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Agnes Bernauer

 
German Literature Companion: Agnes Bernauer
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Agnes Bernauer, a five-act tragedy in prose, ‘Ein deutsches Trauerspiel’, by F. Hebbel. Written in 1851, it was first performed under the direction of F. Dingelstedt in the Munich Hoftheater in March 1852. It was published in 1855. The action is based on an episode in Bavarian history (1428-36), the secret marriage of Albrecht (see Albrecht III), heir to the Wittelsbach Duke Ernst (see Ernst I) of Bavaria/Munich, which ended in the arrest of his wife, the Augsburg barber's daughter Agnes Bernauer. She was tried, condemned to death for witchcraft, and drowned in the Danube at Straubing in 1435.

Hebbel adapted the historical figures to suit his purpose. Agnes rejects the courtship of Theobald, the barber's assistant, against the advice of her father, Caspar Bernauer, who urges her to marry within her class. Albrecht's friends, Graf Törring, Nothafft von Wernberg, and Rolf von Frauenhoven, likewise try to prevent the young duke from rashly marrying the barber's daughter, whom he meets during his visit, and who is known as the ‘angel of Augsburg’ because of her exceptional beauty. Caspar blesses the couple, accepting Agnes's conviction that her love is an expression of God's will. Duke Ernst, fearing for the safety of his dynasty, disinherits Albrecht at a tournament in Regensburg in favour of his nephew Adolf. At the castle of Straubing Albrecht, as he is about to go to a tournament at Ingolstadt, learns of Adolf's death. Hardly has he left the castle than Agnes is arrested. Offered the choice of renouncing Albrecht or suffering death, she chooses the latter and is drowned in the Danube. Duke Ernst accepts full responsibility for her execution which he has ordered for no reason other than to safeguard his dynasty, for Adolf's death has left his son Albrecht as the only possible heir. Ernst's chancellor von Preising confirms that Agnes has to die because she is ‘beautiful and virtuous’. On hearing the news of Agnes's death, Albrecht revolts against his father, who is taken prisoner by Albrecht's men. But the Emperor's herald arrives to pronounce ban and excommunication upon the rebel duke. In the final confrontation between father and son, Ernst recognizes Agnes, in death, as duchess, her low station having prevented him from doing so during her life. He abdicates, and passes the ducal staff to his son. Albrecht's acceptance reaffirms the dynasty.

By executing one innocent of any crime Duke Ernst appears inhuman, although Hebbel, under the impact of the 1848 revolutions, finds motivation for the political theme of the play. He also intended Agnes's tragedy to demonstrate his conception of tragic guilt inherent in the beauty and purity which constitute Agnes's unwitting ‘hubris’. Hebbel also saw his play as a modernization of Sophocles's Antigone, in that Agnes, like Antigone, represented the ‘absolute right’, which was in conflict with the ‘relative right’, embodied in the state and represented by King Creon and Duke Ernst respectively. In such a conflict the representatives of secular power must inevitably incur personal guilt in the administration of the law. Duke Ernst emerges fully aware of the ethical conflict which destroys his humanity.

Critical comments on the political theme have not ceased since the first performance of the play, which has nevertheless maintained its position as one of Hebbel's major tragedies. For other treatments of the subject see Bernauer, Agnes.

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Agnes Bernauer

Agnes Bernauer (c. 1410 – October 12, 1435) was the commoner wife of Albert III, Duke of Bavaria. His father ordered her to be killed. The story has since been immortalized in folk songs and in literature.

Contents

Biography

Agnes was the daughter and/or maid of a barber surgeon in Augsburg. In 1432, she was secretly married to Albert III, the Bavarian heir apparent, the only son of Ernest, Duke of Bavaria and Elisabetta Visconti. His maternal grandfather Bernabò Visconti was Lord of Milan. Another, less common, version has her being merely his mistress. She lived at Schloss Vohburg. Albert's father had planned that Albert would marry the daughter of Duke Erich of Brunswick. One day, Ernst brought the matter up, and Albert explained that "because of fornication with a maiden" the wedding would have to be called off—Agnes was his lawful wife.

However, after Duke Ernst arranged for Albert's absence, he ordered Agnes' arrest and had her charged with witchcraft, because he could not accept his son's choice of wife. On October 12, 1435, she was drowned in the Danube at Straubing. Suddenly her leg bindings loosened and she was able to swim to the bank. But the executioner was waiting for her, and he held her head under the water until she was dead.

About Agnes herself, little is known. Her childhood, her thoughts, and her character remain murky. The only thing that can be said of her is that she was very beautiful and of delicate structure. In addition, she is said to have had magnificent blond hair. Albert called her worthy and respectable.

After her death, Albert took himself to Duke Louis at Ingolstadt, but he reconciled with his father that November. In 1436, he married Anna of Brunswick, but nevertheless in 1447, he had the bones of "ehrsamen Frau Agnesen der Pernawerin" ("The honorable Lady Agnes of Pernawerin") brought to the sepulcher (Agnes-Bernauer-Kapelle) in the cemetery of St. Peter zu Straubing and covered with a marble gravestone.

Every four years in Straubing at the original location, the ducal castle, the Agnes Bernauer Festival takes place. In the festival, Agnes' story is told in scenes by the laymen actors of the Agnes Bernauer Festival Guild.

Many cities and communities have christened a street or plaza "Der Bernauerin" after Agnes.

Adaptations

Albert and Agnes' tragic love has long been a staple of folk songs and over the centuries many new literary and musical versions have been created.

  • Christian Hoffmann von Hoffmannswaldau: Liebe Zwischen Hertzog Ungenand und Agnes Bernin, Poem, 1680
  • Joseph August Graf von Toerring: Agnes Bernauer, Vaterländisches Schauspiel, 1780
  • Georg Joseph Vogler (Music), Carl Theodor Traitteur (Libretto): Albert der Dritte von Bayern, Singspiel, UA München 1781
  • Franz Gleißner (Music): Agnes Bernauerin, Melodrama, probably after Toerring, 1781, UA München 1790
  • Karl August Krebs (Music): Herzog Albrecht, Opera, UA Hamburg 8. Oktober 1833 (revised version: Dresden 1858 as Agnes Bernauer)
  • King Ludwig I of Bavaria: An Agnes Bernauerin, Poem
  • Adolf Böttger: Agnes Bernauer, Drama, 1846
  • Melchior Meyr: Herzog Albrecht, Drama, 1852
  • Friedrich Hebbel: Agnes Bernauer - Ein deutsches Trauerspiel in fünf Aufzügen, Drama, 1855
  • Otto Ludwig, several versions of a drama, 19th century
  • Martin Greif: Agnes Bernauer oder der Engel von Augsburg, Drama, 1894
  • Eugen Hubrich: Die Agnes Bernauer zu Straubing, open-air play, 1935. From 1952 to 1989, the play was adapted several times for the Agnes Bernauer Festival in Straubing. Until 1963, Hubrich made the changes himself.
  • Hans Karl Meixner, Agnes Bernauer: Ein Leben voll Leid und Liebe: Roman. Reutlingen: Enßlin & Laiblin, 1937.
  • Carl Orff: Die Bernauerin - Ein bairisches Stück, a folk musical, 1944, UA Stuttgart 1947
  • Raymond Bernard (Director), Bernard Zimmer (Screenplay), Joseph Kosma (Music): Le Jugement de Dieu, Historical Movie, 1949-51
  • Michel Boisrond (Director), Jacques Prévert (Screenplay), France Roche (Screenplay), Maurice Jarre (Music): Les amours célèbres (deutscher Titel: Galante Liebesgeschichten), Episodenfilm, 1961, with Brigitte Bardot as Agnes Bernauer
  • Franz Xaver Kroetz: Agnes Bernauer, Play, 1976
  • Manfred Böckl: Agnes Bernauer. Hexe, Hur' und Herzogin. Novel, 1993 ISBN 3-924484-63-5
  • Thomas Stammberger und Johannes Reitmeier: Agnes Bernauer - Ein Historienspiel in fünfzehn Bildern, Freilichtspiel, 1995 (2003 and 2007 revised by Johannes Reitmeier)
  • Richard Wunderer: Agnes Bernauer und ihr Herzog. Rosenheimer, Rosenheim 1999 ISBN 3-475-52940-8

References

  • The information in this article is based on that in its equivalent in the German Wikipedia.
  • Werner Schäfer: Agnes Bernauer und ihre Zeit. Nymphenburger, München 1987 ISBN 3-485-00551-7
  • Werner Schäfer: Agnes Bernauer. Geschichte - Dichtung - Bild. Attenkofer, Straubing 1995 ISBN 3-931091-02-3
  • Christina Lichtblau: Auf den Spuren der Agnes Bernauer. Monsenstein & Vannerdat, o.J. ISBN 3-936600-08-2
  • Richard Wunderer: Agnes Bernauer und ihr Herzog. Rosenheimer Verlagshaus, 1999 ISBN 3-475-52940-8
  • Manfrad Böckl: Agnes Bernauer. Titel: Hexe, Hure, Herzogin. Roman. Aufbau Taschenbuch Verlag, ISBN 3-7466-1290-X
  • Hans Schlosser: Agnes Bernauerin (1410-1435). Der Mythos von Liebe, Mord und Staatsräson, in: Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, Germanistische Abteilung, 122. Band (2005), Wien-Köln-Weimar, Seiten 263-284

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German Literature Companion. The Oxford Companion to German Literature. Copyright © 1976, 1986, 1997, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
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