Yet Hebel was not persuaded that inspiration would ever come again. For the fifth edition (1820) he was able to add a few more poems to the thirty-two from 1803. But he wrote philosophically, ‘The Muse is not always with me, she only visits me’ and that there was nothing to be gained from forcing her against her will.

In 1806 the long-awaited opportunity to return to the Black Forest region offered itself. The largely Catholic Breisgau was – as one consequence of the battle of Austerlitz – incorporated into Baden and the town of Freiburg was to be provided with a Lutheran pastor. Hebel was offered the position. But he hesitated, and bowed to the wish of his ruler (now, thanks to Napoleon, a Grand Duke) that he should remain in Karlsruhe. For he was a valued member of the Lutheran establishment in the capital and at court. Soon, in 1808, he became headmaster of his school, where his main worries were that the classrooms were simply not big enough to accommodate the pupils (one of the classes numbered eighty-three boys). He remained in that post until 1814. After that he continued to teach at the same school, but as he rose to the top of the Lutheran hierarchy in Baden his energies were increasingly concentrated on Church matters. From 1803 to 1814, however, the school establishment and the state required his services as editor and author.

It was not inspiration but duty which moved Hebel to write the prose pieces which became as famous as the Alemannische Gedichte when put together in the Treasure Chest (the Schatzkästlein des rheinischen Hausfreundes, 1811). They were provided to order, but written according to his own plan, in his spare time and with commitment and pleasure too.

The ruler of Baden from 1746 till 1811, Karl Friedrich, was a typical enlightened prince of the times. He was one of the first in Germany to abolish serfdom (in 1783) and to emancipate the Jews (in 1809). (Hebel’s attitude towards monarchy was determined by the relatively happy circumstances in the small state of Baden as well as by his Lutheranism and his loyalty to a system in which he made his own career.) One of Karl Friedrich’s concerns was education, which he saw as a key

to economic advance and the improvement of his subjects. The grammar school in Karlsruhe was close to his heart, and since 1750 it had been entrusted with the preparation of all books for use in churches and schools in the margravate and with the compilation and sale of the Lutheran almanac for Baden. The school had leased the rights over the almanac to publishers, but they lost money and the school was obliged to reassume responsibility for a publication which had been meant to bring the institution revenue but instead had become a financial burden. The problem was not solved when the government ruled that every household was obliged to buy a copy, since that only made for greater consumer resistance. The product was simply not as good as some of its competitors from other states. In 1802 Hebel was one of five wise men who discussed the situation, but as he put it, ‘many cooks spoil the broth’, and sales of the Curfürstlich badischer gnädigst pri-vilegirter Landkalender fur die badische Margravschaft lutherischen Antheils fell further. In 1806 Hebel made suggestions of his own. The almanac should be given a snappier and more attractive name: the Landkalender’s longwinded and clumsy title served only to warn the public: ‘Don’t buy me, I’m not for you!’ The technical presentation had to be improved and the publication must be put in the hands of one man, someone close to the majority of the people, the rural population, for whom the almanac was intended.

Hebel had a friend of his, a country clergyman, in mind, but inevitably he was charged with carrying out his own proposals for reform. So the almanacs for 1808 to 1811, now named Der Rheinländische Hausfreund, were the work of Hebel alone. He was also solely responsible for the issues for the years from 1812 to 1815, and again for the 1819 edition. Already by 1810 Goethe, having seen one issue which he found delightful, was anxious to lay hands on more. Individual items from the Hausfreund were reprinted in major German periodicals. They had proved to be of more than local relevance and interest. The almanac began to sell outside Baden. And the leading publisher Cotta asked Hebel to put together a selection intended not just for the publication of Baden but for the wider German public. It appeared as The Treasure Chest – Schatzkästlein des rheinischen Hausfreundes –containing one hundred and twenty-eight pieces from the years 1803 to 1811.

The almanac was usually the only reading matter in the ordinary household apart from the Bible and the Hymn or Prayer Book and was therefore seen as an important means of improving the people. It contained by definition the calendar for the year.