Realism

German Literature

Course 1 · Chapter 7 · Realism & the Nineteenth Century

The middle decades of the nineteenth century brought political ferment, the failed revolution of 1848, rapid industrial change and, in 1871, a German state. Writing turned from the dream of Romanticism to the observation of ordinary life, though German realism stayed more restrained and poetic than its French or British counterparts. This chapter looks at the radical young playwright Georg Büchner, at the "Poetic Realism" of Theodor Storm and Theodor Fontane, and at Friedrich Nietzsche, whose prose changed German thought. Names and dates are from general knowledge and flagged "check".

The Years Before 1848

Censorship and the Vormärz

The Vormärz ("before March") is the period before the revolutions of March 1848, when German states censored writers and many liberals were in exile or prison (check). Heine (Chapter 6) and the writers of "Young Germany" were banned for a time in the 1830s.

Büchner

Georg Büchner (1813 to 1837) died at 23. He wrote a revolutionary pamphlet, Der Hessische Landbote (1834), the play Dantons Tod (Danton's Death, 1835), the story Lenz and the unfinished Woyzeck (check).

Woyzeck

A fragmentary play in short scenes about a poor soldier driven to murder, based on a real case (check). It was not published until 1879 and was first staged in 1913, after which it became very influential on modern theatre and later inspired Alban Berg's opera Wozzeck (see German Music; check).

Poetic Realism

Writer and work (check each)Note
Theodor Storm (1817 to 1888)A north-German poet and novella writer. Der Schimmelreiter (The Rider on the White Horse, 1888) is a dyke-builder's story on the North Sea coast, with a ghostly frame.
Gottfried Keller (1819 to 1890)A Swiss writer whose novel Der grüne Heinrich (Green Henry) is in the Bildungsroman tradition (Chapter 5). Swiss, so touched on only briefly.
Theodor Fontane (1819 to 1898)Journalist and travel writer who began novels late. Effi Briest (1894 to 1895) is the story of a young woman in a loveless marriage in Prussian society; Der Stechlin is his last novel.
  • "Poetic" realism. The label, applied by later critics, describes writing that observes the real world but softens or frames its harshness, often in a novella (check).
  • Where is the big social novel? German readers often point to the lack of a Dickens or Balzac, since the country had no single capital and no single society to portray (Chapter 1; check how far this is a fair view).
  • Industrial change. Railways, cities and factories appear in the background of this writing more than as its subject.

Fontane's Effi Briest

Reading Effi Briest Effi marries a much older Prussian official. A brief affair, which the husband discovers years later, leads to a duel, a divorce and her social ruin. Fontane does not condemn her directly. He shows how an honour code, enforced by the people around her, destroys someone who did not intend harm. The novel is praised for its restraint, dialogue and use of hints and what is left unsaid (check). Compare Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and Flaubert's Madame Bovary on the same theme of adultery and society (check).

Nietzsche as a Writer

  • Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 to 1900) was a philologist who became a philosopher and wrote in aphorisms, essays and prose-poetry as much as in treatises (check).
  • Style. Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 1883 to 1885) is written in the manner of a scripture, with parable and rhythm (check). His German prose has had a lasting influence on writers.
  • Music. Nietzsche admired and then broke with Wagner (see German Music; check).
  • Misuse. His ideas were later distorted by others, including the Nazis, partly through the editing of his papers by his sister (check the details). Reading him in a reliable edition matters.
A British comparison The British Victorian novel of Dickens, George Eliot and Hardy is the natural contrast: larger in scale and more openly concerned with social conditions. Fontane's quiet irony is closer to the work of Jane Austen in an earlier time, though the society he shows is Prussian and strictly ruled by honour (check).
Check the details Dates, titles and the labels "Vormärz" and "Poetic Realism" are from general knowledge and were fixed by later critics. Verify with a literary history. On Nietzsche, take care to read reliable editions and not rely on slogans.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Explain why Büchner's Woyzeck was ahead of its time and what its fragmentary state meant for its reception.

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Exercise 2

Describe what "Poetic Realism" means and use Effi Briest or Der Schimmelreiter to illustrate it.

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Exercise 3

Explain why Nietzsche's works have been easy to misuse and how a careful reader should respond.

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Quick Reference

  • Büchner: Woyzeck, first staged 1913 (check)
  • Poetic Realism: Storm, Keller, Fontane
  • Fontane: Effi Briest, honour and silence
  • Nietzsche: aphorism and prose-poetry; misuse
  • The caution: the labels are later; read reliable editions