Author: Maarten Koning

““Das Talent zu forcieren, lag Hebel nicht, er besass den Sinn für Proportionen, Augenmass, Instinkt für das, was nötig und möglich ist und was nicht” (Robert Minder, Hebel, der erasmische Geist oder nützliche Anleitung zu seiner Lektüre, (Leipzig, 1959). (He had a sense of proportion, an eye for detail, an instinct for what is necessary and possible and what is not).

Johann Peter Hebel. Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe. Hebelhaus Hausen

Johann Peter Hebel (1760-1826) is one of the most admired and well-known poets and prose writers in the German-speaking world, admired even by his contemporaries, including Johann Georg Jacobi, Jean Paul, Jeremias Gotthelf, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and, much later, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Rainer Maria Rilke, Martin Heidegger, Heinrich Böll, Bertolt Brecht and Botho Strauß.

Hebel was born in Basel. His parents were immigrants from the Kurpfalz (his father) and Hausen (his mother) in the former margravate of Baden, now part of Baden-Württemberg.

Emanuel Büchel (1705-1775), Totentanz 2, Hebel’s house of birth in Basel, around 1770. Private collection

Hebel’s house of birth today

Johann Peter Hebel. Dreyland Dichterweg

After his father’s death, Johann Jakob Hebel, in 1761, lived with his mother in Hausen during the winter and in Basel during the summer. In the winter, he attended the Latin school in Schopfheim, a village near Hausen. In the summer, he was a pupil at the town school near St. Peter’s Church (where he was also baptised) and the Gymnasium in Münsterplatz, Basel. His homeland (Heimat) was the area between the Feldberg, the source of the Wiese, and Basel, where the Wiese flows into the Rhine at Kleinhüningen.

Gustav Gebhardt (1821-1896), Schopfheim, Innerer Marktgraben and the Lateinschule, 1885.  Stadtarchiv Schopfheim

After his mother died in 1773, he went to Karlsruhe, the residence of the Margrave of Baden. He became a teacher at a grammar school, an associate professor of theology and Hebrew, and a deacon at the court church in Karlsruhe.

Hebelhaus and -museum, Hausen

His Alemannic poetry

He published his first Alemannic poems in this period, which caused a stir among literary luminaries and scholars after their first publication in 1803. How could a “peasant dialect” produce such beautiful poems? Following the publication and subsequent reprints, his fame was established. The Alemannic language, Basel and the Wiesental were Hebel’s primary sources of inspiration.

The Wiese and the Wiesental

Hebel knew (classical) poetry and applied it in his Alemannic poems, a unique feature. Most writers, politicians and scholars had never seen (or heard) Alemannic written (or spoken).

Although he wrote his poems in Alemannic, his titles were in High German, and he included up to 30 pages of word explanations because the Alemannic dialect was not spoken outside his region.

Lörrach, Rötteln Castle

Jetzt goht’s wieder witers und alliwil aben und abe!

Siehsch dört vorne ’s Röttler Schloss – verfalleni Mure?

In vertäfelte Stube mit goldene Liiste verbendlet

hen sust Fürste gwohnt und schöni fürstligi Fraue,

Heren und Heregsind, und d’Freud isch z’Röttle deheim gsi.

(Johann Peter Hebel,  ‘Die Wiese’, 1801)

His Alemannic poems soon became known far beyond the German-speaking world. A Russian translation appeared as early as 1818, followed soon by translations in Dutch, Japanese, and French.

In the 20th century, the German writer Rainer Maria Rilke (who also found his “home” in Switzerland and is buried in Raron in the canton of Valais) put it this way:

“”Nicht daß dieser Mann im Dialekt gedichtet hat, sondern daß der Dialekt in ihm poetisch geworden ist, das ist das Entscheidende“. (Not that this man wrote in dialect, but that the dialect became poetic, that is the decisive issue).

Ötlingen, St. Gallus Church

The calendar stories

The calendar was a medium with a large circulation (up to 50,000 copies per year in the Margraviate of Baden), containing practical information (months, days, markets, holidays, phases of the moon, sunrise, sowing and harvesting dates, etc.) supplemented by short, mainly dramatised and exciting stories from everyday life. Hebel took over the publication of this calendar in 1808.

His calendar stories in “Der Rheinländische Hausfreund oder neuer Kalender” and the volume “Schatzkästlein des rheinischen Hausfreundes“, published in 1811 and containing the best stories from the “Rheinländer Hausfreund”, contributed significantly to his fame.

He wrote in High German. He drew inspiration from a variety of written and oral sources. He developed a style for the short story that is still imitated today.

His career

Hebel always had another profession besides writing. During the Napoleonic era, Baden was elevated to a grand duchy in 1806. In 1819, Grand Duke Ludwig I (1763-1830) appointed him prelate of the Evangelical Church of Baden, the highest ecclesiastical office in the Grand Duchy, with membership in the First Chamber of the Landtag and the Evangelical Church Synod.

Hebel’s grave in Schwetzingen. Foto: Hebelhaus Hausen

Literary legacy

Hebel died and was buried in Schwetzingen on 22 September 1826. He inspired many writers, both during his lifetime and after his death. The Wiesental and Basel honour the writer in many ways: the Hebel Prize for Literature, commemorative plaques, Hebel fountains, Hebel walks, Hebel cafés, the annual Hebel Day and the Hebel “mähli” on 10 May, as well as the Hebel House (Hebelhause)in Hausen, Hebel associations, Hebel pavilions, the Basel Hebel Foundation, Hebel streets, Hebel squares, statues and busts, (academic) publications and tributes in many other forms.

Hebeltag, Hausen, 10 May 2023 

His greatest gift to Basel is his poem “Z’Basel an mim Rhi” with the Allemannic title “Erinnerung an Basel”:

Z’Basel an mim Rhy,

Jo, dert möcht i sy!

Weiht nit d’Luft so mild und lau

Und der Himmel isch so blau

An mym liebe, an mym liebe Rhy

It was also his last Alemannic poem, which ties in nicely with his first. His first poem under the title ‘Die Wiese’ is about the source of the Wiese near Feldberg and ends in Basel:

Feldbergs liebligi daughter, o Wiese, bis mer Gottwilche!….’s Gotthard’s grosse Bueb (the Rhine), ………doch wie ne Rotsher vo Basel stolz in sine Schritte und schön in sine Giberde.

(Source: B. Trachsler, Johann Peter Hebel. Werkauswahl, Basel 2010, Hebelhaus Hausen)

Johann Peter Hebel Gesellschaft, Basel Tattoo Parade, 15 July 2023

Basel

Hausen

Lörrach, Hebelpark

Hebelbrunnen, Hausen

Basel, St. Peterskirche and Hebelbuste

Liechtenstein is the last German-speaking Principality. Until Napoleon and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in 1806, there were still about 300 (very) small to very large German-speaking principalities.

Before the 19th century, Liechtenstein had no constitution in the proper sense of the word. However, customary law and individual documents, such as the Service Instruction (Dienstinstruktion) of 1719, regulated the functioning of government and the rights of the citizens. This was also due to the close connection to the imperial law of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.

Brief History of Liechtenstein

In the 15th century, two Landschaften arose on the territory of present-day Liechtenstein, in Vaduz and Schellenberg, a development similar to the Landsgemeinde in Switzerland (see Swiss Spectator under Constitution, democracy and cantons).

The highest body was the Landschaftsversammlung, a type of Landsgemeinde that also existed in Switzerland. This Landschaft appointed the officials for justice and the government. The Landschaft was also responsible for military affairs.

Until the end of the 17th century, Liechtenstein consisted of the county of Vaduz and the seigneury of Schellenberg, the two territories of the Landschaften.

After the establishment of the Principality of Liechtenstein in the years 1699-1712, the first ruler, Prince Anton Florian of Liechtenstein (1656-1721), issued a Service Instruction on 10 April 1719, which set out the first steps in the functioning of the state and the rights of the citizens. The Landschaften and their rights remained intact.

However, in 1808, after the end of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in 1806, a new Service Instruction was issued, which abolished the Landschaften and limited the role and rights of the citizens.

The Reactionary Constitution of 1818

When Liechtenstein joined the German Confederation (Deutscher Bund) in 1815, following the defeat of Napoleon and as a result of the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815), the Principality introduced a new constitution.

Prince Johann I of Liechtenstein (1760-1836) signed the Constitution on 9 November 1818. The text consisted of only 17 paragraphs. There were no political rights for citizens or parliamentary representation. The Prince was the sole holder of state power.

This Constitution did not reflect the old rights of the Landschaften. It was a reactionary constitution that reflected the monarch’s omnipotence.

The failed Revolution of 1848-1849

The German Revolution of 1848/1849 also impacted the Principality of Liechtenstein. In the Principality, there was unrest and (a kind of) revolution, and the subjects demanded a modern constitution and more rights. However, with the failure of the German Revolution and the subsequent reaction, the initiative for a new Constitution failed.

Constitution 1862

However, the new Prince Johann II of Liechtenstein (1840-1929) surrendered his absolutist power in 1862. This Constitution corresponded to the constitutional norm of the time in the German Confederation. The core of the Constitution was still the state power of the Prince, but was now supplemented by a parliamentary Landtag. This Constitution also introduced fundamental rights for the citizens.

Constitution 1921

With the formation of political parties in Liechtenstein, calls emerged for reform of the monarchical state system. Following the collapse of the monarchy in Germany and Austria in 1918, the concept of absolutist rule was no longer tenable.

On 5 October 1921, the modern Constitution was signed by Prince Karl of Liechtenstein (1878-1955). The Constitution defines the Principality of Liechtenstein as a hereditary constitutional monarchy based on a democratic and parliamentary system. Among other things, it introduced the referendum and the popular initiative, following Switzerland’s example.

Liechtenstein also sought close economic and monetary ties with Switzerland.

Although the Prince remained head of state and responsible for the country’s representation and foreign policy with some other (veto) rights, appointing government members and legislation was only possible with parliamentary approval. This Constitution is the foundation of Liechtenstein’s rule of law and parliamentary democracy, marking its centenary this year.

However, it is not the end of the discussion. In particular, the Prince’s right of veto, his power to dissolve parliament and to govern by decree in urgent cases (Notrecht), and his competence and active role in foreign policy are under discussion.

The current head of state, Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein (born 1945), and the citizens have been engaged in a permanent dialogue and conflict over these powers since he became head of state in 1989.

(Source and further information: 100 Jahre Verfassung, Landesmuseum Liechtenstein, www.landesmuseum.li).