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Theodor Fontane's ahermaliger Zug: marble. That is, the author must select an aspect of "das nackte alltiigliche Leben,"
Myth, Enlightenment and the Train in Cecile and Effi Briest rather than try to depict life as a whole. His job then is to transfigure the chosen aspect
of life, to build it back up with aesthetic .trappings so that it becomes apparently
Paul A. Youngman representative of the whole. D.A. Williams writes, "The Realist aims at being as complete
University of North Carolina at Charlotte and comprehensive as possible, at totalizing as well as miniaturizing the real" (258).
The quarry itself is too real, and as Helen Chambers points out, ''the novelist who shows
too much ofrea1ity is paradoxically unrealistic" (84). Effective authors therefore, according
Between 1835 and 1890, the railway system in Germany grew trom a mere thirty-five
to Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer in their 1944 work DialekJic der Auj1karung
kilometers to'42,850 kilometers. The astounding growth rate of this most conspicuous
represent "die Erscheinung des Ganzen im Besonderen" (25). The block of marble gives
manifestation of the industrial revolution practically forced one to pick a side: either one
the appearance of the entire quarry, but it can never really mimetically represent the
saw the railway system as an arterial network supplying the very lifeblood of German
whole quarry. To further tie Fontane to Adorno and Horkheimer, "Das nackte alltligliche
culture, or one viewed it as an iron net that would constrict the life of a budding nation
Leben," a phrase trom Fontane's essay, is what Adorno and Horkheimer would claim
and ultimately eradicate poetry. By the time Theodor Fontane entered the Berlin literary
Enlightenment purports to represent. Myth provides the transfiguration. The dialectic
scene with his' first major work of fiction in 1878, the rail had been around more than
of the two allows for art; it allows for Fontane to have the Chinese ghost in Effi Briest.
forty years and consisted of more than 33,000 kilometers. By this time, many considered
the enchanted castle in Cecile, and the train running through both.
the debate regarding the railway to be over, with no real winner declared. It is not surprising
One key to understanding both of these novels is to analyze Fontane's use of the
then that many theorists proclaim that the railway played no central role in Fontane's
works. railway as a literary device. The train appears repetitively in these works, and repetition
is a critical link. It is the commonality between Enlightenment and myth according to
Following in this tradition, Altred Heinimann is the most recent critic to diminish the
Adorno and Horkheimer, and it is one of the most important literary conventions used by
importance of the railway in Fontane's novels by suggesting that it is already "literarisch
realists. Repetition thus serves as a link between realism and the Adorno-Horkheimer
assimiliert" and that a level of "Selbstverstlindlichkeit" regarding rail technology has
construct. Barbara Johnstone's analysis of repetition in language is also important,
been reached in literature by the time Fontane is writing (19). Heinimann goes even
further and suggests that Fontane no longer problematizes "das Verhaltnis Mensch, Technik especially when she suggests that one of the roles repetition plays is to help humans deal
with the unknown or the misunderstood (13). Dealing with fear is the basis of both myth
und Natur" (19). This is not so; there are many instances where Fontane uses the railway
and Enlightenment, and it seems to be the key to understanding Fontane's depiction of
to highlight the aforementioned relationship. However, literary manifestations of
the train. All three elements trom Johnstone's statement are present in Cecile-the train,
technology in his works are, in many cases, "unaufallig .. . beiUiufig . . . sogar verdeckt"
an extension of the Enlightenment inasmuch as technology is the natural culmination of
as Segeberg points out (176). This does not mean that the train is less important a device
Enlightenment in Adorno and Horkheimer's construct, is so trequently juxtaposed with
in Fontane's novels. He is yet another nineteenth-century author who accommodates the
some form of myth like the fairytale, for example. The train is also associated with
old and the new, and, in so doing, he cannot help but problematize the relationship between
Cecile's fear, her fear of societal convention, of her past, and of her husband. In fact, her
humankind, technology and nature.
fear is one of the driving psychological forces behind the plot.
Although it seems odd to be discussing myth with regard to an acclaimed realist like
The highpoints of the myth and Enlightenment dialectic occur at the end of the twelfth
Fontane, he frequently relies on Spukgeschichten, fairy tales, Wagner operas, and so on.
and fifteenth chapters. In a manner that prefigures the character of Innstetten in Effi
As a realist he is supposed to scorn such romanticized or idealized notions, but he never
does so entirely. In fact, notions like these are often closely related to literary devices Briest, St. Arnaud scares Cecile with stories of trains and ghosts. In chapter twelve, the
others in their party have gone on, and the St. Arnauds, due to the fact that Cecile has
like the railway in Fontane's works. As Segeberg correctly points out, the train plays a
exhausted herself, take a rest on a bench. Cecile is relaxed and startled out of sweet
role similar to that ofInstetten's Asian ghost in the 1895 Effi Briest (177). Thus Johannes
Mahr seems off base when he surmises that the authors of the nineteenth century wanted dreams when "pllStzlich an der Bahn entlang die Signale gezogen wurden und von Thale
her das scharfe Lliuten der Abfahrts-Glocke herilberklang . . . so vernahm man auch
to take up "die neuen Gegenstllnde unmittelbar in den aIten Vorstellungs-und
schon den Pfiff der Lokomotive, gleich danach ein Keuchen und Prusten, und nun dampfte
Sprachformen" and thereby "kam[en] damit in unllSsbare Konflikte" (160). If Mahr
der Zug auf wenig hundert Schritt an dem Lindenberge vorilber" (Cecile 74). Upon
were correct, Fontane would have had to abandon the three witches trom his 1880 poem
noticing ~hetrain, St. Arnaud tells Cecile that the train is destined for Berlin and, playing
"Die Brilck' am Tay," the Hexentanzplatz of his novel Cecile, and the ghost trom Effi
on her fear and weakened condition, asks sadistically if she would like to be on that train
Briest, but to abandon these was to abandon the old "Vorstellungs-und Sprachformen,"
to which Cecile replies "Nein, nein" (Cecile 74). Although the reader is not fully aware
the familiar narrative. Fontane neither gave up these manifestations of myth, nor did he
at this point of the significance of this question, the depiction of the train adds to the
encounter irresolvable conflict with their depiction in a work of realism. In fact, the
conflict can be resolved, and its resolution is the essence of Fontane's realist aesthetic. sense offoreboding caused by St. Arnaud's disingenuous inquiry. Fontane writes, "Nun
sahen beide wieder der Wagenreihe nach und horchten auf das Echo, das das Gerassel
The crux of Fontane's aesthetic lies in .his concept of Verk/arung laid out in a 1853
programmatic essay entitled "Realismus." In this work, one of the more compelling und Geklapper in den Bergen wachrief und fast so klang, als ob immer neue ZUge vom
Hexentanzplatz her herunterklimen" (Cecile 74). Chambers is quite correct when she
metaphors he employs to describe realism is that of the marble quarry. Fontane proposes
concludes, "the strange effect caused by the echo trom the Hexentanzplatz gives the train
that an author cannot possibly write about the entire quarry; he must choose a block of
a supernatural aura" (106). The essence of the strange effect that she does not point out

1. POSTSCRIPT
PAULA. YOUNGMAN. 2
 '.~.:;- .'<".~.,. . '~'.v..':., h:...>''''''..:..>:',." '~..~
is the repetition inherent in the echo that seems to create the illusion of more and more
trains coming out of this enchanted place. Because people feared the uncanny nature of
the geographical featureknown as the Hexentanzplatz, they deemed it inhabitedby ghosts.
Through this myth and its repetition, they are able to assuage their fear of the unknown.
This fear of the unknown gives way to the Enlightenment, hence the appearance of the
train coming out ofthe Hexentanzplatz. Inthis passage, the train is turned into myth by
the echo, a myth in its own right dealing with another voiceless woman and unrequited
love. Thi~echo provides the train with its, in this instance, quite literal repetition. The
reader is not yet aware of all the details of the fear, but the menacing mood created by
this dialectic makes it all the more poignant.
At the end of chapter fifteen, the reader is confronted with much the same thing. This
time, instead of the train appearing before the witches, St. Arnaud, in an arrogant and
condescending manner, asks Cecile if she would liketo take a walk to the Hexentanzplatz.
He continues to scare his fragile wife, "Siehe nur, wie das Mondlicht drUbenauf die
Felsen fljllt. Alles spukhaft; lauter groteske Leiber und Physiognomien . . . . Herr von
Gordon hatte recht, als er den ganzen Harz eine Hexengegend nannte" (Cecile 108). St.
Arnaud, Cecile and Gordon, all on horseback, are suddenly startled: "Unten im Tal von
Quedlinburgund der Teufelsmauerher, kam imselbenAugenblickeklapperndund rasselnd
der letzte Zug heran, und das Mondlicht durchleuchtete die weiPe Rauchwolke, wahrend
vorn zwei Feueraugen blitzten und die Funken der Maschine weit hin ins Feld flogen"
(Cecile 108). Although their surprise is fomented by the eerie atmosphere created by St.
Arnaud, there is no denying that the train here, more so than in the previous passage, has
taken on an aspect of the supernatural and even the demonic. Heinimann attributes this
passage to the possibility of a quick change between "seelischen Polen" represented by
the idyll of the Harz and the city of Berlin (238). This is true, but I think Chambers is
once again closer to the mark when she points out that "the supernatural overtones [of the
train] suggest the uncontrollable nature of the forces at work" (107). Again, however,
she does not go far enough. The supernatural, as Chambers would describe it, which is
roughly equivalent to Adorno and Horkheimer's concept of myth, is our attempt to gain
control of the seemingly uncontrollable forces that create fear. Because Cecile's fear has
been exacerbated by St. Arnaud, the train in this passage is more demonically depicted
than the train in chapter twelve. Also, Cecile has greater reason to fear inasmuch as she
fmds herselffalling in love with Gordon-a type of potential relationship that caused her
to be rejected by polite society in the first place. In fact, Chambers believes that the
"careering train suggests passion, confusion and emotion that have been aroused in Cecile
and Gordon" (107). Hence, the familiar constellation of fear, repetition, myth and
Enlightenment again rears itself in an artistic manner, only this time the fear is intensified,
as is the mythical nature of the train.
Many of these same ideas are taken up by Fontane eight years later in what is perhaps
his best known work, EffiBriest. The most relevant aspects of EffiBriest to this project
are the two most oft-mentioned phenomena-the Chinese ghost and the train. Of the
latter in Effi Briest, Heinimann writes, "Die Funktion der Eisenbahn in Effi Briest ist
verglichen mit der in Cecile viel weniger significant" (241). By this it must be presumed
that he means the train is not as significant, thematically speaking. If it were measured
purely by the number of times the train makes an appearance in EffiBriest, he would
have to conclude just the opposite. As Heinimann himself points out, "es wird . . . in
diesem Roman noch mehr gereist, und allermeist per Bahn" (241). Both ofHeinimann's
statements with regard to the significance and the number of occurrences of the train,
however, are simplistic and not wholly relevant. Inasmuch as the railway plays almost
3 . POSTSCRIPT
:: ' '"''-,, ,'''.." _'> ~ """"-"t .....
the exact same role in each work, the train in Effi Briest holds just as much relative
importance as it does in Cecile. That is to say, it is one key to understanding the novel as
a whole.
Thematically, Heinimann suggests, as he does with regard to Cecile, that the rail in
Effi Briest generally represents escape "aus der Enge der vom Mann dominierten
Beziehung" (242). While this is true to some extent, Segeberg's analysis is more specific
and compelling. He writes:
Technische Mittel sind also bei Fontane nie stets vorab eindeutig determinierte
soziale Artifakte, sondefk GIOcks-oder auch "Angst-Apparate aus KalkOl," die
sich mit sehr verschiedenen Absichten verschwistern kl>nnen; darin gleichen
sie dem (im genannten Zitat [Angst-Apparate] eigentlich gemeinten)
Gespensterspuk des ...;Bismarck-Proteges Instetten, der sein Chinesengespenst .
einzig zur ZUchtigung seiner Kind-Frau Effi erfindet. (177)
Although the reason for Instetten's invention of the ghost may be overstated here, Segeberg
leads the reader to an interesting point with regard the other, oft-mentioned phenomenon.
He is certainly correct with regard to his comparison of the ghost and technology. They
do, in many instances, serve the same purpose, and, as is the case in Cecile, it certainly
suggests, either consciously or unconsciously on the part ofFontane, an understanding
of the relationship between the technological and the mythological.
To come to a more complete understanding of Effi Briest, the reader must necessarily
have a critical look at the pivotal sleigh ride scene. Heinimann rightfully points out this
scene as central to one's understanding of Fontane's use of the train, but he fails to
highlight a vital aspect of this passage. He does not make the connection between the
end of the scene in which they arrive at the train station and the beginning of the scene,
which includes the most thorough discussion of the ghost. In this passage, both the train
and the ghost are, as Segeberg writes with regard to technological means in general in
Fontane's works, "Angst-Apparate aus KalkOl" (177).
The scene begins in earnest as Effi and Instetten discuss how they shall spend their
day. Instetten suggests a sleigh ride to the train station and lunch at the Zum Filrsten
Bismarck. On the way to the train station, the pair passes a cemetery, and Instetten points
out that the Chinese man, the one who haunts Effi now, is buried there. Effi's fear is
immediate and palpable: "Effi fuhr zusammen: es war ihr wie ein Stich. Aber sie hatte
doch Kraft genug, sich zu beherrschen, und fragte mit anscheinender Rube: 'Unserer?'"
(Effi Briest 91). Tired of her own fear, Effi, in so many words, insists that Instetten
disenchant this whole prospect of the ghost. She begs, "Erz1ihle mir das Wirkliche. Die
Wirklichkeit kann mich nicht so qual en wie meine Phantasie" (Effi Briest 92). In this
way she differentiates herself from Cecile, who asks St. Arnaud for a story about happiness
and joy. Cecile is asking for a fairytale while Effi begs for reality. Effi is a stronger
woman than Cecile, but she does not realize that reality in the form of the train will, in
short order, torture her in much the same way as the ghost.
Inst~tten next proceeds to relate the factual history of the Chinese man who becomes
the ghost, but he does not seem to want to entirely disenchant. In the middle of his
history, he sees "den Kroschentiner Kirchturm dicht vor [ihnen]" (Effi Briest 93). He
suggests that they give up the train station, give up this search for the presumed comfort
of reality that Effi desires, in favor of the church, in favor of myth. Effi rejects the idea,
and they continue to the train station, all the while Instetten is explaining the history of
the ghost. Effi is not consoled even by the time they reach their destination-the train
station.
PAULA. YOUNGMAN. 4
 , .~... ',,,. ..;'~:',:..-i:1',;~,'."".'~'q". ,...,,~' o_:
While at the station, the arrival of a train provides another opportunity for Instetten to
torture Effi emotionally. Just as the "reality" of the history of the Chinese man never
truly comforts her, this manifestation of reality, the train, does not either. In fact, the
train evokes the opposite. As Instetten teases Effi with the suggestion of going home to
Hohen-Cremmin, the narrator provides an explanation of the tear provoked by Instetten's
cruelty: "Effi war, als der Zug vorbeijagte, von einer herzlichen Sehnsucht erfa~t worden.
So gut es ihr ging, sie ftlhlte sich trotzdem wie in einer fremden Welt" (Effi Briest 97).
Thanks 1;0the train, she feels a longing for her lost childhood combined with a fear of this
strange new world into which she has entered. Hence, the train and the ghost as literary
devices play largely the same role. In this case, both myth and technology serve to stoke
Effi's fear.
Fontane's works seem to provide further evidence that the despair over the demise of
poetry at the hands of the railway is not warranted. His art, as the Fontane critic Erika
Swales suggests, "betrays the consciousness of its time, betrays it in both senses of the
word; it bears the imprint of its time, it renders details of the physical and psychological
landscape of the society it evokes . . . but it also betrays its time by transgressing the
given consciousness of which it partakes" (123-4). Thus the ghost as the transgressor of
the given time and the train as part of the physical and psychological landscape of the
nineteenth century can exist in the same work. As Alan Bance posits, Fontane ''presents
a world which is only apparently entzaubert (emptied of magic), and in EffiBriest he
retains the pre-scientific power of magic to which we are all still subject, howeverrational
we like to think ourselves" (55). Bance is correct to some degree, but he does not go far
enough. What Adorno and Horkheimer suggest is that the pre-scientific power of magic
and the power of science itself have the same roots. Thus when Bance refers to Fontane
as a "'Poet des Ubergangs,' the exploiter of transitional moments for fictional ends"
(11), he overstates how great the leap must be to make the transition. Bance and others
do not take into consideration the resilience of repetition, the shared root between science
and myth, as a means of explanation. Through repetition, humans have a remarkable
capacity to incorporate a new tale into older ones that have been told for thousands of
years. It is not necessary to invent a story for a new age out of nothing. Thus writers like
Fontane do not invent. His works, through their repetitive juxtaposition of rail and fairy
tale, of myth and Enlightenment, highlight the resilient, shared root of both realms.
5. POSTSCRIPT
~~_ ---"'-'--'- c7~
Works Cited
Adorno, Theodor, and Max Horkheimer. Dialektik der Aufk/tirung.
Philosophische Fragmente. 1944. Frankfurt: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1969.
Bance, Alan. "Fontane and the Notion of Progress." Publications of the English
Goethe Society 57 (1988): 1-18.
-. Theodor Fontane: The Major Novels. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1982.
Chambers, Helen Elizabeth. Supernatural and Irrational Elements in the Works of
Theodor Fontane. Stuttgart: Heinz, 1980.
Fontane, Theodor. Cecile. 1887. Stuttgart: Reclam,1982.
-, EffiBriest. 1895. Stuttgart: Reclam, 1969.
-. "Realismus." Theorie des burgerlichen Realismus. 1853. Ed. Gerhard
Plumpe. Stuttgart: Philip Reclam, 1985. 140-48.
Heinimann, Alfred Ch. Technische Innovation und literarische Aneignung.
Die Eisenbahn in der deutschen und englischen Literatur des 19. Jahrhunderts.Bem:
Francke, 1992.
Johnstone, Barbara, ed. Repetition in Discourse: Interdisciplinary Perspectives.
Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1994.
Mahr, Johannes. Eisenbahnen in der deutschen Dichtung. Der Wandel
eines literarischen Motivs im 19. und im beginnenden 20. Jahrhundert. Munich:
Fink, 1982.
Segeberg, Harro. Literatur im technischen Zeitalter: Von der Fruhzeit der
Deutschen Aufk/tirung bis zum Beginn des Ersten Weltkriegs. Darmstadt:
Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1997.
Swales, Erika. "Private Mythologies and Public Unease: On Fontane's Effi
Briest. .. Modern Language Review 75 (1980): 114-24.
Williams, D.A. The Monster in the Mirror: Studies in Nineteenth Century
Realism. London: Oxford UP, 1980.
PAULA. YOUNGINER. 6