From old Proteus

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From old Proteus. A Midsummer Story is a story by Wilhelm Raabe that was written in early 1875 and published in Braunschweig in 1879. The text belonging to the "Krähenfelder Stories" had already been printed in Westermann's monthly notebooks in the winter of 1875/1876 .

content

The assessor Hilarion Abwarter, who studied in Leipzig, Bonn and Berlin, and the 19-year-old Ernesta, daughter of a commercial councilor, love each other. Two old men stand in the way of young happiness. Ernesta can only inherit if she obeys her uncle, the baron Philibert Püterich, and marries his good friend von Magerstedt. The baron is blackmailed by his friend. Püterich, a gray, scornful and cold treacherous man, is indebted to Magerstedt, an officer formerly dishonorably dismissed from his regiment.

Once, thirty years ago, Rosa von Krippen had loved the baron unhappily and died of a broken heart. The ghost of Fraulein Rosa, trapped in the wall of the room behind the baron's wallpaper, can, spurred on by his indignation at the machinations of the two old men, break free temporarily, flies to the lovers and puts them in the picture. From the mouth of the supernatural apparition, Hilarion and Ernesta also learn that a certain hermit Constantius, who lives deep in the forest at the gates of the city, knows a remedy.

Despite the lack of further information, the lovers set out in a rented carriage on one of the hottest July afternoons of the year. When the young couple finally find the hermit, who is plagued by severe toothache, he doesn't want to know anything about townspeople. That changes when he learns who sent the visitors. The hermit, once one of the most elegant officers of the Guard, had loved the fiancée of his childhood friend Pueterich unhappily and had atoned for thirty years in the forest wilderness.

In thirty years, Constantius leaves the forest for the first time to see his banker. Before that, the hermit visits the tailor, hair clipper, dentist and Miss Rosa's grave in the Sankt Jokosi churchyard. Then he goes to Püterich and has Magerstedt come. The hermit reads the riot act to the two old friends. Magerstedt will not have the young girl as a wife. The ghost of Miss Rosa, back behind the wallpaper in the room, listens in and rejoices: "Oh, you just become a ghost to me, Philibert!"

shape

The title “Thousand Artist Proteus ” is mentioned in only one place - at the end of the last page of the story. Goldammer and Richter go into more detail on Raabe's intention and sources. In this context, contemporary literary criticism appears to be perplexed or disinterested. During Raabe's lifetime, no noteworthy review of the text was known. It's actually hard to understand. After all, the author had initially titled his “Krähenfelder Stories” with “From the old Proteus”.

Self-testimony

  • On February 18, 1892 to Edmund Sträter (Magdeburg): “The 'Old Proteus' is indeed good reading for the puerperium. I am glad that the wife was able to laugh about it. "

reception

  • Sprengel hits with the predicate "Midsummer Night's Dream - Spooky Story".
  • The spirit world is confronted with everyday life. This creates humor.
  • Von Studnitz (Hugo Aust: Thoughts on the Credibility of a Realist) and Fuld ( Wilhelm Brandes anno 1915) name further leading works .
  • Meyen gives twenty reviews.

literature

  • Hans Oppermann : Wilhelm Raabe. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1970 (1988 edition), ISBN 3-499-50165-1 (rowohlt's monographs).
  • Fritz Meyen : Wilhelm Raabe. Bibliography. 438 pages. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1973 (2nd edition). Supplementary volume 1, ISBN 3-525-20144-3 in Karl Hoppe (Ed.): Wilhelm Raabe. Complete Works. Braunschweig edition . 24 vols.
  • Cecilia von Studnitz : Wilhelm Raabe. Writer. A biography. 346 pages. Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1989, ISBN 3-7700-0778-6
  • Werner Fuld : Wilhelm Raabe. A biography. 383 pages. Hanser, Munich 1993 (dtv edition in July 2006), ISBN 3-423-34324-9
  • Rosemarie Schillemeit: Antiques in the work of Wilhelm Raabe and other contributions to Raabe philology . Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1997 (iii, 211 pp.), Especially pp. 70, 87-89. 101. 140.
  • Peter Sprengel : History of German-Language Literature 1870–1900. From the founding of the empire to the turn of the century . CH Beck, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-44104-1 .

First edition

Used edition

  • From old Proteus. S. 383–472 in: Peter Goldammer (Ed.), Helmut Richter (Ed.): Wilhelm Raabe. Selected works in six volumes. Volume 5: The Dräumling . To the wild man . Mrs. Salome . From old Proteus. Horacker . Wunnigel . 884 pages. Aufbau-Verlag Berlin and Weimar 1965 (text basis: Karl Hoppe (Ed.): The historical-critical Braunschweig edition)

Further editions

  • From old Proteus. A midsummer story by Wilhelm Raabe . 85 pages. Insel, Wiesbaden 1953, no.574
  • From old Proteus. A midsummer story . Pp. 197-289. With an appendix, written by Hans Butzmann , pp. 523-539 in Hans Butzmann (arrangement), Hans Oppermann (arrangement): Frau Salome. The innermost. From old Proteus. Horacker. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1969. Vol. 12 (2nd edition, obtained by Karl Hoppe and Hans Oppermann), without ISBN in Karl Hoppe (Ed.), Jost Schillemeit (Ed.), Hans Oppermann (Ed.), Kurt Schreinert (Ed.): Wilhelm Raabe. Complete Works. Braunschweig edition . 24 vols.

Web links

Full text

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Butzmann in the Braunschweig edition, vol. 12, p. 524, 10th Zvu
  2. ^ Giesbert Damaschke : Wilhelm Raabe: "Krähenfelder Stories". Lang, Bern 1990, ISBN 3-261-04204-4
  3. ↑ Edition used, p. 844 middle
  4. ↑ von Studnitz, p. 313, entry 46
  5. ↑ Butzmann in the Braunschweiger edition, vol. 12, p. 528 middle, entries Z and B
  6. ^ Goldammer and Richter in the edition used, p. 842, 2. Zvo to p. 844, 17. Zvo
  7. ^ Goldammer and Richter in the edition used, p. 845, 12. Zvo
  8. ↑ Goldammer and Richter in the edition used, p. 844, 11. Zvu
  9. ↑ quoted from Goldammer and Richter in the edition used, p. 845, 6. Zvo
  10. ↑ Sprengel, p. 330, middle
  11. ↑ Oppermann, p. 97, 7th Zvu
  12. ↑ von Studnitz, p. 318, 17. Zvo
  13. ↑ Fuld, p. 375, 7th Zvu
  14. ↑ Meyen, pp. 386-388
  15. ↑ Meyen, p. 20, entry 13