Anton Eduard Wollheim da Fonseca

Anton Eduard Wollheim da Fonseca (born February 12, 1810 in Hamburg , † October 24, 1884 in Berlin ) was a German writer, dramaturge, linguist and diplomat.

Life

After completing high school in Breslau and Hamburg, Anton Eduard Wollheim studied philosophy, philology, history and political science in Berlin and received his doctorate there in 1831 on Sanskrit texts.

During a subsequent study visit to Paris, Wollheim became engaged to the daughter of a Portuguese nobleman and was motivated to fight in the Portuguese civil war in the army of Dom Pedro . After being quickly promoted to lieutenant because of his unusual bravery, he was seriously wounded by lance stabs and resigned. For his services to Dom Pedro's cause, he was later knighted by his daughter Maria II ( Order of Christ ). Before that, the conversion to Catholicism probably took place, in the course of the elevation to the knighthood Wollheim was given the title "chevalier de Fonseca".

After the death of his fiancée, Wollheim da Fonseca worked for a few years in Copenhagen in the royal library cataloging the Sanskrit and Pali manuscripts. He was given the position of private secretary to the Danish king. From 1838 to 1840 he lived in Vienna, where he attempted diplomatic work for the Austrian cause, but could not hold out because of too liberal views. An application for a professorship for Sanskrit in Leipzig in 1840 was rejected because he was Catholic.

From 1842 to 1848 Wollheim da Fonseca was dramaturge at the Hamburg City Theater . At the same time he was accredited as a state interpreter for 11 languages from 1847. In 1842 he married Dorothea Alexandrie Marie, widowed Goldschmidt, b. Leffmann, from Copenhagen. From 1849 to 1852 Wollheim da Fonseca was a lecturer in the "Oriental and Newer Occidental Languages" at Berlin University and at the same time correspondent for the London "Morning Chronicle". During this time he was also a member of the literary association "The Tunnel over the Spree" and befriended Theodor Fontane.

In the meantime he moved back to Vienna before he took over the management of the Hamburg City Theater from 1858 to 1861. After further stays in Vienna and Paris, Wollheim da Fonseca founded the Flora Theater in the Hamburg suburb of St. Georg in 1868, a seasonal theater that only existed for a short time.

During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, he took over the editing of the “Moniteur officiel du Gouvernement general à Reims”, a newspaper for occupied France geared to German interests. For this successful activity he was awarded the Iron Cross. His attempt to do his habilitation in Berlin in 1878 failed because of the opposition of the professors.

Wollheim da Fonseca's last years were marked by financial difficulties. He was dependent on contributions from a wealthy relative, Caesar Wollheim. A late marriage to Antonie Romanowska from St. Petersburg was probably improper and endangered these benefits.

Wollheim da Fonseca fascinated his contemporaries with his eloquence and his talent for languages. His friend Theodor Fontane spread the bon mot, "He speaks thirty-three languages and lies in thirty-four," which alludes to a tendency to exaggerate.

In Wollheim's adaptation, Goethe's Faust II came on stage for the first time in 1854 . Among other things, he wrote "Indiscretionen einer Patriotic Reptile", 1883/1884 (Memoirs) and "Neue Indiscretionen", 1884. Wollheim da Fonseca translated the Frithiofssage from Swedish (1840) and the Lusiaden from Portuguese (1875) into German. He wrote several language textbooks and dictionaries as well as stage works, treatises on history and many other works.

Anton Eduard Wollheim da Fonseca died in Berlin in 1884 at the age of 74 and was buried in the local St. Hedwig cemetery on Liesenstrasse . The tomb has not been preserved.

literature

Constantin von Wurzbach : Wollheim de Fonseca, Anton Edmund . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 58th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1889, p. 71 f. ( Digitized version ).
Max Mendheim : Wollheim, Anton Eduard W. da Fonseca . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 44, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1898, pp. 146-148.
Philo-Lexikon , 3rd edition, Berlin 1936, col. 816
Theodor Fontane : From twenty to thirty, complete works. Vol. 1-25, Volume 15, Munich 1959-1975, pp. 5-7
Kellinghusen, AH: Lexicon of Hamburg writers up to the present, Hamburg 1883
Helmut Stubbe da Luz : Wollheim da Fonseca, Edmund . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 4 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-8353-0229-7 , pp. 387-389 .

Individual evidence

^ Hans-Jürgen Mende: Lexicon of Berlin tombs . Haude & Spener, Berlin 2006. p. 56.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Wollheim da Fonseca, Anton Eduard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German writer, dramaturge, linguist and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH	February 12, 1810
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH	October 24, 1884
Place of death	Berlin

[1] Hans-Jürgen Mende: Lexicon of Berlin tombs . Haude & Spener, Berlin 2006. p. 56.