Bötjer Basch

by Theodor Storm, Hans Jochim Schmidt (Narrator)

Rechtschaffen, redlich - mit solchen aus dem Gebrauch geratenen Begriffen ließe sich wohl am besten der Böttchermeister Daniel Basch charakterisieren ("Bötjer" ist laut Storm die plattdeutsche Form von "Böttcher"). In Treue bewahrt der Meister die Liebe zu seiner spät geheirateten und früh verstorbenen Frau und ihrem gemeinsamen Sohn. Die Erzählung enthält auch wörtliche Rede in Plattdeutsch. Der aufmerksame Kenner wird feststellen, dass der Sprecher nicht wie der Autor aus Nordfriesland, sondern aus Mecklenburg stammt, aber das wird seiner Freude an dem Text hoffentlich keinen Abbruch tun.

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First published January 1, 1887

About the author

Hans Theodor Woldsen Storm (1817 – 1888) was a German poet and author.

He was born in Husum ("the grey town by the grey sea") on the west coast of Schleswig of well-to-do parents. While still a student of law, he published a first volume of verse together with the brothers Tycho and Theodor Mommsen.

He worked as a lawyer in Schleswig-Holstein, but emigrated to Thuringia in 1851, leaving his mother's household, and did not return until 1864 to become a writer leaving his homeland in Denmark.

He wrote a number of stories, poems and novellas. His two most well-known works are the novellas Immensee ("Bees' Lake", 1849) and Der Schimmelreiter ("The Rider on the White Horse"), first published in April 1888 in the Deutsche Rundschau. Other published works include a volume of his poems (1852), the novella Pole Poppenspäler (1874) and the novella Aquis submersus (1877).