Knulp

During harsh weather in mid-February, Knulp is discharged from the hospital but becomes sick again. He goes to the home of a tanner, Emil Rothfuss, in the fictional town of Lächstetten. Years ago, Knulp traveled with the tanner asks for an empty bed. He avoids promising the length of his stay as it is very important for him to be able to following days at his leisure. He also asks to write an entry into the tanner's visitor log. The previous visitor log entries describe a very busy past to him.

After a day of resting in bed, he sneaks out of the house and wanders around the city in the evening. He has conversations with some of the people he meets. The next day he also gets to know Bärbele by chatting window to window with her. She is a young girl from the Black Forest who only started working in Lächstetten a week ago. Knulp gains her trust through the skill of the fake whistling.

The next morning, he spends a lot of time exploring the town and meets old acquaintances. Knulp talks to tradesmen throughout the town because he has mastered the parlance and traits of many skills. He is always happy when mistaken as one of the trades. An old acquaintance of Knulp, Schlotterbeck, a tailor with many children who has also settled in Lächstetten envies Knulp because he is so carefree. Knulp advises Schlotterbeck that he should be happy because he has children and reveals to him that he had a two-year-old son himself who was adopted by strangers after the mother's death because they lied about who was the father of the child. Knulp, therefore can not have contact with his son and can only watch him from afar on occasion. As he continues to walk through the town he learns about the local news and then tells the news about other places. He's grateful for the peaceful life he has now from his old acquaintances. One day, he learns of the location of where the dance will be held in the evening and with a great deal of persuasion succeeds in convincing Bärbele to attend. She is far more interesting to him than the dull and jaded tanner's wife whom he avoided. He also creates a poor excuse to turn down an invitation from the Rothfuss couple who would want to spend the evening with Knulp. Instead, he goes to the dance with Bärbele. After the dance was over everyone kissed each other goodbye. Bärbele realizes that she and Knulp are the only ones who have not kissed. She gives him a big kiss. In late spring Knulp goes hiking. He learned topography while attending Latin school and was able to accurately read the topology of the landscape around Lächstetten in comfort.

The narrator is on the move with Knulp in the hot summer. In a farming village, Knulp amuses a few young girls with his antics and tricks. The narrator holds back. The two itinerant boys climb over the cemetery wall. Knulp breaks off a cemetery flower and puts it on his hat. Knulp philosophizes in the grass. The beautiful is always ephemeral. Before they spend the night outdoors, Knulp shares one of his dreams. It is about the unattainability of what was once familiar. He left his parents and his childhood sweetheart. Unfortunately, there is nothing he can do about it. He reflects on the diversity of souls. What he considers the most important thing about himself, perhaps his soul, his parents find secondary. Children can inherit many qualities from their parents, but not their soul. Everyone has their own.

Knulp proudly greets the new day by singing to the sun. The two wandering boys are jolly all summer long. When the muggy evening comes, the narrator becomes more and more cheerful and Knulp more and more quiet. The next morning, the narrator wakes up late and Knulp is gone. The narrator is overcome by that loneliness that Knulp was talking about all the time. Everyone is alone.

In October, Knulp walks to his birthplace in Gerbersau, when a former neighbor from the Latin school approaches him. This country doctor Dr. Machold recognizes that Knulp has a lung disease and doesn't belong on the street. Dr. Machold copied from Knulp at the time. Now he wants revenge. So he takes Knulp home and puts him to bed because Knulp's disease is advanced. Dr. Machold wants to get Knulp at the Oberstetten hospital, but Knulp wants to go to his birthplace. Dr. Machold is against that. Before the carriage ride to Gerbersau, Dr. Machold asks why the talented Knulp did not use his gifts in a demanding job but only used them for himself. Knulp corrects that others have enjoyed his jokes too. As for the question, Knulp answers why he left the Latin school back then. When he was almost 13, he loved Franziska. Franziska, who was two years older than him, didn't like any students. Knulp desperately wanted to be her sweetheart and dropped out of Latin school. Franziska took another. From then on, Knulp went downhill. Although he still had acquaintances and lovers, he was no longer able to rely on someone's word or bind himself to a word. He has experienced a lot of freedom and beauty but has always remained alone.

The carriage ride to the Gerbersau hospital begins. Knulp can be driven to his birthplace but stays away from the hospital. Instead, he seeks out the places of his childhood – recognizes some things that still exist, mourns things that have disappeared forever. After asking questions and finding out that Franziska is no longer alive, he leaves town. Knulp meets a stone-cutter - they have also known each other from before - who makes him think that he will have to take responsibility for his life if it comes to dying, and that despite his talents nothing has come of it. Knulp hopes for a God who won't ask him why he didn't become a magistrate but instead will take him, the child's head, in a friendly manner.

It drives the vagabond back onto the street. For two weeks he has been circling Gerbersau on foot. When winter sets in with snowstorms, Knulp comes to the end of the road. He's dead tired and spitting up blood. In his thoughts, he stands before God and talks to him incessantly. Knulp complains about the futility of his failed life and thinks it should have ended better sooner. God reminds him of many happy, beautiful times. Knulp also regrets his badness towards Lisabeth, whom he sees with their boy on his arm. God counters that she has never been angry with him and has received much good from him, which outweighs the pain inflicted on her. Knulp had to be a light-footed and vagabond in order to be able to carry a piece of childish folly and children's laughter everywhere.

God stands by his side and receives him:

"See," said God, "I could not have used you otherwise than as you are. You hiked in my name and always had to bring home a little homesickness for freedom with the sedentary people. You have done foolish things and been mocked in my name; I myself was mocked in you and loved in you. After all, you are my child and my brother and a part of me, and you have tasted nothing and suffered nothing that I did not experience with you.”

"Yes," said Knulp, nodding his head heavily. "Yes, it's like that, I've actually always known it."