Bertha Garlan . Historical-critical edition . Edited by Gerhard Hubmann and Isabella Schwentner with the assistance of Anna Lindner and Martin Anton Müller. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter 2015. (Arthur Schnitzler: Works in historical-critical editions. Edited by Konstanze Fliedl)

Edits

Film adaptations
Radio plays

literature

  • Theodor Reik: Arthur Schnitzler as a psychologist . Bruns, Minden 1913, [About Mrs. Berta Garlan], p. 223-235 .
  • Beverly R. Driver: Arthur Schnitzler's wife Berta Garlan. A study in shape . In: The Germanic review . 46, No. 4, 1971, pp. 285-298.
  • Barbara Gutt: Emancipation with Arthur Schnitzler . Spiess, Berlin 1978, [About Mrs. Bertha Garlan], p. 71-79 .
  • Alfred Doppler: Files of the International Symposium "Arthur Schnitzler and His Time". Ed .: Giuseppe Farese (=  yearbook for international German studies, series A: Congress reports . Volume 13 ). Lang, Bern, Frankfurt a. M. u. a. 1985, The change in the representation perspective in Arthur Schnitzler's poems. Man and woman as a socio-psychological problem., P. 41-59 .
  • Marc A. Weiner: Arthur Schnitzler and the crisis of musical culture (=  Siegen series; German department ). C. Winter, Heidelberg 1986, ISBN 3-533-03855-6 , [About Mrs. Bertha Garlan], p. 71-99 .
  • Michaela L. Perlmann: The dream in literary modernity. Investigations into the work of Arthur Schnitzler (=  Munich Germanistic contributions ). W. Fink, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-7705-2439-X .
  • Alfred Doppler: History in the Mirror of Literature. Essays on Austrian literature of the 19th and 20th centuries (=  Innsbruck contributions to cultural studies, Germanistic series . Volume 39 ). Inst. For German Studies, Innsbruck 1990, man and woman in Vienna at the turn of the century. The representational perspective in the dramas and stories of Arthur Schnitzler., P. 95-109 .
  • Elsbeth Dangel: Moments from Schnitzler women. . In: Language and Literature in Science and Education . Vol. 22, No. H.1, 1991, pp. 100-110.
  • Michael Levene: Robert Musil and the Literary Landscape of his Time . Ed .: Hannah Hickmann. University of Salford, Salford 1991, Experienced speech in Schnitzler's wife Berta Garlan, p. 228-246 .
  • Iris Paetzke: Storytelling in Viennese Modernism . Ed .: Iris Paetzke (=  Edition Orpheus ). Francke, Tübingen 1992, ISBN 3-7720-1907-2 , forbidden wishes. Arthur Schnitzler: "Mrs. Berta Garlan", p. 95-110 .
  • GJ Weinberger: Arthur Schnitzler's wife Berta Garlan: Genesis and Genre . In: Modern Austrian Literature . 25, No. H. 3/4, 1992, pp. 53-73.
  • Thomas Eicher: "Are you also interested in pictures?" Visuality and narration in Arthur Schnitzler's wife Berta Garlan . In: Literature for Readers . No. H. 1, 1993, pp. 44-57.
  • Horst Thomé: Autonomous I and "Inner Foreign Countries". Studies on realism, depth psychology and psychiatry in German narrative texts (1848–1914) (=  Hermaea ). Niemeyer, Tübingen 1993, ISBN 3-484-15070-X , [About Ms. Bertha Garlan], p. 645-670 .
  • Andrea Rumpold: Sexual attraction - played virtue. The erotic charisma of Schnitzler's female characters in Mrs. Berta Garlan and The Way to the Free . In: Austriaca . 39, 1994, pp. 89-100.
  • Silvia Jud: Early Modern Storytelling. Ed .: Rolf Tarot (=  Narratio . Volume 11 ). Lang, Bern, Berlin a. a. 1996, Arthur Schnitzler: Mrs. Bertha Garlan (1901)., P. 417-447 .
  • Wolfgang Lukas: The self and the foreign: epochal life crises and their solution in the work of Arthur Schnitzler (=  Munich Germanic contributions ). Fink, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-7705-3126-4 .
  • Konstanze Fliedl: Arthur Schnitzler. Poetics of memory (=  literature in history - history in literature ). Böhlau, Vienna, Cologne, Weimar 1997, [About Mrs. Bertha Garlan], p. 175-179, pp. 187-190, pp. 203 f., p. 207 f .
  • Barbara Neymeyr : Yearbook of the German Schiller Society . 1997, Libido and Convention. On the problem of female identity in Arthur Schnitzler's story Frau Berta Garlan, p. 329-368 .
  • Nancy C. Michael: Elektra and Her Sisters. Three Female Characters in Schnitzler, Freud, and Hofmannsthal. (=  Austrian Culture . Band 11 ). Lang, New York, Vienna a. a. 2001, The "Woman Question" and the "Double Standard" in Schnitzler's Frau Berta Garlan., P. 11-34 .
  • Hartmut Scheible: Arthur Schnitzler: Collected works in three volumes, Volume 3: Novels. Ed .: Hartmut Scheible. Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf, Zurich 2003, epilogue, p. 783-826 .
  • Elsbeth Dangel-Pelloquin: Arthur Schnitzler. Dramas and stories . Ed .: Hee-Ju Kim, Günter Sasse (=  Reclams Universal Library ). Philipp Reclam, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-15-017532-3 , Ms. Berta Garlan. Unexpected feelings - perplexed amazement, p. 89-100 .
  • Peter Krahé: "If only he would make her a world". Gender relations in Arthur Schnitzler's ›Frau Berta Garlan‹ and DH Lawrence's ›Lady Chatterley's Lover‹ . In: Sprachkunst . 40, No. 1, 2009, pp. 127-147.
  • Barbara Besslich: Arthur Schnitzler and the film . Ed .: Achim Aurnhammer, Barbara Besslich, Rudolf Denk (=  files from the Arthur Schnitzler archive of the University of Freiburg ). Ergon, Würzburg 2010, Ms. Berta Garlan's life lies in the media change. Arthur Schnitzler's novella, Max Ophüls' radio play and Peter Patzak's film, p. 329-339 .
  • Abigail Dunn: Virtuous victim or sexual predator? The representation of the widow in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century German fiction (=  Women in German literature ). Peter Lang, Oxford 2013, ISBN 978-3-0343-0776-5 , The Widow as Death-bringer. Murder and Incest in CF Meyer's Die Richterin [The Judge], Arthur Schnitzler's wife Beate and her son [Beatrice and her Son] and Mrs. Berta Garlan [Bertha Garlan], p. 159-202 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Konstanze Fliedl (ed.): Arthur Schnitzler: Mrs. Berta Garlan. Pp. 5-168. Reclams Universal Library No. 18427. Stuttgart 2006. 215 pages, ISBN 978-3-15-018427-1 , p. 194 above.
  2. ^ Overview of Arthur Schnitzler's stories with publication dates on Zeno.org, accessed on October 13, 2012.
  3. ↑ Konstanze Fliedl (ed.): Arthur Schnitzler: Mrs. Berta Garlan. 2006, p. 169 above
  4. ↑ Konstanze Fliedl (ed.): Arthur Schnitzler: Mrs. Berta Garlan. 2006, pp. 181-186 supra
  5. ↑ Farese, p. 85, last paragraph
  6. ↑ Arthur Schnitzler: Jugend in Wien on Zeno.org, accessed on October 20, 2012.
  7. ↑ Printed in the appendix by: Mrs. Bertha Garlan . Historical-critical edition . Edited by Gerhard Hubmann and Isabella Schwentner with the assistance of Anna Lindner and Martin Anton Müller. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter 2015, pp. 281–298.
  8. ↑ Konstanze Fliedl (ed.): Arthur Schnitzler: Mrs. Berta Garlan. 2006, pp. 186-187
  9. ↑ Historical-critical edition, p. 27
  10. ^ Historical-critical edition, p. 261
  11. ↑ Le Rider, p. 117, 2. Zvo
  12. ↑ Konstanze Fliedl (ed.): Arthur Schnitzler: Mrs. Berta Garlan. 2006, p. 194, 8. Zvo
  13. ↑ Theodor Reik: Arthur Schnitzler as a psychologist. Minden 1913, pp. 223-235. Sa Sprengel, p. 240 above
  14. ^ Hugo von Hofmannsthal quoted in Dangel-Pelloquin, p. 99, 14. Zvo
  15. ↑ Klaus Mann, quoted in Le Rider, p. 84, 3rd Zvu