Friedrich Hebbel (1813–1863)

Die Aphorismen in diesem kleinen Büchlein (75 Seiten) sind Hebbels Tagebüchern von 1835'1863 entnommen. Eine erlesene Mischung dieses zeitlebens um Ruhm, Liebe und Nahrung kämpfenden Autors, die seine tiefe Zerrissenheit um Leben, Liebe und Schreiben verdeutlichen. Dabei scheint er losgelöst von der Zeit - seine Aussagen irrlichtern quer durch alle Jahrhunderte, sie entladen Ihre Gedanken-Blitze vor allem auch im Heute.

Hier 3 Beispiele:

Wenn Du mir die Hände festhälst, sind deine auch festgehalten.
Die Seele ist der einzige Artikel, den man verkaufen und doch behalten kann. Darum verkaufen sie auch so viele.
Ich bleibe mir selbst getreu. Das ist gerade Dein Unglück; werde dir selbst doch einmal untreu.… (meer)

El bárbaro tema de Los NIBELUNGOS parecía venir des
timado desde toda la eternidad para servir de fuente de
inspiración al cruel y sOmbrio genio de Hebbel. "Decidi
damente-escribe Farinelli en su libro Hebbel e i suoi
drammi-, quien imaginó los cantos de los Nibelungos tenia
una singularísima afinidad espiritual con el poeta
de esta fuerte y salvaje trilogia." Sin duda por eso, desde
aue Hebbel, en su primera juventud, llegó a conocer la
ruda epopeya germánica, sintió el intimo afán de hacer
vivir en la escena los viejos héroes y sus gestas sangrientas.

Pero sólo en el momento de la gran plenitud de sus
fuerzas, una vez acabado Gyges und sein Ring en el otoño
de 1815, creyóse capaz de poder triunfar de las inmensas
dificultades de aquel magno asunto trágico.
Mucho antes de él, en pleno Romanticismo, La Motte-Fougué
habiase remontado hasta los Nibelungos en demanda
de materia para uno de sus dramas, y más recientemente
dos poetas dramáticos de menor importancia, Geibel
y Raupach, habían pretendido también infundir vida
teatral a Siegfried y Hagen, Brunhild y Kriiemhid. acaso
como la dedicatoria de la trilogia indica, el ver a la que
poco después había de ser su esposa, Christine Engehausen,
representando el papel de Kriemhild en la obra de
Raupach, haya servido de estímulo a Hebbel para resolverse
a acometer de una vez aquella empresa heroica, acariciada
en secreto durante tantos años.

Comenzó su labor con la pretensión de escribir una tragedia
en cinco actos, y sólo después de muchos vanos esfuerzos
por encerrar en tan reducido marco cuadro tan dilatado llegó
adoptar la forma actual en once actos

En la primavera de 1860 logró darle cima. Un año más
tarde, el teatro de la corte de Weimar, donde no se había...

.… (meer)

When Christian Friedrich Hebbel was born in 1813, his hometown was part of Denmark, now Germany, but all of his works are written in the German language. Hebbel grew up in poverty, and his existence remained difficult throughout most of his life. In his youth he often witnessed violent rows between his parents.

Hebbel is mainy remembered for his drama. The volume Erzählungen ("Stories") offers a representative selection of his prose works.

In "Meine Kindheit" (My Youth Hebbel describes how he grew up, but this prose fragment omits any references to violent scenes, as Hebbel wrote it down in the spirit of Goethe like an idyll "Wer sein Leben darstellt, der sollte (...) nur das Liebliche, Schöne, das Beschwichtigende und Ausgleichende, das sich auch noch in den dunkelsten Verhältnissen auffinden läßt, hervorheben und das Übrige auf sich beruhen lassen." Thus, "Meine Kindheit" is a very calm and balanced description of growing up in a village during the first quarter of the Nineteenth century.

However, the violence which so much must have impressed Hebbel's young mind found a place in his short stories. While the work of other authors of that period in Germany are dominated by descriptions of love and finer sensibilities, the short stories of Hebbel are dominated by violent emotions, such as hatred, envy, suspicion and anger. In "Barbier Zitterlein" the conflict between a father and his daughter's lover leads to the father's madness, while in "Anna' envy leads to a violent death. In the short story "Eine nacht im Jägerhause" the false impression of evil and mutual suspicion are the ingredients of the story. These oddly aggressive story elements make Hebbel's short stories unique among the literature of the Age of Sentiment.

In his early years, Hebbel worked on a novel, which he later reduced and edited, to be published as a novella in 1848, here included as "Schnock", also known as "Meister Schnock" or "Schnock: ein niederländisches Gemälde". The sub-title of the novel "A Dutch Painting" suggests the reader to imagine a scene in a public house such as by such as (Gerard) Douw or Jan Steen, paintings usually displaying a chaotic tableau of details. The story is not set in the Netherlands, but in a non-descript German town. It is a frame narrative in which the main character Schnock tells about his life, which is full of capricious events and details. Hebbel's novella is of interest, as it form a literary equivalent of Kunstkammer or "Cabinet of curiosities" reflecting the capricious style of taste in the early Nineteenth Century all over Europe.

Included in this collection is also the fairy-tale "Der Rubin" (The Ruby), in which the style of Wilhelm Hauff can be recognized, a contemporary of Hebbel whom he met in Stuttgart on the way to Munich. Biographers have pointed out Hebbel's obsession with gemstones from his prolonged poverty, as the find or the loss of a single stone could alter a life's destiny. Hebbel later transformed this story into a play "Der Rubin" (The Ruby) (1851), and has written another play with the title "Der Diamant" (The Diamond) (1841).

Hebbel's stories have a medieval feel to them, probably because of their focus on poverty, and the capricious violence.… (meer)