The Luck of the Weissensteiners (The Three Nations Trilogy) by Christoph Fischer
Authors: Christoph Fischer
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decision extremely selfish and before he left, scolded the young man for being so ungrateful. She and her husband had done so much for the almost unknown relatives and now they were being left high and dry.
Oskar and Elizabeth we re extremely apologetic about their son’s decision to leave and tried to play the incident down but Johanna would hear none of it. She hammered her point home several times a day and made the most of her role as a martyr.
Just as the atmosphere seemed to have re ached its worst - and not two weeks after Ludwig had left - his brother Bernhard accepted a position he had been offered in the expanding construction company owned by the father of one of his former school friends outside Berlin. Additionally, he had been told, there was an offer for Oskar to join the workforce. Bernhard’s friends wanted to hire only people who they already knew, who they could trust to help keeping the business crisis proof and keep its uncontested reputation for quality and efficiency. Even before the offer, Oskar had always been optimistic that he could find lucrative employment back in Berlin, but the thought of being able to go home and work with one of his sons was just too tempting. Ludwig had already written to them during his first week in Berlin saying that he had found an apartment that was, incidentally, big enough for the entire family.
Johanna and Benedikt were speechle ss when they heard about these upcoming desertions as they were calling the announced departures. Oskar offered to stay and work for as long as it would take to find a replacement, but Benedikt was far too proud to accept 'charity' from such selfish and unchristian people like the Winkelmeiers were turning out to be. He wanted them all off the farm as soon as they could pack their belongings. After a fruitless attempt to make him see their reasoning, they left only a couple of hours later. Benedikt in his rage was visibly on the verge of using force to get them out of his property. Elizabeth had just enough time to write a short goodbye letter to her son Wilhelm and to kiss her grandson Karl goodbye.
Wilhelm was shocked when he came back from the bookshop and found that his family had gone. Benedikt and Johanna were not speaking to him that evening either, a lmost as if it were his fault; he was guilty by association. Greta explained to her husband what had happened and gave him the letter from his mother, which was uncharacteristically abrupt and bore no sentiment or regret. His mother must have been too excited about the prospect of going back to Berlin to think about her son and the situation in which she was leaving him. Wilhelm felt betrayed and it was his own anger that secured his existence on the farm. When Johanna finally spoke to him later that night to provoke some guilt in him, she was pleasantly surprised at his disapproval of their actions. She had always had a soft spot for this handsome young man but his current attitude brought him even closer to her heart. Wilhelm spoke disloyally of his own parents and shared Benedikt and Johanna’s point of view that this departure resembled a very selfish abandonment of their benefactors. Of course he could stay, even with his secretly Jewish wife.
Johanna ’s feelings about the loss were actually more ambiguous than she let on. Elizabeth had been a great help in the house and, as such, would be missed but she had also always been the better cook, the better housewife and a better mother than Johanna ever was. Now the mighty Saint Elizabeth had fallen and in comparison Johanna could glow as the ever reliable and ever present woman on the farm and she loved Wilhelm for seeing it this way and saying so frequently.
Ben edikt was very disgruntled by the sudden departures. He had banked on the possibility that Ludwig or Bernhard was going to stay at the farm and take over the business in later years. Ludwig especially was a good lad and would have made an outstanding farmer. He had a
Oskar and Elizabeth we re extremely apologetic about their son’s decision to leave and tried to play the incident down but Johanna would hear none of it. She hammered her point home several times a day and made the most of her role as a martyr.
Just as the atmosphere seemed to have re ached its worst - and not two weeks after Ludwig had left - his brother Bernhard accepted a position he had been offered in the expanding construction company owned by the father of one of his former school friends outside Berlin. Additionally, he had been told, there was an offer for Oskar to join the workforce. Bernhard’s friends wanted to hire only people who they already knew, who they could trust to help keeping the business crisis proof and keep its uncontested reputation for quality and efficiency. Even before the offer, Oskar had always been optimistic that he could find lucrative employment back in Berlin, but the thought of being able to go home and work with one of his sons was just too tempting. Ludwig had already written to them during his first week in Berlin saying that he had found an apartment that was, incidentally, big enough for the entire family.
Johanna and Benedikt were speechle ss when they heard about these upcoming desertions as they were calling the announced departures. Oskar offered to stay and work for as long as it would take to find a replacement, but Benedikt was far too proud to accept 'charity' from such selfish and unchristian people like the Winkelmeiers were turning out to be. He wanted them all off the farm as soon as they could pack their belongings. After a fruitless attempt to make him see their reasoning, they left only a couple of hours later. Benedikt in his rage was visibly on the verge of using force to get them out of his property. Elizabeth had just enough time to write a short goodbye letter to her son Wilhelm and to kiss her grandson Karl goodbye.
Wilhelm was shocked when he came back from the bookshop and found that his family had gone. Benedikt and Johanna were not speaking to him that evening either, a lmost as if it were his fault; he was guilty by association. Greta explained to her husband what had happened and gave him the letter from his mother, which was uncharacteristically abrupt and bore no sentiment or regret. His mother must have been too excited about the prospect of going back to Berlin to think about her son and the situation in which she was leaving him. Wilhelm felt betrayed and it was his own anger that secured his existence on the farm. When Johanna finally spoke to him later that night to provoke some guilt in him, she was pleasantly surprised at his disapproval of their actions. She had always had a soft spot for this handsome young man but his current attitude brought him even closer to her heart. Wilhelm spoke disloyally of his own parents and shared Benedikt and Johanna’s point of view that this departure resembled a very selfish abandonment of their benefactors. Of course he could stay, even with his secretly Jewish wife.
Johanna ’s feelings about the loss were actually more ambiguous than she let on. Elizabeth had been a great help in the house and, as such, would be missed but she had also always been the better cook, the better housewife and a better mother than Johanna ever was. Now the mighty Saint Elizabeth had fallen and in comparison Johanna could glow as the ever reliable and ever present woman on the farm and she loved Wilhelm for seeing it this way and saying so frequently.
Ben edikt was very disgruntled by the sudden departures. He had banked on the possibility that Ludwig or Bernhard was going to stay at the farm and take over the business in later years. Ludwig especially was a good lad and would have made an outstanding farmer. He had a
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