Agnes Sapper

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Agnes Sapper (born April 12, 1852 in Munich ; † March 19, 1929 in Würzburg ; born Agnes Brater ) was, alongside Johanna Spyri and Ottilie Wildermuth, one of the most successful and most widely read German-speaking young adult authors of the early 20th century. Her best-known novel Die Familie Pfäffling alone , published in 1907, sold around 900,000 copies (up to the new edition in 2002). To date he has come up with numerous translations, including into Japanese. Sapper's total circulation was estimated at two million around 1980.

life and work

She was the second daughter of the Munich lawyer, politician and founder of the Süddeutsche Zeitung Karl Brater and his wife Pauline Brater geb. Pfaff . She and her older sister Anna should be able to stand on their own two feet, which is why their parents let them take the teaching exam in French. In 1875 she married the town councilor of Blaubeuren and later court notary Eduard Sapper. The couple had three sons, two of whom died in infancy. In 1882 the family moved to Neckartailfingen , where their two daughters Anna and Agnes were born, in 1888 to Esslingen , and three years later to Calw .

Encouraged by her husband, Sapper began her career as a writer with the story In Wasserfluten on the occasion of a competition in the magazine Immergrün in 1882. Other stories such as The First School Year (1894) and Gretchen Reinwald's Last School Year (1901) incorporated her experiences as a teacher in one Sunday school up. After the death of her husband, she settled in Würzburg in 1898 and began her actual literary work there. Her greatest success by far was achieved by Sapper in 1907 with the novel The Pfäffling Family and its sequel Werden und Wachsen from 1910. Mother Pfäffling is modeled on Sapper's own mother Pauline, to whom she also dedicated the book. The novel proves that it is realistic, close to everyday life, even though it creates “a harmonious, conciliatory picture of marriage and family”, writes Peter König. Sappers complete works are characterized by “sensitivity for the child's psyche” as well as “for social issues (maid problem, women's prison)” and have “a strong educational impulse”. The daughter from a middle-class family tells simple and exciting stories. Her language skills were limited. So she wisely avoided attempts at “poetic exaggeration”, although she valued Goethe .

Love of children and order

While Meyers Lexikon spoke of Sappers “healthy moral worldview” in 1927, in 1992 the children's book author James Krüss barely gave the bestselling author a break. It is puritanical, orderly, state-supporting, in war also chauvinistic. Dorothea Keuler weakened: “Today's children's book experts appreciate their sensitivity to social problems, their empathic understanding of what goes on in a children's psyche. Despite all her love, she is not an advocate for the child. Their narratives strengthen the parents' authority. Responding to children's needs and experiences, she brings her readers closer to the parenting point of view. Taking sides with children is reserved for subsequent generations of authors. But unlike the Wilhelminian cane pedagogy, Agnes Sapper wants to achieve obedience out of insight and love. All the small and large everyday crises are resolved with a maximum of goodwill on the part of everyone involved. "

In Würzburg, a dormitory for the mentally ill is named after Agnes Sapper. It emerged from a nursing home that Agnes Sapper had donated to the city. She used her fee for the Pfäffling family . Agnes Sapper's grave is in the Würzburg main cemetery . In 2006, the destruction of the tombstone and the leveling of the grave could be averted at the last moment. The Diakonisches Werk Würzburg took over the maintenance of the grave for another 15 years.

There is an Agnes-Sapper-Straße in Erlangen .

Works

  • In floods , narration, 1893
  • The first year of school , narrative, 1894
  • The mother among her children. A little book for mothers , 1895
  • Gretchen Reinwald's senior year at school , 1901
  • Das kleine Dummerle and other stories , Stuttgart 1904
  • The Pfäffling family , Roman, Stuttgart 1907, latest edition Würzburg 2002 online  - Internet Archive
  • Mrs. Pauline Brater , biography, Munich 1908
  • Becoming and growing , Roman, Stuttgart 1910
  • Upbringing or Allowing , Counselor, Stuttgart 1912
  • Lieschen's pranks and other stories , Stuttgart 1913 (2nd edition)
  • Mother and daughter , story, Stuttgart 1913
  • Urschele up! A comedy for the home theater in 3 appearances , Stuttgart 1913
  • War booklet for our children , Stuttgart 1914 online  - Internet Archive
  • In the Thuringian Forest , Stuttgart 1914
  • War stories: Tale from the war , Stuttgart 1915
  • Without the father: Story from the war , Stuttgart 1915 online  - Internet Archive
  • The grandchildren , children's book, Stuttgart 1917
  • Greetings to the friends of my books , autobiographical, Stuttgart 1922
  • Proven in need: Five stories , Stuttgart 1922
  • Lili: Story from the life of a motherless child , Stuttgart 1924
  • In the family circle: Small comedies for the youth , Stuttgart 1926
  • The homecoming and other stories from war and peace , Stuttgart 1938
  • In the Thuringian Forest and other stories from the past , Wuppertal 1965

literature

  • Festschrift for Agnes Sapper's 70th birthday. Stuttgart 1922.
  • Agnes Herding-Sapper: Agnes Sapper. Your way and your work. Stuttgart 1931.
  • Charlotte Breyer: Agnes Sapper 1852-1929. In: Inge Meidinger-Geise (Hrsg.): Frauengestalten in Franken. Würzburg 1985, pp. 174-177.
  • Gudrun Wedel: “… nothing more than a German Woman…”. Remarks on the Biographical and Autobiographical Tradition of the Women of One Family. In: Ruth-Ellen B. Joeres, Mary J. Maynes (Eds.): German Women in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Bloomington / Indiana 1986, pp. 305-320.
  • James Krüss: Naivety and an understanding of art. Thoughts on children's literature. Weinheim 1992; therein: The Pfäffling Family Or When Morality Conquers Art, pp. 194–198.
  • Barbara Asper: Agnes Sapper. In: Kurt Franz (Ed.): Children's and youth literature. A lexicon. Meitingen 1995 ff (loose-leaf collection).
  • Harald Salomon: Agnes Sapper's effect in Japan. In: Japonica Humboldtiana , No. 7, Berlin 2003 ( online ; PDF; 636 kB; accessed on May 21, 2012).
  • Herbert Hummel:  Sapper, Agnes. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-428-11203-2 , p. 434 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

Audio books

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sunday newspaper from August 11, 2002 ( Memento from January 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a b fembio , accessed on May 21, 2012
  3. ↑ Charlotte Breyer, Würzburg 1985
  4. ↑ For their descendants, see the discussion page
  5. ↑ a b Charlotte Breyer, Würzburg 1985
  6. ↑ Killy Literature Lexicon, 1988-92, Volume 10, p. 134.
  7. ↑ 7th edition, Volume 10, Column 1015
  8. ^ University of Freiburg ( Memento from November 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Sapper, Agnes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brater, Agnes (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH April 12, 1852
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH March 19, 1929
Place of death Wurzburg