Date of Award:

5-2016

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Arts (MA)

Department:

English

Committee Chair(s)

Charles Waugh

Committee

Charles Waugh

Committee

Brock Dethier

Committee

Jennifer Sinor

Abstract

In this thesis, I present a short story in the historical fiction genre. I researched the plight of Bavarian schoolteachers during the 1848 revolution and integrated this historical information into the story. The Cultural Minister at the time, Karl von Abel, had instituted strict measures against schoolteachers. For example, they were forbidden to read certain books (a key element in the story), attend taverns, and meet outside of regulated teachers conferences. Teachers also were denied civil servant status, which meant that no pension was available to them.

In my short story, the main character, Franz Schuler, must decide whether or not to join an illegal teachers union. After he witnesses the march of the burghers—prominent citizens— in protest against Lola Montez—the king’s mistress—and his friend’s near-arrest, he chooses to participate in the union. The union writes petitions to the Bavarian Diet and the king. When the German National Assembly convenes in 1848, they also write petitions to that body in hopes of redress. Franz also must choose how to respond to his father’s domineering behavior. The conflict Franz faces in his professional life mirrors to some degree the one he faces in his family. Ultimately, the National Assembly fails to enact real change and is disbanded. Revolutionaries across Germany are punished by the existing governments who reassert their power. Franz and his friends decide to leave Bavaria: Franz goes to America to prepare a place for his family, and the others go to France.

In this story I do not attempt to give a definitive historical interpretation of how the revolutionary events of 1848-49 affected the schoolteachers of Bavaria. Rather, I offer a glimpse into the lives of a few schoolteachers whose professional challenges coincide with the revolutionary fervor and suggest how imagined individuals may have dealt with those challenges.

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