S OLVEJG N ITZKE Creating “Klima” in a Changing World: Weather and Environment in Peter Rosegger’s Forest Fictions Urban Meteorology vs. Country Weather In the 1870s, two very different approaches to weather and climate unfolded in Austria. While Vienna hosted the First International Meteorological Congress in 1873, Styrian author and magazine editor Peter Rosegger published two of his best-known stories, Schriften eines Waldschulmeisters in 1875 and the autobiographically influenced collection Waldheimat in 1877. 1 As the titles suggest, both texts are set in the forests of the Austrian countryside, an environment that could not be more removed from the thriving metropolis of Vienna. Rosegger’s forest fictions take place in villages so remote that they seem to be left out of the processes of modernization which characterize the world around them. Likewise, the protagonists, Waldschulmeister Andreas Erdmann and the Waldbauernbübel, 2 Rosegger’s childhood alter ego, are almost comically distinguished and cut off from modern people as well as modern goods and customs. However, it becomes clear during the course of the texts that the villages are in fact part of vast modern networks and subject to fundamental transformation. The parallel occurrence of the First International Meteorological Congress in Vienna and Rosegger’s programmatic tales of remoteness points, on the one hand, to the different states of knowledge in regard to atmospheric phenomena and, on the other hand, to a specific technique of resistance to the perceived “upscaling” of (scientific and political) authority (Woods 494) which marks the modernization processes of the second half of the nineteenth century. Initially, Rosegger’s stories, which are often characterized as sentimental renderings of an idyllic Heimat - ‘home, homeland’ - that never existed as such, might not appear to have much in common with the specialized scientific meeting that took place almost at the same time. In this paper, I will argue that they must be read against the backdrop of a radical scientific and imaginative reorganization of the world that the stories’ characters as well as 1 Die Schriften des Waldschulmeisters [Manuscripts of a forest teacher] in the following quoted as Schriften and Waldheimat: Erzählungen aus der Jugendzeit [Forest Home: Tales from a time of youth] do not exist in a published English translation. All quotations are translated by the author. 2 “Waldschulmeister” can be translated as forest teacher. “Waldbauernbübel” is an endearing form of “forest-farmer’s son.” S OLVEJG N ITZKE 122 Rosegger’s readers inhabit. The stories create a space which by appearing as natural offers a sense of deceleration and familiarity that is lacking in the urban centers. Yet the rural idyll in these stories is never oblivious to the already almost fully realized modernity ‘outside.’ Especially in regard to the narrative function of weather events, their perception as normal or extraordinary and the critical observation of a changing environment, Rosegger’s stories are a rich source of contemporary cultural knowledge about climate and its place in the natural world. The local and temporal remoteness of his subjects allows Rosegger to view the transformations of the world from an apparently secluded viewpoint and thus to imagine albeit a utopian way to resist them. By analyzing representations of weather phenomena within these texts, I aim to show how they create a distinct “Klima” (Fleming and Jankovic 1) in which the villages and their inhabitants emerge as part of one common environment. The attempt to “decouple Klima from its current exclusive association with atmospheric sciences and revisit the implications of an ancient vocabulary” (ibid.) signifies, here, an approach to literature as part of a broader cultural process which informs and shapes discourses on the natural, the social and the political. Looking at the emergence of climatology as a discipline and literary representations of weather in the village story allows for the observation of the vastly different paces of and attitudes toward modernization. I propose to read meteorological instances in Rosegger’s forest-fiction and the formalization and institutionalization of climatology as phenomena of functional differentiation and commentary on modernization respectively. Whereas the Congress marks the beginning of a successful scientific history, Rosegger’s seemingly untimely account represents a side of progress that is often overlooked. Images of the “global countryside” as Michael Woods coins it in the context of neoliberal globalization (486) are, as I will argue, rooted in historical conceptualizations of the rural in which the genre of the village story plays a pivotal role. Rossegger’s texts, which I will use as an example, employ the rural as a means to create a narrative space in which the intricate connection of humans and nature becomes not only visible but is reinforced as a desirable, albeit lost, relationship. The analysis of meteorological phenomena, hence, stands in the context of a developing concept of what we would call today ecological consciousness. Weather, in this respect, is a particularly interesting issue because it highlights the differences between urban and rural environments. While this aspect of nature affects both country and cities, it has vastly different effects on the two spheres. In short, even ‘normal,’ expectable weather like heavy rain in summer - a mere inconvenience in an urban environment - can threaten the livelihood of an entire village in Creating “Klima” in a Changing World 123 the countryside as the narrator of Schriften eines Waldschulmeisters witnesses at the beginning of the story. The contrast between the increasingly specialized meteorological and climatological knowledge of the urban centers and the experience based knowledge of the countryside is in itself a marker of modernity. I argue that the village story thus uses this contrast to create a distinctly rural “Klima,” or rural ecolology avant la lettre, to promote an alternative to the specialized and estranged relationship to nature that it attributes to urban-centered processes of modernization. Thus, it presents a powerful historical instance of “environmental reflexivity” (Locher and Fressoz 579) which provides fruitful insights for a cultural history of climate and climate changes. The Work of Standardization The participants of the 1873 First International Meteorological Congress in Vienna had high and partly idealistic goals. Its central purpose was to establish organization(s) and standards that would allow for the sharing of the already vast amounts of data that were collected from all over the globe. While the technology of telegraphy allowed for data exchange in real time since the 1850s, there was no uniform system in which meteorological data was to be collected - neither in terms of measurement, nor of description and notation formats. By the time of the conference, national meteorological institutes were responsible for the observation and recording of the weather, but there was no interor non-governmental organization present to organize global communication and data sharing. Hence, “the bulk of the 1873 Congress’ agenda focused on standards for international data networks […] The proceedings exemplified the tension between already established, politically powerful national systems and newer, politically weaker international norms” (Edwards 52). The aspirations of some of the conference participants exceeded these practical efforts as they took them only as a starting-point for a “genuinely global observing network” integrating observations from remote areas of the world thus far lacking observation (Edwards 51). “But in the 1870s the ambitions of meteorologists far exceeded their governments’ willingness to pay for such stations, or for the expensive telegraph connections that would have been necessary to integrate them into the data network” (Edwards 52). Despite the ongoing rivalries and reservations of governments, the Vienna congress laid the groundwork for the international cooperation without which neither meteorology nor climatology can produce relevant findings. Aside from the geographical coincidence, the Vienna conference is important for the interpretation of Rosegger’s texts in light of the ‘Meteorologies of Modernity’ because it represents the immense progress of meteorolog- S OLVEJG N ITZKE 124 ical research in the nineteenth century as well as the state of what was understood and, maybe even more importantly, what was not understood about weather and climate. 3 By the middle of the nineteenth century the basic structure of the global climatic circulation as well as the forces driving it were well established, the causal relationship between weather and climate, however, remained poorly understood well into the twentieth century (Edwards 61). Meteorology, then, was divided into three disciplines - weather forecast, theoretical, and empirical meteorology - covering different interests and establishing different ideas about what weather is and what the chief objectives of meteorology should be. While demanding exceptional efforts in regard to international cooperation, meteorology as a discipline is part of a larger movement towards standardization and unification in the nineteenth century. Essential requirements for the network-extensions proposed in Vienna - universal time, the use of Morse code for telegraphic communication, universal measuring systems, etc. - were already available and serve as proof for the tremendous endeavors that were underway and their ongoing success (Edwards 27-48). In more than one way, the conference marks a key moment in the development of professional meteorology and with it the knowledge-producing practices that play an important part in forming ideas of what weather and climate is and how it is to be represented. In the case of meteorology, the interconnectedness and interdependency of technology, political agreement, financial potency, and scientific progress becomes especially apparent. But while meteorology was already far advanced, climatology in the present understanding was still in its infancy: 4 Scientific discourses of climate first appeared mainly in the context of natural history and geography. Descriptions of climate, topography and the other physical features of regional environments accompanied narratives and catalogs of flora and fauna. Though climatic description sometimes included data analysis, more often it took the form of experience-based qualitative narrative, perhaps with a few measurements thrown in for support. By 1900, however, techniques of statistical analysis provided the wherewithal to make more direct use of the rapidly accumulating data. (Edwards 63) It is especially interesting for my argument that the early stages of the scientific discourse of climate were characterized by the use of “experience-based qualitative narrative” as opposed to the advanced quantitative methods that 3 For the role of literature in generating meteorological knowledge and non-knowledge [Nicht-Wissen], see Gamper. 4 While meteorology is chiefly concerned with weather - precipitation, cloudage and atmospheric pressure - and hence phenomena which can be measured directly, climatology is concerned with climate, “essentially the history of weather, averaged over time” (Edwards 287), that is, an abstract extrapolation of measurements dependent on mathematical modeling that cannot be directly experienced. Creating “Klima” in a Changing World 125 have been used for meteorology and are the foundation of any climate model and hence any climate research today. Deborah Coen has shown how influential these narrative accounts have been especially in the Habsburg empire. The methods of geo-scientific research employed by the continental empires were distinctly different from those of the European overseas empires, particularly the British. Not only had the continental empires the advantage of geographical continuity: Coen shows how for example the “Climatographies” by Heinrich von Ficker contributed to the nation-building efforts by mediating between different scales of climate knowledge instead of ‘upscaling’ climate knowledge and thus placing it out of touch with local knowledge (Coen 52-60). However, von Ficker’s “meteorological travel narratives” (Coen 62) were not only contested within the academic circles of Vienna 5 but ultimately discarded in the course of the “globalization of atmospheric science [which] would mean the abstraction of meteorological knowledge from the people and places that produced it” (ibid.). According to Edwards, only three decades after the Meteorological Congress, the data volume for climatology and the techniques to make use of it were available, hence rendering qualitative approaches superflous. It can be said then that the scientific discourse on climate was on the verge of professionalization when Rosegger wrote and published his stories. Professionalization in this case refers to the distinction between qualitative narrative approaches and quantitative empirical or statistical methods to describe a phenomenon as well as the differentiation of climatology as a scientific discipline. This transformation of knowledge production fittingly illustrates the context in which cultural knowledge about the climate was formed and thus forms the background for the way in which climate is featured in the Austrian Heimat-stories. The conference and its results might itself have been too avant-garde for a broader public to take notice of the details. However, the growing belief in the understandability and predictability of weather was of great interest and was met with enthusiasm like many of the scientific developments of the time. Moreover, its “backdrop of [a] vast and powerful but incomplete and uneven convergence toward common languages, metrics, technological systems, and scientific understanding” (Edwards 50) was visible in every respect of (city) life. If standardization, as Paul Edwards suggests, is seen as a “major characteristic of this historical period” (Edwards 49), it comes as no surprise that authors like Rosegger and his contemporaries refer to the institutions and industries demanding and furthering standardization. 6 However, as I 5 The relative stability von Ficker and his colleague Julius von Hann ascribe to climate is in stark contrast to Eduard Brückner’s (1863-1927) hypotheses of climate variation [“Klimaschwankung”]. 6 Rosegger in particular used his magazine Heimgarten as a vehicle for his skepticism towards normalization and technological progress. An especially striking example in S OLVEJG N ITZKE 126 will explore later in this article, the growing visibility of the effects of said industries dampened enthusiasm for progress significantly. From a contemporary perspective, Edwards’ above mentioned distinction between the scientific advancement of meteorology and the relative backwardness of early climatological discourse might not be as apparent as it seems for a 21 st century reader. Rather, it becomes apparent that the scientific and technological progress did not ‘throw out’ older ideas and practices all at once but surpassed them, if at all, at a very slow pace. The sometimes excruciating negotiations for funding, common standards and cooperation among meteorological observation systems and institutions convincingly illustrate 7 how science and scientific progress depend just as much on what is possible at a given time theoretically and technologically as they do on what people and institutions are willing to implement. In fact, it is not only the lack of data and the lack of methods to make use of the data 8 but also a specific formation of ideas that characterizes the climatological discourse. The comparatively backwards discourse on climate must be regarded in its own context - a context that is in some respects much closer to the narrative techniques of literature than the methods of contemporary meteorology. The distinction between weather and climate is determined chiefly by different modes of access. Weather is directly perceptible because it consists of a specific state of the atmosphere at a given time and place. Although single events might be palpable, the perception and representation even of weather in and outside of scientific discourses is strongly shaped by cultural patterns. 9 This is even more apparent when it comes to climate. Climate is an abstraction of those different atmospheric states which is aimed at making long-term statements about what kind of weather can be expected or existed at any given place or region: “Climate is essentially the history of weather, averaged over time” (Edwards 287). Understood as a kind of vessel for weather records, it is no surprise that up to the point when statistical methods became the defining technique to determine ‘a climate,’ climate description relied on experience-based narratives. Until climate was thoroughly established as a factor in the Earth’s history that was subject to change and thus caused major transformation of entire ecosystems if not the entire plan- this respect is Rosegger’s essay “Veränderung der Landschaft” (“Transformation of the landscape,” Heimgarten 1903) which follows up on his method to imagine an ideal, inherently Austrian landscape that is willfully destroyed by the profit-oriented forces of modernization. He contrasts his observation of a landscape polluted both aesthetically (by non-traditional architecture) and materially (by black smoke of now ubiquitous factory chimneys) with the deep time of geology in order to stress the extent to which humans have become a decisive force in shaping environments. 7 See Edwards 49-59. 8 In fact, climate data and weather data are decidedly not the same (see Edwards 287- 322). 9 See for example Harris, and Boia. Creating “Klima” in a Changing World 127 et, a description of the status quo must have seemed sufficient enough. Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to underestimate climatology’s importance. Despite the discovery of severe changes in the Earth’s climate in history and particularly during the so-called ice age in the first half of the nineteenth century, climate remained a category of stability rather than change. The nineteenth century ‘flirted’ with the idea of climatic oscillations and prepared the ground for the more wide-ranging interpretations of the following century. Nevertheless, it firmly believed that climate had remained fairly constant since the end of the ice age, in other words, over the entire course of recorded history. (Boia 88) Lucian Boia argues further that the reason climate theories in the nineteenth century resisted actualization despite scientific evidence is rooted in a “resolutely determinist” attitude that “preferred simple relations of cause and effect […] Even if the existence of several factors was acknowledged, one factor had to take precedence over the others, an original and determining principle” (77). Although there was no shortness of efforts to get away from climate determinism, 10 according to Boia, racism, imperialism, and nationalism respectively persisted in organizing the world hierarchically according to climates and its supposed effects on ‘native’ peoples (67-69). Therefore, climate in the nineteenth century is as much a factor in human psychology and physiology as it is a “physical feature of regional environments” (Edwards 62). Before one dismisses this understanding and with it all (non-scientific) accounts of climate, a closer look into the primary texts reveals a much more differentiated picture. Rosegger’s forest fictions serve as an example for a perspective that offers images of a delicate and sometimes complex relationship between human beings and their surrounding environments, which are the shared convictions Boia describes in principle. Narrating Nature in Village Stories and Forest Fictions The genre of the Dorfgeschichte, 11 which shares many of the same characteristics as Waldheimat and Schriften eines Waldschulmeisters, has a strong tradition especially in the German-speaking world (Neumann and Twellmann, “Dorfgeschichten”). Beginning with Berthold Auerbach’s Schwarzwälder Dorfgeschichten in 1843, the Dorfgeschichte quickly gained momentum and 10 Boia mentions Charles Comte’s Traité de législation, ou exposition des lois générales suivant lesquelles les peuples prospèrent, dépérissent ou restent stationnaires and Ernst Haeckel’s ecology as examples to make the case for a widened idea of ‘environment’ (Boia 71-77). 11 The German term Dorfgeschichte can mean both tales of villages and history of villages. The ambiguity is indeed intentional in many cases. See Baur Dorfgeschichte and Neumann and Twellmann “Marginalität.” S OLVEJG N ITZKE 128 grew to be one of the most successful genres of nineteenth century German literature (Baur, Dorfgeschichte 14). While Auerbach and his imminent successors during the 1840s intended the realism of their stories as part of their political, even revolutionary intentions, 12 the genre quickly moved to favor a seemingly depoliticized version of Heimat - ‘home, homeland’ - and Heimeligkeit - ‘homeliness’ - after the Revolution in 1848. In the beginnings, however, writers like Auerbach and his Austrian contemporary Joseph Rank pursued the narrative representation of the respective villages in the Black Forest and the Bohemian Forest with scientific demeanor. The aspiration to depict the village realistically in respect to structure, customs, environmental conditions, and spoken language closely resembled the ethnological endeavors of the same period. 13 Hence, the description of climatic conditions is a vital part of the narrative. From their somewhat artificial perspective, the stories effectively recreate the village people of their own Heimat as exotic figures. Their contact to the modern world and its bureaucracy, means of transportation, and colonial goods, though mitigated by “brokers” 14 often seems either endearing or ridiculous. When Rosegger published his forest fictions, the genre of the Dorfgeschichte was well past its prime. Both of his spatially and historically remote locations suggest that there were no ‘untouched’ villages like those Rank and Auerbach described. In the second half of the century rural inhabitants of the Habsburg Empire migrated in large numbers to the cities and centers of industrialization (Vocelka 221-226). The mechanization of agriculture progressed very slowly and although peasants were freed of servitude by 1782 and of all dues to landlords by 1848, conditions did not improve enough to keep people in the countryside. However, modernization was not only met with enthusiasm. Slums were a common sight in all large cities of Europe and workers lived in dire conditions. That might have been one of the reasons why the rural idylls of Rosegger and others were so successful. However, since literacy among workers was rare, the former peasants were not the target audience, but the bourgeoisie. Even though many in the target audience might have only known country life from similar stories, they longed for images and, preferably, experiences of an intact relationship between humans and nature. Rosegger’s repeated calls for a return to nature as 12 Auerbach was put in jail for revolutionary actions and for belonging to a fraternity. The Austrian writer Joseph Rank became a member of the first German parliament, the Frankfurt National Assembly, in 1848. 13 See Zeyringer and Gollner 151-152 and Baur Dorfgeschichte. 14 For the example of tradesmen who are comfortable in both worlds, see Neumann and Twellmann, “Marginalität” 480. Creating “Klima” in a Changing World 129 well as the construction of a past state of countrylife in his stories testify to an increasing feeling of estrangement from nature among his audience. 15 The tales from the albeit imagined countryside served a similar purpose as the parks and countryside retreats did just outside the city. 16 Although, the Dorfand Heimatgeschichten of the late nineteenth century did not quite lose their ethnologically inspired perspective, they subordinated it to a different purpose. Instead of attempting to use narrative techniques to represent people who would otherwise have no (political) standing, the tales about the periphery supplied the centers with diversion from the crowded and increasingly polluted city life and, even more importantly, were a vital part in the formation of a sense of community in the emerging nation-states of Europe. This perspective on the countryside promised to deliver a sense of simplicity and authenticity that was in high demand by the intended audience. 17 Consequently, the depiction of natural environments must be read as part of a larger effort to create and preserve a ‘natural’ Heimat, 18 serving as (imagined) origin and home for the citizens of a nation. 19 Writers like Ludwig Anzengruber, Franz Stelzhamer and Peter Rosegger vigorously marketed their rootedness in the region in which their stories were set. They fashioned themselves, their language and their writing, after the natural forces of their Heimat. Hence, for example, local dialiects (Mundart) were promoted and interpreted as characteristics of a life in a specific (e.g., mountainous) landscape. They also managed to maintain the impression of having somehow escaped alienation from their origins and thus were able to serve as mediators between the ‘true’ homeland and its modernized 15 Rosegger discusses the possibility and strong desirability of a return to nature in several essays e.g., “Rückkehr zur Natur, Ein Zweigespräch [sic! ]“ (Heimgarten 16, 1891/ 92), “Rückkehr zur ländlichen Natur” (Heimgarten 22, 1897/ 98), “Zurück zur Scholle” (Heimgarten 31, 1906/ 07). It is important to note that Rosegger by no means advocates a Waldenesque path into wild nature but rather a reactivation of rural customs and peasantry. 16 See Zeyringer and Gollner 298-302. 17 See Baur Dorfgeschichte and “Peter Rosegger.” 18 The term originates from an essay by W.G. Sebald who claims that Austrian authors turned to look at their own “natürliche Heimat” in the late twentieth century (Sebald 16). 19 ‘Natural’ in this respect refers to a sense of simplicitly and stability that is lost in the seemingly ever-changing modern world, best exemplified in the relationship between peasant and parcel of land (“Scholle”). While nature as a state of wilderness was rejected, the idealized relationship between a man and the land he lives off was regarded as the core of a healthy and functioning society. Thus, representations of natural phenomena, wheather in particular, could be interpreted solely based on the experience-based knowledge of those people who were directly connected to the land. Hence developments in science which were not only in regard to climatology progressing to a more globalized perspective were regarded with skepticism. S OLVEJG N ITZKE 130 peoples. 20 It comes as no surprise that the reception of this literary tradition is tainted by its instrumentalization in the National-Socialist contexts and after 1945 is marked by an utter ignorance of many critics in regard to any nationalist, racist and in particular anti-semitic tendencies. 21 Nevertheless, to reduce this discourse as it occurs in interpretations focusing on Dorfand Heimatgeschichten solely to the precursors of Blut und Boden-ideology (Baur, “Peter Rosegger” 18), often fails to take into account the conditions of particular texts and to differentiate between a specific sense of place and its exploitation in a political discourse. Yet, this careful distinction not only serves to better understand the perception of how human impact on natural environments was perceived and mediated but also of how these depictions were framed politically. In the 1970s, academic interest in Rosegger’s works was triggered by his exceptionally vocal engagement for the preservation of natural habitats, forests in particular. Although, as Uwe Baur rightfully cautions, one should not mistake him for an early ‘green’ writer (“Peter Rosegger”), his depictions of natural environments and his apparent awareness for the need to ensure their preservation is indeed striking. Rosegger’s works are especially rich sources for the analysis of “environmental reflexivity” (Locher and Fressoz 579) since they take part in a wide range of different discourses. As editor of Heimgarten, a monthly journal containing literature, poems, and essays on various subjects, Rosegger published several texts on matters dealing directly with the changed and still changing relationship between human beings and nature. One of the most straight-forward examples, a short essay called “Wald und Wasser” [“Woods and Water”] (1906), exemplifies impressively Rosegger’s attitude towards what today would be called the ‘natural resources’ of his country: He complains about the deterioration of fresh-water sources all over the country - shrinking rivers and a decline in precipitation are, according to Rosegger, only the most obvious warning signs of a growing problem. With the cities already suffering from water shortages and access to rivers being fiercely contested, a sudden and thorough change of behavior is necessary. Rosegger claims that it is not only growing demand but an actual decline of water due to unrightful actions and he does not hesitate to identify the responsible party: “Die übergroße, gefräßige Industrie. Sie frißt nicht nur bloß die Bauersleute auf, sondern auch ihre Wälder und sauft ihre Wässer aus. Was sie übrig läßt, das verdirbt sie, daß sogar des Wassers urangestammter Bewohner, der Fisch, darin verenden muß” (“Wald und 20 They themselves filled - maybe even more than Auerbach, Rank and the likes - the role of broker (Neumann and Twellmann) and identified with the narrators of their stories, and the lyrical I of their poems, which included using the regional dialect. See Bengesser, Zeyringer and Gollner. 21 For a discussion of nationalist and National-Socialist reception of Rosegger’s works see Hölzl. Creating “Klima” in a Changing World 131 Wasser” 457). 22 With strong language Rosegger condemns industrial practices in a way that at first glance appears very close to the language environmental organizations have used since the 1970s. The personified industry, in his words, eats up peasants and what is theirs. When the text was published in the very beginning of the twentieth century, it was not long after the peasants were finally freed from the last ties to the land that they were working on and its landlords. 23 Thus the actual proprietary situation is not what Rosegger reflects on when he speaks of “their forests and their water.” Rather than to ownership, he refers to a sense of belonging that is neglected and destroyed by the industrialization of the Habsburg Empire. Actually, Rosegger’s text with its rage takes part in creating this relationship between peasants and land in the first place. Like fish in the water, he associates the connection between those who (used to) live and work in and near the forests as their original inhabitants, a relationship so strong that he calls it “urangestammt,” exaggerating its supposed naturalness. This allows him to build upon a clear-cut friend-foe opposition between peasants (victim) and industry (offender) to state his case. He does, however, introduce a third party, “us, the well-to-do,” whom he claims to be the cause and possible solution of the problem: Wenn wir, die besser Situierten, die ‚Bourgeois’, die Aristokraten der Kulturländer und Staaten, uns einmal zehn Jahre lang enthalten von all dem überflüssigen Zeug, von den Luxusdingen, in denen jetzt viele nachgerade ersticken, wenn wir uns nur das Nötige, das wahrhaft Nützliche anschaffen, eine einfache Lebensweise annehmen - in zehn Jahren ist die Industrie reduziert und ins richtige Verhältnis zum Staatsorganismus gebracht. (“Wald und Wasser” 546) 24 While at first, it seems the case that Rosegger simplifies matters by blaming industry alone, he quickly introduces consumerist attitudes as the actual cause of deforestation and water shortages. In its consumer-based approach to change, Rosegger’s essay appears almost ahead of his time. The call for a simpler lifestyle that refrains from useless consumerism and thus prevents the exploitation of both natural and human resources has become a rhetorical beacon of environmentalism. Except, it is this aspect of the text that is mis- 22 “The outsized and ravenous industry. It not only devours the peasants but also their forests and guzzles their water. What is left is spoiled in a way that even the water’s original inhabitants, the fish, must die a miserable death.” 23 The final “Bauernbefreiung” (abolition of serfdom) was achieved only in 1848 (Vocelka 201-202). 24 “Would we, the well-to-do, the ‘Bourgeois,’ the aristocrats of the cultured nations and states, refrain from all the superfluous stuff, from the luxury goods that today are wellnigh suffocating many [of us]; would we only acquire what is truly necessary, truly useful and take on a simple lifestyle - in ten years the industry is going to be reduced and brought to a balanced ratio with the state organism.” S OLVEJG N ITZKE 132 leadingly interpreted as ‘green’: While Rosegger uses apocalyptic threats 25 to stress the necessity of his proposed solution, in his vision the decline of the ‘original’ natural environments results in an upheaval in the political landscape, namely the rise of the working classes. 26 The apocalyptic threats, Rosegger issues, are thence not chiefly concerned with a conservationist attitude towards natural environments but with a conservative political stance. “Wald und Wasser” features a specific constellation of proto-environmental concern that varies significantly from that of the late twentieth century. As the analysis of Schriften eines Waldschulmeisters will further illustrate, Rosegger’s writings advocate a top-down implementation of modernization. The literary text employs an agent of the ruling classes to educate villagers in the modern ways and customs in order to protect natural environments from commodification and peasants from displacement. Nevertheless, while Rosegger’s texts in accordance to other village stories present a causal link between the degradation of soil and the degradation of the worker, his attitude is everything but politically progressive. While current environmentalismhas roots in leftist politics (despite some conservative strains), 27 Rosegger, in contrast, is particularly concerned about the destruction of the established political order alongside that of traditional ways of life, and natural environments. Hence, anxiety about political change might be the actual motivation of his critique of modernization in “Wald und Wasser.” While his rhetoric is remniniscent of more recent Marxist critiques of capitalism, Rosegger opposes the emancipation of the working classes decisively. His call for consumerist restraint aims at the opposite: “So bekämpft man die Sozialdemokratie. So ganz allein, und mit Erfolg. Und zwar zum Wohle der Arbeiter, wovon dann viele wieder ihre Scholle suchen und ihre Zufriedenheit finden werden” (“Wald und Wasser” 546). 28 Rosegger’s short “Wald und Wasser” essay challenges Boia’s generalized assumption that the nineteenth century remains resolutely determinist (Boia 77). Presumably, the reason for a more complex view of the matter is his sense of imminent danger which he believes to encounter all around him and which is also caused by his own behavior. Hence, his cultural criticism must not be mistaken as an early token of ‘green’ politics in the modern sense; his 25 A rethorical strategy often employed in first-wave environmentalism (Garrard, Ecocriticism 93-116). 26 Rosegger contrasts his call for an abstention from consumption with the “much more costly” [“kostspieliger”] alternative of a “terrible civil war” [“ungeheurer Bürgerkrieg”] that he says will inevitably be the consequence of the further displacement of rural communities and concurrent fuelling of political working class movements (“Wald und Wasser” 458). 27 See for example Garrard Oxford Handbook. 28 “This is how one fights social democracy. This way only, and with success. And to the benefit of the workers, many of which are going to return to their clod and find content.” Creating “Klima” in a Changing World 133 appeal for a simpler lifestyle is anything but close to politically left critique of the same matter. On the contrary, Rosegger calls for the preservation of woods and waters not only for practical reasons but in order to prevent a political revolution (of the working classes) from following the Industrial Revolution that already changed the face of the nation. Rosegger’s texts show a striking awareness of the fundamental change in the relationship between humans and nature that fully realizes itself during the nineteenth century. Forest-“Klima” One of the defining aspects of Peter Rosegger’s fiction is its peculiar relationship to scientific knowledge and practice. Schriften eines Waldschulmeisters and Waldheimat take a complementary approach to natural phenomena than contemporary science, though not without recognizing and even reflecting on the perspective they refuse or fail to take. Andreas Erdmann, the forest teacher, repeatedly attempts to study his surroundings but fails as often as he tries: Ich habe mir wieder, wie seiner Tage einmal, aber ernstlicher vorgenommen, in meinen freien Stunden des Sommers mich mit der Pflanzenwelt abzugeben, sie wissenschaftlich zu zerlegen und zu betrachten. Aber wie geht es mir dabei? Da habe ich heute ein Pflänzlein gefunden, gepflückt und hier auf meine Mappe gelegt. Mich reut der Mord. Es ist so frisch und hold gestanden am Rain und hat seine kleinen Arme ausgestreckt, den lieben Sonnenschein zu umarmen. […] Zu schluchzen hab' ich angefangen, ich altes Kind. Und das heißt Pflanzenkunde treiben? - Andreas, für die Wissenschaft bist du ganz und gar nicht zu brauchen, du bist ein Träumer. (Schriften 294) 29 He calls himself a dreamer for regretting to have to “murder” the plants he wants to study according to their botanic characteristic. Instead he personifies the flower he plucks in an almost exaggerated romantic manner. Instead of quantifying and more importantly finding a universal descriptive language, Rosegger’s tales defy standardization by stressing tradition and individual experience. Still, at the heart of the texts lies the assumption that there is in fact a universal, or rather unifying language in which nature can be experienced - the language of emotions. The forest teacher’s failure is representative of Rosegger’s approach to nature as a writer: the attempt to go at it with scientific accuracy exists, but again and again he lets himself be over- 29 “Again, I attempted - and this time seriously - to use my free time to busy myself with the flora; to observe it and to take it apart scientifically. But how do I feel? Today, I found a little flower, plucked it and put it on my portfolio. I do regret the murder. It stood so fresh and lovely and stretched its little arms, to embrace the dear sunshine. […] I started sobbing, old child that I am. Is this what is it like to be pursuing botany? - Andreas, you utterly useless scientist, you are a dreamer.” S OLVEJG N ITZKE 134 whelmed by the poetic quality and his feelings for the environments he depicts. This is as much a pose as it is a poetic program. In other editions of Waldheimat and Schriften des Waldschulmeisters alike, the author claims not to aim at educating his audience but rather to bring his audience back their youth and “dem Leser vielleicht ein wenig kühle Waldluft und schuldlose Kindesfroheit” 30 (Waldheimat 6). In order to illustrate how these texts create a space that cannot be reached by the fundamental transformations of the Industrial Revolution, I would like to bring attention to three key aspects: the narrative function of weather events, the forest as a refuge and symbol, as well as the creation of a specific “Klima.” The literary tradition that these texts build upon did, as already mentioned above, go through a shift from a politically and ethnologically inspired perspective to a more reassuring gesture of wholesome homeliness. 31 Rosegger follows in this direction while at the same time paying special attention to the environments of his characters. The forest teacher’s failure to look at nature like a botanist can also be understood as a reference to one of the most famous nature writers in the German-speaking world. Although Rosegger admired Adalbert Stifter’s prose immensely, 32 nature in his fiction is not (as) sublime and his depiction does not commit to the realism of Stifter’s. Nevertheless, in many ways Stifter can be regarded as a model for forest fiction in so far as his writings shape the literary (Austrian) landscape that Rosegger refers to. His story, “Einer Weihnacht Lust und Gefahr” ([“A Christmas’ Pleasure and Peril”] Waldheimat 131), illustrates references to and emancipation from one of Stifter’s best-known narratives, “Bergkristall” [Rock Crystal]. Both stories revolve around children who get lost on Christmas Eve. Brother and Sister in Rock Crystal lose their way home due to a sudden snowstorm that obscures a signpost 33 and they need to survive the night in a glacier. The Waldbauernbübel, in turn, similarily fails to find his companion after church and has to be saved by the Mooswaberl. 34 The saving of the children in both stories goes along with a moment of recognition and integration of former outcasts into a community. 30 “A bit of cool forest air and innocent childhood pleasure.” 31 For a detailed analysis of the genre before and after 1848 see Baur Dorfgeschichte. 32 In fact, Rosegger’s place in literary history might be due more to the fact that he together with his (and formally Stifter’s) publisher Gustav Heckenast worked incessantly on repopularizing Stifter and thus helped his works to the canonical status they can claim today. 33 For a detailed analysis of the children’s way home and the significance of the signpost see Sinka. 34 “Mooswaberl” translates roughly to “moss wife,” a name for an impoverished woman who is surrounded by rumors which turn her into a fairytale-like figure similar to a witch. Creating “Klima” in a Changing World 135 The most evident and distinguishing feature of the two texts is the narrative perspective and the associated approach to meteorological knowledge. 35 The nostalgic perspective of a remembered childhood in Rosegger is contrasted with an omniscient narrator in “Bergkristall.” Although the narrators of both stories apparently are able to look back on a number of Christmases, the introduction to Stifter’s tale conveys an impression of timelessness compared to the personalized narrative of Rosegger. Both, however, introduce Christmas and its traditions as the “(most) beautiful”: “Eines der schönsten Feste feiert die Kirche fast mitten im Winter, wo beinahe die längsten Nächte und kürzesten Tage sind, wo die Sonne am schiefsten gegen unsere Gefilde steht, und Schnee alle Fluren deckt, das Fest der Weihnacht” (“Bergkristall” 173). 36 Here, Christmas and its traditions are introduced in a manner that thoroughly notes its different aspects (as if it was described for someone who does not know about it) and, as the use of “us” suggests, a manner that sets the stage by painting a familiar picture. The Waldbauernbübel on the other hand, marvels at the mysterious goings-on in the house: there are delicate objects that he must not touch and busy preparations going on, and then his parents leave for church in the early morning leaving the boy dreaming of the wonders he is missing. 37 Snow is the defining element of the scenery in both stories. Its coming is expected judging from the traditions like the Christmas tree and other indoor-lights 38 which stress the difference between inside and outside. The coziness of the home against the backdrop of the cold outside is a central motive of Rosegger’s stories. While in “Bergkristall”, the weather quickly turns into a perilous challenge for the skillful children, 39 in “Einer Weihnacht 35 For more on Stifter’s “literary meteorology” see Gamper. 36 “One of the most beautiful of Church festivals comes in midwinter when nights are long and days are short, when the sun slants toward Earth obliquely and snow mantles the fields: Christmas” (Rock Crystal 3). 37 “Mother and father walked several hours to hear mass [‘Rorate’] in the parish church. I dreamed after them and (in my dream) even heard the church bells, the sound of the organ and the carrol: Hail Mary, glorious morning star.” - “Der Vater und die Mutter gingen in die mehrere Stunden entfernte Pfarrkirche zur Rorate. Ich träumte ihnen nach, ich hörte die Kirchenglocken, ich hörte den Ton der Orgel und das Adventlied: Maria, sei gegrüßet, du lichter Morgenstern! ” (Waldheimat 132). 38 In Die Schriften des Waldschulmeisters, Rosegger dedicates a great deal of attention to the introduction of the first Christmas tree - here it becomes a telltale sign of modernity entering the forest world, since at first the villagers cannot believe how a tree can grow inside and gleam to spend warmth and light: “Da gucken die alten Männlein und Weiblein gottswunderlich drein, und kichern und reiben sich die Augen über den närrischen Traum. Daß auf einem Baum des Waldes Lichter wachsen, das haben sie all ihrer Tage noch nicht gesehen” (Schriften 253). 39 That the children are more than capable to find their way between the valleys under normal circumstances is described in detail and their survival is attributed in large parts to the level-headedness of Konrad, who keeps his younger sister, Susanna, awake and thus manages to keep both of them from freezing in the glacier. S OLVEJG N ITZKE 136 Lust und Gefahr”, it is the carelessness of the boy that turns the mystifying snowy cover of the otherwise well-known landscape into a life-threatening danger. The difference in the treatment of the weather is significant since it influences the whole setup of the narratives. For Rosegger its description serves a clear purpose - as scenery and occasion for his story. Hence, as soon as someone capable to deal with the threat comes along, the problem is resolved. In “Bergkristall,” the extensive account of environmental conditions raises them from the background of the story to its actual topic. There is nothing magical or mysterious about the way the children experience nature. On the contrary, even though Rosegger’s boy at one point hopes to find a deer to show him the way 40 and finally succumbs to his overwhelming surroundings, the children in “Bergkristall” are as much part of their saving as the adults who bring them home in the end. Their experience of the night sky over their shelter humbles them as much as it would anyone, 41 but it does not keep the older brother, Konrad, from taking sensitive measures to ensure their survival. Nature might be “unfathomable” (Rock Crystal 61) to the children, but despite their young age, they are aware that knowledge and caution are the only things shielding them from its overwhelming force. In comparison, nature seems somewhat smaller in Waldheimat. The Waldbauernbübel, though younger and alone, never grasps the grandeur of the landscape he is lost in and thus the overall cozy atmosphere of the story is not threatened by actual fear for the boy or by any ‘outsized’ study of nature. “Bergkristall” contemplates nature in all its sublime beauty and terror, whereas in Waldheimat nature seems to yield to human dimensions in so far as it never ceases to be the background for Rosegger’s wholesome Christmas story. Nevertheless, weather is an important factor in Rosegger’s narratives, for it is most often used as an agent of story-telling that allows him to create a perilous situation like that in “Einer Weihnacht Lust und Gefahr” or “Vom Urgroßvater, der auf der Tanne saß” (Waldheimat 34-47) or as a tactic to change a character’s way. The fictional editor of the forest teacher’s manuscripts for example would never have come to the village Winkelsteg had it not been for a sudden downpour. At the same time, the narrative illustrates the close relationship of the characters and their surroundings. The downpour which is inconveniencing the wanderer destroys the harvest the villagers depend on. It is characterized as utterly unpredictable and, moreover, 40 “Ich wußte nicht, wo ich war. - Wenn jetzt ein Reh käme, ich würde es fragen nach dem Weg, in der Christnacht reden ja Tiere menschliche Sprache! ” (Waldheimat 148). 41 The children’s knowledge is characterized as practical, thus they do not know that stars in the night sky move westwards and that they could tell time based on the position of the stars (“Bergkristall” 214, Rock Crystal 56) or what the milky white band is, let alone the Northern lights that light up the night sky (“Bergkristall” 217, Rock Crystal 60). Creating “Klima” in a Changing World 137 inherently unfair since it can destroy one village’s harvest while another village hardly notices that it rained (Schriften 3). Similarly, while the snow might appear to be dangerous only to a boy, the story of the greatgrandfather who had to spend a night in a tree he climbed to flee from wolves, embraces the force of a lightning storm with all its magnificence. At the same time it makes the so-called “graue Tanne” or “Türkentanne” 42 part of the family history. Personal relationships to specific environments or individual aspects of it are of much more importance in Rosegger’s texts than scientific accuracy. Just as the weather is only significant in relation to the character who experiences it, the forests that are central to the texts gain relevance solely by their inhabitants. The Waldbauern-family considers the “Türkentanne” as a natural monument of the founding of their family’s (now lost) fortunes and for a similar reason holds on to a group of spruces despite significant financial difficulties (Waldheimat 410). The larchs that are sold as timber for railroad construction instead mark the defeat of the old ways. The moment in which they turn from living trees on the land of the farmer to timber for industrial use coincides with the reframing of the forest as a resource for industrial exploitation. A major part of Die Schriften des Waldschulmeisters deals with the deforestation that goes along with this reinterpretation. Observing the lumberjacks, the forest teacher notices the disconnection of nature and human beings: Hundert Frühlinge haben ihn emporgehoben mit ihrer Liebe und Strenge; jetzt ist er tot, und die Welt ist und bleibt ganz auch ohne ihn - den lebendigen Baum. Still stehen die zwei, drei Menschlein, sie stützen sich auf den Beilstiel und blicken auf ihr Opfer. Sie klagen nicht, sie jauchzen nicht, eine grausame Kaltblütigkeit liegt auf ihren rauhen, sonnverbrannten Zügen; ihr Gesicht und ihre Hände sehen auch aus wie von Fichtenrinden. (Schriften 93) 43 In Andreas’ eyes, the workers are not to be held responsible for the destruction of the forest. They go about their job in “cruel cold-bloodedness,” disconnected from any feeling towards the living organism they cut down. The commodification of tree into timber seems to be completed, and the con- 42 The names Türkentanne and graue Tanne [Turk’s fir and grey fir] refer to the age of the tree and the skeleton of a fir [“das Gerippe einer Tanne”] that supposedly witnessed the Ottoman invasions. The text does not specify this claim beyond mentioning that, according to folk tales, hundreds of years prior, the tree stood under the ‘half moon’ and much Christian blood was shed under it [“der Sage nach vor mehreren hundert Jahren, als der Türke im Lande war, der Halbmond geprangt haben und unter welcher viel Christenblut gefloss-en sein soll] (Waldheimat 34). 43 “A hundred springs have raised him with their love and rigor; now he is dead and the world goes on without him - the living tree. Quietly, the two or three men stand there, leaning on the handles of their axes and looking upon their victim. They don’t mourn, they don’t cheer, a cruel cold-bloodedness marks their rough, sun-burned features; their faces and hands look like the bark of spruces, too.” S OLVEJG N ITZKE 138 trasting accounts of the same object are irreconcilable. Moreover, it seems to the forest teacher as if the lumberjacks themselves look like the tree they felled, for they share its fate and are themselves not more than (human) resources to their employers. With the shrinking of the forest, Winkelsteg, the village in the forest, will inevitably move closer to the outside world and probably lose its meaning as a refuge for those who cannot find a place in it. The forest teacher’s efforts to preserve the forest are fruitless. Already, the last corner of primordial forest belonging to Winkelsteg has been designated as a graveyard: Die Gegend altert schnell. Die Berge werden grau und kahl; der Wald wird verbrannt; in allen Tälern rauchen Kohlstätten. Mit Mühe hab' ich es durchgesetzt, daß sie da oben an der Hebung einen kleinen Schachen stehen lassen. Der soll das letzte und bleibende Stück Urwald sein und unter seinem Schatten sollen die toten Winkelsteger ruhen. (Schriften 198) 44 These scenes of woodcutting and deforestation resonate strongly with Rosegger’s raging words in “Wald und Wasser.” The destructive forces of modernization have all but advanced into the otherwise secluded forest worlds. Even though the characters take every measure possible to try to keep them out, the signs of the impact of industrialized modernity on the so far poor but pristine communities and their environments can no longer be denied. Only a little more than two decades later at the very beginning of the twentieth century, Rosegger claims that the Industrial Revolution not only devours their own but in the long run changes the climate. This climate change must not only be understood in regards to the diminishing amounts of precipitation, he assigns to the ‘ravenous industry,’ but as a more general change in ‘Klima.’ His narratives invent a place in space and time from which it is possible to have a (last) look at a world that has not yet changed but can also no longer be imagined as unchangeable. Hence, the Heimat they create is a fiction that contains the world as it was and naturally as it - in Rosegger’s eyes - should but can no longer be. In contrast to the developments in climatology which happen at the same time, the forest here becomes an example for the benefits of a holistic understanding of nature. The Waldschulmeister observes a growing relationship between humans and natural environment that depends on mutual transformation. It is in no way a celebration of wilderness but quite the opposite: careful manipulation - education and cultivation, respectively - allows for a “Klima,” in which humans and nature can thrive. The absence of extremes thus connects Rosegger to the climatic visions of the eighteenth century, the ideal of a temperate climate both in terms 44 “The region ages quickly. The mountains become grey and bleak; the forest is being burned; in all the valleys coal is smoking. With a good deal of trouble I have managed to have them leave a small grove [Schachen]. This shall be the last and remaining piece of primordial forest [Urwald] and the dead of Winkelsteg shall rest in its shade.” Creating “Klima” in a Changing World 139 of atmospheric conditions and social organization (cf. Horn). By creating the past as a desirable yet unreachable state, they also anticipate the pointlessness of his call for a (return to a) simpler lifestyle. 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