Geology, Mountaineering, and Self-Formation in Adalbert Stifter's Der Nachsommer

Summary

Adalbert Stifter's colossal three-volume novel Der Nachsommer (Indian Summer) appeared in 1857 at the apogee of Alpinism's Golden Age, a period of intense summit pursuits that began around 1850 and culminated in 1865 with the first ascent of the Matterhorn. In a unique and oblique way, the novel provides literary testimony to numerous facets of mountaineering history. Throughout the text, Alpine peaks present physical challenges, inspire feelings of awe, and form the principal object of scientific inquiry. Although often categorized as a Bildungsroman (novel of education or self-formation), this book might just as well bear Hermann Broch's label of a Bergroman (mountain novel), for mountains constitute the matrix of its setting, plot, and deeper thematics. Indeed, the idea of Bildung is inextricably linked with the activity of climbing. Moreover, the main character, Heinrich Drendorf, is largely modeled on Stifter's friend Friedrich Simony, a geologist and mountaineer who made exploring the Alps, particularly the Salzkammergut of Austria, his life-long project. Here Simony conducted countless geoscientific studies, many of which are faithfully reproduced in Heinrich's semi-fictionalized sojourns. Heinrich thus proves to be an atypical protagonist within the tradition of the German Bildungsroman. His development is predicated less on artistic aspirations and human relationships than on his interaction with mountains as age-old geophysical formations — or Bildungen. With Der Nachsommer Stifter thus creates a new and literal brand of Bildungsroman, one that is rooted in the discourse and practice of mountaineering during the nineteenth century.