Ida Jungmann Character Analysis in Buddenbrooks

Ida Jungmann is the Buddenbrooks’ longtime domestic servant. The consul and Bethsy met Ida on a trip to Prussia and brought her back with them to Lübeck to serve as governess to their children. Ida is unwaveringly loyal to the Buddenbrooks and shows no disdain for them despite the privileges their wealth and status affords them. Indeed, she even talks disparagingly of other working-class people. Ultimately, however, Ida’s loyalty and dedication are for naught: in the end, Gerda unceremoniously lets Ida go after Thomas’s death.

Ida Jungmann Quotes in Buddenbrooks

The Buddenbrooks quotes below are all either spoken by Ida Jungmann or refer to Ida Jungmann. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

She wept bitterly when the time came to say farewell to her little Johann. He embraced her: then, putting his hands behind his back and shifting his weight to one leg while balancing his other foot on the toe, he watched her depart; and his gold-brown eyes rimmed with bluish shadows had the same brooding, introspective look that they had taken on when he stood beside his grandmother’s corpse, when his father died, when their grand old home was broken up—or on so many other occasions, which had less to do with life’s external events. As he saw it, old Ida’s departure was consistent with the other instances of decline, dissolution, and termination that he had witnessed. That sort of thing no longer astounded him—had never astounded him, strangely enough. Sometimes, when he would raise his head with its curly brown hair and flair his nostrils fastidiously, his lips slightly twisted as always, it looked as if he were cautiously sniffing the air and the atmosphere of life around him, expecting to catch a whiff of that odor, that strangely familiar odor, which the fragrance of all those flowers beside his grandmother’s casket had not been able to overpower.

Related Characters: Elisabeth “Bethsy” Buddenbrook , Hanno Buddenbrook, Ida Jungmann, Gerda Buddenbrook (née Arnoldsen), Thomas Buddenbrook

Related Symbols: Yellow

Page Number and Citation: 677-678

Explanation and Analysis:

This passage describes Ida’s heartfelt goodbye to young Hanno after Gerda—with a cold lack of sentimentality—lets the Buddenbrooks’ longtime domestic worker go after Thomas’s death. Ida’s emotional state as she says goodbye to Hanno conveys the deep and unwavering loyalty she has had for the Buddenbrooks through her years working for them. More interestingly, however, is Hanno’s lack of emotion as he bids farewell to the woman who has cared for him all his life. Hanno regards Ida’s departure casually as though it were nothing to him: “As he saw it, old Ida’s departure was consistent with the other instances Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae e

Ida Jungmann Character Timeline in Buddenbrooks

The timeline below shows where the character Ida Jungmann appears in Buddenbrooks. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...grandfather (Johann), even more so when he hears that she learned it from her governess, Ida Jungmann. Johann is far less trusting of outsiders than the consul is, and he was... (full context)

Personal Fulfillment and Self-Knowledge Theme Icon

Ida appears in the doorway, holding hands with young Klothilde. Klothilde, the daughter of one of... (full context)

...Justus is there, too—sporting a fashionable moustache. Family and friends talk amongst themselves, and soon Ida Jungmann and the kitchen maid open the doors for the guests to enter the dining... (full context)

The party continues. Later in the evening, Bethsy Buddenbrook notices that Dr. Grabow, Ida, and Christian aren’t there. Bethsy leaves to search for the missing partygoers. She finds them... (full context)

At last, the party winds down. Bethsy leaves Ida in charge of the cleanup and goes to see how Christian is doing. The consul... (full context)

...Suddenly, the bite of peach still in his mouth, Christian flinches in alarm and groans. Ida Jungmann gets up in a panic to help the apparently choking child, but then Christian... (full context)

...family. Tony agonizes over the consul’s pokiness—he’s always late in finishing work for the day. Ida Jungmann enters the room with Erika. Ida has been with the Buddenbrooks for two decades... (full context)

One day, Ida Jungmann presents Bethsy with a calling card. Bethsy is confused by the card’s message, and... (full context)

...to in Munich, where no one would dream of reading a telegram during a meal. Ida Jungmann observes all this and is too shocked to eat—she’s never heard such language or... (full context)

...after he first arrived, Permaneder at last gets ready to leave. He bids everyone goodbye—even Ida, whom he calls “missy.” He tells everyone he’s returning to his rented room at a... (full context)

...suspects he will propose to her. She’s not sure how she should answer and summons Ida for advice. Ida asks Tony if she likes Permaneder. Tony admits she does. He’s not... (full context)

Ida reassures Tony that none of that will matter when Tony is living with Permaneder in... (full context)

Ida protests that Tony shouldn’t do something she doesn’t want to do, but Tony reassures her... (full context)

...Tony and Erika arrive. Tony runs to her mother, leaving Erika at the door with Ida Jungmann. Her face buried in Bethsy’s skirt, Tony begins to weep. Bethsy instructs Ida to... (full context)

...He gets taller, and as he grows up, he starts to look like a Buddenbrook. Ida Jungmann moves into Thomas’s household to serve as Hanno’s governess. (full context)

...her old friend Armgard, drops by Thomas’s house. She finds Thomas all alone this evening: Ida Jungmann is busy with Hanno, and Gerda has gone with Christian to see a violin... (full context)

Her mood still joyful from Thomas’s anecdote, Tony walks upstairs to see Hanno. She finds Ida Jungmann there, who urges Tony to be quiet, gesturing toward the sleeping child. Tony kisses... (full context)

Just then, Hanno cries out in his sleep. The noise frightens Tony, but Ida says it happens all the time. Hanno starts to mutter in his sleep, saying something... (full context)

...emphasis on “freedom and justice” that has Hanno feeling so rotten. With this, Tony bids Ida goodnight and heads out. (full context)

...one. Thomas feels uncomfortable and tries to redirect the attention away from the business, but Ida Jungmann interrupts to say that Hanno has prepared a poem to recite to Thomas. (full context)

...become fast friends, bonding over their similarly melancholy dispositions and their mutual dislike of school. Ida Jungmann accompanies Hanno to visit Kai’s home one day, but she’s put off by its... (full context)

Christmas approaches, and Hanno eagerly counts down the days until Christmas on the Advent calendar Ida Jungmann has made him. On December 23, all the family gathers at Meng Strasse, “a... (full context)

...the adults, eats too many sweets and has an upset tummy later in the evening. Ida Jungmann lightly scolds him when she tucks him into bed that evening. (full context)

In recent years, the Buddenbrooks have tended not to travel much over the summers. Gerda, Ida Jungmann, and Hanno always spend a month at the hotel in Travemünde, but that’s only... (full context)

Sunday is the only day Hanno doesn’t like: that’s when people from town—“middle-class day-trippers,” as Ida Jungmann disparagingly calls them—come to the beach to relax and have fun. Hanno would prefer... (full context)

...and then the family departs for home. Hanno looks longingly back at the lighthouse, and Ida comforts him as he begins to cry. Hanno reflects on his family’s justification for the... (full context)

Alone in his room that night (Gerda sleeps upstairs in Ida Jungmann’s room these days, to be closer to Hanno), Thomas ponders what he has read... (full context)

...of Thomas’s home. She finds Gerda upstairs, her face stricken and horrified. The women embrace. Ida appears in the doorway, holding a basin, her eyes red. Tony enters Thomas’s bedroom, where... (full context)

...a delivery one day, she asks if she can go upstairs to see Thomas’s body. Ida Jungmann guides her upstairs. It’s an arduous trek—Frau Iwersen “[i]s expecting, as usual.” She reaches... (full context)

Ida Jungmann is let go—Hanno is 15 now and no longer needs her care. More significantly,... (full context)

Ida Jungmann Character Analysis

Ida Jungmann Quotes in Buddenbrooks

Part 11, Chapter 1 Quotes

Ida Jungmann Character Timeline in Buddenbrooks