In the house of the Commerzienrathes

In the House of the Commerzienrathes (in modern spelling: In the House of the Commerzienrat ) is a novel (family novel, romance novel) that E. Marlitt published in 1876 ​​in the family magazine Die Gartenlaube (Issues 1–26). The book edition followed in the same year in the publishing house of the publisher of the "Gartenlaube", Ernst Keil . Heinrich Schlitt provided the illustrations for the book edition.

The novel tells the story of the young Käthe Mangold, who is cheated of most of her inheritance by her guardian, but knows how to help herself and, after a few complications, gets the man she loves.

In the house of the Commerzienrathes , of all Marlitt's novels, the one in which the social panorama plays the greatest role. Jochen Schulte-Sasse and Renate Werner even considered the stock market crash of 1873 to be the key event in the novel. Urszula Bonter didn't go that far, but at least described it as a “swan song for the Wilhelminian era with its speculative fever”. Marlitts readers was the stock market crash still very present, and in 1875 had Otto Glagau in the gazebo a multi-part report , the stock exchange and establishment of dizziness in Berlin published.

action

The character relationships in the novel

Chapters 1-4. The location of the action is the former estate of the Knights of Baumgarten, located in an unmarked residential town in Thuringia . Time is the author's present (the 1870s).

The Baumgarten family has long since died out. The property is owned by Schlossmüller Sommer, who has achieved prosperity and influence through lifelong hard work. The miller rented part of the building - the villa and the only remaining tower from the former knight's castle - to a distant relative: the councilor Moritz Römer. Moritz had started as an apprentice at the Mangold bank, then married the heiress and finally managed to own a spinning mill.

Moritz is a widower and uses the tower as a mantuary for his leisure hours and as a store for his treasures. He shares the villa with three relatives of Klothilde, his late wife: Klothilde's sisters Flora and Henriette and their grandmother, the "President" Urach. The latter is a blasé matriarch who strives for intimate relations with the court. Flora, a cigar smoking blue stocking , feels called to be a writer and has also written a work, “Die Frauen”, which no publisher wants, because Flora has big raisins in her head but no talent. Henriette, her younger sister, has remained a child mentally and emotionally, physically grown together and “sick with the breast”: she is in the last stage of tuberculosis .

While his father-in-law was a modest man, Moritz cultivates demonstrative wealth. The showing off seems to be paying off: whether his contributions to the uplifting of local industry, Mortiz should soon be elevated to the nobility. Of course, he is a ruthless entrepreneur who does not want to give his factory workers any land for affordable housing, for example. The workers vent their displeasure with all sorts of jokes, for example they shoot at Henriette's beloved pigeons. They are particularly bad at talking about Flora and her unworldly positions on the “social question”; in later chapters she will receive threatening letters and only narrowly escaped an assassination attempt.

The plot of the novel begins with the fact that old Schlossmüller is seriously ill. He is operated on by Leo Bruck, a highly talented young doctor who performs the operation with skill and success. Since one does not want to leave the freshly operated girl to his uneducated maid, the maid Suse, Moritz declares himself ready to personally monitor the patient. What is actually behind Moritz '“worry” about the miller will only be revealed to the reader later. Bruck strictly instructs him to keep the patient calm. However, the miller notices how Moritz is messing around in his office, where the safe is, gets out of bed and confronts Moritz. There is even a scuffle. The surgical wound breaks open again, the miller dies. Moritz does not want to compromise and hides the exact circumstances of death.

The very extensive inheritance of the castle miller falls to his only surviving descendant: his granddaughter Käthe Mangold, who was once affectionately called the “miller's mouse” but is now nicknamed “goldfish”. Käthe is the young half-sister of Flora and Henriette, but out of character: neither posh nor pretty, but frank, uninhibited and self-confident. They even tame the evil chain dog that attacks the chickens without any problems. Samaritan services also fly to her: after her arrival, she first takes care of the sick maiden Suse, and a little later of the consumptive Henriette. Like her sisters, Käthe is an orphan. She was brought up by a governess who took her to Dresden after her father's death, where the young musical woman received composition lessons and was even able to publish as a composer. Flora is especially jealous of this.

Since Käthe is a minor, Moritz becomes her guardian. He is also responsible for converting the majority of the inherited real property into money. Käthe should only have it when she is of legal age. The only part of her inheritance that immediately comes to her is the mill.

Chapters 5-11. Moritz keeps an eye on the extremely rich young heiress and gives her expensive gifts. In general, he is starting to throw money around a lot more than before. In order to get cash, he even sells the factory. Käthe is uncomfortable with his attentions and rightly fears that he is only after her money. She loves Bruck and Bruck loves her, but neither of them know anything about the other's feelings and, since Bruck is engaged, they try to deny their own as well. Bruck has acquired a former farm building in the immediate vicinity of Moritz's tower, which he wants to use as a “working corner”. His old aunt, the deaconess, who had paid for his studies and is now being looked after by him, also moves in there.

Chapters 12-21. Bruck is engaged to Flora; they had loved each other passionately once. Since Bruck's medical reputation was badly damaged in the village after the death of the miller, Flora's feelings grew cold. She wants to reward herself, but Bruck does not release her. In anger, she throws her engagement ring into the river. Käthe witnesses how Bruck withdraws after an argument with Flora and is about to take certain drops. Worried that Bruck might try to kill himself with it, she steps in, but only to find out that the drops are a harmless sedative. In this way Bruck learns that Käthe is not indifferent to him.

Bruck's reputation is unexpectedly not only restored, but also crowned when it becomes known that the Hereditary Prince von R. has awarded him his house order after a successful consultation. The title of Hofrat and a position as personal physician are also promised to him. Bruck accepts the title; He would rather go back to the university town of L… g than to go to court to do his habilitation there . Flora turns back to him with waving flags. Only Käthe notices that she is now wearing her mother's wedding ring to cover up the loss of her engagement ring.

Käthe has found a new home in the doctor's house, in which the deacon woman now rules. When Henriette's condition worsened and she was quartered in the doctor's house until she recovered, Käthe and Bruck came closer to each other while caring for the sick. At the same time, the misunderstandings between them chase one another: for example, Bruck, whose relationship with Flora is still unclear, refuses to let Käthe live in the doctor's house, which Käthe considers to be a sign of dislike. Käthe also believes that Bruck supports her connection with Moritz; after all, this would bring a lot of money to the family. She leaves for Dresden disappointed.

Chapters 22-28. At Henriette's insistence, Käthe soon returns. The year is 1873. Vienna and soon also Berlin are shaken by the start-up crash that also destroys the corporation with whose help Moritz had liquidated his factory. Flora is the first in the family who fears that Moritz's own business has not gone well. How terribly right she is is revealed when Moritz blows up the tower - with all the evidence - and submerges it. Since he had squandered his fortune beforehand, Kathe, Flora and Henriette suddenly become penniless.

Now it is Bruck who wants to break the engagement. For Flora, who by now also knows about Käthe's feelings for Bruck, the hour of vengeance strikes, and her perfidious plan is supposed to destroy the supposedly opportunistic bridegroom as well as the doubly envied half-sister: Flora trusts her (false) engagement ring to Käthe, which only gives him to Bruck may return under one condition, namely that he - with whomever - enters into a pure toe of convenience. For Käthe - as Flora knows exactly - this is the ultimate torment inasmuch as she would never marry Bruck if he did not love her.

Since Moritz is heavily in debt, the judicial commission appears and confiscates what is left of his belongings. Henriette dies, but before that she still has the joy that Bruck, whom she also loves, is with her until the end. Flora travels to Zurich, where she begins studying medicine, but quickly breaks off again. The President is also leaving, but will return after a few weeks. Bruck and his aunt go to L… g as planned.

Chapter 29. About a year later. The villa has a new owner. From her inheritance, Käthe only has a few thousand thalers, some garden land and the mill left. The land left them to the workers as building land. Thanks to her excellent educational background, she was able to familiarize herself so well with the miller business that in the end she met her manager and her accountant on an equal footing. Business is flourishing.

When Flora becomes engaged to another man, Bruck is unexpectedly free. Käthe has to fear for her love one last time when Flora suggests that he has become engaged to a young countess. Bruck clears up the matter, however. Käthe and Bruck become a couple. It is rumored that Moritz lives in California.

Reception and effect

The reception of the novel was mixed. A British reviewer admitted that after the strong previous novel, The Second Woman , he was somewhat disappointed with Marlitt's most recent work: “there is throughout a certain deficiency which cannot help perceiving, as though the writer has overtaxed her powers, and needed rest . ”

In the house of the Commerzienrathes , however, was the first of Marlitt's works to be adapted as a film. Georg Victor Mendel directed the story as a silent film for the National Film Company in 1917. The 20-year-old Edith Meller and the young Carl Auen could be seen in it . The script was written by Joseph Richards.

In 1975 a television version was released that Herbert Ballmann had directed for ZDF based on a screenplay by Karl Wittlinger . Gisela Schneeberger (Käthe), Karlheinz Böhm (Bruck), Wolfgang Arps (Kommerzienrat) and Judy Winter (Flora) played the leading roles .

Expenses (selection)

• In the House of the Commerce Council . Keil, Leipzig 1876 (first book edition).
• In the House of the Commerce Council . Hofenberg, 2018, ISBN 978-3-7485-8639-5 .
• In the House of the Commerce Council . Neopubli, 2019, ISBN 978-3-7437-2569-0 (illustrated edition).

• At the counselor's or, A nameless history . Lippincott, Philadelphia 1876 (English edition, translated by Annis Lee Wister).

literature

• Jochen Schulte-Sasse, Renate Werner: Epilogue in: E. Marlitt: In the house of the Kommerzienrat . Fink, Munich 1977.
• Jan-Christian Hansen: The image of women in Eugenie Marlitt's “In the House of the Commerce Council” as a model . Grin, 2013.

Web links

Wikisource: In the house of the Commerzienrathes  - sources and full texts

• In the house of the Kommerzienrat near Gutenberg, illustrated
• In the House of the Commerce Council. Accessed August 2, 2020 (PDF version with illustrations). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jochen Schulte-Sasse, Renate Werner: Afterword in: E. Marlitt: In the house of the Kommerzienrat . Fink, Munich 1977.
2. ↑ Urszula Bonter: The popular novel in the successor of E. Marlitt: Wilhelmine Heimburg, Valeska Countess Bethusy-Huc, Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrem . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2005, ISBN 3-8260-2979-8 , p. 50 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
3. ↑
   

   Wikisource: The stock exchange and start-up fraud in Berlin  - sources and full texts
4. ^ In the Counselor's House . In: The Literary World: Choice Readings from the Best New Books, with Critical Reviews . tape 15 , 1877, p. 331 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
5. ^ In the house of the Kommerzienrat (1917) in the IMDB. Retrieved May 23, 2020 . 
6. ↑ In the House of the Kommerzienrat (1975) in the IMDB. Retrieved May 23, 2020 .