Jürnjakob Swehn the America driver

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Jürnjakob Swehn, Der Amerikafahrer is a novel by Johannes Gillhoff (1861-1930) published in 1917 . It is dedicated to the problem of German emigrants in the second half of the 19th century.

content

In the book, Jürnjakob Swehn , a fictional farmer from Mecklenburg , describes in retrospect his life since he emigrated to America in 1868, where he sought his fortune as a young man after seeing no future in his German homeland. In America he started out as a day laborer, but worked out his own farm and a considerable fortune and started a family.

The book is designed as a collection of long letters to Jürnjakob's old teachers in Germany, to which Jürnjakob writes for months, takes long breaks and speaks up again later. Inquiries from the teacher do not appear in the book, but only become clear from the references in Jürnjakob's next letter.

On the one hand, Jürnjakob's way of narrating is characterized by a certain naivety in view of his low level of education (he reports to his teacher with astonishment that the multiplication table also applies in America), on the other hand, Jürnjakob has understood a lot about the world through practical experience and observation and has become firmly established Will and hard work built its existence in it. Again and again he interweaves Bible quotes, Low German passages and proverbs in his letters that convey his love for his old homeland and his occasional homesickness.

Quotes

“Dear teacher, you taught us at school that the sun rises here in summer when it goes down on you. Dear teacher, I have to tell you that this is heresy. The sun rises here in the morning and sets in the evening. I paid close attention the first day. "

- From the first letter in which Juernjakob describes the crossing

background

The model of the fictional character is the emigrant Carl Wiedow (1847–1913) from Mecklenburg , who sets out on a journey into the unknown. Born as a poor day laborer in the barren "Griesen area" , he is drawn to the big wide world; in 1868 he emigrated to the USA , to Iowa .

When he already owns a farm in the “new world” and has grown old, he begins to write down his eventful life in simple words in letters to his friends who have stayed in Germany.

At the turn of the century, the author Johannes Gillhoff collected letters that his father received from former students. He worked on it for 18 years and combined the many emigrant stories contained in it to form the figure of Jürnjakob Swehn.

The book, which through its main character propagated an attitude towards life based on a simple life, hard work, humility, humor and honesty, was enormously successful in Germany with a circulation of one million copies. An English translation was published for the first time in 2000. The novel was dramatized by Gottfried Keding.

Radio play version

In 1952, the NWDR Hamburg produced a 60-minute radio play under the same title, in a radio adaptation by Otto Tenne in Low German. Directed by Hans Freundt spoke:

literature

  • Johannes Gillhoff: Jürnjakob Swehn, the America driver. Verlag der Tälichen Rundschau, Berlin 1917. Reprint: BS-Verlag, Rostock 2006. ISBN 3-89954-219-3 .
  • Johannes Gillhoff: Jürnjakob Swehn travels to America. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City 2000. ISBN 0-87745-719-0 .
  • Eldon L. Knuth: In the footsteps of Jürnjakob Swehn or Who wrote the letters? MV paperback. Rostock 2005. ISBN 3-89954-148-0 .
  • Hartmut Brun : In the pursuit of your own feeling. Jürnjakob Swehn the America driver. In: The emigration from Northern Germany to America in the mirror of literature. [Contributions by the Fritz Reuter Society; Vol. 18]. Rostock 2008. pp. 90-98.

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