Cheerful and sad things from the Bohemian Forest

Cheerful and sad stories from the Bohemian Forest is a volume of short stories by the German-Czech writer Karel Klostermann (1848–1923), which only appeared in book form in 1997 .

content

The author takes the reader on a fictional hike through the Bohemian Forest and reports in a conversational tone about the country and its people. Descriptions of nature alternate with reports on the harsh living conditions of the residents and interspersed stories and anecdotes that go back to things that they have experienced, heard or historical. In the 14 chapters of the book, the author leaves the purely German-speaking area of ​​the Bohemian Forest, from which he himself comes, in order to also touch border areas and Czech regions. He also repeatedly makes political remarks that express his regret over the increasingly flaming nationality struggles of the time. It is Klostermann's concern to have the word for peaceful coexistence between Germans and Czechs in Bohemia, contrary to the prevailing zeitgeist.

Quote

“I don't see why one could only be German and love one's German tribe when one simultaneously hates and suspects one's Slavic neighbor, one's neighbor with whom we have a thousand-year history, ties of blood, common material interests, the same concepts of Right and honor, in short, everything connects that defines the concept of the wider home. "

Emergence

The book is based on a series of newspaper articles that Klostermann published in the magazine Politik in 1886/87 under the title Heiteres und Saduriges aus dem Böhmerwalde . The articles that were successful in themselves and that were written before that in 1885/86 were self-published by the author in book form in 1890 under the title Bohemian Forest Sketches . But since the book was unsuccessful, the second part of the series was no longer published as a book. It was not until the end of the 20th century, when a certain interest in Klostermann resumed in the German-speaking area, and through the initiative of the Passau publisher Karl Stutz, that the second part of the series of articles by Gerold Dvorak was published as a book. The articles in series 18–33 are reproduced in the same order as they originally appeared. In 2004 a second edition of the book was published.

expenditure

• Happy and sad things from the Bohemian Forest or: the "Bohemian Forest Sketches" 2nd part . Karl Stutz, Passau 1997
• Happy and sad things from the Bohemian Forest or: the "Bohemian Forest Sketches" 2nd part . 2nd Edition. Karl Stutz, Passau 2004