And peace on earth

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Cover picture by Sascha Schneider

And Peace on Earth is Volume 30 of Karl May's Collected Works . The first and second parts of the text were published in 1901 under the title Et in terra pax in the anthology China by the publisher and editor Josef Kürschner , with whom May had previously worked.

History of origin

Contemporary representation of German troops at the Boxer Rebellion

Josef Kürschner published the work in 1901, under the title:

China. A monument to the fighters and world politics. Descriptions from life and history, war and victory.

First in deliveries, then sold as an anthology in very splendid furnishings, it was supposed to glorify the victory of the allied powers in the Chinese Boxer Rebellion . The editor expected May to be an adventurous story in the style of travel stories and was completely surprised by the pacifist content. Since the work was delivered by the author in individual deliveries, Kürschner did not immediately notice the "cuckoo's egg", but then requested either a change, which May refused, or the shortening and completion of the work. The editor apologized in the preface to his readers:

"[...] has received a slightly different content and background than I had planned and expected."

It is certain that Karl May wanted to counteract the hurray-patriotic work with full intent: “I have nothing to do with this type of gong!” He already had his appreciation of the ancient culture of China in a humorous way in 1888/1889 in the youth story Kong- Kheou, the word of honor (the book edition appeared from 1894 under the title The bluish red Methuselah ) is shown. That is why he was also a staunch opponent of Germany's China campaign . Bertha von Suttner , the famous peace representative ( Put your arms down! ), Has been very close to him ever since and visited him in his hotel in 1912 for his last appearance in Vienna.

For Volume 30 of the Collected Travel Tales, which appeared in 1904 with a German title, he wrote a third section for his text. With this he reached the book length of around 600 pages specified by Friedrich Ernst Fehsenfeld . This work by May is the first in the “symbolic” period of his work. Influenced by his great trip to the Orient in 1899/1900, he used people and places that he had got to know. In his travel companion Sejjid Omar, his real servant Hassan can easily be recognized.

The novel was edited in 1922 by the Catholic Paul Rentschka and again in 1938 by the National Socialist Otto Eicke for the series of collected works by Karl May in the Karl May publishing house . In 1958 Hans Wollschläger brought the text back to the original version by Fehsenfeld. The unedited texts of the first editions are now available in two editions: The first publication of “Et in terra pax” was published in 2001 on the centenary of the publication of the anthology “China” as a reprint of the Karl May Society ; the first book edition by Fehsenfeld-Verlag is available as a reprint in the series of "Freiburg First Editions" by Karl May Verlag.

content

At the gate of the east

In Cairo , Karl May met the main characters of his trip: the proud Arab Sejjid Omar, who voluntarily entered his service, the religious zealot Waller with his gentle daughter Mary and two highly educated Chinese, father and son. Together they experience an adventure at the pyramids of Giza and decide to travel on together. After the voyage they have their first unpleasant encounter with a group of self-proclaimed 'civilizers' in Colombo on Ceylon . They also have to deal with the ruthless people on the crossing to the Malay Peninsula and in Penang itself.

In the land of the heathen

In Penang, Karl May meets an old friend, Sir John Raffley (Volume 11, Am Stillen Ozean ), the quirky Englishman who, however, has developed into a humanist thinking and living person. He invites the tour company to take his yacht Yin to Atjeh on Sumatra . Waller burned down a temple there in a mad fit and the villagers are demanding a large ransom from his daughter. But her priest, the young Chinese Tsi and Raffley are members of the Shen Society , which has set itself the goal of spreading peace. The missionary Waller should be released from his disastrous urge to want to convert all 'Gentiles' by force. Everyone travels to China on the Yin yacht . On the way, the young Chinese tells the tale of the 'diving island Ti'.

This is where the original work for the anthology China ended .

The realm of the Shen

In the fictitious port Ocama in the Bohai Bay of the Yellow Sea have Shen built their headquarters. Raffley introduces his Chinese wife Yin , the namesake for his yacht, to the tour company . An attempt to overthrow the 'civilizers', who turn out to be the henchmen of arms and opium smugglers, is rejected. Waller can finally be released from his madness and joins the Shen like everyone else .

The magic carpet

The short story The Magic Carpet can be found in Volume 81 Abdahn Effendi . Karl May 1901 dresses his accounts with Josef Kürschner and the editors of the collective work China in the guise of an oriental fairy tale . A magic carpet, woven by Ijâr (Arabic 'Mai') for Yussuf el Kürkdschi (Turkish 'Josef the furrier'), reveals its true character to all who look at it. This story from Karl May's estate was first published in the Karl May yearbook in 1923, where it was given the title "The Magic Carpet" - not from May.

Concept of the "spiritual orient"

May's oeuvre from the novel Et in terra pax is characterized by the development of a concept of the “spiritual Orient”, which was undoubtedly initiated by his trip to the Orient. May responded to the generally frustrating, yet stimulating encounter with the external reality of the Orient by making the "East" in his literature the spiritual landscape and designing it as a metaphorical point of reference in the search for the meaning of human life . This idea of ​​the “spiritual Orient” developed in the later works, which continues to be shaped by Christian religiosity, but also takes up influences from Chinese philosophy and spirituality, is enhanced by Mays - especially impressively poetized in the two volumes Ardistan and Dschinnistan - idea of ​​the development of the Individuals and society from violent to noble humanity and has the following aspects:

  • The core value of carried by universal love of humanity is no longer exclusively for the - - until then, Mays works out fine as "true" religion Christianity coupled, but the religion "upstream" ( And Peace on earth! , Babel and Bible , Schamah ).
  • Humanity , in which the divine shows itself in people, creates love, harmony and community between all people regardless of their belonging to a certain race and culture. It is the basis of the aspired peace among nations ( And Peace on earth! , Winnetou IV ).
  • Peace and harmony are achieved through the implementation of the "points" against the "Hard" ( And Peace on earth! , Babel and Bible , Schamah , Ardistan and Dschinnistan ).
  • Time is part of eternity. The external reality of time and place is canceled out in universal, divine love ( and peace on earth! ).
  • Life never ends. This world and the hereafter are closely intertwined ( and peace on earth! ).
  • As a spiritual source of this inter-religious model and cradle of culture and religion May saw the - line with the expansion of the understanding of " the Orient as far as -" in the 19th century China reaching " East to".

May's conception of a “spiritual Orient” as an inspiration and destination for literary journeys into the interior is a sign of his turning away from the “external” adventures of classic travel stories.

Work editions

  • And peace on earth. Travel story by Karl May. Karl May's collected travel stories, Volume XXX. Freiburg: Fehsenfeld, 1904. Reprint: Bamberg: Karl-May-Verlag, 1982.
  • Abdahn Effendi. Travel stories and texts from Karl May's late work. Volume 81, Karl-May-Verlag, Bamberg / Radebeul 2000, ISBN 3-7802-0081-3 .
  • Et in terra pax. Reprint from the collective work “China. Descriptions from life and history, war and victory ”(1901), ed. by Dieter Sudhoff , Hamburg / Regensburg: Karl May Society, 2001.

Individual evidence

  1. Wolfgang Hammer: "And Peace on Earth," edited by Rentschka? , in: M-KMG (Mitteilungen der Karl-May-Gesellschaft) 103 (1995), pp. 51-61 and (together with Ernst Seybold) in: M-KMG 104, pp. 49-61.
  2. Wolfgang Hermesmeier, Stefan Schmatz : Origin and expansion of the collected works. A success story for 110 years. In: Lothar and Bernhard Schmid (eds.): The polished diamond. The collected works of Karl May. Karl-May-Verlag, Bamberg / Radebeul 2003, ISBN 3-7802-0160-7 , pp. 341-486, especially pp. 385-387.
  3. a b c And peace on earth. Travel story by Karl May. Karl May's collected travel stories, Volume XXX. Freiburg: Fehsenfeld, 1904. Reprint: Bamberg: Karl-May-Verlag, 1982.
  4. The magic carpet. In: Abdahn Effendi. Travel stories and texts from the late work of Karl May , Volume 81; Karl-May-Verlag, Bamberg / Radebeul 2000, ISBN 3-7802-0081-3 , pp. 196-199.
  5. Cf. Max Finke: From Karl May's literary estate , in: Karl-May-Jahrbuch 1923, p. 17 ff.
  6. http://www.karl-may-wiki.de/index.php/Schamah_(1907/08)
  7. Wörner: Between Depression and Awakening ... , 2017, p. 213 f.

literature

  • Ekkehard Bartsch: “And peace on earth!”. Origin and history. In: Yearbook of the Karl May Society (Jb-KMG) 1972/73, p. 93 ff. ( Online version )
  • Joachim Biermann: “Peace on earth” or “And peace on earth?” For the title design of a work . In: Communications from the Karl May Society No. 195, 2018.
  • Hansotto Hatzig: Et in terra pax - And peace on earth. Karl May's text variants. In: Jb-KMG 1972/73, p. 144 ff. ( Online version )
  • Wolfgang Hermesmeier / Stefan Schmatz : Development and expansion of the collected works. A success story for 110 years , in: Lothar and Bernhard Schmid (eds.): The cut diamond. The collected works of Karl Mays , Bamberg-Radebeul, 2003, ISBN 3-7802-0160-7 , pp. 341–486, especially pp. 385–388.
  • Wolfgang Hermesmeier, Stefan Schmatz: Karl May Bibliography 1913–1945 , Karl May Verlag, Bamberg 2000, ISBN 3780201577
  • Eckehard Koch: Between Manitou, Allah and Buddah. The non-Christian religions in Karl May , in: Christoph F. Lorentz: Between heaven and hell. Karl May and religion. Second, revised and expanded edition , Bamberg / Radebeul: Karl-May-Verlag 2003, pp. 239–337, especially pp. 327–337: “And Friede auf Erden!” May's search for religious tolerance .
  • Holger Kuße (Ed.): Karl Mays Friedenswege. His work between ethnic stereotype and pacifism , Bamberg / Radebeul: Karl-May-Verlag 2013; including:
    • Holger Kuße: "Let it be peace!" - Karl May, Pacifism and the life reform movements of his time , p. 11 ff.
    • Eckehard Koch: "If war has an iron hand, peace has a steel fist!" - Karl May's utopias for peace: from the Shen empire to Jinnistan to the Winnetou clan , p. 355 ff.
    • Hagen Schäfer: "Not the Christianity of the word, but the Christianity of action" - messengers of peace in the work of Karl May , p. 386 ff.
    • Christoph F. Lorenz: Seven Angels for Peace. The philosophical-theological parallel world in Karl May's “Und Friede auf Erden!” , P. 413 ff.
  • Hainer Plaul: Illustrated Karl May Bibliography. With the participation of Gerhard Klußmeier . Edition Leipzig 1988. ISBN 3-361-00145-5 (or) KG Saur Munich – London – New York – Paris 1989. ISBN 3-598-07258-9
  • Martin Schenkel: Ecce homo! On the peace myth of salvation history in Karl May's travel story “Und Friede auf Erden!” , In: Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Ed.): Karl May , Munich: Edition text + kritik 1987, pp. 191–221.
  • Martin Schenkel, Dieter Sudhoff : And peace on earth! In: Gert Ueding (Ed.): Karl-May-Handbuch. Verlag Königshausen & Neumann GmbH, Würzburg 2001, pp. 250-255. ISBN 3-8260-1813-3
  • Dieter Sudhoff, Hartmut Vollmer (eds.): Karl Mays "Und Friede auf Erden!" (Karl May Studies, Volume 6) , Oldenburg: Igel Verlag 2001.
  • Hartmut Vollmer: Karl May's collection of poems "A pilgrimage to the Orient" . In: Jb-KMG 2009, pp. 121–130 ( online version ).
  • Hartmut Wörner: Soul Brothers. A study on Karl May and Hermann Hesse . Materials on the work of Karl May, Vol. 7. Husum 2015, pp. 89–133.
  • Hartmut Wörner: Between depression and departure. Karl May's trip to the Orient and his volume of poems "Himmelsgedanken" . In: Yearbook of the Karl May Society 2017, pp. 193–222.
  • Hermann Wohlgschaft : “And peace on earth!” A theological interpretation . In: Jb-KMG 1989, p. 101 ff. ( Online version )

Web links

And peace on earth at Zeno.org .