In a small Westphalian village, a jew is murdered. What follows is a series of suspicion, injustice and fear.
»If you approach this place, it will happen to you as you did to me.«
In the Westphalian village "B." in the 18th century, life moves slowly until a chain of events disrupts its fragile order. At the center stands Friedrich Mergel, a poor shepherd boy. Annette von Droste-Hülshoff weaves rural life, crime and the shadows of dark romanticism into a story where not every mystery finds its answer.
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (1797–1848) is considered the most important female German poet of the 19th century. She was born into a noble family at Hülshoff Castle near Münster (two months too early. Her survival was thanks to a devoted wet nurse).
From an early age, Droste showed signs of literary talent. She wrote her first poem at the age of seven and secretly hid it in the attic. Despite the strict expectations for noblewomen at the time, she followed her passion and chose a path outside of marriage and motherhood devoting her life to writing. Her texts explore nature, everyday life, religion and the role of women in society especially in her home Westphalia.
At her home near Münster, the Rüschhaus, she created a small personal writing room that she fondly called her Snail Shell. It was a quiet space just for her – something rare for women of her time.
Her sister Jenny married Joseph Freiherr von Laßberg, later lord of Meersburg Castle by Lake Constance. Through this connection, Droste began spending long periods in Meersburg. The lakeside castle became her creative refuge, far from the judgmental eyes of her relatives in Münster. Many of her most important poems were written there.
Her most famous works include the haunting poem The Boy on the Moor and the novella The Jew’s Beech, based on a true crime. The case had been documented by her uncle, August von Haxthausen, and Droste transformed it into a dark psychological narrative.
She also traveled more than most women of her time and moved in literary circles that included the Brothers Grimm, Adele Schopenhauer and friends of Goethe and Schiller.
During her lifetime, she gained some recognition. Her first poetry collection in 1838 was published under a disguised name. In 1844, her second collection appeared with her full title: Annette Freiin von Droste-Hülshoff. It was praised for its originality, though some critics found her poems unconventional. Still, she experienced a short but meaningful period of literary success before her health declined.
Despite lifelong illness, likely a result of her premature birth she continued to write as long as she could.
»I do not want to be famous now,
but in a hundred years, I wish to be read.«
– From a letter to Elise Rüdiger (1843)
I’d been looking for something dark romanticism-ish, and that’s how I stumbled across the The Jew's Beech. I was lucky enough to get my hands on a gorgeous linen bound edition. In Germany, outside of literary studies, hardly anyone talks about it anymore, probably because of its age. But the moment I started reading, I knew I had found something special.
»He was simple all his life; simple people never go crazy.«
It’s a proper crime story in the classic sense, but one that refuses to tie everything up. The real case took place near Kassel and likely reached Annette von Droste-Hülshoff through her connections, while she lived there. The historical roots run deep: the antisemitism in the german area is not just a 20th century phenomenon, it goes back into the Middle Ages.
The storytelling leaves a lot unanswered and the ending was, for the time it came out, a bold move. It sparked both admiration and backlash, especially from critics. Today of course it's seen as modern and daring, nothing controversial at all.
We practically never leave the village where it all happens; everything unfolds here and even when key characters go elsewhere, we remain with the other villagers.
And the characters? There’s no sympathetic figure to hold onto. Some worse than others, but none innocent. It reflects the spirit of the time, not only in how Jewish people were perceived, but in how justice itself operated. You had to fight tooth and nail to have a murder investigated, and you could easily get away with killing someone if the circumstances were right.
In fact, there’s so much literature on this novella that it’s hard to find anything truly new to say and yet it’s so short. In some ways, it can also be seen as an early example of true crime in literature. The story can be approached from a psychological perspective as well: what drives a person to commit a crime? It offers multiple angles to explore and can easily be read in a single afternoon.
If you want a dark, compact read that blends history and crime /
The Jew’s Beech is absolutely worth your time.
