Ma armastasin sakslast

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Ma armastasin sakslast ( I loved a German ) is the title of a novel by the Estonian writer Anton Hansen Tammsaare (1878–1940). The book was published in the Estonian original in 1935 .

Appear

Anton Hansen Tammsaare was a widely read and renowned writer in his home country at the time. I loved a German was his penultimate novel.

The unfortunate love story deals with the Estonian-German Baltic relationship after the proclamation of the Republic of Estonia . The book is considered to be one of the main works of psychological realism in Estonian literature .

The work is above all a social criticism of Estonian society in the interwar period . Tammsaare criticizes the weak Estonian self-confidence towards the former Baltic German upper class , whose younger generation has long since settled in the Republic of Estonia in the 1920s. The Estonians imitate the former Baltic German upper class more than they live their own nation.

action

Estonia at the end of the 1920s: Oskar, a rather impulsive Estonian student, is in his mid-twenties. His parents invested a lot of money in his education so that he could go to university. But the university and urban life remain alien to Oskar. Due to lack of money and reluctance, his studies ripple away. Oskar, who feels indebted to his parents in gratitude, cannot return to his family home. With his lack of a life plan, he is in a rather hopeless position.

Even his friends in his Estonian student union give him little support. He questions their customs themselves, which only copy the German student associations without producing anything of their own, Estonian.

Oskar falls in love with an eighteen-year-old noblewoman, the Baltic German baroness Erika. Her family lost their large estates in the Estonian land reform . Erika lives with financial worries, but also knows how to get by in life. a. the children of Oskar's landlady took lessons in German and piano.

Erika is almost untouched by the feudal past of the Baltic Germans. She has no memory of the earlier times. The young noblewoman has found her place in the new Republic of Estonia. In contrast to this is her nameless grandfather, the old baron. He struggles with the fate of his generation, which has lost almost everything, and mourns the old times and traditions. Erika, her grandfather and aunt live in an apartment that is far too small among the inherited pieces of furniture from the old days. The baron is opposed to a love bond between Erika and Oskar because of the old class differences.

The love between Oskar and Erika actually fails in the end because of the differences in class. But it is Oskar who breaks the relationship: While Erika loves her Oskar as a future husband, Oskar sees in her more the noblewoman than his future wife. The idea of ​​a clear separation of social classes still lives on in the farmer's son. He considers himself to be socially inferior, although the barriers to class have officially been abolished. Oskar stands in the way of his own happiness because he cannot overcome the old way of thinking. In the end, after the separation and Erika's marriage to someone else, young Erika dies giving birth to her first child.

Numerous aptly described supporting roles give the novel a special flavor: The mothering housewife and her tight-lipped husband, with whom Oskar moves into a booth, live from comic elements, mixed with well-meaning and homely advice on life. As the novel says: “The housewife's love of children went so far that she endeavored to treat everyone like children. That was especially true of her husband, the father of her children. "

Narrative

The novel is written as a kind of diary from the perspective of the protagonist. In a foreword, the author claims to have found the manuscript and printed it. The feelings, attitudes and thoughts of the main characters are presented in detail in the novel.

reception

Ma armastasin sakslast was published by Noor-Eesti in 1935 with illustrations by Jaan Vahtra . Despite its critical attitude, the work met with a largely positive response in Estonia. This is a bit surprising as it takes a critical look at the Estonian society of the time. In the so-called "Silent Period" ( Vaikiv ajastu ) from 1934, freedom of expression and freedom of the press was severely restricted.

On the other hand, the book wants to show the weaknesses of the Estonian self-esteem. On the positive side, the book can be understood as an invitation to the Estonians, after having regained their state sovereignty, to now give up their inner feeling of inferiority in relation to the previously dominant German (Baltic) culture. Strengthening the Estonian national feeling was the declared goal of the government of President Konstantin Päts .

Above all, Tammsaare's negative portrayal of the Estonian student associations, which at the time had a great deal of influence in politics and society, was criticized. In the Estonian corporations in particular, Tammsaare sees a pure imitation of the old life of the German student associations. They are more like an association promoting beer consumption than an association of Estonian patriots.

It was also criticized that Tammsaare had overdrawn the protagonist Oskar a little: The self-esteem of Estonians in the 1930s was no longer as bad as Tammsaare would like to suggest.

The book was also read during and after the Soviet occupation of Estonia. Newer editions appeared in 1956, 1964, 1984 and 2007. The novel has hardly found any readers abroad.

A stage version of the novel based on a script by Rünno Saaremäe, directed by Raivo Trass, premiered on March 28, 2008 at the Kuressaare City Theater.

Translations

The German translation of the novel from the pen of Edmund Hunnius (1881–1941) was first published in 1977 by the Soviet-Estonian publisher Perioodika in Tallinn .

Part of the translation had already been completed in 1936. However, at that time there was no German publisher who wanted to print the book.

In the mid-1970s, Hunnius' translation was brought out again, edited by the Estonian Germanists Aivo Kaidja and Mati Sirkel , and published in Tallinn on the 100th birthday of Tammsaare with illustrations by the artist Herald Eelma . The book was printed on poor quality paper in an edition of 5,500 copies. It found almost no reception in the German-speaking area. Cornelius Hasselblatt called the novel a prime example of "pseudo reception".

In 1968 a translation of Tammsaare's book into Russian had already appeared. In 1974 a translation into Latvian followed .

Quotes

  • "Every educated person can write at least one novel - the novel of his life." (P. 17 of the German edition)
  • “We had expropriated the [German Baltic] goods and now hastened to adopt the way of life of the goods. [...] We wanted to feel as the real masters of the country and did not understand how to express this in any other way than that both ourselves and our children tried to live like the former masters of the country and their youth. " P. 52)
  • “That was the end of my love and with that I wanted to end my book, because I am not writing poetry but only writing the truth.” (P. 355)
  • "Man is never old and clever enough to judge time correctly." (P. 361)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ p. 64 of the German edition
  2. ↑ eesti rahvusbibliograafia
  3. ↑ Catalog search at the Estonian National Library (Estonian)
  4. ↑ www.kuressaarelinnateater.ee ( Memento from June 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (Estonian)
  5. ↑ Eesti biograafiline andmebaas ISIK (Estonian, accessed September 29, 2013)
  6. ↑ Cornelius Hasselblatt : Estonian literature in German translation. A reception story from the 19th to the 21st century. Wiesbaden: 2011, p. 133
  7. ↑ Cornelius Hasselblatt : Estonian literature in German translation. A reception story from the 19th to the 21st century. Wiesbaden: 2011, p. 224