Aquis submersus
Aquis submersus, a Novelle by Th. Storm, first published in the Deutsche Rundschau in 1876. It is the first of Storm's ‘Chroniknovellen’, and is set in a frame (see Rahmen) linking the present with a distant past. This is unfolded in two chronologically separated parts of a fictitious 17th-c. MS., for which Storm uses an appropriate archaic style. An ‘Erinnerungsnovelle’, it contains the recollections of Johannes, a German painter, who, for reasons of class, is prevented from marrying Katharina, the woman he loves. After the death of Katharina's sympathetic and enlightened father, her brother, Junker Wulf, tries to marry her against her will to Junker von der Risch. Wulf is portrayed as a ruthlessly autocratic character, symbolized by his ferocious dogs, to which he eventually falls victim. Wulf's persecution drives the lovers into union. In revenge Wulf fires at Johannes when he asks for Katharina's hand, and marries the girl off to a pastor, who accepts a pregnant bride in return for a living. She bears a son, and years after, when Johannes and Katharina unexpectedly come together again, the boy is drowned while they embrace. At the pastor's request Johannes paints the dead child's portrait and adds the letters c. p. a. s. (culpa patris aquis submersus) in token of his repentance. Although the story implies social criticism of the land-owning Junker class, it is primarily a tragedy of passion. A sense of fate contributes a subdued atmosphere, conveying the vanity of earthly happiness. This is underlined by the brief final section of the ‘frame’, which indicates that both the painter and his work are long forgotten.
