Rositta
Rositta is a short story by the Austrian writer Franz Karl Ginzkey , first published in 1921.
With the story of a failed love affair between an Austrian and an Italian shortly before and during the First World War , Ginzkey simultaneously depicts the problematic relationship between Germans and Italians, the northern neighbors' longing for the south, the mutual interest and attraction the other part, but also the inability to come together.
content
The author reports on a friend, the painter Ackermann, whom he had often visited in Vienna's studio. When he died in 1919, he left the writer a few sheets of paper and his painter's mirror. On the sheets of paper he described a love affair that forms the core of the story.
Ackermann was in South Tyrol in autumn 1913 . As he sat in front of the easel , he noticed in his painter's mirror that a young woman was sneaking up on him from behind, who was secretly trying to put a wreath on his head. But he turned quickly and thwarted her plan. The young woman named Rositta belonged to a society of young Italian people who had made a bet with her as to whether she could play this trick unnoticed on the painter. Since everyone liked each other in general, Ackermann joined them, since he had already planned to go south again, after repeatedly asking him. Via the town of Riva on northern Lake Garda , behind which the border between Austria and Italy ran, one drove with the steamer to Salò , where the brother Rosittas ran the Hotel Regina with her, to which Ackermann was now invited.
During the journey, the painter Rositta confessed that he found her very beautiful. Both were attracted to each other, but Rositta initially kept a certain distance from Ackermann. For the time being he was given a room on the side facing away from the lake. In order to be able to paint, however, he was given access to the hotel's private garden. Here, while he was painting at the easel, he saw an Italian officer entering the garden through his painter's mirror, but he avoided the painter. It was Rositta's cousin named Galeazzo who was visiting because he wanted to be transferred to this place on business and therefore had to do something here. When the two were introduced to each other later, their relationship remained politely aloof.
After a while, Ackermann was given another room because a German scholar who had previously lived there had left. It faced the lake, but was clearly separated from all other rooms and only accessible via a terrace. It turned out that the scholar had left an old book in the cupboard that contained the story of Emperor Otto the Great . Ackermann took on the task of sending the valuable old book to the man, but first he read it himself. So he found out about the fairytale love story between Otto and the beautiful Italian Queen Adelheid , who had sought protection from the emperor and then married him. At that time, in the early Middle Ages, the two countries were peacefully united, while later their relationship was repeatedly characterized by quarrels and strife, although each other was also valued.
The painter's dealings with his hosts became more and more familiar. Levati, the owner of the hotel and Rositta's brother, had Ackermann portray himself. He always sat at the table with them and shared the boat with them during a magical night mask festival that they gave for their guests on Lake Garda. Finally, Rositta appeared in Ackermann's room at night and the two became lovers, whose relationship, however, was kept secret from her brother and the others at Rositta's request.
Ackermann was charmed by the spirited southerner. The desire for a lasting relationship arose in him more and more. One day she went to nearby Brescia to do various things and also to visit her relatives. When she did not return by train in the evening in bad weather at the expected time, Levati and Ackermann spent the evening worried together to wait for the last train before midnight. In fact, she had arrived with this, picked up by the two of them at the train station in the midst of storm and rain. Since she was more serious than usual that night, Ackermann investigated. Rositta confessed to him that she had been secretly engaged to Galeazzo for five years. She couldn't explain why she had started a relationship with Ackermann either. Just as she would not allow her to be painted, she could not bear the idea of being pinned down. They made love one last time in a frenzy of passion.
The next day, to Levati's greatest regret, Ackermann left under a pretext. Rositta avoided him as best she could. Galeazzo had arrived too; he had achieved the transfer to Salò. With the assurance that he would return to Lake Garda soon, Ackermann boarded the steamer.
Months of longing followed in Vienna. Ackermann wavered between self-respect and the thought of returning and fighting with Galeazzo for Rositta. But then the First World War broke out and he had to go to the front as a soldier in Poland . After suffering from severe typhoid fever , he was no longer fit for the front and was sent to South Tyrol as a war painter, where he was supposed to depict major events of the war. He was staying with an officer. Here he saw the misery of the war, how soldiers marched silently to the front to fight the Italians and how the wounded, both Austrians and Italians together, were brought from the front to the rear. After a battle with many dead, the personal items, letters and photos of their relatives that had been taken from the fallen were brought to Ackermann's accommodation. When he looked through these testimonies, he also discovered a picture of Rositta. Who could have carried it? Was it Levati, Galeazzo, or someone else? When he went to the site of the slaughter, he found the makeshift graves of the fallen there, which had been quickly buried. The last thing he discovered was a cross made by Italian officers and among them the name Galeazzos. Now Ackermann could say goodbye to Rositta in his heart, because he had previously toyed with the idea of snatching her from Galeazzo, it was now clear to him that he could not take her away from a dead person.
After Ackermann's story was over, the writer added that some time after Ackermann's death he had received a card from Italy, which Rositta had sent to Ackermann, who she didn't know had died. She wrote: “The roses are still blooming in Salò.” The author closes his book with the following sentences: “If it is not roses that bloom in the hereafter, then my friend can no longer reach them. I believe that he has found peace and we don't want to disturb him any further! "
expenditure
- Rositta . L. Staackmann, Leipzig 1921.
- Rositta . Gemstones of German Literature 2. Marnet Library 121, Neustadt ad Haardt 1924.
- Three women: Rositta, Agnete, Oswalda . Verlag Das Bergland-Buch, Salzburg 1929.
- Rositta . Field post issue . L. Staackmann, Leipzig 1944.
- Selected works in four volumes . Vol. 2 novellas. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1960.
literature
- Robert Hohlbaum : Franz Karl Ginzkey. His life and work . L. Staackmann, Leipzig 1921, pp. 56-58.
- Karl Wache : The Austrian novel since the neo-baroque . Staackmann, Leipzig 1930, p. 116.
- Margarete Wagner: Man-woman relationships across ethnic and cultural borders in the literature of the multi-ethnic state of Austria and the First Republic ; in: Yearbook of the Austria Library in St. Petersburg 4/1 (1999/2000), pp. 667–683.
- Arsenio Frugoni, Emilio Mariano (Ed.): Il Lago di Garda . Storia id una comunitá lacuale. Vol. 2. Ateneo di Salò, 1969. pp. 316-318. (in Italian)