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http://proza.ru/2021/03/04/382 A tutorial of a writer s success. Chapter 1. http://proza.ru/2021/03/04/382
Chapter 2. Hansa - Ankershagen - Pompei
2.1 Ankershagen: "A distant settlement" or a fabulous intellectual center?
Heinrich Schliemann's childhood was both ordinary and unusual.
Both mother and father loved him; in most families, parents love their children.
His soul absorbed fairy tales and legends; many children read fairy tales in childhood, believe in them, make fabulous plans.
But not everyone has the environment in which Heinrich spent his childhood. His immediate environment was his family, the village of Ankershagen, or more broadly, the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, located off the coast of the Baltic Sea in northeastern Germany.
About Mecklenburg-Schwerin - judging by the articles and books about the life of Heinrich Schliemann - there is a contradictory impression. On the one hand, this is the German outback, a kind of backwater. On the other hand, a very humane, tolerant, enlightened society, not spoiled by material abundance, is presented for readers.
Different people live next to Heinrich Schliemann, they find themselves in different, sometimes very unpleasant, situations. But no cruelty or spitefulness is noticeable. Tense situations are discharged humanely and, in the end, safely.
Heinrich himself, finding himself in a difficult situation, caused not so much ridicule and mockery as sympathy.
The book by Heinrich Alexander Stoll "Schliemann" ["Der Traum von Troja", Leipzig,1956] tells of a tour of the duke's castle fulfilled by the father of his (Heinrich) comrade around 1836. Heinrich, after the "great" family "catastrophe" left the gymnasium and studies in a real school. One of his schoolmates was the valet's son Wilhelm Rust (Heinrich Schliemann maintained friendly relations with him throughout his life). The valet, Wilhelm's father, taking the children by the hands, leads them through the castle, leads them to the statues, to the cabinet with old vases. Heinrich suddenly tells (to the friend and Wilhelm's father) what characters are present in the drawings on the vases. The touched, agitated valet opens the closet and gives Heinrich, who was scorched by a family catastrophe, to hold these precious vases in his hands [Øòîëü. Ñ.54] [Stoll. P.54]. Of course it was an atmosphere of tolerance, humanity and compassion. Heinrich Alexander Stoll "made a plot ring" for this situation, telling how, about 50 years later, Heinrich Schliemann (world famous) again visited the duke's castle; there was a visit personally to the Duke (to the son of the duke to which the "first" visit took place) [Øòîëü. Ñ.387—388] [Stoll. P. 387-388].
After graduating from a Reahchule in 1836, Heinrich worked as an "apprentice", a "pupil", a kind of candidate for businessmen, performing the duties of a seller and handyman, in a shop in the town of F;rstenberg (during five years). The significant words of Hermann Niederhoffer, on the occasion of looking into the shop, - “a poverty is not shameful, ... a stupidity is shameful” [Øòîëü. Ñ. 65] [Stoll. P. 65], - contain both moral support and a positive orientation towards development. Built by Heinrich Schliemann in Athens in 1881, the house-palace of the "Chamber of Ilion" («Iliou Melathron») is decorated with inscriptions; including "Ignorance is burdening" [Âàíäåðáåðã. Ñ. 449] [Vanderberg. P. 449]. The very concept of "pupil" contained a kind of moral support: the "apprentice", the "pupil" was not a simple a hired employee, but a person with a perspective, of the same social level with the "master"; in the future, the "apprentice" was to become a businessman (by the way, this is what happened. Only the scale of Heinrich Schliemann's commerce turned out to be unexpectedly large). It seems to me that the mention of the name of Heinrich Schliemann in the contract for the sale of a grocery store was not at all offensive and did not represent the "apprentice" as belonging to the small business being sold; it was kind of a social guarantee.
Both Adolph Schliemann, a cousin of Heinrich (a Gymnasium student), and Hermann Niederhoffer, a pastor's son who dropped out his study in the Gymnasium, as Heinrich Alexander Stoll writes, read Homer by heart (demonstrating knowledge plus a good memory) [Øòîëü. Ñ. 50, 66] [Stoll. S. 50, 66].
In Ankershagen, the inhabitants, contemporaries of Heinrich, also remember the "fellow villager" Johann Heinrich Voss, who translated Homer. In Ankershagen, they are discussing the excavation of a mound in one of the neighboring villages - Reinshagen [Øòîëü. Ñ. 28] [Stoll. P. 28].
Heinrich felt the atmosphere of miracles and fabulousness. Near the pastor's house there is a pond "Silver Bowl" ["das Silberschalchen"], a fairy maiden lives in it, and a ghost appears next to the house [Øëèìàí Ã. Èëèîí. Ò.1. Ñ. 36] [Schliemann Heinrich. Ilios. Vol.1. P. 36].
The sexton Prange (who lamented about the lack of education) and the sacristan Wollert (who had an excellent memory and, in the opinion of Heinrich Schliemann, had the abilities of a great scientist) told Heinrich fairy tales, legends, stories.
One of the stories told of an attempt by Prange and Wollert to find out where storks winter (a note was tied to the stork's leg, written by Prange at the request of Wollert). Having caught the stork returning in the spring, they allegedly removed the parchment-answer from his leg, which said: "... the country, where the stork was, is called Saint John's Land" [Øëèìàí Ã. Èëèîí. Ò.1. Ñ. 39] [Schliemann Heinrich. Ilios. Vol.1. P. 39].
Heinrich might have developed not only an interest in excavation, but also a penchant for travel. (Interestingly, a feature of Troas was a large number of storks living there. "... We ... would give years of our lives to find out where this mysterious land of St. John was," writes Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann [Øëèìàí Ã. Èëèîí. Ò.1. Ñ. 34] [Schliemann Heinrich. Ilios. T. 1. P. 34]. In one of the letters of the millionaire Heinrich Schliemann to his "children's bride" Minna Meincke (already an adult and married Richers [the spelling of the surname in Englishit may be a refined]) there is a phrase: "In the Troad you can sometimes see twenty storks on one roof" [Ìåéåðîâè÷ Ì. Ë. Ñ. 145] [Meyerovich M.L. P. 145].
A positive attitude towards education and scientific research was formed.
One gets the impression that Ankershagen was not such a backwater. It was inhabited by people who respected education, who had a broad outlook and wide interests.
On the periphery of the biographical materials, there are references to the Mecklenburg consuls, who showed a financial assistance, although not particularly significant, but very timely, to fellow countrymen abroad. "Mr. Quack, the consul for Mecklenburg at Amsterdam", was mentioned in the Autobiography by Heinrich Schliemann.
2.2. The kind-hearted shipbroker J. F. Wendt of Hamburg, benefactor
J. F. Wendt is the only person (as far as I can judge from the Autobiography by Schliemann) whom Heinrich Schliemann calls his benefactor [Øëèìàí Ã. Èëèîí. Ò.1. Ñ. 44] [Schliemann Heinrich. Ilios. Vol. 1. P. 44].
The very figure of J.F. Wendt is somewhat mysterious. Heinrich's relatives did not live in material abundance. At the same time, the ship broker J.F. Wendt, a native of Mecklenburg, who operated in Hamburg and was met there by Heinrich in 1841, was apparently financially prosperous, had connections and influence.
J.F. Wendt
(1) arranged for Heinrich several well-paid jobs (the working with texts), so Heinrich was able to leave Hamburg without debt,
(2) arranged a sea voyage (free for Heinrich) to Venezuela, supplied him with letters of recommendation,
(3) sent to Heinrich, after shipwreck, 240 guilders (20 pounds), collected from friends for Christmas (the funds were send through Consul Quack),
(4) wrote a letter of recommendation to the Consul -General of Prussia in Amsterdam Mr. W. Gepner; with the help of Gepner, Heinrich entered at the beginning of 1842 to work in the trading company of Mr. F. C. Quien [Øòîëü. Ñ. 83,94] [Stoll. S. 83.94] [Øëèìàí Ã. Èëèîí. Ò.1. Ñ. 45] [Schliemann Heinrich. Ilios. Vol. 1. P. 45].
If you look at the situation with an open mind (for example, without knowing the names), then you can think about not only the support of a fellow countryman, but also the help of a relative to a relative. Heinrich Schliemann in his Autobiography (1880) writes that Wendt "was brought up in childhood" with [along] [in the same family] Heinrich's late mother Louise [Øëèìàí Ã. Èëèîí. Ò.1. Ñ. 43] [Schliemann Heinrich. Ilios. Vol. 1. P. 43]. D. N. Egorov (1923) slightly rearranges the accents, speaking of the "friend of the mother from childhood period" [Åãîðîâ, 1923. Ñ.20] [Egorov, 1923, p. 20]. According to Stoll, J. F. Wendt belonged to "one of those few people who can be told everything, even that which is usually not spoken about out of pride or shame"; “… Good uncle Wendt - as Heinrich finally had to name him and he willingly named him…” [Øòîëü. Ñ. 82, 84] [Stoll. S. 82, 84].
In describing the help provided by J. F. Wendt (the benefactor of Heinrich Schliemann), the word "fellow countryman" was used, among others. In the Russian language there is also the word "fellow villager", which nevertheless has a certain "professional" peasant connotation. Of course, both Heinrich and those residents of Ankershagen, with whom he mostly communicated, had little to do with peasant labor. Therefore, the concept of "fellow countrymen" is more appropriate. Note that in the life of Heinrich Schliemann, relations with fellow countrymen and fellow villagers, residents of Ankershagen occupied a prominent place.
As if by the way, Heinrich Stoll (1910 - 1977) (according to A. K. Gavrilov, Heinrich Stoll was a patriot of Mecklenburg, a writer, a scrupulous researcher [Ãàâðèëîâ À. Ê. Ñ. 20] [Gavrilov A. K. P. 20], a man, who managed to see Schliemann's contemporaries) mentions: “ ... Mecklenburg is the homeland of the Wends. Many Mecklenburgers have wide convex cheekbones, like many Russians - the Wends are also a Slavic people” [Øòîëü. Ñ. 114] [Stoll. P. 114].
One more small remark. 20 pounds sent by J.F. Wendt to Heinrich in Amsterdam, in terms of modern money (through exchange rates, the gold content of "those" currencies and the modern value of gold) are about 410,000 rubles (modern Russian rubles) or about 4,900 euros...
2.3. Ernest Schlieman: Pastor, Teacher, Father. A home (parent) learning
As a child, Heinrich had home parenting education.
The organization of the Ernest Schliemann's the pastor professional activities allowed him to devote necessary time to raising and teaching his son. “... Heinrich was learning a Latin grammar and ancient history. The pastor did not notice that he himself was no longer very competent in these subjects. (...) Pastor Schliemann was especially carried away, telling his son about the death of Pompeii and Herculaneum ... (...) When everything that the pastor remembered about Pompeii was told, it was Homer's turn. Ernst Schliemann did not know Greek, but he read Homer in the German translation of Voss. (…) Father said that in the castle of Ankershagen, in the very one where Henning Bradenkirl once raged, Johann Heinrich Voss, Homer's translator, lived in 1769 ” [Ìåéåðîâè÷ Ì. Ë. Ñ. 20] [Meyerovich M.L. P. 20].
There are many not entirely flattering assessments of the life and deeds of Ernest Schliemann. If you look objectively, "according to the Hamburg score", his life was not so bad. Until he left the post of pastor, his life was prosperous. For several years (a tense and tragic period) the investigation of his activities lasted, which again ended happily; Ernest Schliemann voluntarily resigned as pastor with quite decent compensation. For several years he lived a not particularly wealthy, but not very difficult life: as a widower, he married a second time (his wife was a woman almost 30 years younger than him; with the name Sofia), children appeared in the second marriage. Son Heinrich, starting on March 1, 1844, work in the trading company "Schroder and Co", provided material assistance to both his father and other family members. From the mid-1840s to 1870 (the year of the elder Schliemann's death), Ernest Schliemann was generally financially secure, and not least thanks to the financial support of his son Heinrich (“Honour thy father …” (Âòîð 5:16) (Deuteronomy 5:16)) ... Ernest died, knowing that Heinrich became a millionaire, traveled around the world, took up archeology, visited Pompeii, visited the Great Wall of China and practically began excavating Troy. Did he doubt his son's success? Let the reader answer this question for himself. Probably, Ernest Schliemann stopped doubting his son after receiving two kegs (barrels) of Bordeaux and a box of cigars. He received them from that same son, Heinrich, who went off almost beggar and almost sick to an unfamiliar city, without much financial help from his father (by that time burdened with a new family). After 1870, Heinrich continued to financially support his father's widow, since she recieved the surname Schliemann (and in addition, we add, was the mother of his half-brother [stepbrother]). So, the sums invested by Ernest Schliemann in books about Pompeii and about world history turned out to be not an eccentricity of a loser pastor, whose fantasies were far from real life, not the actions of man, who entangled in a web of dreams, passions and circumstances, but a quite effective investments.
In 1850, another son of Ernest Schliemann, Ludwig [Louis], almost became a rich man (died in the USA; apparently from improper medical treatment; at the time of his death he had decent capital). The life of Heinrich's sisters was settled, too. Apparently, Ernest Schliemann raised and taught his children at a very high level. "… anyone among you who is without sin…” [... Who among you is without sin ..."] (Èí 8:7) (John 8:7).
2.4. A distant Hansa, the close Pompei
Heinrich accumulated, transformed the atmosphere of fabulousness, and directed it to a higher level.
It is unlikely that pastor Ernest Schliemann, Heinrich's father, would listen to Prange's and Wollert's "tales" about the treasures and the hidden, buried ancient valuables. A pastor, who is digging mounds and looking for jewelry would look strange.
When Ernest Schliemann complained about poverty, Heinrich advised him to dig off a silver bowl or a golden cradle. This could not be perceived otherwise as the naivety and fantasies of a child.
But Heinrich's "archaeological ideas" were superimposed on information about excavations of a mound in neighboring Reinshagen, on news about excavations in different parts of the world, in Pompeii, in Herculaneum [Áîãäàíîâ È. À., 2008 à. Ñ. 48] [Bogdanov I. A., 2008 a. P. 48].
Something the obscure, uncertain was disturbing the soul of Ernest Schliemann ... "This boy says strange things, but I think, there is a something in his words ...".
Pastor Ernest Schliemann, residing in Ankershagen, acquires a book on excavations in Pompeii. In the artistic presentation of Heinrich Alexander Stoll, the purchase of this book demanded savings on food for the whole family for a month [Øòîëü. Ñ. 35] [Stoll. P. 35]. Books at that time were worth a lot.
A some movement along the chronological line. Heinrich Stoll argues that the book of Heinrich Schliemann himself about Troy in 1883 cost 45 marks [Øòîëü. Ñ. 385] [Stoll. P. 385] ("This" mark [a currency unit] translated into the gold content, and counting according to the values of the gold price of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation on 02.02.2016, is equal 44408 rubles or 536 euros).
Let's go back to the childhood of Heinrich Schliemann. It is doubtful, that a books would be cheaper in (approximately) 1829 than in 1883. But suppose - conditionally - that the book about the excavations in Pompeii and the "The World history for children" by G. L. Herrer [Ludwig Jerrer's ‘Illustrated History of the World’], acquired by Pastor Ernest Schliemann (about 1829), cost (each) 10 times less than the cost of the book by Heinrich Schliemann in 1883. This assumption is unlikely: the deeper into the past, the more expensive the books were; let us accept this assumption as a temporary working hypothesis. But even with this calculation, 4440 rubles or 53 euros (for one book) is a noticeable amount for a large family. Nonetheless, Ernst Schliemann went to the expense, decided on the costs - in favour of maintaining and approving the interest of children, at least Heinrich's, in archeology and history.
Interestingly, there would be many families where the father, having heard his son's intention to excavate Troy (!?), would have approved such a plan?
And how many people, not taking into account Ernest Schliemann, showed the approval of Heinrich Schliemann's intention to "excavate Troy" before the discovery of the "Priam's treasure" in 1873? Perhaps - only the British citizens, the natives of Malta, the Calvert brothers, sent by Fate to Troas, the co-owners of the Trojan Hill [Hissarlik]. (The approximate date of Heinrich Schliemann's acquaintance with one of the brothers, Frank Calvert, is August 10, 1868.).
Ernest Schliemann died in November 1870 when the excavation of Troy became a reality (trial excavations were carried out by Heinrich Schliemann in April 1870).
So, Heinrich had his father's moral support (at some periods not particularly tangible, but nevertheless) from childhood and almost until the discovery of the "Priam's treasure". In a letter dated June 1870, support for his father's efforts was expressed by Heinrich Schliemann's fourteen-year-old son Sergei [Áîãäàíîâ È. À., 2008 á. Ñ. 201] [Bogdanov I.A., 2008 b. P. 201].
Germany at the beginning of the 19th century (not yet the united) ... The ancient, semi-mythical Troy ... What connected them? Whether there was any connection? On the pages of this book, a dear Reader will meet the surname: Bismarck. The Chancellor of the German Empire (in the period 1871-1890) Otto von Bismarck facilitated the donation (the transfer) of the Trojan collection, which was discovered by Heinrich Schliemann, to the German people. There is an interesting mention of Otto von Bismarck's youth: “He was very little interested in lessons; he was somewhat interested in history, especially stories about the Trojan War, which he was carried away to the point that sometimes he read aloud about this War to his comrades. All this taken together gave him the nickname Ajax" [Ajax the Great is a Greek mythological hero; he participated in the Trojan War] (Ñåìåíòêîâñêèé Ð. È. «Êíÿçü Áèñìàðê: Åãî æèçíü è ãîñóäàðñòâåííàÿ äåÿòåëüíîñòü. 1895. — 98 ñ.») (Sementkovsky R. I. " Prince Bismarck: His life and the state activity." 1895). Otto von Bismarck read Homer's Iliad? By heart?
Heinrich Alexander Stoll artistically conjectures the following phrase of Pastor Ernest Schliemann: "To be a ship owner or a merchant, like the ancestors in Wismar and Lubeck, would be much better!" [Øòîëü. Ñ. 31—32] [Stoll. P. 31-32].
Wikipedia says that in the Schliemann family "besides priests there were pharmacists and merchants" [«Øëèìàí, Ãåíðèõ»] ["Schliemann, Heinrich"]. M. Meyerovich mentions Ernst Schliemann's great-grandfather - a wealthy Lubeck merchant [Ìåéåðîâè÷ Ì. Ë. Ñ. 14] [Meyerovich M.L. P. 14]. Heinrich Stoll writes that the head of a trading company, when hiring Heinrich Schliemann, felt in him “the inclinations of a large merchant, from the breed to which the Hanseatic merchants belonged in past centuries” [Øòîëü. Ñ. 101] [Stoll. P. 101].
D.N. Egorov mentioned the Ernest Schliemann's “risky ventures”. He writes, too, about “the commercial risk of Schliemann's the son” as “the successful further development of the paternal trait” [Åãîðîâ, 1923. Ñ.16] [Egorov, 1923, p. 16]. (Interestingly, Ernest Schliemann was among those close to Heinrich people who “advised investing in real estate: "This way your fortune will never disappear and will bring you good and reliable interest”" [Âàíäåðáåðã. Ñ. 122] [Vanderberg, p. 122]).
Genes, apparently, showed themselves both at Heinrich and at his father. Their nature demanded space, expanse, energetic actions.
Ankershagen, a piece of Heinrich Schliemann's heart, was the place where he spent his childhood; but the scope of this man's activity was broader.
For Heinrich Schliemann, the models of the life path, that the northeast of Germany at that time offered to him, were too narrow.
I suppose that replacing traditional models of life with non-standard ones corresponded to the natures of both Ernest and Heinrich; and neither Ernest nor Heinrich regretted such a replacement. (Pastor Ernest Schliemann was not particularly inspired by the prospect about which M. Meyerovich wrote: “old age was approaching, the pastor had passed the age of forty years, dreams had to be abandoned” [Ìåéåðîâè÷ Ì. Ë. Ñ. 15] [Meyerovich M. L. P. 15].
Having decided not to succumb to pessimism and “objective the course of events", Ernest decided to save on food, to buy the book about excavations in Pompeii and "The World history for children", to take care of the home education of his son Heinrich... Ernest lived up to ninety years old; his the second wife survived him. "The dream (aspiration) dies last "(proverb)).