Master Johannes Wacht

Written in 1822, in the last year of the author's life, this is one of Hoffmann's quieter works – a warm, closely observed portrait of an artisan household in old Bamberg, where pride, faith, and the rivalry of two apprentices shape a family's fortunes. Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776 – 1822), the Königsberg-born jurist, composer, and giant of German Romanticism, is best remembered for his fantastical stories, yet here he turns to the everyday world with rare gentleness and feeling.