SOURCE: "The Novella (I. Theodor Storm)," in German Poetic Realism, Twayne, 1981, pp. 29-36.

In the following essay, Bernd, by examining Immensee and Aquis submersus shows Storm to be a significant practitioner of and contributor to the German Poetic Realism school.

If it can be claimed that Julian Schmidt was the missionary apostle of German Poetic Realism, that the impress of his hand constituted the shaping force which brought its theory into being, then it must also be recognized that the first important practitioner of the new literary movement was Theodor Storm (1817-1888).

Storm was a native of the Danish duchy of Schleswig, and as a consequence of this geographic stroke of fate, the conflagration of 1848 affected him more adversely than it did any other Poetic Realist who acquired enduring fame. It could be said, in fact, that Storm received from the revolutions his baptism by fire as a...