Martin the man
Martin der Mann is a novel by the Austrian writer Peter Rosegger , published in 1908 by L. Staackmann in Leipzig . In this unattainable social utopia , the intended marriage of a regent with the murderer of her predecessor is a beautiful illusion from the start.
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The young unmarried Princess Juliana von Edenstein, the only daughter of the widowed Duchess Anna, was proclaimed regent of the principality overnight, because her uncle Duke Johann was shot in the heart of the high mountains while hunting for eagles at the foot of the Weißhornwand in the presence of the ducal rifle wrench Hago Stolland . As Duchess, Juliana has to leave her home Edenstein Castle in the Timertal and move to the residence. The funeral services there last five days. Thousands publicly feign their pain. But the crowd secretly wants popular rule. Unobserved in the quiet little room, the tyranny, the mismanagement and the lottery life of the murdered man are discussed. The conspiratorial Democrats, the White Brothers, took advantage of this mood and voted for the assassin from among their ranks. The shooter was able to escape.
After her coronation, Juliana does one of her first official acts for the family of her friend Maria, a simple young woman and mother from Edenstein. Maria's husband is released from military service and is allowed to return home immediately. Juliana later made Maria's husband a forester in Scharntal. The Schatt borders this valley, an almost impenetrable jungle.
Juliana's mother dies. Ducal judges sentenced the gun tensioner Hago Stolland to death by hanging. Juliana signs the death sentence. It later became known that the Duke's murderer was Reichensteiner, a student who had fled to the mountains. After the judicial murder, which was partly to blame, the Duchess Juliana is different. She escapes to her friend Maria in the Scharntaler forester's house and from there to the Schatt. In the jungle, she meets Martin incognito. Juliana falls in love with the athletic young man. His parents have died. The brother died while doing military service. Martin builds a small agricultural business around his log cabin with only three elderly helpers. Since Martin has good reason to exercise restraint - he had seen the beautiful duchess twice in the residence - the woman now woos the man and is turned away. Juliana, who has found in Martin someone she will never leave, insists, wants to make Martin prince. Then Martin, the man: “A throne does not have room for two.” After her relinquishment of the throne, the former student would take her as his wife, because the unnatural court obviously couldn’t harm her - according to the man. Juliana is leaving. Martin can employ builders on his forest property, because some of his father's property, confiscated for political reasons, is now available to the son again. After a year Juliana returns to the shade. The princess has renounced the throne. The principality is administered by an elected council. Juliana, the former princess, watches her bridegroom at work. How kind and serious he treats the workers!
Shortly before the wedding of the beautiful couple, which is to take place in the castle chapel in Edenstein, two members of the state's electoral committee penetrate into the shadows. Martin Reichensteiner is to be elected to the state's legislative body. He refuses, because he would rather make areas habitable than rule. The two ambassadors mock Martin's intention to marry: "... the princes whom he does not shoot down from the throne, whom he marries down."
On the wedding day - on the way to the altar - Martin had to explain himself to his bride: Juliana was just about to take the hated murderer of her uncle Johann as husband. In front of the chapel, Juliana committed suicide; plunges into the depths. Martin goes back into the shade, leaves his settlement there and remains missing.
reception
Regarding the lack of a happy ending, Gerhard Pail remarks: "Death and cultural pessimism overshadow even positively conceived storylines". As an example of black and white painting, Pail also observes the “opposition construction” from “negatively rated city” to forest wilderness
literature
expenditure
- Martin the man . L. Staackmann, Leipzig 1908 ( archive.org ).
- Martin the man L. Staackmann. Leipzig 1914
- Martin the man. Reprint of the original from 1929. Salzwasser Verlag, Paderborn 2014, ISBN 978-3-8460-9802-8 .
- Hans Ludwig Rosegger (Ed.): Martin the man. Reprint of the 1929 commemorative edition. TP Verone Publishing House, Nicosia 2016.
Secondary literature
- Gerhard Pail: Peter Rosegger - a trivial ideologist? In: Uwe Baur , Gerald Schöpfer , Gerhard Pail (eds.): "Foreign made?" The folk writer Peter Rosegger . Böhlau, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-205-05091-6 , pp. 77-78.