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From: "Mercydorf" <>
Subject: Jakob Meister - Adam Mueller-Guttenbrunn
Date: Mon, 1 May 2006 13:42:36 -0400
References: <007901c66bff$2674a910$6001a8c0@yourqdhfp5lhxd> <002e01c66d16$4e9bcfa0$6402a8c0@DERPC>


No, I wasn't joking about Romeo and Juliet. I said it in response to your comments about the Meister Jakob book, (which I have not read) and meant in the context that the stories seemed similar, in that it involved social classes, love and ends in tragedy.
Yes it would be wonderful if someone or a collaborated group, would take on the task of translating this book, as you have already got my attention and am curios how the story goes and all the elements surrounding the story.
I looked at the online novel, who is this person who published the book online? I went to the main site but didn't see a link to the Jakob Meister book.
I have heard about Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn, knew that he was a poet and a writer, but never knew about his personal life. Thanks for telling a little about him. I have even been to the Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn house in Timisoara, anyone interested, check out the photos:
http://www.dvhh.org/timisquarters/mainstreet/index.htm#ADAM
Cornelia, maybe when you have some extra time, would you like to write a short bio about Adam Muller for this page. Everything I have found on his, has been in German.
Thanks, Jody


----- Original Message -----
From: cornelia_kassem
To: Mercydorf ;
Sent: Monday, May 01, 2006 7:56 AM
Subject: Re: Faschingsball (now Adam Mueller-Guttenbrunn)


You are joking about Romeo and Juliet, Jody, aren't you? ;-)

When you create an angellike literary character like Romeo, you better don't
place him in your backyard, otherwise you lose credibility - the public just
won't take it. That's what Shakespeare also knew when chosing for his
setting a place remote enough for most Londoners of that time - in the good
tradition of fairy tales, where everything happens in a far away country.

"Meister Jakob und seine Kinder" is written by a Donauschwabian and the
story takes indeed place in the author's "backyard". It is in many ways the
biography of his own family; a novel in which Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn
intends to work off his lifelong inner tragedy: the shame of being an
illegitimate child. In the novel, he was born out of a short love affair
between Christoph (the son of a proud Bauer) and Susi (daughter of a
craftsman) - two young people coming from different social classes, which
did not intermarry. These weren't "Two households, both alike in dignity",
as in Romeo and Juliet, if by "dignity" the social position is meant instead
of a human quality. "A pair of star-cross'd lovers" they were, Christoph and
Susi - for one evening, at the ball. And the crucial point, when Susi is
left down by the boys from Neurosenthal, thus delivering her into the arms
of Christoph from Altrosental, roots indeed in an "ancient grudge": The
Altrosentaler, as the first settlers (something like your Mayflower people),
felt superior to the "newcomers", the Neurosentalers. But here the (very
thin) resemblance between the two stories ends.

I will not tell you the story - which is much more complex than this
starting point I've just layed out - because it is about time that somebody
translates this novel into English for all of you who want to know more
about your roots. I cannot do it - not with my highschool English (that
would be a disrespect towards our national novelist) but you out there, who
read this, should find a way to realize such a project. All you need is to
find/hire a good translator. You would learn a lot from all of M.-G.'s
novels but in this particular one, Meister Jakob, you will find most aspects
you ever wanted to know about the life in a Donauschwaben village at the
time your ancestors still lived there. About everyday life as well as about
holidays. Am I wrong when I assume that you don't know yet that there exist
very good novels about your own people?

Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn was born in 1852 in Guttenbrunn (Zabrani, near
Arad), as the son of Eva Müller (daughter of the craftsman Jakob Müller, who
was a Wagnermeister - don't know how to translate this: cart maker?). His
father, who never married Eva, thus delievring her to an uncredibly hard
fate (which took her even to prison for a murder she has not committed), was
Adam Luckhaup, also from Guttenbrunn. In the abbreviated edition of this
novel (Kriterion Verlag Bukarest, 1978) there is a preface written by Franz
Kehrer, in which you can find some genealogical data about the Luckhaups of
Guttenbrunn - this in case anybody is interested in their line.

For those of you who understand German, the novel is online, in a pdf
format:

http://finanz.math.tu-graz.ac.at/~prodinger/gutenbrunn.pdf

Have fun,

Cornelia




----- Original Message -----
From: "Mercydorf" <>
To: <>
Sent: Sunday, April 30, 2006 4:38 AM
Subject: Re: [DVHH-L] Faschingsball


> Thanks for all the explanations Cornelia. I suppose people naturally
> migrated into their own clicks, after all who wants to party with people
> they don't know ;-)
> I don't recall seeing any Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn's books in English.
> "Meister Jakob und seine
> Kinder", sounds like Romeo and Juliet.
>
> Jody
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: cornelia_kassem
> To:
> Sent: Saturday, April 29, 2006 8:07 PM
> Subject: [DVHH-L] Faschingsball
>
>
> Jody,
>
> The ball rooms were adjacent to the Wirtshaus. The one I knew consisted
> of a
> very big room, with a podium for the band and wooden balkonies for the
> spectators on two sides of the room. There was also an entrance area with
> a
> wardrobe and at the back there was a room where the dancers could rest
> during the breaks. Nothing like the Vienna Opernball, just a decent
> place.
>
> The other one, Reiser's, was lately (in the 1970ies) used only for big
> wedding parties (usually about 500 people). While visiting Triebswetter a
> few years ago, I looked from the street trough it's window and what I saw
> were piles of grain sacks filling this room, meaning that it has lost its
> initial purpose. Only the other part of the building, the pub/bar was
> still
> operating.
>
> You are right, Fasching has nothing to do with the Christian religion.
> And
> it is only celebrated in Catholic countries. As Susan said: it was
> party,party, party. By the way, I heard today that the dancing used to
> last
> not for one but for three days in a row.
>
> You asked why the customs of separating the classes of people would vary
> from village to village. My guess is that such separations take place
> when
> you've got a bigger population. In Triebswetter, with its approx. 1000
> houses, they wouldn't have fitted in one room, so they chose the nearest
> criterion ever. It was also a peacekeeping method, if you consider that
> such
> balls had also a matchmaking purpose.
>
> I don't know if Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn's novels are translated into
> English, thus if you know them. I just remember his "Meister Jakob und
> seine
> Kinder", where two joung people fall in love but he would not marry her
> because she is poor. It ends with a tragedy.
>
> Cornelia

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