Ich aber weiss, was Freiheit ist: Fabeln, Poesie und Prosa des Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel
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Authors
Ebeling, Hermann
Pfeffel, Gottlieb Konrad
Issue Date
1981
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Type
Book, Whole
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Abstract
Pfeffel is a fascinating figure. He became blind at an early age. His study of diplomacy, the career of his father, had been interrupted. He lived in French Alsace but was most at home in German-speaking culture. His brother had become a French diplomat. He was on his way to becoming a German poet. Surprisingly, he founded a military school, especially for Protestants! He experienced the French revolution and apparently lost a great deal in it. Of the book's six literary parts, the fifth and sixth present two dramas and The Biography of a Pudel respectively. Each of the four thematic chapters of fables here works chronologically. The first treats despotism in either form. It starts in stark fashion with Der tolle Hund. People in Rome run frantically from a mad dog; only a veteran waits and with one blow from his stick breaks the dog's neck. He will not stop biting until you have smashed him. A ladybug, tied to a string, is urged to fly. No. To experience in full flight that one is tied to a despot is the hardest slavery. The lion says to the hedgehog I can eat you with one bite. Yes, but you cannot digest me. After Robespierre's edict that there is a God: Now, God, you may again exist. Be sure to thank the Shah of the Franks! I do not yet understand the theme in the second group. A noble wants to seem a friend of the people and claims he would burn his Adelsbrief. You cannot do that. It is still too fresh and green. The third is titled Das Jahrhundert der Philosophen. A major commands a cobbler to make him new boots in the English style. The latter goes off without measuring and is hailed back. His response is You do not know the new fashion. The critical principle of pure bootlearning is that you measure up to others; only when a boot fits everyone can it become your boot. The fourth speaks of Pfeffel as Ein Elsässischer Gellert - ein LaFontaine aus Colmar. A hamster accedes to the request of a hedgehog to stay the night but soon finds the guest wounding him and driving him out.
Description
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Publisher
G. Braun
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DOI
Identifier
7831 (Access ID)