Thomas Mann began writing Der Zauberberg, The Magic Mountain, in 1913. He first planned a short novella. The novel appeared in 1924, in two volumes. In its foreword, the narrator announces how he will tell the story. “Wir werden sie ausführlich erzählen, genau und gründlich.” We will tell it in detail, precisely and thoroughly. He rejects the idea that a story is boring because it is long. He leans rather to the view “daß nur das Gründliche wahrhaft unterhaltend sei,” that only what is thorough is truly entertaining. He warns that the seven days of a week will not be enough to tell it.
literature
Earn It to Own It
In the scene Nacht, Night, at the start of Goethe’s Faust, Faust speaks two lines that Germans still quote: Was du ererbt von deinen Vätern hast, / Erwirb es, um es zu besitzen. What you have inherited from your fathers, earn it in order to possess it. The next line reads: Was man nicht nützt, ist eine schwere Last. What one does not use is a heavy burden.
The Missed Train
Franz Kafka’s Die Verwandlung, The Metamorphosis, published in 1915, begins with Gregor Samsa waking up as a giant insect. His first worry is not his body. It is the clock. Es war halb sieben Uhr, und die Zeiger gingen ruhig vorwärts. It was half past six, and the hands were moving calmly on. His train had left at five, and the next one would leave at seven. Gregor thinks of his firm, which suspects the worst at the smallest failure. Then the firm’s chief clerk arrives at the apartment in person. He tells Gregor through the door: Und Ihre Stellung ist durchaus nicht die festeste. And your position is by no means the most secure. In five years of service, Gregor had not once been ill.
Only Law Can Give Us Freedom
Goethe’s sonnet Natur und Kunst, sie scheinen sich zu fliehen (Nature and art seem to flee each other) ends with three lines: Wer Großes will, muß sich zusammenraffen; / In der Beschränkung zeigt sich erst der Meister, / Und das Gesetz nur kann uns Freiheit geben. (Whoever wants great things must gather his strength. Only in limitation does the master show himself. And only law can give us freedom.) A few lines earlier, the poem says that unbound spirits strive in vain for perfection.
Black on White
In Goethe’s Faust I, a new student comes to ask for advice. Mephisto, dressed as Faust, tells him to take careful notes in lectures, as if the Holy Spirit were dictating. The student answers: Das sollt Ihr mir nicht zweimal sagen! / Ich denke mir, wie viel es nützt / Denn, was man schwarz auf weiß besitzt, / Kann man getrost nach Hause tragen. (You need not tell me twice! I can see how useful it is. For what you have in black and white, you can carry home with confidence.) Schwarz auf weiß, in black and white, is still a common phrase for in writing, in a form that counts as proof and leaves no room for doubt.
Your Apprentice Years Are Over
Goethe’s Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, 1795–96) is the classic German Bildungsroman, the novel of formation. Its sequel is Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre, his journeyman years. The titles follow the steps of the crafts. In Book 7, the Abbé hands Wilhelm his Lehrbrief, his certificate of apprenticeship. It begins: Die Kunst ist lang, das Leben kurz, das Urteil schwierig, die Gelegenheit flüchtig. (Art is long, life short, judgment difficult, opportunity fleeting.) In the same chapter, Wilhelm hears: Heil dir, junger Mann! deine Lehrjahre sind vorüber; die Natur hat dich losgesprochen. (Hail to you, young man! Your apprentice years are over. Nature has released you.) Losgesprochen, released, echoes the Lossprechung, one name the crafts still use for the ceremony that ends an apprenticeship.
In the Beginning Was the Deed
In Goethe’s Faust I (1808), Faust sits down to translate the opening of the Gospel of John. He begins with Geschrieben steht: »Im Anfang war das Wort!« (It is written: In the beginning was the word!) He rejects it. He tries Im Anfang war der Sinn, in the beginning was the meaning, and then Im Anfang war die Kraft, in the beginning was the power. He rejects both. Only his fourth attempt satisfies him: Und schreibe getrost: Im Anfang war die Tat! (And I write with confidence: In the beginning was the deed!)
A Serious Word for Serious Work
Friedrich Schiller’s Das Lied von der Glocke (The Song of the Bell, 1799) was a staple of the German Gymnasium until about 1950. It follows the casting of a bell. After the master’s opening call to his journeymen, the first reflection of the poem reads: Zum Werke, das wir ernst bereiten, / Geziemt sich wohl ein ernstes Wort; / Wenn gute Reden sie begleiten, / Dann fließt die Arbeit munter fort. / So laßt uns jetzt mit Fleiß betrachten, / Was durch die schwache Kraft entspringt. (For the work that we prepare in earnest, a serious word is fitting. When good words go with it, the work flows on briskly. So let us now consider with care what comes from our weak strength.)
Give Freedom of Thought
In the central scene of Schiller’s Don Carlos, first performed in Hamburg on 29 August 1787, the Marquis Posa speaks to King Philip II of Spain. Twice he tells the king: Ich kann nicht Fürstendiener sein. (I cannot be a servant of princes.) Then he makes his demand: Ein Federzug von dieser Hand, und neu / Erschaffen wird die Erde. Geben Sie / Gedankenfreiheit. (One stroke of the pen from this hand, and the earth is created anew. Give freedom of thought.) In the text, the demand runs across a line break. The king answers: Sonderbarer Schwärmer! (Strange dreamer!)
Love the Old, Live for the New
In Theodor Fontane’s last novel, Der Stechlin (1899), Melusine von Barby says to Pastor Lorenzen: Alles Alte, soweit es Anspruch darauf hat, sollen wir lieben, aber für das Neue sollen wir recht eigentlich leben. (Everything old, as far as it has a claim to it, we should love. But for the new we should truly live.) The old earns love only soweit es Anspruch darauf hat, as far as it has a claim to it.