Conversations with German emigrants

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Conversations of German emigrants is a collection of short stories by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , published in 1795.

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Baroness von C., "a middle-aged widow", had to flee France with her family, relatives, house friends and servants. In the group of emigrants, the tensions of the time between preserving the old and setting out on the new are reflected: On the one hand, the eldest son Friedrich is the organizer of the trip to the estate on the right bank of the Rhine, the daughter Luise, whose groom is fighting for the Allied army, and the Catholic clergyman. Cousin Karl and the Hofmeister, the younger son's teacher, sympathize with the revolution's idea of ​​freedom and their efforts to “put an end to old slavery”. The baroness tries to compensate. For them, the flight is an opportunity to practice the virtue of impartiality and tolerance. “The civil constitution, she says, seems like a ship that carries large numbers of people […] across dangerous waters, even in times of storm; only at the moment when the ship fails do you see who can swim [...] We mostly see the emigrants leading their mistakes and silly habits astray and we wonder about it [...] How seldom that pure virtue somebody appears who is really forced to live for others, to sacrifice himself for others! ”: The mixed mood of the group is described by a comparison:“ [How] we sometimes in the comedy for a while without going through the deliberate antics to laugh, to be able to watch earnestly, but immediately loud laughter arises, if something improper occurs in the tragedy, then a misfortune in the real world that upsets people is usually ridiculous, often on the spot, but certainly be accompanied by circumstances that are laughed at afterwards. "

When the baroness takes the family friends of the privy councilor von S., an advocate of the old system, on her estate, the political discussions intensify. Herr von S. criticizes Karl's youthful idealization of the revolution and denounces the "oppressive spirit of those who always used the word freedom". But the latter increases his accusation of the old system and attacks the privy councilor as its representative, so that the latter leaves indignantly. The baroness is annoyed with her nephew and admonishes him to be polite social form, especially at this time of threat and within earshot of the cannons bombarding the city of Mainz, in order to avoid mutual harm. As a rule, they agree to exclude the present in their conversations. The baroness and Luise discuss the design with the clergyman. He suggests telling stories that not only distract the audience through their novelty, but “that always claim to amuse us with a clever twist, some that reveal human nature and its inner secrets for a moment, others again whose strange follies delight us. ”He himself had collected old stories, changed them, and wrote new ones that“ seemed to have a character, which [w] an understanding, which touched and occupied a mind, and which [him ], when [he] thought about it again, granted a moment of pure and calm serenity. ”For two days the clergyman, Friedrich and Karl, will recite two ghost stories, two anecdotes, two moral stories and the fairy tale, and the literary society will discuss their content and V. a. formal in terms of features of the small epic art forms, u. a. of novel theory.

The stories of the first evening

After the baroness withdraws, they continue talking about story selection, with the clergyman focusing on puzzling events. He finds it “most convenient that we believe what is pleasant to us, without any circumstances discard what would be uncomfortable to us, and that, by the way, we allow what can be true to be true.” And this also includes “our decided inclination Nature, to believe the wonderful. ”As an example, he recites the ghost story of the singer Antonelli, which he experienced on a trip to Italy. This evening three other mysterious stories follow, the riddles of which are not resolved.

The singer Antonelli

The singer Antonelli, "darling of the Neapolitan audience", has many admirers and lovers, but does not want to commit herself. On the other hand, she is looking for a friend with whom she can discuss her problems and who will advise her. She thinks she has found him in what she sees as a perfect - mentally, physically and virtuous - young Genoese. But he also wants to become her lover and when this has happened, he reacts more and more jealously to other companions and wants to own them all to himself. However, she wants to keep her freedom. “By presuming to restrict their freedom, the friend had already lost a lot in their eyes; as her affection for him waned, her attention to him had increased; Finally, the discovery that he had acted so unwise in his own affairs had not given her the most favorable terms of his mind and character. ”So she separates from him. After he realizes his self-deception, gets into a crisis and becomes very sick, the singer takes care of him out of duty and compassion. But it does not fulfill his hope that the old relationship will be renewed after his recovery. She also no longer responds to his requests to see her again when he falls ill again and dies. Now strange phenomena begin at night in the singer's house, which also accompany her on her travels and the causes of which remain inexplicable despite research: fearful, mysterious wailing and screams, shotgun or pistol-like shots, without destroying a window or anything else. The reactions of society vary between horror, fainting fits of the ladies and sensational curiosity. The singer heard one last shot when she drove past the house of the deceased Genoese in a carriage with a friend one evening. The driver accelerates the car and lifts the two ladies passed out from the car. From this point on, the mysterious tone changes first to applause and later to a more pleasant sound, until it soon disappears entirely.

Following the story, society discusses events that cannot be explained rationally. In response to his listeners' doubts about the truth of the ghost story, the narrator replies, “It must be true if it is to be interesting; because she has little merit for an invented story. ”That is to say, one has to believe that there are“ wonderful incidents ”and that“ spiritual natures [...] can affect elements and bodies ”in order to appreciate the story. The clergyman explains the ghostly apparitions with the last words of the disappointed lover: “She avoids me, but even after my death she should have no rest from me. He passed away with this vehemence, and we only had to learn too much that one can keep one's word beyond the grave. "

The puzzling knock

Fritz takes up the ghost topic and tells the story of a young girl who was brought up as an orphan in a nobleman’s castle. At a time when suitors were courting the pretty, lively fourteen-year-old, her steps through the house were accompanied by loud pounding, the cause of which could not be clarified. Only after the disgruntled landlord threatened to beat her to death with the whip does the ghost stop, but the girl “almost completely exhausted herself over this incident and seemed like the sad spirit”. The conversation about this case, experienced by Fritz himself, is interrupted by the sound of the desk top breaking. At the same time they see the firelight from the direction of the aunt's estate, where the twin desk may be burning. One wants to investigate this assumption - and Friedrich confirms it the next morning after a tour of the fire house - but that is unimportant for Karl, because "an individual act or event [is] interesting, not because it is explainable or probable, but because it is true [ When the flame has consumed the aunt's desk around midnight, the strange tearing of ours is a true occurrence for us at the same time; it may be explainable and may be related to whatever it wants. "

Karl now recites two stories from the memoirs of the French Marshal Bassompierre .

The beautiful shopkeeper

A beautiful shopkeeper speaks to the marshal in front of her shop and signals her affection to him. He agrees and spends a night with her in a matchmaker's house. Since the plague is rampant in Paris, he has the room furnished with fresh bedding. The shopkeeper and the marshal take a liking to each other and make another appointment two days later, but she doesn't want to stay in a prostitute again and suggests the house of her aunt. When he gets there, the beloved is not there. There are two corpses in the designated room and the bed thatch is burned, as is usual with plague cases. Since the Marshal has to go on a trip to Lorraine, he can only look for the shopkeeper after he has returned to the city. Your shop is now in other hands and the dealers don't know anything about the previous tenant.

The veil

One of the Marshal's ancestors met with his mistress every Monday for two years in the summer house while his wife thought he was out hunting. When she discovered the two sleeping there one morning, she put her veil on their feet. The lover is so shocked by this that she breaks off the relationship and disappears. But she leaves the three daughters with a measure of fruit, a ring and a cup as gifts, with the advice to keep them safe. They still regard their offspring as good luck charms.

The stories of the next morning and evening

The priest wants to start his stories the next morning. The baroness demands that the rules of the novella be adhered to: few people and actions, true, natural, interesting, but amiable and not common occurrences, not too rambling narration, in the right measure of actions and contemplative slowing down. “Your story is entertaining as long as we hear it, satisfying when it is over, and it leaves us with a quiet stimulus to think further.” The old friend then selects the procurator's story, which was presented to the French Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles collection Then the baroness wants to hear a moral parallel story, that of young Ferdinand.

The procurator

The story is about an Italian merchant who, from his youth through "activity and intelligence", buys goods cheaply on his voyages to Alexandria and sells them at a profit. Trade becomes his purpose in life and he increases his wealth, but suffers from his private loneliness with age. So he marries a beautiful, well-behaved sixteen-year-old, gives up his travels and lives with his wife in great satisfaction for a year. But he lacks his overseas trade more and more: He no longer likes the late exchange of “roaming life” for “domestic bliss” and he ponders: “People are wrongly mistaken for fools who try to pile goods on goods in restless activity ; for activity is happiness, and to one who can feel the joys of uninterrupted endeavor, the wealth acquired is irrelevant. For lack of employment I become miserable, for lack of exercise I become ill, and if I do not make any other decision, I will be close to death in a short time. ”The sedentary lifestyle almost makes him sick and he decides to sail again to the market in Alexandria , but he is wondering whether he should demand loyalty from his beautiful young wife. Therefore he speaks openly with her about this problem: “You are a noble and good child; but the demands of nature are lawful and violent, they are constantly at odds with our reason and usually come out on top. ”So he understands when she has an affair in his absence, but he admits her a lover only on one condition to: "If you feel inclined to look around for a friend, then search for one who deserves this name, who modestly and discreetly knows how to exalt the joys of love through the benefit of secrets." His wife is sad about his departure and asserts the absurdity of his thoughts.

The merchant is now on the journey. Meanwhile, more and more young people appear in front of the woman's house and entertain her with serenades. She thinks of the clever words of her husband and sees that among the singers and musicians there are mainly funny, easy-going, untrustworthy young men. But, as her husband predicted, she feels a desire for a friend and falls in love with a young legal scholar, the procurator, who is highly praised in the city for his honesty. She invites him to her home and informs him of her wish that her husband has allowed. He knows the merchant from earlier and finds a cunning therapy for a virtuous life for those in love with him. First, he confirms her wish through the legal situation that gives her freedom in relation to her long absent and neglecting husband, especially since he has given priority to nature over duty. Her request is therefore legitimate and he, in turn, is pleased to be able to be a "servant". Unfortunately, during a recent illness, he had taken a strict vow of fasting and chastity that would be over in two months. If she was ready to take on half of it, the time would be shorter and they could love each other sooner. The woman does not like to hear this, but agrees and then changes her way of life. The abstinence weakens her physical strength, but she matures mentally, for which she is grateful to the procurator: “You gave me myself [...] Truly! my husband was intelligent and intelligent, and knew a woman's heart […]. But you, sir, you are sensible and good; You have made me feel that besides the inclination there is something else in us that can keep your balance, that we are able to renounce every familiar good and remove even our hottest desires from us. You brought me to this school through error and hope; but both are no longer necessary, once we have made the acquaintance of the good and powerful self that lives so quietly and calmly in us, and until it gains control in the house, at least through delicate memories, lets its presence be perceived incessantly . ”And with these words she said goodbye to him and asks him to help other people in a similar way, then he would earn the title of“ Father of the Fatherland ”.

The baroness praises the old man for his story and even gives her the "honorary title of a moral story" and this adds "Only that story deserves to be called moral that shows us that man has power in himself, out of conviction that he is better, to act against his inclination himself. "

Ferdinand

The young Ferdinand has two souls in his chest. He has the cheerful, passionate and wasteful temperament of his father and the calm, economical and solidarity nature of his mother. His father became wealthy as a merchant through successful speculation and can lead a "pleasurable and enjoyable life" and "be appreciated and loved by everyone". This impresses the son on the one hand, and on the other hand he is annoyed because he cannot live the same way and the money provided by the father is only sufficient for modest undertakings. He felt this bottleneck more and more when, at the age of 18, he fell in love with the beautiful Ottilie, who was courted by many, and he wanted to impress her with social appearances. Then he discovered by chance that the lock on his father's desk is defective and he can take money out of the drawer unnoticed, just like the father, who does not keep records and apparently has no overview of his finances. Now he can take the girl out generously and send her gifts without her knowing the sender. When she finds out, she wants to give it back to him, but he confesses his love for her and she promises to wait for him until he can finance his own household.

After their trip to see his parents, his expenses decrease again, he comes to his senses and decides to close the source by letting the father discover the defect as if by chance, and to gradually repay the debt. "It gradually became clear to him that only loyalty and faith make people worthy of appreciation, that the good person actually has to live to shame all laws by allowing someone else to either circumvent them or use them to his advantage." He is now committed stronger in his father's business and explored favorable production conditions in the province. The new task and the rural area enliven him: “[You] they were refreshment and healing for his wounded heart; because not without pain he could remember his father's house in which, as if in a kind of madness, he could commit an act which now seemed to him to be the greatest crime ”. He and a family friend are planning to set up a manufacturing facility. He supports him and hopes to marry him off to his niece, his heiress. She is “a well-educated, healthy and in every way well-mannered girl” and Ferdinand can easily imagine her as Ottilie's “housekeeper and decision maker”. He treats them kindly, praises their care and unconsciously arouses their expectations. Before his return trip he took the opportunity to buy goods cheaply and with the profit he could use to pay his debts unnoticed: “The joy with which he had the goods packed and loaded could not be explained; The satisfaction with which he started his way back can be imagined; for the highest sensation that a person can have is when he rises and frees himself from a major fault, indeed from a crime, by his own strength. The good person, who walks before himself without a noticeable deviation from the right path, is like a quiet, praiseworthy citizen, whereas the one deserves admiration and praise as a hero and conqueror, and in this sense the paradoxical word seems to be said that the deity himself I have more joy in a returning sinner than in ninety-nine righteous people. "

However, his plan fails because his father has since discovered the lack of money and suspects his entire house of theft. However, since he has no evidence, his wife is able to persuade him to remain silent first and investigate the situation carefully. The visit of Ottilien's aunt, who tells her about her niece's relationship with Ferdinand and his gifts, draws her suspicions on the son and she confronts him with it after his return. He confesses everything. But in addition to the silver coins he took out of the drawer, there are also gold coins missing, and his mother doesn't believe him: “What wounded him most deeply was the thought that his honest resolution, his manly resolve, the plan he followed to make amends for what had happened should be completely misunderstood, completely denied, exactly the opposite. If that idea brought him to a dark despair, in that he had to confess that he had deserved his fate, then he was deeply touched by it, when he learned the sad truth that the evil itself is capable of ruining good efforts . This return to himself, this contemplation that the noblest endeavor should be in vain, softened him, he no longer wished to live. "When Ferdinand was able to pay his debts by selling the goods and the gold coins were found in another till, the case is closed for the mother. Ferdinand informs his father of his plans, who approves them, and a marriage to Ottilie is fine with him, but the girl cannot do without the city society and does not want to move to the country. Ferdinand now discovers self-centered, vain and moody qualities in her and they give themselves back their word. He realizes his project in the country with his partner and marries “the good, natural girl”. After a few years he meets the narrator "surrounded by a large well-educated family".

In the evening the clergyman closes the story cycle with the fairy tale : “That too is part of enjoying such works that we enjoy without making demands; because she herself cannot demand, she must expect what is given to her; it does not make plans, does not plan a path, but is carried and guided by its own wings and by swinging back and forth, it describes the strange paths that always change and turn in their direction. "The narrator of the Fairytale accompanies its characters alternately through the symbolic action, in that some are left behind and others come to the fore again and again and the hidden ones then gradually reappear.

The tale

The setting of the fairy tale is an ancient landscape that is only gradually recognizable, which is divided by a river. This can only be crossed by the ferryman , the snake, when it turns into a bridge at noon, and the evening shadow of a mighty giant. There is a temple underground near the river in a mountainous area, which houses four kings in the form of statues.

In addition to an old woman who has a dead pug to complain about and who also owes the ferryman, the green snake and a young man make their way to the beautiful lily. This can bring the dead to life and kill the living by mere touch. The beautiful lily has to mourn the death of her beloved canary and the youth judges himself by voluntarily touching the beautiful lily he loves. In order to save both of them, the green snake sacrifices itself. A permanent bridge over the river is created from their remains. In addition, the subterranean temple begins to move, crosses under the river and rises on the opposite bank of the river, taking up the ferryman's hut as an altar. The young man is made king and takes the beautiful lily as his wife. The people are enthusiastic, crowd into the temple and admire its king, queen and their entourage.

Framework story

The concept of the framework plot - the real situation of a group experiencing a disintegration of culture is opposed to a narrative world as a refuge of culture - Goethe adopted from Boccaccio's Decamerone . What the plague in Florence is for Boccaccio , the outbreak of the French Revolution and its effects on Germany is for Goethe . But he shows that the framework society is failing in its function. It is no longer possible to forget the terrible event that constitutes the framework society and motivates it to console itself by telling stories about the threatening fate. On the contrary: the event of the revolution penetrates the topic of the framework society (first, the young Karl, as a proponent of the revolution, argues with the conservative old privy councilor, who leaves the company out of annoyance, later a servant breaks into the group and reports on fire the goods that have fallen into the hands of the French). About a tenth (especially the entry point) deals directly or indirectly with the foreign policy conditions as a result of which those people had to flee. The historical background of the narrated events are the First Coalition War and the events around the Mainz Republic .

Internal narratives

Most of the internal narratives were based on a model by Goethe, e.g. B. the memoirs of Marshal Bassompierre or the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles , retold or edited. Only the story of Ferdinand and the fairy tale came up with Goethe himself. The first two stories are about the ghostly ( shower novels), the next couple, told by Karl, about erotic adventures. This is followed by two moral narratives and the symbolic fairy tale, which stands out from the entire cycle because of its genre and the fact that it is the only story set apart by a heading.

Two problem areas in particular emerged in the scientific discussion: on the one hand, the relationship between the framework narrative and internal stories (as well as the genesis of these internal stories), and on the other hand, the question of whether and to what extent Goethe's collection of short novels means a narrative examination of Schiller's concept of aesthetic education . The conversations appeared successively in Schiller's magazine Die Horen .

literature

  • Sigrid Bauschinger : Conversations of German Emigrants (1795). In: Goethe's narrative. Edited by James McLeod and Paul Michael Lützeler. Stuttgart 1986, pp. 134-167.
  • Lothar Bluhm: "In those unhappy days ...". Goethe's “Conversations of German Emigrants” or: The Ambivalence of Art and Society. In: Narrated world - world of storytelling. Edited by Rüdiger Zymner. edition chora, Cologne 2000, pp. 27-45. Online (PDF; 184 kB)
  • Gerhard Neumann: The Beginnings of German Novellistics. Schiller's 'Criminals from Lost Honor' - Goethe's 'Conversations of German Emigrants'. In: Our commercium. Goethe and Schiller's literary policy. Edited by Wilfried Barner, Eberhart Lämmert and Norbert Oellers. Stuttgart 1984, pp. 433-460.
  • Carl Niekerk: educational crises . The question of the subject in Goethe's 'Conversations of German Emigrants' . Tübingen 1995, ISBN 3-86057-138-9 .
  • Hartmut Reinhardt: Aesthetic sociability - Goethe's literary dialogue with Schiller in the “Conversations of German Emigrants”. In: Concise moment. Studies on German Enlightenment and Classical literature. Edited by Peter-André Alt a. a. Würzburg 2002, pp. 311-341. Online (PDF; 391 kB)
  • Gero von Wilpert : The German ghost story. Motif, form, development (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 406). Kröner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-520-40601-2 , pp. 158-167.

Individual evidence and explanations

  1. May 1793
  2. In the original, the stories are linked to the general plot and, with the exception of the fairy tale, have no headings. The following structure is used for the clarity of the article.
  3. ↑ Measure of capacity for grains
  4. ^ The collection of stories dedicated to Philip the Good in 1462 was published in 1486. The procurator has the 99th novella Le Vœu du clerc ( The Vow of the Cleric ) as a model.
  5. Günter Dammann: Goethe's “Conversations of German Emigrants” as an essay on the genre of prose narration in the 18th century . In: Harro Zimmermann (ed.): The German novel of the late Enlightenment. Fiction and reality . Heidelberg 1990 (Neue Bremer Contributions 6), pp. 1-24.

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