literature Archives - Page 11 of 17

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Goethe wrote Der Zauberlehrling in early July 1797. It appeared in Schiller’s Musen-Almanach für das Jahr 1798. While the old master is away, his apprentice brings a broom to life with a spell he cannot control. He cries: Die ich rief, die Geister, / Werd’ ich nun nicht los. The spirits I called, I now cannot get rid of. The line became a proverb. Then the master returns and stops it with one command: In die Ecke, Besen! Besen! Into the corner, broom! Broom!

The poem ends with the master’s words. As spirits, only the old master calls them up, for his own purpose: Denn als Geister / Ruft euch nur, zu seinem Zwecke, / Erst hervor der alte Meister.

The Helmsman Who Stayed at the Wheel

Theodor Fontane’s ballad John Maynard first appeared in 1886. A ship is on fire, and the helmsman stays at the wheel in the smoke until the ship reaches the shore. Again and again the captain calls: Noch da, John Maynard? Still there, John Maynard? The answer comes: Ja, Herr. Ich bin. Yes, sir. I am. Later it is: Ja, Herr, ich halt’s! Yes, sir, I am holding it! The refrain says what follows: er hat uns gerettet, er trägt die Kron’, / er starb für uns, unsre Liebe sein Lohn. He saved us, he wears the crown. He died for us, our love is his reward. The ballad is still part of the German curriculum in many schools.

The Dike Master

Theodor Storm’s novella Der Schimmelreiter first appeared in April 1888. Hauke Haien becomes the Deichgraf, the official responsible for the dikes. The old dike is damaged. Ole Peters plays the danger down and the workers grumble. So Hauke does not carry out a full repair. With great pangs of conscience, he settles for patchwork. Later the dike breaks at exactly that spot. Hauke plunges with his horse into the raging water and cries: Herr Gott, nimm mich; verschon die andern! Lord God, take me, spare the others!

Michael Kohlhaas

Heinrich von Kleist published the full novella Michael Kohlhaas in 1810. Its model was a real man, Hans Kohlhase. A horse dealer loses two of his horses to the injustice of a nobleman. He goes to court, fails, and then takes the law into his own hands. The first sentence calls him einer der rechtschaffensten zugleich und entsetzlichsten Menschen seiner Zeit, one of the most upright and at the same time most terrible men of his age. Then Kleist writes: Das Rechtgefühl aber machte ihn zum Räuber und Mörder. His sense of justice made him a robber and a murderer.

The Captain of Köpenick

On October 16, 1906, the shoemaker Wilhelm Voigt put on a captain’s uniform and took command of a group of soldiers in Berlin. He occupied the town hall of Köpenick, arrested the mayor and took the town treasury. The Berliner Volks-Zeitung commented: Umkleide dich in Preußen-Deutschland mit einer Uniform, und du bist allmächtig. Put on a uniform in Prussian Germany, and you are all-powerful. The story made German Untertanengeist, the spirit of the obedient subject, a joke around the world. Carl Zuckmayer turned it into a play, which premiered at the Deutsches Theater Berlin on March 5, 1931. Heinrich Mann gave the same type a name in his novel Der Untertan, finished in 1914. Kurt Tucholsky described its hero in two phrases. He beugt sich nach oben, bows to those above, and he tritt nach unten, kicks those below.

What satire may do

On 27 January 1919, the Berliner Tageblatt printed an essay by Kurt Tucholsky, written under the name Ignaz Wrobel. Its title asked Was darf die Satire? What is satire allowed to do? The essay answers in one word: Alles. Everything.

Sixty Years of Faust

Goethe’s Faust grew over six decades. He worked on the second part from 1825 until the summer of 1831. Before his death he had the manuscript sealed. It was published in 1832, a few months after he died.

The Friend Who Comes Back

Schiller wrote Die Bürgschaft in the summer of 1798, and it was first published in the Musenalmanach of 1799. Möros is sentenced to death for plotting against the tyrant Dionys. He asks for three days to see his sister married, and his friend stays behind as his surety. On the way back, a flood, robbers and thirst delay him. A servant tells him to turn around and save his own life. He goes on, because the tyrant must not be able to boast daß der Freund dem Freunde gebrochen die Pflicht, that a friend broke his duty to a friend. He arrives as the execution begins and cries out: »Mich, Henker«, ruft er, »erwürget! / Da bin ich, für den er gebürget!« (Strangle me, executioner! Here I am, the one he stood surety for!) The tyrant gives in: Und die Treue, sie ist doch kein leerer Wahn. (Loyalty is not an empty illusion after all.)

A Promise Without a Signature

In the second study scene of Goethe’s Faust I, Mephisto asks Faust for ein paar Zeilen, a few lines in writing. Faust is offended that his word is not enough: Auch was Geschriebnes forderst du Pedant? / Hast du noch keinen Mann, nicht Manneswort gekannt? (You want something in writing too, you pedant? Have you never known a man, or a man’s word?) Then he asks the hard question himself: Rast nicht die Welt in allen Strömen fort, / Und mich soll ein Versprechen halten? (Does the world not rush on in every current, and a promise is meant to hold me?) A few lines later he answers it: Beglückt, wer Treue rein im Busen trägt, / Kein Opfer wird ihn je gereuen! (Happy is the one who carries loyalty pure in his heart. He will never regret any sacrifice.)

What You Promised, You Must Keep

In the Grimms’ fairy tale Der Froschkönig oder der eiserne Heinrich, a princess loses her golden ball in a well. A frog brings it back after she promises him her companionship. When the frog later knocks at the castle door, she shuts the door on him. Her father, the king, tells her: Was du versprochen hast, das mußt du auch halten; geh nur und mach ihm auf. (What you have promised, you must keep. Go and open the door for him.)