In the hall
There is a story by Theodor Storm in the hall . It was written in 1848 and appeared in the volume Sommergeschichten und Lieder in 1851 .
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Beginning of the framework story
On the occasion of a child's baptism, a family celebration takes place in a hall in the parents' house. Also present is Barbara, the great-grandmother of the baptized girl, who was also named Barbara after her. The child's father (that is, old Barbara's grandson) notices damage to the ceiling of the old room and announces that it will be rebuilt. The great-grandmother then recounts an episode from her childhood, when the hall did not yet exist and in its place there was a garden.
Internal act
Barbara describes the garden in detail: the beds surrounded by box hedges , the apricots trellis against the back wall, a linden arbor and a swing. She tells how she met her future husband one day in this garden: As an eight-year-old girl, she was sitting in the arbor and he was a young business partner of her father who was talking to her father in the garden. When the father is called into the house, the young man comes to her and gives her swing while swinging. They both get along well and she gives him a fallen apricot.
At dinner Barbara tries in vain to get the young gentleman's attention. Only when he says goodnight does he ask her: "Are we going to swing tomorrow?" The day with the young man "was always a bright spot in her memory", but it wasn't until eight years later that Barbara saw him again and the two became engaged. On the occasion of the wedding, Barbara's father had the hall built instead of the garden.
End of the frame story
The old Barbara mourned this time and her stricter social order: “we didn't want to know everything better than the majesties and their ministers”, anyone who “stuck his nose into politics” was avoided, and everyone could see his status at the Clothes on. Her grandson contradicts her and calls for the abolition of noble privileges.
Barbara misses her husband, who has long since passed away, and would like to “follow him”. She tells of how his corpse was laid out in this hall at that time, and ends her story with reference to her great-granddaughter: "May the good God let you come to my days just as happy and satisfied!" Her grandson now decides not to enter the hall rebuild, but tear down and have the garden laid out again, after all, there is also a "little Barbara" who can swing there and maybe one day get to know her bridegroom.
Subject
The central theme of the story is constancy, love and security within a family. Respect for the elderly and concern for the younger holds the generations together. Differences of opinion on social and political issues cannot affect this cohesion. The change of generations appears (due to the same name between great-grandmother and great-granddaughter as well as the garden to be re-established) as a continuous cycle.
