Albrecht Wittenberg

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Albrecht Wittenberg (born December 5, 1728 in Hamburg ; † February 13, 1807 there ) was a German publicist , translator and writer .

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Albrecht Wittenberg was a son of the businessman Albert Wittenberg. He attended the Johanneum's school of scholars . He completed a law degree at the University of Göttingen on May 29, 1752 with a doctorate. Afterwards he worked as a lawyer for canonical and Roman law in Hamburg. His first marriage was Johanna Philippine, née Meyer (1734–1762), who died early and after whose death he began to write.

Wittenberg is one of the most important Hamburg publicists of the 18th century who wrote a lot. He created numerous translations, which often comprised several volumes of books, travel reports as well as historical and political works. In 1764 he translated from English for the first time: Fingal, a heroic poem in six books , was a work by James Macpherson , which he had written under the pseudonym "Ossian". In 1766 he translated Dei delitti e delle pene by Cesare Beccaria , which was considered important for criminal law reforms in the 18th century.

Wittenberg, who was one of Johann Matthias Dreyer's close friends , took part in numerous disputes. In 1767 he assumed that the translator Johann Jakob Dusch had insufficient knowledge of the English and Latin languages. In 1774 he criticized Christoph Martin Wieland , whom he referred to in his "future tombstone" as a "seducer of the people". In the context of the fragments dispute , Gotthold Ephraim Lessing criticized Wittenberg in the Anti-Goeze , to which the latter responded with a "letter to Councilor Lessing". In 1779 he dedicated the "Epigrams and other poems" to all enemies.

Wittenberg dealt extensively with contemporary theater. Until 1780 he translated many dramas from French and English. He was particularly interested in the Theater am Gänsemarkt under the direction of Friedrich Ludwig Schröder . In 1774 he abruptly turned away from the theater with the "Letters about the Hamburgische Schaubühne, actors, and some objects relating to the Schaubühne", which he addressed to his former opponent Johann Melchior Goeze . In the writing, which caused a sensation, he apologized to Goeze for the views he had held up to that point and wrote that the theater had a "corrupting" influence. Feodor von Wehl later suspected that Wittenberg's change of heart was due to the unsuccessful advances that Wittenberg had made to Dorothea Ackermann, who was married to theater director Schröder .

In addition to his work as a translator, Wittenberg edited three nationally important newspapers: in 1767 he took over the editing of the Staats- und Gelehre Zeitung des Hamburgischen impartial Correspondents , from 1772 to 1786 he worked for the Altonaer Reichs-Post-Reuter and from 1786 to 1795 for the Kayserliche Priviligirte Neue Magazine . As editor he designed a historical-political magazine from 1789 to 1795 , along with literary news , in which he mostly addressed the French Revolution . In this paper he wrote critically and rejected the dictatorship by the Jacobins . He demanded an objective point of view and correct information and insisted on the publication of evidence that was taboo at the time. In the following years he wrote significantly less.

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personal data
SURNAME Wittenberg, Albrecht
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publicist, translator and writer
DATE OF BIRTH December 5, 1728
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 1807
Place of death Hamburg