On the Origin of the Gretchen-Theme in Faust

8/10/2019 On the Origin of the Gretchen-Theme in Faust

1/9

On the Origin of the Gretchen-Theme in "Faust"Author(s): Albert B. FaustSource: Modern Philology, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Nov., 1922), pp. 181-188Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/433280.

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2/9

ON

THE

ORIGIN OF

THE

GRETCHEN-THEME

IN

FAUSTI

The

present

nvestigation

wes

its

origin

to two but

recently

available

publications,

ne

by

a

Goethe

scholar2

f

eminence,

he

other

by

a

layman,3

whose

work

betrays

he amateur

but reveals

an

important

ruth.

The firsts

by

Wilhelm

Bode,

author

of the voluminous

iography

of

Goethe,

now

appearing,

whose skill in

gathering

nd

arranging

material

s

seen to

great advantage

in

this

monograph,

n

which

re

sketched "the

fortunes f Friederike

Brion,

before and

after her

death."

Lest

a

fate

as

cruel

as

that

of

the Lesbian

poetess

n

Attic

Comedy

overtake the

poetical

figure

of

Goethe's first

ove,

the

scholar Bode has curbed

eulogy and caricature,

he

has parted

truth

fromfiction

n

the

array

of

literature hat for more

than a

century

has collected bout the name

of

Friederike.

Beginning

with

the

early family

history

of

the

Brions,

Bode

gathers

together

very

item of

information

oncerning

riederike

and

the

young

Goethe,

contained

n

letters,

oems,reports

f

conver-

sations,

nterviews f

survivors;

he

adds all the facts

and

circum-

stances about

the

acquaintance

of

the

poet

Lenz with

Friederike,

including he poemsdedicatedto her; thenfollows he storyofthe

subsequent

ife

of Friederikewith

her

parents,

s

Goethe found

hem

in

1779,

which

continued

until

1787;

then after the

death

of the

parents,

her

migration

with

her

sister

Sophie

to the

Steinthal,

where

her

brother,

nd later

a

relative

by marriage, ccupied

the

Protestant

pulpit.

The sisters t one time

opened

a

little

hop,

elling

pottery

and

woven wares.

At

all

times Friederikewas

spoken

of as

good

and

charitable,

s

a

kind

godmother

o childrenwhose

baptism

she

1

A paper read at the meeting of the Modern Language Association of America,

at

Baltimore,

December

30,

1921.

2

Die

Schicksale

der

Friederike

Brion vor

und

nach

ihrem

Tode. Von Wilhelm

Bode.

Berlin:

E. S.

Mittler

u.

Sohn,

1920.

3

Das

Urbild

von

Goethes Gretchen. Von

Otto

v.

Boenigk.

Greifswald: Ratsbuch-

handlung

L.

Bamberg,

1914.

[MODERN

PHILOLOGY,

November,

1922]

181

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3/9

182 ALBERT

B.

FAUST

is

recorded

o have

witnessed,

s

a

sort of

oving

aunt to

the

young,

until she died

April 3, 1813,

beloved

and

respected,

n

her

sixty-first

year.

Why

had

she

never

married

Perhaps

because of

her

delicate

health in

the

years

of

her

youth,

perhaps

subsequently

her

taking

care of

her

aging

parents.

Bode

attempts

o

draw

a

realistic

picture

f

Friederike,

ery tall,

pale,

but

animated and

of

personal

charm,

nclined to

pulmonary

trouble

ust

as the

young Goethe,

who

had

just

come

through

battle for

ife.

Aside from

his

handicap

Goethe

was not

established

in

life

nd couldnotbe seriouslyhinkingfmarriage. Theirparting

was

necessarily

sad

event

n

their

young

ives,

s is

not

nfrequently

repeated

n

university owns,

when

college

widows are

left

behind

by

charming

oung

men of

no

immediate

rospects.

Lenz

appeared

as

self-appointed

uccessor

o

Goethe,

but

he

destroyed

what

affection

he

may

have

awakened,

by

his mental

attitudeof

unrestraint.

The

home

of

the Brions

remained

hospitable

during

he

ife f

the

parents,

and

among

he

guests

were

tudents f

theology

nd

officers.

Friede-

rike nd her isters lways spokewellofGoethe. Bode proves eyond

a

question

of

doubt

that to

attempt

o find

he

motif

f the

Kindes-

mirderin n

the

Sesenheim

dyl

is sheer

folly

or

worse.

The

second

part

of

Dichtung

nd

Wahrheit

ppeared

n

1812,

and

contained

he

story

of

Goethe's

disguise

and

introductionn

Sesen-

heim.

Friederike

might

have

beheld thereher

portrait

nd the com-

parison

with the

Vicar of

Wakefield's

household.

But

it is

most

probable

that she

did

not,

for

the

poet's

greatness

nd his

works

werealikeunknown n thevillagecommunities fAlsace and Baden,

where she

spent

her

last

years,

and no one

had heard of a

bygone

acquaintance

between a

student

Goethe and

the

kindhearted

ld

aunt. Nor

had she ever

appeared

to them a

forsaken,

drooping

flower-with ll her

gentleness

he

was

alert and full

of

good

humor,

as her

correspondence

estifies o

the last.

During

the

last

year

of

Friederike's ife

Goethe

wrote the

story

of

their

ove

and

chastised

himself ordesertion.

Most

probably

he

did

not

know'

that

she was

1Ph. Chr. Weyland, a brother of the

Weyland

who

brought

Goethe to

Sesenheim,

occupied

a

high

position

in

the service

of

the

Duke of

Weimar,

but

the

family

corre-

spondence

reveals

nothing

of

Friederike,

and it

is

not

probable

that Goethe

had news of

Friederike

through

this

source.



4/9

ORIGIN

OF

THE

GRETCHEN-THEME

IN "FAUST"

183

still

iving,

hough

he

memory

f

her

haunted

him

ike

the

song

of

Solveig.

Remarkable s the

coincidence,

hat on

the

day

of

Friede-

rike's death we find

n

entry

n

Goethe's

ournal: Biographie,

chluss

des

3.

Bandes,

denoting

hat the

poet

had

completed

n that

day

the

third

part

of

Dichtung

nd

Wahrheit,

hich

contained he immortal

literary

ribute

o

her.

Nothing

has

hurt

the

reputation

f

Goethe morethan

his

volun-

tary

confession f

guilt

in

leaving

Friederike,

n

act

paralleled

so

frequently

n

the

ives of men of

genius,

nd attributable o

largely

o

the desirefor elf-developmentnd independence. Goethehas well

said: "Die Ursachen ines

Midchens,

das sich

zurtickzieht,

cheinen

immer

giiltig,

des Mannes niemals." The

great

historian

Niebuhr

was

perhaps

he

first

o

express

his

disapproval

f

Goethe

the man

as

a

result

f

his self-confessed

esertion.

Very

ittlewas known t

that

time

of

Goethe's

ife,

nd

while

detractorswere

busy defaming

lter-

nately

he character

f

the

poet

or

Friederike,

he

classical

philologist,

August

Ndke,

n

1822 made

a

pilgrimage

o

Sesenheim o examine he

scene of thepoet's love-story. Nike wishedto trace two rumors o

their

ource,

he

one,

hat

Friederike ad married

nobleman .

Diirk-

heim

(this

was a confusionwith

Lili

Schinemann),

he

other,

hat

Goethe had

a son

by

Friederike,

nd that

the

boy

was

compelled

o

enter

n

unworthy

rade

as

pastry-baker

n

Strassburg.

The

latter

rumor was

traced

to Pastor

Schweppenhduser

f

Sesenheim,

who,

though confessing

hat

he had

never himselfhad

any

personal

acquaintance

with

ny

of the

Brions,

tated

as a

fact,

hat

Friederike

had been seduced by a Catholic priest,Reimbold (alias Reinbold,

Rheinbold),

hat

there

had

been a

son,

nd that

Goethehad

discovered

Friederike's

all t

thetime

ofhis

revisiting

esenheim

n

1779 and

had

thereby

een deterred

rom

is ntention f

marrying

er.

Reaction n

favor of Friederike

naturally

et

in

after such

appalling

slanders,

notably

fter he

discovery

f

Salzmann's

Nachlass,given

o the

public

in

1838.

Ludwig

Tieck

had

alreadypublished

short

tory,

er

Mond-

siichtige,

n

1831,

based

upon

a

probable

visitto

Strassburg

nd Sesen-

heim. Alsatianinvestigatorstartedabout the same time. A stu-

dent

of Professor

Nike,

at

Bonn,

Heinrich

Kruse,

in

1835 visited

Sesenheim

nd found old

Schweppenhiuser

till

alive

but

unwilling



5/9

184

ALBERT

B. FAUST

to discuss the eNvil

tory

he

had

circulated. He directed

he

inquirer

to

the

oldest survivors

mong

the

peasants,who,

however,

ang

the

praises

oftheBrion

family

nd

particularly

f

Friederike,

ndon the

ugly

rumor

the "Ochsenwirt"

replied:

"Das

hat

gewiss

der alte

Pfarrer

esagt,

d(enn

onst weiss kein

Mensch

m

ganzen

Dorf

etwas

Andres ls

lauter

Gutes

von

den

Brions."

We

may ignore

the

contemptible

laudereien

uch as

appeared

from

the

pen

of the

feuilletonist

Weil and

others

n

the

Leipziger

Zeitung

iir

die

Elegante

Welt.

Dfintzer

efuted

hem

and

also

laid

bare

certain

forgeries.

The

battle

was on

again

after

1870,

when

Alsace

became

politically part

of

Germany,

nd Catholics

and

Protestantsmade of the matter

an

interchurch

ontroversy.

An

arbiterwas

thought

o

be

found

n

a

person

denominationally

n-

biased,

Dr.

Johannes

Froitzheim,

f

Jewish

descent,

who

had been

transferredo

Strassburg

nd

was interested

n

local historical

er-

sonages.

But

he also had

an axe to

grind,

orhe fixed

his cannons

against

the

Goetheaner,

he exclusive

guild

of

Goethe

Philologen

undertheleadership f Erich Schmidt. Froitzheimwas a painstak-

ing

investigator,

ut

all

that

he could

find

was,

that

in

1787

an

illegitimate

hild was

baptized

in

Strassburg

with

parents

named as

Franziska

Wallner

nd

Johann

lumenhold.

The Abbe

Reimbold(t),

curateof

Sesenheim,

ad

brought

he

child

o

Strassburg.

With

these

facts

Froitzheim

onstructed

n

argument

hat Reimbold

must

have

been

the father

f the

child-Friederike, eing

lso of

Sesenheim,

was

the

mother;

they

assumed

different

ames at the

baptism.

Upon

sucha flimsytock hepoisonous lowerfFroitzheim'srgumentation

grew,

nd

his

vile

purpose

f

dragging

nto the

mire

a

most

beautiful

literary

radition

was

often

mitated.

Erich Schmidt

attacked

the

perpetrator

most

bitterly

nd Froitzheim

deservedly

fell into

dis-

repute

s

an

investigator.'

It

will

not

be

necessary

to follow

Bode's outline

of

succeeding

investigations,

hey

add little

moreto

our

knowledge

f the

subject.

The

good

character

f Friederike

s

clearly

stablished,

nd

Goethe's

1

The

title

of

the

monograph

was:

Friederike

von

Sesenheim,

nach

geschichtlichen

Quellen.

Von Joh.

Froitzheim.

Gotha, Perthes,

1892. The writer

of this

paper

care-

fully

examined

this

and

many

other

works enumerated

and outlined

by

Bode

(mostly

found

only

in

German

libraries),

and bears witness to

the

accuracy

of

his

reproductions

and to

his

judicial

attitude.



6/9

ORIGIN

OF THE

GRETCHEN-THEME

IN

"FAUST"

185

confessionwas

a

noble

and

generous

ct. We

cannot

possibly

find

the model

for

he Kindesm5rderinere.

The other

very

suggestivework,

Das

Urbild on Goethes

retchen,

though

amateurish

n

method,

points

the

way

toward

a

solutionof

the

problem.

The

author,

Otto

v.

Boenigk,

s

confident hat he has

found the

original

for

Goethe's Gretchen.

He

found her in

the

chronicles f the

city

of

Stralsund.

Her

name

was

Maria

Flint.

The

city

was under Swedish

regime

nd a

large

number

of

soldiers

were

quartered

there.

Maria

Flint was a shoemaker's

daughter.

She

was seducedby

a

youngSwedishofficer,ho efther. Her par-

ents died before he birthof

her

child,

from

grief

t

the loss

of the

family

onor. The soldierswere

upreme

nd no

redresswas

possible.

The forsaken

irl

was confronted ith the terrible

isgrace

of

public

penance,

the loss

of

position

nd

all

the

respect

hat

made lifeworth

living,

nd

in

despair

she killed her child at the risk of even

more

monstrous

unishment,

or

mpalement,

urial

alive,

drowning

nder

torturewere inflicted

n those

cruel

times; decapitation

was con-

sidereda mild form fpunishment or the offense f childmurder.

From the cloister o which

presumably

Maria

had

fled or

protection,

came

the

rumor hat she

had killed

her

child.

The

towncouncil

ook

up

the case and threwher

nto

prison.

LieutenantJohann

Dycke

of

the

Husars was

not

the worst

f

men,

nd

he

offeredhe

prison

warden

700 Reichstaler

for her

release,

but

the

keeper

would

not

take

the

bribe. The

case became a

struggle

etween

he

authority

f the

city

government

nd

the

arrogant oldiery.

Maria Flint

was sentenced

to death by decapitation,and the recklessyoungJohannDycke

vowed

he

wouldbreak

open

the

prison.

True to

his

word,

during

he

early

morning

ours of October

28,

at

the

head

of a band

of

men

in

disguise

withblackened

faces,

he

overpowered

he

guard

stationed

in

doubled numbers

n

and

about the

prison,

nd set

the condemned

young

womanfree. Great excitement

eigned

he

day following

nd

the

aggrieved

Ratsherren

appealed

to

Stockholm

for

protection

against

the

military.

The

leaders were

punished

with

a transfer

o

Sweden, includingLieutenant JohannDycke. A search was made

for the

escaped prisoner,

advertisements

for her

apprehension

appeared

not

only

n the

newspaper

f

Stralsund,

ut

of

many

other

cities also-but

no

trace

of the

missing

woman could be found.



7/9

186

ALBERT

B.

FAUST

But a

miracle came to

pass

On

December

2

Stralsund

was

again

thrown into

consternation,

Maria

Flint had

appeared

at

the

prison

doors and asked

to

have the

sentence xecuted

upon

her.

She

declared she had been in

service

n

Dresden and

other

places,

but

everywhere

he had been

haunted

by

the fearof

discovery

nd

had never

had

peace.

"Es

ist so

elend,

n

der Fremde

schweifen,

Und sie

werdenmich doch

ergreifen."

She

regretted

er

flight,

ut

refused

to

name

anyone

who

had

taken

part

in

her

rescue.

She

refused o

see

her

lover;

the

sincerity

f

her

remorsemade a

deep

impression. Strangely

none

of

the Ratsherren houghtof pardon.

Instead,

fearing

nother

rescue,

they put stronger

ars on

the win-

dows and

laid chains

upon

her hands.

December

20,

1765,

was

the

day

of

execution,

nd

exactly

as

Goethe's words describe

he

scene:

"Die

Menge

drangt

ich,

man

h6rt

ie nicht. Der

Platz,

die

Gassen

k6nnen

ie

nicht

fassen,"

the cold-blooded

eremony

was

performed

in

every detail,

though popular

sympathy

was

altogether

with

the

stouthearted,

epentant

woman. The

law had

to

have its blood-

sacrifice.

The

parallel

with Gretchen's

eduction,

remorse,

nd refusalto

flee

withher

over

s

very startling,

nd

Boenigk

claims

that

Goethe

must

have

heard

of

this case

whilehe was

a

student t

Leipzig.

It

is

quite

possible,though

he

proof

s

lacking.

But the

important

act

is,

that at

this

time,

ll over

Central

Europe

and

beyond,

he

cruelty

and

injustice

with which

punishment

or

the

crimeof child

murder

was

inflicted

pon

the woman and

the

woman

alone,

was

beginning

to arouse public sentiment. Just so about a centurybeforethe

barbarity

f

witchburnings

nd tortures o

extract onfessions

efore

court,

stirred

pposition

nd

finally rought

bolition.

Now,

i.e.,

especially

n

the third

quarter

of the

eighteenth entury,

he minds

of

young

writerswere nflamed

y

this urid

phase

of

social

injustice,

and

they produced

a

whole

category

of

dramas, novels,

yrics

and

essays

on the theme of

the child-murderess.The

"Stiirmer

und

Drtnger"

were

most

productive:

Heinrich

Leopold

Wagner

wrote

Die Kindesmarderin,einholdLenz,DerHofmeisterndDie Soldaten,

Maler

Miller,

Nusskernen,

bove

all

Goethe

his first

art

of Faust.

The

poet

Buirger

rote

ballad,

had

plans

for drama

on this

theme,



8/9

ORIGIN

OF

TIHE

GRETCHEN-THEME IN

"FAUST" 187

and was

busily

ngaged

n one ofthe

conspicuous

rial ases

of

nfanti-

cide,

for which he

prepared

an abstract.

A

prize

of one

hundred

ducats was offeredn 1781

by

Dalberg,

thedirector f theMannheim

theater,

for

the

best discussion

of the

subject:

"What are the

best

means

of

preventing

nfanticide

without

promoting

prostitution."

It

is

said,

fourhundred

ssays

werehanded

in,

and three

prizes

were

awarded. Three dozen

of the

essays

were noticed

in

the

Allge-

meine

DeutscheBibliothek. J. G.

Schlosser,

Goethe's

brother-in-law,

competedunsuccessfully,

ut

published

his

work

n

1785,

Die

Wud-

bianer,

ine

nicht

gekrinte reisschrift

iber

die

Frage,

etc.

Pestalozzi

was

interested

nd

published

something

on

the

subject

in

1782.

Examples

might

be

multiplied.'

It

is

interesting

o note

that

the

fifty-fifth

f

Goethe's

Latin examination heses at

Strassburg

was:

Ob

ein

Frauenzimmer,

as

ein

neugeborenes

ind

t6te,

u

k6pfen

ei,

st

eine

unter

en

Rechtslehrern

treitigerage.

The

story

fthe

forsaken

girl

that

drownsherself

n

despair,

s told with

deep

human

insight

by

Goethe

in

the

first

ook of

Die

Leiden des

ungen

Werther. The

whole

subject

of

seduction

nd

infanticide as before

Goethe's

mind

from

ts

egal

and

human

aspects during

he

period

1770-75,

when

he

Gretchen heme

ssumed

form.

It

is clear

from

he

foregoing

hat we

should not seek the

origin

of

the

Gretchen

tragedy

n

the life

of

Friederike

Brion,

nor

in

the

personal

experiences

f

Goethe,

but

in

the

awakening

of a

humani-

tarian

sentiment

haracteristic

f the

period

of

Goethe's

early

man-

hood,

when

a

large

number f

young

writers ntroduced he

theme

ofthechild-murderessnto literaturewith consciousor unconscious

purpose.

Goethe alone

created a

great

work f art

upon

the

theme,

his

contemporaries

rote

drastic but

ephemeral ropagandist

itera-

ture

now

almost

forgotten.

In

view of the

many

errors

hat

have

been

made

in

attempting

to

find

he

original

or

Gretchen,

Goethe scholars

might

ake

warning

against

a

method

hat seeks

too

narrowly

o

find

friend

r

acquaint-

ance

behind

every

one of

Goethe's

poetical

creations.

Even where t

1

n excellent study of the origin and growth of public sentiment on this subject,

also an

historical

survey

of the

severe

punishments inflicted,

can be found

in

the mono-

graph

of

O.

H.

Werner,

The Uimarried

Mother

in

German

Literature,

Columbia

University

Dissertation,

1917.



9/9

188

ALBERT

B. FAUST

is

clearly

proved

that the

poet

did use

his

friends

s

models,

as in

Die

Leiden

des

ungen

Werther,

t

is the

picture

f

eighteenth-century

sentimentalism,

t is the antithesis ftheemotional nd rational le-

ments,

and

the

broad basis of

human

experience

which

defies

the

destruction

f time.

In a

recent

ssay

on

Werther

omplaint

s

made

of

the

prevalence

f

treatments

rom

without nstead

of

from

within;

in a

renewed dition

of F.

Th.

Vischer'sGoethe's Faust

(1920),

the

mottoof

the

original

ditor

s

emphasized:

Den Stoff

urchforschen

und den

Geist

im

Stoffe

rkennen." The

key

to the

origin

of

the

Gretchen heme

s

found

n

a

study

ofthe social

conditions

f

the

time.

This

suggestsmany possible

nterpretations

f Goethe's works

from

a

neglectedpoint

of view.

ALBERT

B. FAUST

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

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On the Origin of the Gretchen-Theme in Faust