Immensee (Storm)

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Immensee is a novella that the North German writer Theodor Storm wrote in 1849. It was first published in the same year in the Volksbuch published by Karl Leonhard Biernatzki (1815-1899) for the year 1850 . A second version appeared in a collection in 1851 called Summer Stories and Songs .

Immensee is Storm's most important early novella and is shaped by his poetry as well as by his reading of late romantic and early realistic works by other poets. The genesis of the work, which Storm opened up to a large readership, is largely in the dark.

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Wilhelm Hasemann : Scene from Immensee

In the novella, an older man remembers his unfulfilled love for children and youth.

The main characters Reinhard Werner and Elisabeth (no surname) have been close friends since childhood. Reinhard is five years older than Elisabeth with fairy tales he writes on pieces of paper for her. He also has a parchment volume in which he records his experiences in poetry without Elisabeth knowing about it.

Even at a young age, Reinhard was aware that he would like to share his life with Elisabeth. A new school and new boyfriends won't change that.

When Reinhard was seventeen, the moment of separation from Elisabeth came closer and closer for him because he had to leave for training. Shortly before leaving, he promised her that he would continue to write fairy tales for her, which he would then send to his mother with the letters. She is very pleased because she cannot imagine a time without Reinhard. The day before his departure, a large group of people gathers to say goodbye to Reinhard. They spend the whole day together. When Reinhard returned home, he immediately wrote another poem, which he wrote in his parchment volume, which was already half full.

Christmas Eve is coming soon . Reinhard spends his time with other students in the Ratskeller, where he devotes his attention to a girl "with fine gypsy features" who plays the zither with a violinist . The girl sings a song for him, although at first she is shy:

Today, only today
am I so beautiful;
Tomorrow, oh tomorrow
everything must pass!

Only for this hour
are you still mine;
To die, oh,
shall I die alone.

However, he draws the wrath of the zither girl because he hurries home because of a message that has been brought to him. There he finds a package. He looks excitedly at the contents. In addition to cakes and personal items, there are letters from Elisabeth and his mother. In her letter, Elisabeth complains that the bird that Reinhard gave her has died. She also accuses him of no longer sending her fairy tales. He is overwhelmed by the desire to return to his homeland and after a walk he immediately writes letters to Elisabeth and his mother, although he first gives half of his cake to a beggar girl.

Reinhard returns at Easter. Something strange has come between him and Elisabeth. During his absence, his old school friend Erich took over his father's farm at Immensee. Erich gave Elisabeth a canary as a present. Reinhard entrusts her with his parchment book and makes Elisabeth very insecure with the many verses dedicated to her. At his request, she hands him the book back with his favorite herb. Shortly before leaving, Reinhard made Elisabeth promise that she would still love him after his upcoming two-year absence. He leaves her with a hint of a secret that he will reveal on his return. After two years without any correspondence between the two, Reinhard's mother informed him that Erich and Elisabeth were engaged after Elisabeth had rejected Erich's application twice.

Years later, the protagonist accepts an invitation from Erich to Immensee without Elisabeth and her mother knowing about it. Elisabeth is delighted with Reinhard's arrival. He has compiled many rhymes and songs over the years, and so he is asked to introduce some of his new folk songs . It is already evening when he recites a few verses of the poem My Mother Willedly. Elisabeth leaves the small company disturbed. Soon afterwards, Reinhard also makes his way to the lake, where he tries in vain to swim to a water lily far out on the lake.

The following afternoon he goes for a walk on the other side of the lake with Elisabeth. The discovery of Erika, a water lily, and the words Reinhard uttered about the lost youth bring tears to Elisabeth's eyes. They go back in the boat in silence. Reinhard cannot organize his thoughts after arriving at the farm. He decides to leave a letter and leave at dawn, but Elisabeth surprises him. She suspects his plans and the intention never to return. He breaks away from her, steps out and moves away from the courtyard.

In the late evening twilight, the old man sees the water lily on the lake again, which seems so close and yet unreachable. He remembers his youth and, with resignation, goes back to his studies.

Origin and edition history

The genesis of the early novella, of which no manuscript is available, is largely unknown. With “Husum 1849” Storm gave a reference to the time of origin, which is in the table of contents of the second volume of the 1862 writings . For the year 1849 in particular , only sparse biographical sources are available. It was not until 1885 that he described an experience that formed the background of the water lily scene, and shortly before his death he explained to the biographer Paul Schütze for his book Theodor Storm. His life and his poetry , what inspired him to write the poem My Mother Willedly .

Critical comments from his college friend Tycho Mommsen prompted Storm to revise the first version, for which he was able to use the notice sheets, in which the individual stages of processing as well as Mommsen's critical notes can be found. For the book edition in the summer stories and songs , major deletions were made in the section that was later titled Da stood the child on the road and described both Reinhard's Christmas Eve in the university town and the repulsive behavior of the corps students . Reinhard's travel experiences in Venice , which he presented to Erich and Elisabeth, deleted Storm as well as a section that was before the last scene ( The Old One ). In it he had outlined Reinhard's life after leaving Gut Immensee, the acquisition of an office, marriage and death of his wife and the birth and death of a son. On other levels of the novella, however, he expanded the text, for example with the song of the girl, whereby the narrative technique of allusions and omissions already existing in the first version was refined.

Ludwig Pietsch

Further aspects of the revision are discussed in literary studies. Above all, the media change from the periodical (because the first place of publication is a periodical yearbook) to the separate edition is considered. Claudia Stockinger discusses, for example, poetological considerations that could have been behind it for Storm, and summarizes this as the “poetology of recess”. The tenor of the discourse seems to be that the text in the periodical medium is subject to different "rules of operation" than is the case in the later chosen medium of the book. Periodicals and family sheets were read more extensively and less reflectively, which is why Claudia Stockinger sees the text of the Volksbuch version only as “limited resources of attention”.

Storm's publisher Alexander Duncker commissioned Ludwig Pietsch to illustrate the work. Pietsch met Storm in the spring of 1855 at a special exhibition at the Berlin Art Academy. Storm stood pensively in front of Carl Blechen's long-lost painting Demonic Landscape , which he had painted under the impression of Freischütz's premiere . When Storm saw the first drawing in early May 1856, he reacted enthusiastically. According to Pietsch, it was the scene in which Reinhard recites his poem Meine Mutter hatwillt's, Elisabeth gets up and leaves the room. The Immensee edition illustrated by Pietsch appeared at the beginning of 1857 and established the friendship between him and the poet, which was accompanied by an exchange of letters that shed light on Storm's relationship to the visual arts .

Background and interpretation

The atmospheric novella is one of Storm's most popular works and already reached 30 editions during his lifetime . Its structure is reminiscent of a poem that is reproduced in prose . The chapters seem like stanzas full of moods, behind which the plot takes a back seat. The language is permeated by Storm's poetry and also reveals the influences of Mörike , Immermann and Eichendorff . She concentrates on the poetically interesting "moments" that can be found "even in the poorest everyday life", as Storm put it in a letter to Hartmuth Brinkmann. While the protagonists only speak short sentences that lead to silence, the motives of the actions are only hinted at and entire periods of life are left out, the interspersed poems speak all the more clearly. One of them is the song of the beguiling zither girl in the Ratskeller, which Storm wrote the song of the harp girl in the editions of the poem , and other verses. The gestures of the figures and the things surrounding them are illuminated, the water lily and the immense lake that gives it its title acquire a deep symbolic meaning.

Unfulfilled love is one of the central themes of Storm's early novels . In Immensee this is all the more important as the growing Reinhard develops a poetic relationship to the world that shapes his relationship with the beloved girl Elisabeth. His art of poetically transforming the world is described in the novella as an ambivalent development that ultimately leaves him lonely, if not unhappy, with his memories. In other works by Storm, too, couples in love often look back on a sibling-like childhood, which is portrayed in detail with the scenes. This narrative core can be found in novellas such as Auf dem Staatshof and Auf der Universität from the middle and Hans and Heinz Kirch , Eekenhof and Aquis submersus from the late creative phase. In Immensee , in the eponymous section , the children playfully anticipate the phase of adulthood and are already thinking about how they could succeed later.

expenditure

  • Theodor Storm: Immensee. In: Karl Biernatzki (Ed.): People's book on the year 1850 for the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg. Verlag der Expedition des Altonaer Mercur's, Altona 1849, pp. 56–86. (Digitized in: Immensee  - Internet Archive )
  • Theodor Storm: Immensee. In: Theodor Storm: Summer stories and songs. Berlin 1851 (first printing of the revised version).
  • Theodor Storm: Immensee. Duncker, Berlin 1852 (first separate edition). ( Digitized and full text in the German text archive )

Film adaptations

literature

  • Mareike Börner: Poetry and Truth - "Immensee". In: Mädchenknospe - Spiegelkindlein: The child woman in Theodor Storm's work. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8260-41259 , pp. 76–111
  • Regina Fasold: Immensee. In: Storm-Handbuch, Metzler, Stuttgart 2017, ISBN 978-3-476-02623-1 , pp. 131-136
  • Jean Firges : Theodor Storm: Idyll and decay in his poetry. Exemplary series literature and philosophy, 6. Sonnenberg, Annweiler 2001, ISBN 9783933264114
  • Heinrich Detering : Childhood traces: Theodor Storm and the end of romanticism. Boyens, Heide in Holstein 2011, ISBN 978-3-8042-1333-3 , pp. 68-84
  • Albert Meier: Immensee. The highest demands of art. In: Christoph Deupmann (Ed.): Interpretations. Theodor Storm: Novellas. Reclam, Stuttgart 2008 (rub 17534), pp. 17-32.
  • Theodor Storm: Immensee. In: Gerd Eversberg (Ed.): Immensee. Texts (1st and 2nd version) genesis, recording and criticism, locations and illustrations. Edited and commented by Gerd Eversberg. Heide 1998. ISBN 9783804208292

Web links

Wikisource: Immensee  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Theodor Storm: Immensee. In: All works in three volumes. Volume 1, Phaidon, Essen, p. 259
  2. ^ Theodor Storm: Immensee. In: All works in three volumes. Volume 1, Phaidon, Essen, p. 260
  3. ^ Regina Fasold: Immensee. In: Storm-Handbuch, Metzler, Stuttgart 2017, p. 131
  4. ^ Regina Fasold: Immensee. In: Storm-Handbuch, Metzler, Stuttgart 2017, p. 131
  5. ↑ Claudia Stockinger: Storms understanding of the genre novella. Novella poetics as media poetics. In: Christian Demandt and Philipp Theisohn (eds.): Storm Handbook. Life - work - effect. Stuttgart 2017. p. 120. ISBN 9783476054470
  6. ↑ Günter Butzer: Entertaining surface and symbolic depth. The double coding of realistic literature in Storms Immensee. In: Anna Ananieva, Dorothea Böck and Hedwig Pompe (eds.): Sociable pleasure. Cultural practices of entertainment in the long 19th century. Bielefeld 2011. p. 333. ISBN 9783895288197
  7. ↑ [see] Reinhard Wittmann: Book market and reading in the 18th and 19th centuries. Contributions to literary life 1750-1880. Walter de Gruyter , Frankfurt a. M. 2013. ISBN 9783110916362
  8. ^ Claudia Stockinger: Storms Immensee and the love of readers. Media-historical considerations on literary communication in the 19th century. In: Wilfried Barner (ed.): Yearbook of the German Schiller Society. International organ for modern German literature. Göttingen 2006. p. 292.
  9. ^ Karl Ernst Laage: Theodor Storm. Boyens, Heide 1999, pp. 190-192
  10. ^ Karl Ernst Laage: Theodor Storm. Boyens, Heide 1999, p. 193
  11. ^ Rüdiger Frommholz: Immensee. In: Kindlers New Literature Lexicon. Volume 16, Munich 1991, p. 30
  12. ↑ Quoted from: Regina Fasold: Immensee. In: Storm-Handbuch, Metzler, Stuttgart 2017, p. 132
  13. ^ Regina Fasold: Immensee. In: Storm-Handbuch, Metzler, Stuttgart 2017, p. 132
  14. ^ Regina Fasold: Immensee. In: Storm-Handbuch, Metzler, Stuttgart 2017, p. 132