Wolter von Plettenberg (Blunck)
Wolter von Plettenberg is a historical novel by Hans Friedrich Blunck published in 1938 . The novel became one of the most successful of its time with over 240,000 copies sold. It is considered a typical novel of the Nazi era because of its glorification of a leader figure and its usefulness for state propaganda. The landmaster in Livonia of the Teutonic Order Wolter von Plettenberg (1450–1535) served as a historical model .
content
The novel begins with a short, appealing treatise on the rise of Tsar Ivan III. from Russia. The first sentences are: Who can against God and Novgorod? "I, Ivan, Gossudar in Moscow!" . In the first scene in 1494, Maria Godenboge, Plettenberg's sister-in-law, comes from Novgorod in an inn in the Livonian border area. But she finds the economy occupied by Russian looters who are just waiting for dark to murder the guests. At the last moment she is saved by knights of the Teutonic Order . Brought to the main castle of the order in Wenden , she hands Plettenberg a drawer with documents from the Peterhof of the Hanseatic League in Novgorod, which was owned by Ivan III. had been conquered and torn down.
In the following it is clear to everyone involved that Ivan III. also wants to conquer Livonia , the first units of troops repeatedly plunder through the country. Plettenberg undertakes two major campaigns on Russian territory, in which battles are won but no decisive victory can be achieved. Then Russian troops under General Shuiski occupied large parts of the country and besieged the main castle Wenden, while Plettenberg was sick in Riga after a hunting accident.
Plettenberg's relationship with his sister-in-law Maria Godenboge accompanies the war throughout the entire novel. Plettenberg's first wife had died giving birth to their son, whereupon he himself entered the order. Now begins a love affair with his sister-in-law, which he cannot live out. He is compelled to abstain by his religious vows. In order to lead the Order and lead the country at war, he must keep this vow. So he renounces his love in favor of Livonia.
Longer episodes of the novel describe, among other things, a partisan war that Plettenberg's son wages with Estonian farmers from the moors against the Russian troops, the defense of the Aldesloh estate and the defense of the town and main castle Wenden. All of these actions lead to the death of all fighters or defenders. In particular, the last Germans blew themselves up in the tower of Wenden Castle in a hopeless position. Maria Godenboge is among them.
After his recovery, Plettenberg finally succeeds in putting together a final army force in Livonia. All allies, Sweden , Lithuania , the Hanseatic League and the Teutonic Order in Prussia let him down. Nevertheless, the apparently hopelessly defeated Livonians manage to win a decisive victory in the Battle of Smolina Lake in 1502 through a desperate cavalry attack. The Russian army flees and disintegrates. Plettenberg can negotiate an advantageous peace that will bring Livonia a sixty year heyday.
Deviations from the historical Wolter von Plettenberg
The historic Wolter von Plettenberg entered the Teutonic Order at the age of fourteen. Blunck's fictional character, on the other hand, was initially married and fathered and only joined the order after the early death of his wife. This is what makes the subplot about love for sister-in-law possible. Again and again Plettenberg is stylized as the only possible and superior leader who can unite the country and lead it into the fight against the overpowering enemy. In general, Blunck exaggerates and trivializes both the main and the secondary characters in order to emphasize the purity and grandeur of his Plettenberg and the willingness of others to make sacrifices.
reception
The novel quickly had numerous editions (1943: 240,000 copies) and was celebrated as a typical novel of the Nazi era because of its glorification of a leader and its usefulness for state propaganda. Especially after the attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, the book proved to be particularly suitable as an appeal to the willingness to make sacrifices and perseverance in the fight against the eastern enemy.
literature
- output
- Wolter von Plettenberg. Teutonic Order Master in Livonia. German house library, Hamburg 1938
- Secondary literature
- Albert Meerkatz: Explanations on Hans Friedrich Blunck, Wolter von Plettenberg. Series: King's Explanations of the Classics, 267.Beyer, Leipzig 1939
swell
- ↑ Lexicon of National Socialist Poets in google books, p. 65.
- ^ Frank Westenfelder: Genesis, Problems and Effects of National Socialist Literature Using the Example of the Historical Novel between 1890 and 1945 Frankfurt, Bern, New York, Paris 1989
- ↑ Lexicon of National Socialist Poets in google books, p. 65.