Alfred Bergmann (literary scholar)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alfred Bergmann (* July 23, 1887 in Waldheim / Saxony ; † July 19, 1975 in Detmold ) was a German literary scholar and librarian who is best known as a Grabbe researcher and collector.

Life

Alfred Bergmann came from a wealthy family, his father Heinrich Richard Bergmann was a factory owner and councilor . In 1898 he entered the Annen Realgymnasium in Dresden , which he graduated in 1906. He studied German, English and history in Freiburg , Munich , Berlin and Leipzig . In the First World War he served as a lieutenant in the reserve , but was declared unfit for military service in 1915 and retired from the army in 1917. After losing his fortune due to inflation , he initially worked as a pipe carrier in a lignite mine before starting an internship at Dresdner Bank . B. the publisher Anton Kippenberg was employed as a librarian. From 1928 to 1937 he was a librarian at the Goethe and Schiller Archives in Weimar . In 1929 he received his doctorate in Leipzig with a dissertation on "The credibility of testimonies to the life and character of Christian Dietrich Grabbe". Grabbe remained his research focus until Bergmann's death.

In 1938 Bergmann was given a position as a librarian in the Detmold State Library and at the same time became head of the Grabbe archive he had set up. In 1941 he became a member of the Reichsschrifttumskammer , but whether he was also a member of the NSDAP remains doubtful. Immediately after the end of the Second World War , the British occupation appointed him acting head of the Lippe State Library . From 1948 to 1952 Bergmann was chairman of the Grabbe Society . In 1953 he was commissioned by the Göttingen Academy of Sciences to develop the historical-critical edition of Grabbe's works and letters, which he had prepared for almost fifty years by building up the collection and which he had finished alone by 1973. In the same year he also published his Grabbe bibliography at the end of his decades of scientific work. In 1963 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class. He received the title of professor in 1968 and died in Detmold in 1975.

In his tribute to Bergmann, Gerd Simon describes him as "in many respects the opposite of Rudolf Kummer ", whom he describes as the "mastermind of library, publication and documentation policy in the 3rd Reich".

Works

  • Alfred Bergmann: My Grabbe Collection. Memories and confessions. Schnell, Detmold 1942.

literature

  • Ernst Fleischhack: Alfred Bergmann Bibliography 1907-1967 . Published by the Lippische Landesbibliothek and the Grabbe-Gesellschaft, edited by Ernst Fleischhack. Detmold 1967.
  • Karl-Alexander Hellfaier: Alfred Bergmann and the Grabbe Archive of the Lippe State Library . In: Heimatland Lippe 70 (1977), pp. 40-46 .
  • Karl-Alexander Hellfaier: Alfred Bergmann - Grabbe collector and Grabbe researcher . In: Grabbe-Jahrbuch 5 (1986), pp. 59-72 .
  • Wolfgang Rasch: Grabbe, Gutzkow and Journale. From Alfred Bergmann's correspondence with Heinrich Hubert Houben . In: Imprimatur. A yearbook for book lovers. NF, Vol. XXII, Wiesbaden, 2009, pp. 187-224.
  • Burkhard Stenzel: "Nobody can serve two masters". On Goethe and grave research by Alfred Bergmann in Weimar (1928-1937). With an unpublished Letter from Stefan Zweig . In: Grabbe-Jahrbuch 2011/12. 30./31. Bielefeld, Aisthesis-Verl., 2012, pp. 213-255.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chronologie Kummer, Rudolf (PDF file; 172 kB)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bergmann, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German literary scholar and librarian
DATE OF BIRTH July 23, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Waldheim , Saxony
DATE OF DEATH July 19, 1975
Place of death Detmold