Maria Schweidler, the amber witch

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"The Apparition on the Streckelberg" - Illustration by Philip Burne-Jones for the English edition from 1895

Maria Schweidler, the Amber Witch is considered the most important novel by the German writer and theologian Wilhelm Meinhold (1797–1851). The story, published for the first time in 1843, is a processing of Meinhold's pastor's daughter zu Coserow (1826) and sees itself as a true historical reflection of the conditions in the Thirty Years War . Meinhold initially pretended that the book was based on a manuscript find from the 17th century. Only later did its authorship and the purely fictional character of the work become apparent.

action

The pillage of the imperial troops during the Thirty Years War brings suffering and misery to the people on the island of Usedom . The Koserow pastor Abraham Schweidler and his daughter Maria try to alleviate the need by selling the amber found by Maria in the Streckelsberg and using the money to buy bread for the starving Koserowers. Maria is wanted and harassed by the governor Appelmann , but the 15-year-old rejects him. Appelmann then uses - in order to still make her submissive - Mary's possession of money, which is inexplicable to the villagers, as a reason to accuse her of witchcraft and to suffer torture and torment under the rituals of the witch hunt. On August 30, 1630 she was led to the stake, but Count Rüdiger von Nienkerken freed her from her misery and took her as his wife.

Alleged manuscript find

In the foreword to the first edition of the Amber Witch from 1843, Meinhold stated that the book was a revised reproduction of a chronicle from the time of the Thirty Years' War, written by the father of the "Amber Witch", the Koserow pastor Abraham Schweidler. Meinhold, Pastor Schweidler's successor in office, discovered the defective manuscript after 200 years in the Koserow church in a niche under a choir stalls. The book was published with the subtitle: The most interesting of all previously known witch trials, based on a defective handwriting by your father, Pastor Abraham Schweidler in Coserow on Usedom .

In fact, the novel was initially viewed as a historically correct original document from the 17th century. When Meinhold finally admitted his own authorship, this was initially doubted by large parts of the public. Friedrich Hebbel demonstrated in a treatise that it must undoubtedly be a work of art from the imagination of a poet. Hebbel criticizes the “artificial, made-to-measure language” of the amber witch , which was “merely necessary for the author's secondary purpose, for the intended deception”, but otherwise harmed the work.

History of origin

The Amber Witch is based on the story The Pastor's Daughter von Coserow , which Meinhold wrote down in 1826. The writing was probably triggered by reading the Koserow church book, which was kept in the rectory. One of his predecessors had actually lost his daughter (accused of witchcraft) at the stake. There was also extensive research into historical documents (such as court proceedings). Meinhold submitted the story to the Wiener Modenjournal , but the publication was forbidden by the Catholic Viennese censors with reference to the “laudatory relationship of the novella to the Swedish Protestant Gustav Adolf ”.

After intensive studies of the native language (in the 15th century), Meinhold worked in the 30s into a kind of autobiographical description (with literal speeches in antiquated language). In 1841 and 1842 he published excerpts from the alleged manuscript find in the periodical Christoterpe . Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV became aware of the allegedly 200-year-old source and requested the entire manuscript on April 16, 1842. Meinhold had to grant his king his own authorship. The king himself, who had known the pastor personally since his time as crown prince, ordered the printing in 1843 along with a deceptive foreword.

reception

The book was very popular among Meinhold's contemporaries and quickly became a sales success. The work has been reissued to this day, with Meinhold's sometimes difficult-to-understand, ancient language being sometimes "neo-German".

The amber witch was also received abroad . The book was particularly well received in Victorian England, with its penchant for horror stories, and has also recently been received by artists. 1844 appeared in Britain two translations of Bernsteinhexe ( The Amber Witch ), an EA Friedlander and another from the confidant and friend of Heinrich Heine, Lady Duff-Gordon. The translation of Lady Duff Gordon became very popular and has been reissued over and over again. In 1895 a luxury edition was published with illustrations by Philip Burne-Jones . The Amber Witch was one of the young Oscar Wilde's favorite novels .

As early as 1844, the amber witch was dramatized by the director of the Vienna Burgtheater Heinrich Laube . The world premiere took place in the Hamburger Schauspielhaus . Productions in Berlin , among others, followed.

In 1861, William Vincent Wallace composed an opera based on the novel, which premiered in London's Her Majesty's Theater in 1861 .

The theme of the amber witch was used in the song of the same name by the GDR rock band Transit .

The amber witch is still present on the island of Usedom today. Annual open-air stage productions are an integral part of the event program.

literature

expenditure

  • Maria Schweidler, the amber witch, the most interesting of all known witch trials; after a defective handwriting of her father, the pastor Abraham Schweidler in Coserow on Usedom, edited by W. Meinhold, Doctor of Theology and Pastor, Berlin. Published by Duncker and Humblot. 1843
Digitized from Harvard University copy
Digital copy , Bavarian State Library
Digitized and full text in the German Text Archive in the German Text Archive
  • The amber witch Maria Schweidler. The most interesting of all known witch trials. Bohmeier Verlag, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 978-3-89094-418-0
  • The Amber Witch, a romance by Wilhelm Meinhold, translated by Lady Duff Gordon, edited with an introduction by Joseph Jacobs and illustrated by Philip Burne-Jones. London, Published by David Nutt, in the Strand 1895

Secondary literature

  • Heinrich Kleene: Wilh. Meinhold's Amber Witch and her dramatic arrangements . Krefeld 1912 (diss.)
  • Rupprecht Leppla: Wilhelm Meinhold and the chronic story. in: Germanic Studies , Heft 54, Berlin 1928
  • The witch of Coserow. A novella (around 1826), edited by Winfried Freund , Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock 2000, ISBN 3-356-00866-8
  • Max Geissler: The Amber Witch. Acting in 5 acts. , Leipzig: Staackmann 1910
  • Harry Vredeveld: Pia fraus. Anachronisms, Fake Latin, and Stolen Colors in Wilhelm Meinhold's Maria Schweidler, die Bernsteinhexe . In: Monatshefte , University of Wisconsin Press, Volume 106, Number 2, Summer 2014, pp. 200–212, doi: 10.1353 / mon.2014.0036

Andrea Rudolph: Myth. History. Political Society. Cultural transcriptions of Pomerania in pictorial poetry, “Amber Witches” and travel works, Verlag JH Röll, Dettelbach near Würzburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-89754-406-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Baedeker Verlag (ed.): Usedom . 2nd edition 2007. p. 40.
  2. ^ Friedrich Hebbel: Sidonia on Borck, die Klosterhexe, edited by Wilhelm Meinhold , 1848, p. 82.
  3. ^ Wilhelm Meinhold, Die Bernsteinhexe Maria Schweidler , Bohmeier Verlag, 2005, p. 8 (foreword by the publisher).
  4. ↑ Introduction to a 1928 edition of Mary Schweidler: The Amber Witch , published by H. Milford, Oxford University Press, p. viii.
  5. ↑ An Old and Famous Story . New York Times. March 17, 1895. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
  6. ↑ Bleiler, EF (Ed.): Five Victorian Ghost Novels . Dover Publications, Inc., New York 1971, ISBN 978-0-486-22558-6 , pp. Vii.
  7. ^ Lyrics of the Amber Witch by Transit at golyr.de.