Die Geschichte der stillen Mühle (1914)

The story is built around a classic ménage à trois. The young Gertrud is married to Martin, the miller’s son. Martin has a brother named Johannes, almost nine years his junior. Gertrud soon realizes that the two men share an intimate relationship, emotionally intense to the point of excess and going beyond mere brotherly affection. There is also a dark family secret: once, there was a third brother named Fritz. He was two years younger than Martin and died after a brawl with him: the brawny, unruly Martin, who, like Fritz, was prone to fits of temper, struck him very unfortunately on the back of the head with a stone. Over the years, the more sensitive Johannes comes to accept the gruff, closed-off Martin in the dual role of parental guardian and disciplinarian. One day, Martin met and married Gertrud, the miller’s daughter. When Johannes returns from his military service abroad, she is delighted to welcome him home. Her presence somewhat disrupts this arrangement between the two men in the old, quiet mill: the courtyard is tidy, and the garden is attractively laid out. Gertrud quickly assumes the role of the sister her nearly same-age brother-in-law never had. As she approaches Johannes with an almost childlike coquetry, a situation of mutual yet forbidden desire gradually emerges beneath the surface. Her husband Martin stokes the smoldering fire between brother and sister-in-law, increasingly taking on a fatherly role toward Gertrud as well and encouraging the two to spend a lot of time together. At a village fête, the atmosphere begins to crackle. But before the quasi-incestuous act between the older brother and his sister-like sister-in-law can be consummated in faraway America, both brothers die within a short time of one another. Gertrud is left socially isolated.