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Death in Theodor Storm's Novellen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Frederic E. Coenen
Frederic E. Coenen*
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C.
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Extract

There are two truths about death: first, it is certain; second, its significance has always been a mystery. Man may think of death in one of two ways. He may consider it the goal of life and dedicate himself to preparation for it; or he may consider it a hostile power that attacks and destroys life. The idea that death is a desirable goal was heightened by many romantics of the early nineteenth century to a fascinated interest in death—a kind of intoxication. For them life existed for the sake of death. But in their philosophy death was merely a phase of “Werden und Vergehen.” They longed for and often sought death because they saw beyond it “absolute life”, life unhampered by the limitations of individual existence. This romantic concept, of course, had nothing in common with the traditional Christian idea of immortality.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 64 , Issue 3 , June 1949, pp. 340 - 349
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1949

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References

1 Cf. Walther Rehm, Der Todesgedanke in der deutschen Dichlung vom Mittelaller bis zur Romantik; Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschafl und Geistesgeschichte, Buchreihe (Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1928), xiv, 1–10, and many references.

2 Joseph von Eichendorff's poem Todeslust illustrates this romantic attitude.

3 Cf. Friedrich Hebbel's poem An den Tod (June, 1837), written during his time in Munich.

4 As quoted by Walther Rehm, p. 460.

5 All numbers in parentheses refer to the Albert Köster edition of Theodor Storms Sämtliche Werke in acht Bdnden (Leipzig: Insel-Verlag, 1923).

6 Lydia Baer, in The Concept and Function of Death in the Works of Thomas Mann (Univ. of Pennsylvania diss., 1932), p. 9, asserts that Storm knew of “Todessehnsucht” in the romantic sense. Longing for death can be found in Storm's cycle of poems Tiefe Schatlen (i, 107–110), written after his first wife's death. In his sorrow he feels that destruction also has its value. But this attitude is a far cry from romantic “Todessehnsucht.”

7 The allied problem of belief in immortality has been treated by Elmer Otto Wooley, “Was Theodor Storm Religious?”, in Studies in Theodor Storm, Indiana Univ. Publications, Humanities Series No. 10 (Bloomington, Ind., 1943), pp. 63–79.

8 Mentions of death not counted include: Im Sonnenschein (i, 365, 367); Im Schloss (ii, 90–91); Auf der Universität (ii, 199); Abseils (ii, 262–264, 277); Bulemanns Haus (ii, 331); Lena Wies (iii, 152–153); Draußen im Heidedorf (iii, 203); Viola tricolor (III, 285); Pole PoppenspOler (iv, 57); Waldwinkel (iv, 100); Aquis submersus (iv, 308, 321, 331); Carsten Curator (v, 2–3, 5, 16, 26, 58, 67); Zur Chronik von Grieshuus (vi, 207, 222, 230, 285–286); Botjer Bosch (VII, 80); Ein Doppelgànger (vii, 167); Der Schimmelreiter (vii, 266, 294, 298, 300–301, 339, 362–363).

9 Hans Röhl, Geschichte der deutschen Dichlung (Leipzig & Berlin: B. G. Teubner, 1931), p. 361. Hartwig Jess, Theodor Storm (Berlin: Georg Westermann, 1917), p. 92.

10 Cf. also E. O. Wooley, op. cit., p. 70.

11 The two prose works discussed here are not fairy-tales. Storm stated that Hinzelmeier was not a “Märchen”: he gave it the subtitle “Eine nachdenkliche Geschichte.” And he called Der Spiegel des Cyprianus a “Sage.” (The style of the historical Novellen Storm wrote later is anticipated in this work.)

12 Theodor Storm. Sein Leben und seine Dichtung (Berlin: Gebruder Paetel, 1925), p. 197.

13 Cf. F. E. Coenen, “Problems in Theodor Storm's Novellen” in Germanic Review, xv (1940), 32–45.

14 It was probably Storm's intention to leave doubt in the minds of his readers as to whether Heinrich of Carsten Curator (1877) sought death or whether he left his father's house in stubborn defiance, after Carsten's refusal of another loan, and then perished accidentally (v, 67).

15 Cf. also F. E. Coenen, op. cit., p. 35, and footnotes.

16 Friedrich Schlegel, Novalis, Kleist, and many others.

17 In regard to Theodor Storm's “autobiographische Form” cf. Erich Schmidt, Ckarakterisliken (Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1902), p. 416 f.

18 Erich Schmidt, op. cit., p. 413.

19 Graveyards are common in Storm's Novellen; ci. Auf der Universität (ii, 199, 230); Unter dem Tannenbaum (ii, 237, 254); Bulemanns Baus (ii, 235–236); Heimkehr (iii, 168 ft.); Pole Poppenspäler (iv, 88–89); Die Söhue des Senators (v, 272, 276, 277); Der Eerr Etatsrat (vi, 14–15); Ein Fesl auf Haderslevkuus (vii, 6); Bötjer Basch (vii, 92, 109, 112); Der Schimmelreiter (vii, 301–302); Die Armesunderglocke (vii, 284 ff).—There are four accounts of funerals: Auf dem Staatshof (ii, 10); Pole Poppenspaler (iv, 88–89); Der Eerr Etatsrat (vi, 49); Der Schimmelreiter (vii, 301–302).—The account of a “Leichenmahl” in Der Schimmelreiter (vii, 302–303) furnishes details of the North German custom on such occasions.

Cf. Hugo von Hofmannsthal:
“Wie wundervoll sind diese Wesen,
Die, was nicht deutbar, dennoch deuten,
Was nie geschrieben wurde, lesen,
Verworrenes beherrschend binden
Und Wege noch im Ewig-Dunkeln finden.“

21 Yet in his last completed Novelle, Der Schimmelreiter (1888), Storm cites another Low German motto on a gravestone, that of Volkert Tedsen: “Dat is de Dod, de aliens fritt. Nimmt Kunst un Wetenschop di mit, De kloke Mann is nu vergahn, Gott gäw' em selig Uperstahn” (vii, 301). This is not the only place in Der Schimmelreiter in which the traditional Christian attitudes and beliefs are in evidence.

22 This inscription is also referred to in Abseits (1863), ii, 262.

23 Cf. also Walter Silz, “Theodor Storm's Schimmelreiter”, PMLA, lxi (1946), 767–770.