Im Kampf um die Ideale, die Geschichte eines Suchenden : ein Gegenwartsroman
"Im Kampf um die Ideale, die Geschichte eines Suchenden" by Georg Heinrich Bonne is a novel written in the early 20th century. It follows a fatigued physician and reformer who, disillusioned by urban misery, hypocrisy, and alcoholism, embarks on a sea voyage to regain hope and chart practical paths for social renewal; the narrative weaves travel episodes with passionate meditations on love, duty, faith, and the future of his nation. The opening
of the novel frames the tale as a manuscript entrusted by a dying friend, then plunges into the narrator’s exhaustion after years fighting poverty, disease, and lovelessness in the city. Seeking strength, he retreats to the Lüneburg Heath, experiences symbolic encounters with Hope and Duty, and decides to sail as ship’s doctor to gain distance and clarity. Departing a frozen Hamburg, he feels liberation at sea, contrasts the warmth of shipboard camaraderie with the city’s cold, and launches fierce critiques of social indifference, church rigidity, and the hollow glitter of power. A stop in Antwerp sets commerce against the spiritual intensity of Rubens’s art and the terror of the Inquisition. Back aboard, a gallery of passengers appears, and a stormy crossing sparks a dinner-table debate where he argues for temperance, urban decongestion, cleaner rivers, and public health over alcohol-fueled custom. Night watch with the calm captain restores his inner compass, and memories surface of a mother’s moral counsel, schoolboy efforts to replace drinking with art and sport, first encounters with slum poverty, and the early conflicts that shaped his lifelong struggle. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Bonne, Georg Heinrich, 1859-1945 |
|---|---|
| Title | Im Kampf um die Ideale, die Geschichte eines Suchenden : ein Gegenwartsroman |
| Original Publication | München: Verlag von Ernst Reinhardt, 1917. |
| Credits | The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net |
| Language | German |
| LoC Class | PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures |
| Subject | Temperance -- Fiction |
| Subject | German fiction -- 20th century |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 77887 |
| Release Date | Feb 8, 2026 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 294 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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