Höxter and Corvey

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Höxter and Corvey is a short story by Wilhelm Raabe that was published in 1879 by George Westermann in Braunschweig in volume 1 of the “Krähenfelder Stories”. In the spring of 1875, the historical novella was preprinted by the same publisher in “ Westermanns Monatshefte ”. Raabe experienced reprints in 1897, 1902 and 1907.

Two friends - Heinrich von Herstelle and Lambert Tewes - courageously prevent a pogrom of the angry Catholics and Lutherans against the Jews of Höxter in 1673 .

prehistory

Höxter on the Weser , plagued and devastated several times by rampant soldiers since 1618, is still in ruins a quarter of a century after the end of the Thirty Years' War . In contrast to the ruined city, the Corvey Benedictine Abbey has remained intact.

The action runs over one night - that of December 2, 1673. Shortly before, the French protecting power, called into the country by the Bishop of Münster Bernhard von Galen , withdrew to the west. Von Galen is the administrator to Corvey.

action

Right at the beginning, Raabe had three protagonists crossed on a Weser ferry in the direction of Höxter, namely the old Benedictine monk Heinrich von Herstelle, the aged Jew Kröppel-Leah and the pastor Helmrich Vollbort. The ferryman is the gruff Hans Vogedes. The fourth protagonist, the former law student Lambert Tewes, is waiting on the other bank.

The Benedictine Heinrich von Herstelle was sent as a messenger to Wickensen by his prior and is returning to his monastery in Corvey. The war-disheveled Kröppel-Leah from Höxter carries a bundle with an inheritance. A relative had died in Gronau near Hildesheim . Pastor Vollbort is at home in Höxter as pastor of the Lutheran Church of St. Kilian. The 19-year-old student Lambert Tewes, a nephew of the pastor, had just been evicted from the University of Helmstedt a week ago.

Having landed at Höxter, Hans Vogedes chases the frail Kröppel-Leah from the ferry with her leaden bundle. Lambert asks the pastor to stay overnight twice. The uncle roughly rejects the nephew every time. The student has to sleep on a tough inn bank. Heinrich von Herstelle marches to Corvey, but does not get to sleep in the monastery.

The citizens of Höxter now want to vent their anger and resentment on someone after the suffering of the French billeting. First of all, the respective sexton of both the Catholic and the Lutheran parish is severely beaten. The monks in neighboring Corvey are roused from their sleep by the ringing of the storm bells of the unfortunate. The aged monk Heinrich von Herstelle, who rode under Tilly in his youth , leads the army of the robes. Corvey Abbey cannot do anything else. Their rights, including the "superior authority" over the town of Höxter, have only just been affirmed and confirmed. Now that the French are gone, the monks must face the rebellious citizenship. Heinrich von Herstelle is the most warlike among them. The monks' armed forces save the bare life of the “ protective Jews of the monastery ”.

Lambert, startled by the noise from his hard bench, intervenes when there is no sexton left to abuse. The mob set fire to the house of the Jew Samuel. The housewife is badly harassed. Your children are beaten. Lambert stops the tumult first with punches. Heinrich and Lambert repel two more attacks on Kröppel-Leah and her granddaughter Simeath. Ferryman Hans Vogedes uses an ax to gain access to the old woman's apartment. He and two cronies are looking for the Kröppel-Leah inheritance from Gronau. The heavy bundle contains junk. One heirloom, however, attracts Heinrich von Manufacture's attention. The “rider's glove embroidered with faded gold” turns out to be a gift from a “good knight” in the bad year 1622. Miss Leah, who was young at the time, had received the glove as thanks for her nursing care. Heinrich, like the former owner Just von Burlebecke, had fought in Höxter. During the second nightly attack on Leah, who is now feverish, and on Simeath, the good citizens want to put all Jews in front of the city wall. At its head, Lambert's new intimate enemy, Helmrich Vollbort, storms forward. Lambert's uncle wants more than just expel the Jews. He calls on the "Lutheran citizenship" to fight against the "Lords of Corvey" that night. Lambert skillfully disperses the aggressive among the Lutherans. Leah dies. Lambert accommodates the homeless Samuels family. Thanks to Lambert's firmness, the Jews remain within the city wall.

Law should apply again in Höxter in the future. Hans Vogedes expects a severe sentence. A new ferryman has been appointed. This translates Lambert. The student cannot be held. Although the new ferryman thinks Lambert is the right mayor for Höxter, the student goes to Wittenberg .

Raabe also states that Lambert Tewes later became professor of eloquence in Halle and lived until 1703.

Self-testimony

  • On February 4, 1903, Raabe wrote to the reader Philippine Ullmann from Stadtoldendorf : “You can also see from Höxter and Corvey that I am not one of the anti-Semites… Jews have always been among my best friends and most understanding readers in my life heard, and that has not changed until today. "

reception

Contemporaries
  • Wilhelm Jensen in “Westermanns Monatshefte” from October 1897: The text contains an “abundance of baroque elements, inorganic parts and incomprehensibility” that are reminiscent of Jean Paul .
Recent comments
  • Raabe invented the arguments that night in 1673. Only the "beer and calf dispute" between Corvey and Höxter can be proven from this period.
  • In two works from 1953 and 1965, Fritz Martini disentangled the apparent chaos in the narrative down to the last detail and illuminated it verifiably.
  • Sprengel suspects that Raabe wrote the text in response to Wilhelm Jensen's novella “Die Juden von Cölln” (1869).

expenditure

First edition

  • Höxter and Corvey in "Krähenfelder Stories by Wilhelm Raabe". Vol. 1, pp. 121-240. Westermann, Braunschweig 1879

Used edition

  • Hans-Jürgen Schrader (Ed.): Wilhelm Raabe: Höxter and Corvey. A story. 215 pages. Reclam, Stuttgart 1981. RUB 7729 [3], ISBN 3-15-007729-X (with illustrated appendix (pp. 101-213), written by the editor)

Further editions

  • The publishing house Hermann Klemm, Berlin-Grunewald, published the story in the "Krähenfelder Stories" in 1915, 1918 and 1934. Höxter und Corvey was published as a single edition by the same publisher in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1953 and 1954.
  • The novella was published by Hofmann in Zurich in 1945 and by Seemann in Recklinghausen in 1961.
  • Höxter and Corvey . Pp. 259–353, with an appendix, written by Hans Butzmann , pp. 491–506 in: Gerhart Meyer (arrangement), Hans Butzmann (arrangement): Meister Autor . To the wild man . Höxter and Corvey. Owl Pentecost . (2nd edition provided by Karl Hoppe and Rosemarie Schillemeit) Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1973. Vol. 11, ISBN 3-525-20144-3 in Karl Hoppe (ed.), Jost Schillemeit (ed.), Hans Oppermann ( Ed.), Kurt Schreinert (Ed.): Wilhelm Raabe. Complete Works. Braunschweig edition . 24 vols.

literature

  • Anneliese Klingenberg (Ed.): Raabe's works in five volumes. Second volume. Structure, Berlin and Weimar 1972
  • Fritz Meyen : Wilhelm Raabe. Bibliography. 438 pages. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1973 (2nd edition). Supplementary volume 1, ISBN 3-525-20144-3 in Karl Hoppe (Ed.): Wilhelm Raabe. Complete Works. Braunschweig edition . 24 vols.
  • Cecilia von Studnitz : Wilhelm Raabe. Writer. A biography. 346 pages. Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1989, ISBN 3-7700-0778-6
  • Peter Sprengel : History of German-Language Literature 1870–1900. From the founding of the empire to the turn of the century . CH Beck, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-44104-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Butzmann, p. 494
  2. ↑ von Studnitz, p. 312, entry 42
  3. ↑ What is meant is "Monsieur de Fougerais, the French commander of Höxter" under "Field Marshal Monsieur de Turenne ", who has marched off.
  4. ↑ Edition used, p. 68, 22. Zvo
  5. ↑ Schrader has researched, there was no professor of this name in Halle (Schrader, p. 181, note 100,32).
  6. ↑ quoted in Klingenberg, p. 480, 10. Zvo
  7. ↑ quoted in Schrader, p. 197, 2. Zvo
  8. ↑ Schrader, p. 200, 1. Zvo
  9. ^ Schrader, p. 206, 12. Zvu
  10. ↑ Sprengel, p. 40
  11. ↑ Meyen, pp. 89-90
  12. ↑ Meyen, p. 90