Book in ancient German is set in Fraßhausen

The Essen author Christine Meiering wanted her book to take place in Upper Bavaria because of the many mulberry trees.

Your choice fell on Fraßhausen.

Dietramszell

- “What a feast for the eyes! Drunk in autumn, the hiker crouches between pine trees on the edge of the forest. Fürbass, fürbass ... ”This is how the first sentences in Christine Meiering's book“ Smaragdglanz - Labsale Alter Sprachen ”begin. An unfamiliar language, but this use of the antiquated vocabulary is absolutely deliberate. "After the libraries closed due to Corona, I dedicated myself to the old hams in our bookcase," says the author. "Suddenly I got a new approach to the author Adalbert Stifter, for example, who embodied leisurely times and the language of the time."

While browsing through the works of other authors - all of them from the 19th century - the Essen woman felt the desire to breathe new life into the old terms.

She invented the figure of the farmer's son Friedhelm.

But where should the story take place at the turn of the 20th century?

“I really wanted to have a mulberry tree in it,” says Meiering and laughs.

She found out where these occur most frequently on the Internet.

Several moors should also be located in the vicinity of the village - and if possible in Upper Bavaria, as they saw “characteristics such as tradition, comfort, cheerfulness and, last but not least, the customs of the old language in an optimal way”.

One village stood out from this intersection: Fraßhausen, a district of Dietramszell.

Also read: Dietramszell says goodbye to Dr.

Ulrich Gruber

Meiering researched and visited the village himself. "Here I met the archivist Agnes Wagner and Barbara Regul, who had campaigned for the interests of the Dietramszell Leonhardikapelle," says the 73-year-old former teacher. "By chance I also got to know Friedrich Maier, a young Fraßhausen native who speaks the local dialect and helped me translate." long-awaited companion finds, not only purely fictional. Meiering also refers to the robber Matthias Kneißl and the poacher Georg Jennerwein, as well as to the marriage between the families of Barth and Reitmor. For everyone who would like to read the book,but are not able to speak Bavarian, Meiering has attached a glossary in the appendix.

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