After his father's death, 12-year-old Friedrich is adopted by Simon Semmler, his mother's younger brother and her only surviving relative, who lives in the nearby village of Brede.

When a forester is killed with an axe after Friedrich deliberately sent him in the wrong direction, he is questioned by the authorities, but no charges are brought against him and the other townspeople.

After both had enlisted in the Austrian army, Johannes was taken prisoner by the Turks and held as a slave, until he returned to Europe on a Dutch ship.

Since Simon has long died, the man is taken in by a widow in the village and the local landlord sees to it that he is given new clothes and regular meals.

in the novella) fled the country to avoid arrest, was enslaved in Algeria and, after being freed in 1805, returned to his home town where he committed suicide.

[1] Originally intended as part of an unrealised work on Westphalia by von Droste-Hülshoff, the novella was published separately in serialised form in the literary journal Morgenblatt für gebildete Stände, its title being suggested by editor Herrmann Hauff, who made the manuscript's original title Ein Sittengemälde aus dem gebirgigten Westphalen ("A portrayal of customs in mountainous Westphalia") its subtitle.

[1][4] In 1876, editor Paul Heyse, who had been critical of Die Judenbuche a few years earlier,[3] included it in volume 24 of his novella anthology Deutscher Novellenschatz.