Jeremias GotthelfHistorisch-kritische Gesamtausgabe by Barbara Mahlmann-Bauer Christian von Zimmermann

Abstract

 Reviews diplomatic edition of this text—done here, as said, to the highest of standards (although I do baulk at the use of the long ‘s’)—is never free-standing and must always form part of a wider editorial context. I deeply regret having to come to this conclusion, while acknowledging the high standard of editing and production. T C, C R P J G, Historisch-kritische Gesamtausgabe. Ed. by B M-B and C  Z. Abteilung F: Politische und pädagogische Publizistik, vol. /: Schulpolitische Publizistik –, Textband. Ed. by B M-B, M H, R R, and others. Abteilung A: Romane, vol. /: Leiden und Freuden eines Schulmeisters, Synoptische Edition der Erstausgabe in  Teilen /, und der überarbeiteten Ausgabe in  Teilen, , Drucktexte ( Teilbände). Ed. by E W, C  Z, and others. Hildesheim and New York: Olms.  (F/);  (A/).  pp. (F/);  pp. (A/). € (F/); € (A/). ISBN –––– (F/); –––– (A/) e great historical-critical edition of Jeremias Gotthelf moves on at a creeping pace, but it has time on its side and the exemplary thoroughness of its editors (see my review in MLR,  (), –). My remarks about these three volumes will inevitably be provisional until the appropriate commentary parts are available. e texts do, however, tell their own story. at all three volumes have appeared in close succession (although in different sections of the edition) has to do with their common theme: education. ey are further linked by the fact that Gotthelf, especially in his early novels, is constitutionally incapable of keeping ‘Publizistik’ or homiletics out of his fiction. We see this in the long tracts of pedagogical discourse that interlard the novel Leiden und Freuden eines Schulmeisters (–), not always, it must be said, to the advantage of the narrative. is is not the place to rehearse the details of Gotthelf’s practical but passionate interest in educational matters and his outspoken advocacies. ese will, as said, form the substance of the commentary volumes. Suffice it to say that Albert Bitzius, the minister of word and sacraments, is pastor, teacher, educationalist, patriot, and popular writer in one person. e cure of souls and the pedagogical needs of his flock and people are for him one and the same. e documents in Schulpolitische Publizistik register the young pastor’s consuming interest in both the spiritual and the down-to-earth matters of education in its widest sense: the provision of village schools, their upkeep, adequate payment of teachers, concern for the poor and outcast (the subject of more than one novel), to matters of curriculum—all for the sake ‘eines glücklichern kraigern [sic] Vaterlandes einer christlichern Christenheit ’ (p. ). For Gotthelf, there can be no division between the spiritual role of the Christian Church and the secular provision of schooling facilities. His earlier MLR, .,   memoranda are signed ‘Albert Bitzius’, but once the state, in the form of the canton of Bern, usurps (in his eyes) authority, he assumes more and more the prophetic tone of ‘Jeremias Gotthelf’. Under this name he publishes in periodicals such as the Pädagogische Revue. It is there, for instance, that he delivers his Ein Wort zur Pestalozzifeier of . ere, the great educationalist is invoked, not in the name of progressive, so-called enlightened ideas (which Gotthelf in other contexts af- firms) but in affirmation of traditional values that Pestalozzi stood for: ‘des Volkes Wurzel fand er im Hause auf echt christlich deutsch schweizerische Weise’ (p. ). His tone becomes more shrill and his satire more biting, as for instance when he likens the perceived misuse of children and the neglect of schools to Herod and the massacre of the innocents (p. ). Some of this material, such as the piece on Pestalozzi, can be found in other Gotthelf editions, notably in the eleventh ‘Ergänzungsband’ of the Rentsch edition called ‘Kirche und Schule’ (). But some of the ‘Schulreden’, and notably his course on the history of Switzerland, are published here from the manuscript for the first time. Whereas the language of this volume is almost uniformly Hochdeutsch, this was to change radically with the novel Leiden und Freuden eines Schulmeisters, published here synoptically in the – Bern edition with the  Berlin edition en face. Whereas the Rentsch edition published...