Harmonica Order
In the late 18th century, the so-called Harmonica Order was a group of people who Theodor Fontane in his wanderings through the Mark Brandenburg in the section Schwindel-Orden in connection with his news about the Ducat Society and especially about the Prussian Gold and Rosicrucians around Wöllner and Bischoffwerder and is therefore occasionally cited as a secret society in similar contexts in the literature .
In his description Fontane refers to a text from 1787, which he did not specify, in which a ritual event of this society is reported. The actual name of the society, its members, goals and statutes are not known. This font is a brochure by the musician and composer Karl Leopold Röllig (around 1745–1804) with the title About the Harmonica. A fragment (Berlin 1787).
This "order, in whose ceremonies the 'harmonica' played a major role and which we therefore want to call the 'harmonica order', had [...] something enticingly theatrical and operated with the entire apparatus of a romantic opera". The instrument known as the harmonica is the then relatively new glass harmonica , the peculiar sound of which Pushkin described as "unearthly" recommended it for use in dramatic opera scenes and similar performances.
The author of the brochure describes how, on the basis of a recommendation, one evening he and his instrument are brought to a country estate whose description is strikingly similar to Bischoffwerder's property near Marquardt . Fontane notes, however:
“The letter in question looks as if it was dated from Vienna and as if the whole scene had taken place on an estate near Vienna. But anyone who has ever been to Marquardt and got to know the park there, the lake, the grotto, the castle and its deep double cellar, will at first be forced to say that Marquardt must be meant here. In spite of all this, however, it is not the case, cannot be, since Marquardt did not come into the hands of Bischofswerder until 1795. "
On that evening, the author is only supposed to play something on the glass harmonica at a signal. While he waits, however, he also has the opportunity to partially observe the ceremony. He sees that a person who has apparently become unconscious through bloodletting is placed in a coffin in a cellar tomb equipped with dead skeletons , surrounded by black-sheathed figures with bare swords. Later the unconscious person comes in an arbor in the fairy illuminated park ("Everything in green fire - countless flaming lamps - murmurs of distant waterfalls - artificial nightingale singing - the scent of flowers, etc. in short, everything seemed unearthly, and nature dissolved in magic." ) again and at that moment hears the magical sounds of the glass harmonica. Finally, the masked company disappears in the back of the park and the author can no longer observe anything.
No further information is known and Fontane leaves it at that. As a transition to his portrayal of the Gold and Rosicrucians, who made use of similar theatrical means in their spooky productions, he then writes: “The above description has already led us into a group of religious associations (or at least to the limit of these) in which 'Appearances' as nerve stimulus and this again as 'means to an end' were the main thing. "
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Theodor Fontane: Walks through the Mark Brandenburg: Havelland. In: Complete Works. Vol. 11, Munich 1959-1975, pp. 288-291
- ^ Hans-Joachim Neumann: Friedrich Wilhelm II. Prussia under the Rosicrucians. Edition q, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-86124-332-6 , p. 95.
- ^ Karl Leopold Röllig: About the harmonica. A fragment. Berlin 1787, pp. 10-12, digitized .
- ↑ "Harmonica Order" is an emergency name coined by Fontane .
- ↑ Röllig: About the harmonica. Berlin 1787, p. 11.