This discovery can be described as something of a sensation; the narrative work of Johann Peter Hebel is small and canonical and very few new texts have appeared since the first half of the 19th century. In two newspapers dating from this period, Heinz Härtl discovered previously unknown or unidentified stories by the great narrator. Other texts can certainly be attributed to the circles surrounding Hebel, even if they were not directly written by him. New versions of known stories are also included. The resulting 20 stories have been printed in this edition, with the original orthography and punctuation. The editor`s epilogue explains the context and unusual features of the stories, particularly in connection with the publishing organisations behind them.
Apart from his poems in Alemannic dialect, which were greatly praised by Goethe and Jean Paul, Johann Peter Hebel (1760-1826) wrote a great number of calendar stories. Due to their perfectly structured laconicism, these became classics of their genre, greatly admired by prominent critics such as Franz Kafka, Walter Benjamin and Elias Canetti.
