Historical dream account · English · machine translation
An Hour in the Open Air before Burial
Friedrich Hebbel
Das Buch der Träume (1927) · Das Buch der Träume, original1927 anthology, numbered account319, printed page166–167
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Vienna, September 3, 1846. Last night I dreamed: I was to be buried, but, strange though it seems to me in recollection, I was at the same time inside and outside the coffin, and the clergyman, a preacher very well known to me from my youth, asked whether I was the Friedrich Hebbel to be interred. Since I could not deny it, he decreed that for the time being, I believe for an hour, I should be placed in a burial vault where several coffins already stood, since that much time was needed to finish a grave for me. Now I appealed to the clergyman’s humanity, asked him to consider that no one willingly goes down into the earth, least of all I, and that I must earnestly request permission to spend the remaining hour still in the open air. At last he did grant me permission, but not without emphatically pointing out that I had no right to it whatsoever; that, on the contrary, it was improper and indecent to run about among the living like this as a dead man, and that I must be back at the stroke of the bell.
Original diary heading/group: 1846-09-03
Read the original German account
Eine Stunde Luft vor dem Begräbnis
Wien, 3. September 1846. In der letzten Nacht träumte mir: ich sollte begraben werden, war aber, so seltsam es mir auch in der Erinnerung vorkommt, zugleich in und außer der Truhe und wurde von dem Geistlichen, einem mir aus meiner Jugend sehr wohl bekannten Prediger, befragt, ob ich der zu bestattende Friedrich Hebbel sei. Da ich es nicht leugnen konnte, verfügte er, daß ich vorläufig, ich glaube auf eine Stunde, in einem Grabgewölbe, worin schon mehrere Särge standen, untergebracht werden solle, indem so viel Zeit dazu gehörte, ein Grab für mich fertigzumachen. Nun appellierte ich an die Menschlichkeit des Geistlichen, gab ihm zu bedenken, daß keiner gern in die Erde hinuntergehe, und ich am wenigsten, und daß ich sehr bitten müsse, die noch übrige Stunde noch in freier Luft verweilen zu dürfen. Dazu gab er mir denn endlich auch die Erlaubnis, aber nicht, ohne mir nachdrücklich vorzuhalten, daß ich darauf keineswegs ein Recht hätte, daß es im Gegenteil unerlaubt und unanständig sei, als Toter noch unter den Lebendigen so mit herumzulaufen, und daß ich auf den Glockenschlag wieder da sein müsse.
Source & context
English machine translation. The original account, source credit and publication terms remain available.
A historical recollection reproduced in Ignaz Ježower’s original German anthology. Editorial title and navigation themes are added; source wording is preserved. This is not a modern Synastry community submission.
Friedrich Hebbel, account reproduced in Ignaz Ježower (compiler), Das Buch der Träume (Berlin: Ernst Rowohlt, copyright1927), numbered account319, p.166–167. Original German; editorial title added.
Diary date/group is retained only where the source states it; no exact event date or present-day location is inferred.1927 is anthology publication, not dream date.
Public-domain original German historical texts — 1927 anthology ↗
Public Domain Mark is a status marker, not a new license grant. Selected original authors died1863 or earlier; anthology copyright1927, compiler died1942. Original German text only; no modern translation/commentary. No universal jurisdiction warranty.
Source locator and text provenance
Das Buch der Träume, original1927 anthology, numbered account319, printed page166–167
The original text and redactions are preserved. The page title is an editorial navigation label.
Complete original German numbered diary recollection transcribed against rendered primary scan; Running headings and marginal account numerals omitted; line-wrap hyphens joined; print spacing normalized; Source spelling and names retained; no translation, paraphrase, redaction or generated narrative; Scan-confirmed OCR/typographic corrections recorded in per-item replay ledger. Editorial title/navigation themes and canonical metadata added; no narrative wording change.
Complete numbered recollection retained.
- Account text SHA-256
- 43b0c5694cb7a6835c8af4c09479f2c0003fc3520e50cf2b26a074c3563bb1bc
- Source file SHA-256
- 33cd84ef59fe3acb9ce7e0ffec3a2b3b718e18f3896c45ff8dab32820c3b7f1c
Content notes
- Death
- Burial
Connections in the Loom
Titles, theme labels, illustrations and map connections are editorial navigation aids. They are separate from the account’s words and do not establish connections between real people.