Marie and Munich
The speaker, Marie, represents the rootless and stateless aristocrats who had been dispersed across Europe as a consequence of the Great War and the Russian Revolution. (The war led to the downfall and dismemberment of the Austro-Hungarian, German, Russian and Ottoman empires).
Marie has come to Germany from Lithuania, but in order to gain acceptance, she claims to be ethnic German: "I'm certainly not Russian, I come from Lithuania, a genuine German."
She is nostalgic for the freedom of her childhood, and makes reference to the "arch-duke", presumably Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, whose assassination triggered the Great War. She is now literally unsettled: I read, much of the night, and go south in winter.
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The Hofgarten is a park in Munich, Bavaria.
The Starnbergersee is a lake 25km southwest of Munich. It was the scene of a famous death by water, when King Ludwig II of Bavaria and his doctor were found dead in the lake. The circumstances of their deaths remain something of a mystery. Ludwig built Neuschwanstein castle, and was a patron and devoted admirer of Richard Wagner.
Marie has come to Germany from Lithuania, but in order to gain acceptance, she claims to be ethnic German: "I'm certainly not Russian, I come from Lithuania, a genuine German."
She is nostalgic for the freedom of her childhood, and makes reference to the "arch-duke", presumably Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, whose assassination triggered the Great War. She is now literally unsettled: I read, much of the night, and go south in winter.
******************************
The Hofgarten is a park in Munich, Bavaria.The Starnbergersee is a lake 25km southwest of Munich. It was the scene of a famous death by water, when King Ludwig II of Bavaria and his doctor were found dead in the lake. The circumstances of their deaths remain something of a mystery. Ludwig built Neuschwanstein castle, and was a patron and devoted admirer of Richard Wagner.
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