Maria im Elend (Peter Rosegger)

Peter Rosegger around 1865

Maria im Elend is a short story by the Austrian writer Peter Rosegger that appeared in Westermann's monthly magazine in Braunschweig in October 1876 .

Legend

In the alpine rock wilderness there is a solid church next to a hospice at an altitude of 2100 meters . There, in an altar niche, is a miraculous image . The face of the crowned queen is bark brown and quite shapeless. The Most Holy extends two gnarled arms in the picture of Mary . Centuries ago, on the site of the present church, a portrait had grown out of a thick pine tree . At that time priests carried this picture of Our Lady down into the valley and set it up in the collegiate church . But three times in a row the picture disappeared and was found high up in the alpine wilderness in the pine tree. So the abbot of the stately monastery in the fertile valley understood God's hint; the hospice and little church Maria im Elend were built on the site of the bush . Pilgrims , hoping for a miracle, did not stay away.

Emanuel, Gertrud and the Gaiser-Bimel

Only in summer did pilgrims climb the dangerous, narrow, dizzying path along the Riedwand to the little church of Maria im Elend . In winter the housekeeper Gertrud stayed alone with the incumbent pastor in the snow wilderness. When the parish Maria in Misery had become vacant again, Father Emanuel, a young man with strict principles, declared himself ready. The eloquent new pastor was able to preach to German-speaking pilgrims as well as to Slavs, Hungarians and Welschen in the little church Maria im Elend , but he had to learn the everyday practical processes at the outpost of that monastery from Gertrud. The old woman was already 53 years old and worked in the hospice and for the church. Occasionally, Gertrud dumped Emanuels into her own pocket. The new pastor let it happen. He liked to hike around his mountain of misery in his spare time. On such a hike the pastor came across the hut of Gaiser-Bimels, who lived in shame with his Ursel. How was the shepherd disgusted by the strict Emanuel for such a relaxed way of life! But was the way BimEL Beadle on the misery mountain.

For the Assumption of the Virgin , crowds of pilgrims climb the Elendberg, place flowers they have brought with them in front of the image of Mary and want to be washed clean of their sins. One of the pilgrims is nineteen-year-old Maria. As a foundling, Maria had come to an angel maker as a newborn , but had survived the strict childhood and had been sold to a traveling zither player by her “care” mother because of her “care” mother . The couple had succeeded. The red-bearded musician had lured the "nightingale" Maria one fine day onto a boat out onto a lake. When the red beard had become intrusive, Maria had evaded the attacker by jumping into the water. Because Mary now thinks that her namesake, the Blessed Virgin Mary , saved her from the water, she made the arduous pilgrimage along the terrifying Riedwand as thanks, but could not love the image of Mary found on the Elendberg. It is a sin, but the truth. Emanuel, to whom she confesses all of this in her cell, can no longer suppress a doubt that had crept into him on his mountain hikes: Can Mary really serve the pilgrims in their misery? His office and his striving suddenly seem insubstantial and useless.

Immediately, Emanuel takes off his priestly robe and escapes down the valley with the nightingale Maria. What ridicule does the former pastor have to endure from the mouth of his clerk Bimel when the two couples happen to meet in the wilderness. The refugees run away and can join the small chain of pilgrims returning to the valley without being recognized. On the narrow path along the reed wall, the nightingale Maria breaks free from the human chain at night and plunges into the depths. Meanwhile, church servant Biemel "preaches", adorned with a red stole and with a black beret on his head, to the pilgrims who have stayed on the Elendberg with a thunderous voice: "You heathen are all together!"

The abbot of the monastery dismisses Emanuel after such an incident. Years later, Emanuel served as a missionary in New South Wales . In a letter to Gaiser-Bimel, he describes the inconspicuous grave site of the nightingale Maria on the west side of the Elendkirche to his former church servant and asks for a wreath of juniper and alpine roses to be laid.

literature

expenditure

Mary in misery . A story from the high mountains by PK Rosegger. In: Westermannsmonthshefte . tape 39 . George Westermann, Braunschweig 1876, p. 72-89 ( archive.org ).
Mary in misery . In: The book of short stories . 6th edition. tape 3 . A. Hartleben's Verlag, Vienna 1898, p. 3-48 ( archive.org ).
Mary in misery . In: Peter Rosegger: The book of novels. Second volume, L. Staackmann. Leipzig 1915, pp. 346-386.

Secondary literature

Karl Wagner (Ed.), Max Kaiser (Ed.), Werner Michler (Ed.): Peter Rosegger - Gustav Heckenast . Correspondence 1869–1878 (collaborators: Oliver Bruck and Christiane Zintzen ). Böhlau, Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-205-99482-5 .

Web links

Peter Rosegger: Maria im Elend in Paul Heyse (Hrsg.) And Ludwig Laistner (Hrsg.): Neuer Deutscher Novellenschatz , Vol. 3. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich and Leipzig 1884

annotation

↑ Heckenast wrote on February 14, 1876 from Pressburg to his friend Rosegger: " I received the story Maria im Elend and read it with pleasure" (Wagner, Kaiser, Michler anno 2003, pp. 374 and 375).