Spökenkieken
Spökenkieken is a short story by Gertrud von le Fort that appeared in Westermann's monthly magazine in January 1907 .
action
The little girl Annia, daughter of the pastor of Hohensaburg, makes her playmate, the farmer's son Kort, aware of the eerie knocking noises in her father's churchyard in summer. The two children flee. Annia likes to follow her little friend to the Werle house in the Ruhr valley. Kort's mother, the tenant's wife, usually has a snack ready there. In the Werle house, only Kort and Hinnack can actually deal with the petite Annia. Hinnack, according to Annia's observation, a quiet man with fairly light eyes, is the groom. Sometimes the otherwise silent man tells the children the legend of the battle on the birch tree near Unna .
Kort doesn't like that Annia often thinks about death: the dead knock on the coffin lids in the churchyard. But they should be in heaven. One would have to ask Hinnack about it. Kort thinks little of the idea, because the groom is decried as a Spökenkieker ( seer ).
Years go by. Kort, now a handsome young man, wants to become a technician and is studying at a university. On vacation at home, he is bored, not particularly religious, during the Sunday service in the Hohensaburg Church and for a moment succumbs to a visual illusion while looking around the house of God . There in that side chapel, in which a noblewoman is said to have been walled up centuries ago, he sees his now adult playmate in profile instead of the corpse stone. The magic is corrected by reality. Annia sits apart from the listening community. In all of this, Kort is closely watched by Hinnack. After the service, the three start talking - as they did years ago. The confrontation with death is still topical after all these years, also initiated by a gravestone inscription in the churchyard. On the moss-covered stone you are asked to die quietly. In the evening the young people have fun. Kort has to admit that he loves the tender Annia. He wants to take her home. In the moonlight there is an argument with Hinnack, who wants to accompany Annia home because, according to the servant's obscure will, Kort should not get involved with Annia. Kort doesn't know what the demeanor is supposed to be - Hinnack has a tight bride - but the student is afraid of the bright glow in Hinnack's eyes.
Annia goes with Kort. She confesses her love to him.
During the next celebration, the young people present play hide and seek. One finds oneself. But Kort doesn't find his Annia. The beloved hid too well. Kort dreads a chest, to which his search is directed in the semi-darkness. Meanwhile, Hinnack, the Spökenkieker, is clairvoyantly harnessing the guests' horses, even though it's not that late in the evening. Indeed, all of the guests leave the Werle house after Kort has found his mistress suffocated in that chest. The hiding place was closed and obviously couldn't be opened from the inside. The "inviting" inscription on the tombstone to die quietly had, at least seen from the outside, come true.
background
Hohensaburg is Hohensyburg . Gertrud von le Fort was probably also inspired by the inscription on a grave slab in the churchyard of St. Peter zu Syburg , which bears the name Hanna among others, for her story of Annia. The Werle house is the Villigst house . The author, born in Minden in 1876 , spent many childhood days in Haus Villigst with her godmother, Baroness von Elverfeld .
literature
- Used edition
- Gertrud von le Fort: Spökenkieken. A love story about the church of St. Peter zu Syburg and Haus Villigst. Commented and illustrated by Renate Breimann . Ingrid Lessing Verlag, Dortmund 2010, ISBN 978-3-929931-28-0
- Secondary literature
- Gisbert Kranz : Gertrud von Le Fort. Life and work in data, pictures and testimonials . Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1976. ISBN 3-458-01895-6
- Nicholas J. Meyerhofer: Gertrud von le Fort . (= Heads of the 20th century. Volume 119). Morgenbuch Verlag, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-371-00376-0 , pp. 22-23 and pp. 90-92.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kranz, pp. 86–87
- ^ Johann Grasse : The legend of the great battle on the birch tree
- ↑ Edition used, p. 32, 3. Zvo
- ↑ Edition used, pp. 5–6 and pp. 7–11