Black devil and iron angel: the railway in nineteenth-century German realism

2. Berthold Auerbach

[] BERTHOLD AUERBACH Man überschaut die Hochebene des Strohgäus und dort zeigen sich jetzt neue Bahnhäuschen für die bald zu eröffende Gäubahn. Bald wird man auch die Schlangenwolken aus der Lokomotive sehen und den schrillen Pfiff hören.Welche Gebilde werden sich in den Kinderseelen gestalten, die in dieser neuenWelt träumen und erwachen? Der Pfiff der Lokomotive kann ihnen werden was uns der Posthornklang war. You overlook the highlands of the Strohgäus and note the new rail houses for the soon to be opened regional railway. Soon you will see the snake-like clouds from the locomotives and hear their shrill whistles.What images will form in the souls of children who dream and awaken in this new world?The locomotive’s whistle can become to them what the sound of the postman’s horn was to us. Berthold Auerbach,“EinTag in der Heimat” () Berthold Auerbach, born Moses Baruch Auerbach in the Swabian city of Nordstetten in , was one of the most widely read and critically acclaimed authors in the latter half of the nineteenth century. History, however, has not been kind to Auerbach. His works are generally not considered part of the canon of German literature, and he has frequently been con-  signed to the rank of writers of provincial village stories, suggesting a certain lack of relevance. But Auerbach, as a transitional author whose works herald the beginning of the realist movement in German literature, is relevant in any analysis of realism and technology. While an association with the realist movement does not in itself signify a nineteenth-century author’s importance, it can have the effect of pulling him out of the ranks of the trivial. One aspect of Auerbach’s work that was in no way trivial, and that added to his credentials as a budding realist, was his analysis of the relationship between art, specifically literature, and technology . One would be hard pressed to find a more enthusiastic supporter of technological progress, and in all of his works of fiction in which the train plays a role,Auerbach demonstrates a keen understanding of its economic and political ramifications in Germany. One of the central characters in Sträflinge (Convicts ), points out in a highly charged political discussion that the train is a source of power, power that lies in the hands of common citizens (S –),1 truly a revolutionary idea in its time. In fact, the idea of new technological developments as democratizing agents still enjoys favor in the twenty-first century. Just as it would be difficult to find an author as interested in technology as Auerbach, one would be equally hard pressed to find a nineteenth-century author with a more nuanced understanding of the complex relationship between art and technology . In order to explain this relationship,Auerbach uses a science metaphor based on Hermann von Helmholtz’s newly discovered physical law.Auerbach suggests in “Ein Tag in der Heimat” that the law of the conservation of energy, which holds that energy can change into other forms but is never destroyed, applies equally “im Reiche der Phantasie” (in the realm of fantasy).2  Berthold Auerbach . All Sträflinge excerpts are from Gesammelte Schriften (Stuttgart: J. G. Cottasche, –), :–. .Auerbach,“EinTag in der Heimat,” . The realm of fantasy, or of myth, was changing, largely owing to technological innovation. These changes would not destroy mythical narratives and thus should not be feared; at the same time, the changes could not be overlooked. In fact, Auerbach believed, technological innovations could actually expand the mythical narrative, as the narrator in Das Nest an der Bahn (The Nest on the Railway) suggests when he says that no bad luck will befall anyone who lives within sight of a locomotive’s steam. Auerbach’s works are rich in examples that underscore his use of the railway as a device to demonstrate his third-culture take on the relationship between technology and myth. “Auf einem Acker an der Eisenbahn” Auerbach made his view of the railway in Germany very clear early on, in “Auf einem Acker an der Eisenbahn” (On a Field Next to the Railway) ().This short piece provides a concise summary of his opinions regarding the railway as told through the protagonist, an enlightened and portly farmer.3 The farmer is taking a family member on a tour of his land holdings when he comes...