W.e will celebrate Christmas Eve downstairs in the empty large room ”, Theodor Storm wrote on December 11, 1872 from Husum to his eldest son Hans, who was studying in Kiel:“ When you come, we will make a Christmas tree there and the walls with old and new hang new picture sheets; For doll kitchens, for a ball of wonder, Aunt Wussow had to get all sorts of things in Berlin. ”Other preparations for the festival are also long underway:“ Christmas cakes are already being baked in the kitchen next door; the three little ones, all in white nightgowns, are busy making circles. Nur Lute “- Storm’s twelve-year-old daughter Lucie -” who has a kind of flushing, sits with me and reads the story of Bartholomew’s Night. “
It is obvious that this is far from being enough in the house of the poet, who tells of Christmas like no other in German realism literature. He longed for the festival long before that in the year and invoked it in letters to friends and family. Even the solid preparations, which sometimes begin at the beginning of December or even earlier, are detailed, such as the fact that the third son Karl, a musician, “forgot the world and music, worked for several days” on the Christmas tree in Advent 1871, and from gilding the Pine cones, which are then hung on the tree, makes Storm a great action. Christmas boxes are packed and sent to the relatives, the contents are listed by letter: Hans, then a student in Erlangen, receives a scarf, four and a half thalers, shoes, cake, a business card booklet, photos of family members and – “as a principal item,” writes Storm – the “House book from German poets since Claudius” just published by him.
Two years later, it’s no longer about Christmas boxes. This time Hans is supposed to come to the festival in Husum himself, and the letters calling him there have a long lead time – and they get more urgent from time to time. Half a year earlier, on June 30, 1872, Storm wrote: “What I’m looking forward to, my dear boy, is Christmas. We want to try to be warm and cozy with each other again, just like in the old days. ”A little later it says from Schloss Leopoldskron, where Storm spends some summer weeks:“ From my stay here Christmas verbally! ”On September 1st The father said serious words about how Hans had to approach his studies, and concludes: “Now, my dear boy, we can celebrate our Christmas with joy and satisfaction soon.” the medical student from Kiel is not allowed to “come back to Husum for Christmas; that must now be dealt with relentlessly and firmly by you ”. And when it became clear that the exam would not work, Storm wrote on November 20th: “What should become of our Christmas?”
Yes what? How one symbolically charges the festival, how one expects everything from it and is naturally disappointed with regard to family cohesion, can be seen particularly well using the example of Theodor Storm and his eight children. And not just because the situation the poet found himself in with his family was difficult enough. Storm, born in Husum in 1817, married his cousin Constanze in 1846 and had a total of seven children with her – although he announced during the engagement period that he actually didn’t want to be a father, starting with Hans, who was born on Christmas Day in 1848. At the time, Storm’s love for the young Dorothea Jensen made the marriage into a crisis, the arrival of Hans seems to have clarified it. And Storm wrote the delightful fairy tale of the demanding, world-conquering “little Häwelmann” about the chubby son.
.
#Christmas #Theodor #Storm #Peaceless #Son