Wunnigel

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Wunnigel is a short story by Wilhelm Raabe that was written in 1876 and published in Braunschweig at the end of 1878. The grotesque had already been printed in Westermann's monthly notebooks in the winter of 1877/78 . Additional editions appeared during Raabe's lifetime in 1900 and 1903.

content

Around 1872, the 25-year-old doctor Dr. med. Heinrich Weyland in an unnamed, fine, old central German town. The parents passed away. The wealthy bachelor lives in modest luxury; lives in the house on the Schlossberg, which has been passed down through generations and is filled with antiques. The now 90-year-old former foreman Wenzel Brüggemann, a bankrupt watchmaker and good old friend of the Weyland family in the neighborhood, had pointed out to the doctor a long time ago that a woman belongs in the house on Schlossberg. Dr. Weyland didn't care at all.

The doctor is called to the Riedhorn , an inn outside the city, to the 19-year-old patient Anselma Wunnigel. Anselma has to stay in bed in her room. The half-orphan has gastric conditions. To the father, that's the government councilor a. D. Wunnigel from Königsberg , the forced stay is not at all right. The “mercury antique fanatic” cannot take his only daughter into consideration. The raven father has to move on to the next rarity under all circumstances.

The "antiquarian Wüterich " did the math without the young doctor. Dr. Weyland prescribed the beautiful child several weeks of bed rest. Wunnigel grumbles and has to submit. But when the traveler rummaged through the doctor's house, he changed his mind: "Four weeks ago the child could not travel." D., delighted, having examined the old house more closely and shattered large quantities of Meissen porcelain, the doctor comes closer to the convalescent. Dr. Weyland soon calls Anselma his "sweet bride". Meanwhile, Wunnigel befriends old Brüggemann. The two gentlemen share a tendency towards mechanical gimmicks.

During the wedding celebration, Wunnigel developed a talent for toasting. The young couple forego the honeymoon and spend the honeymoon in the Haus am Schlossberg. But Wunnigel, not having to worry about the daughter, goes on the honeymoon. In Italy he met His Excellency, the Imperial Russian State Councilor. D. Paul Petrowitsch Sesamoff and the German-Russian Oktavia Paulowna from Schlimmbesser know. Sesamoff and Wunnigel are lawyers and collectors. Wunnigel, the old examining magistrate, has written treatises on inheritance law and bankruptcy proceedings. Wunnigel, the old child, brags to the Russians about his property on Schlossberg. Oktavia falls for it and marries Wunnigel out of possessiveness. The marriage only goes well for eight days. After the travel budget is empty and Wunnigel has issued a bill of exchange for the son-in-law's house, the new husband flees from his Octavia and has to return home to the children for financial reasons.

At home, Wunnigel confesses something stupid, but does not say which one. The father lives in fear. He fears that Oktavia might find out his whereabouts. But not the woman, but art lover Sesamoff arrives. His Excellency searches the house from the basement to the roof to negotiate the contents. Wunnigel takes refuge in the neighborhood of Brüggemann, explains to the former Rottmeister: "My walking around is over ... in the world" and crawls into Brüggemann's bed. The bankrupt watchmaker has to settle into his armchair by the window. But Wunnigel cannot hide from his wife. Hardly having arrived from Italy, Oktavia Wunnigel seeks out her husband, who does not play the unconscious under the covers very convincingly. In a rage, the two Russians discover that the worthless Wunnigel, this miserable traitor, only has junk. They leave disillusioned for St. Petersburg via Eydtkuhnen .

Later, the meanwhile rather patientless Doctor Weyland informs Mrs. Oktavia Wunnigel of the peaceful departure of his expensive father-in-law. It is not the widow who answers, but PP Sesamoff in French. In this admirable language - the narrator wants the reader to believe - one can express condolences and congratulations at the same time. Besides that, the letter writer also wants money. The answer from Germany is promptly: “Wealth does not exist”.

Anselma gives her husband Dr. Weyland several boys. Brüggemann falls asleep forever in his armchair by the window with a smile around his nose and mouth.

shape

Hilarity, even humor, dominate the lecture. In his "truthful report" the narrator initiates the reader into the thoughts of Dr. Weylands a. The doctor cures Anselma for weeks because he wants to gain time, because he wants to marry the travelers. Idiosyncratic jokes by the narrator are not uncommon: “We are now making the first jump in this story and ask our readers to jump with us, from December to April.” The omniscient narrator cleverly comments on the clumsy hustle and bustle of his protagonists: “That's it an old, but never taken to heart, truth that the gentlemen only have to go down a flight of stairs and listen to their servants' rooms in order to immediately find out the right thing about some things about which they ponder in vain. ”Neither the young couple and the curious reader can find out what the lying baron Wunnigel has done in Italy.

Testimonials

  • On September 1, 1877, in a letter to Marie and Wilhelm Jensen , Raabe dismissed the “ Chronik ” and the “ Hunger Pastor ” and continued: “On the 'Wunnigel' but ... I make you with tears of self-moved in my eyes attentive. "
  • The reprint was only published by Otto Janke in Berlin in 1900. Raabe writes on the occasion in the foreword of the “Gesammelte Erzählungen” that he must draw the inclined reader's attention to the “ German nobility ” and also to the “ master author ”, but the “Wunnigel” does not need that.

reception

Contemporaries
  • The reviewer in the Leipziger “ Blätter für literary entertainment ” praised in 1879: “The irony that creates such a sharp look dissolves in mild humor.” He observes that the “originals” shown also reflect the “lack of plan of human activity and Striving ”.
  • In the journal “ Europa ” of July 12, 1879, Raabe is referred to in connection with the text as a “master of character drawing and the lovingly worked out details”.
Recent comments
  • This “catastrophe story” has not yet been understood.
  • The "fantasy man" will be discussed.
  • For Dr. Weyland's house was the inspiration for the post house on Markt in Holzminden . The figure of the solitary Wunnigel is not a portrait of Schopenhauer , although some points suggest it.
  • Oppermann mentions a further leading work ( Hans Bunje (Neumünster 1953)). Meyen lists eight works from the years 1879 to 1953.
  • Marion Poschmann says: "Where the reader waves away bored, Wunnigel is enthusiastic, where, on the other hand, the reader is more interested, [...] Raabe lets the novel ball roll dead straight, [...] the lovers find each other without major obstacles, but falls after the wedding the ball suddenly falls off the table and races into uneven terrain "and adds," in the end it is Wunnigel, who is portrayed as a problematic, but stirring, multi-layered character, who is the only one that remains obscure and mysterious and his secret, the secret of being human , takes with him to death. "

filming

The comedy of the same name by Oswald Döpke was broadcast on television on December 25, 1978. Siegfried Wischnewski played Wunnigel, Susanne Uhlen played Anselma, Peter Fricke played Dr. Weyland, Louise Martini the Oktavia, Thomas Holtzmann the Sesamoff and Sigfrit Steiner the old Brüggemann.

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. 2nd edition Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1973, 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
  • Søren R. Fauth: The metaphysical realist. To the Schopenhauer reception in Wilhelm Raabe's late work. 511 pages. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-8353-0214-3
  • Marion Poschmann : Novels in Spherical Shape , Süddeutsche Zeitung, November 11, 2013, p. 13

First editions

  • Wunnigel . 672 pages. Westermann's yearbook of illustrated German monthly books. Vol. 43 (Third Series. Vol. 11), Braunschweig October 1877 to March 1878. Half-linen with wood engravings
  • Wunnigel. A story. 198 pages. Westermann, Braunschweig 1879. Linen with back label

Used edition

Further editions

  • Wunnigel. 299 pages. Verlag Hermann Klemm, Berlin 1920. Wilhelm Raabe Library, 15th volume
  • Wunnigel. Narration . 204 pages. Reclam jun., Leipzig 1944. Fraktur . Reclam's Universal Library 7577-7579
  • Wunnigel . Pp. 5–170, with an appendix, written by Hans Finck, pp. 393–413 in: Hans Finck (arrangement), Karl Hoppe ( arrangement ): Wilhelm Raabe: Wunnigel. German nobility . The good day . On the old part . A visit . (2nd edition provided by Jörn Dräger) Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1977. Vol. 13, ISBN 3-525-20126-5 in Karl Hoppe (Ed.), Jost Schillemeit (Ed.), Hans Oppermann (Ed.) , Kurt Schreinert (Ed.): Wilhelm Raabe. Complete Works. Braunschweig edition . 24 vols.
  • Meyen names eight issues.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ here: Leader of a municipal fire extinguishing scrap before the middle of the 19th century.
  2. ↑ Doctor Weyland is saying that the expensive father-in-law did not leave anything inheritable.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edition used, p. 872 3. Zvo
  2. ↑ von Studnitz, p. 313, entry 49
  3. ^ Quoted by Goldammer and Richter in the edition used, p. 872 9. Zvu
  4. ↑ quoted in Finck in the Braunschweiger edition, vol. 13, p. 399, 14th Zvu and p. 400, entry B2
  5. ↑ quoted in Finck in the Braunschweiger edition, vol. 13, p. 398, 17. Zvo
  6. ↑ quoted in Finck in the Braunschweiger edition, vol. 13, p. 398, 12th Zvu
  7. ↑ quoted in Finck in the Braunschweiger edition, vol. 13, p. 398, 4th Zvu
  8. ^ Fuld, p. 268, 6. Zvo
  9. ↑ Oppermann, p. 101, 17. Zvo
  10. ^ Goldammer and Richter in the edition used, p. 871 above
  11. ^ Goldammer and Richter in the edition used, p. 871 below
  12. ↑ Oppermann, p. 155, 10th Zvu
  13. ↑ Meyen, p. 389
  14. ↑ Poschmann, p. 13, column 3
  15. ↑ Poschmann, p. 13, column 5 above
  16. ↑ Meyen, pp. 131-132