Anton Fürnstein

Johann Anton Ignaz Fürnstein (* July 7, 1783 in Falkenau an der Eger , Bohemia as Joan Antonius Ignatius Firnstein ; † November 11, 1841 ibid) was a German natural poet .

His poems caught the attention of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , who published three of Fürnstein's poems in his magazine About Art and Antiquity .

Life

Anton Fürnstein was born in Falkenau as the son of the citizen and master miller Johann Georg Fürnstein (1741–1802) and Theresia, nee. Born in Zürchauer (1747–1803). He became seriously ill when he was seven years old, with contracted twisted limbs and difficulty using his hands but barely moving his legs. This illness, which could indicate a spastic or contractive event, made it impossible for him to attend high school. Still, little by little he managed to move his hands, learn to write, and acquire his own education from books through thorough and diligent study. He dealt particularly intensively with the German poets. Little by little he developed a poetic talent.

When the noise of the Faßbinderwerkstatt his brother (Franz Zürchauer married to his sister Maria Theresia Fürnstein), where he lived after the death of his parents escape, and wanted proof, they pushed him in his wheelchair in front of the city gates. According to his own statements, the beauty of nature filled him there with deeply exhilarating and pious feelings. Most of his poems reflect these impressions. Fürnstein always described his sad fate as one that was still enviable, because the gift of poetry and the love of his friends seemed to him rich compensation for his physical ailments. Fürnstein's siblings, a brother and three sisters, looked after their brother lovingly.

In 1818 a poets' association was formed in Falkenau, made up of young men who encouraged each other to write and perform poetic and scientific works. Every fortnight the members read essays with a poetic focus. Fürnstein was one of the founders of the association and one of its most talented members.

When the Falkenaus poet's association later disbanded, Fürnstein successfully applied for the position of lottery contracture (1837) in order to make a living. He held this until his death. Anton Fürnstein died on November 11, 1841 in Falkenau No. 182 as a citizen and Kuk lottery colectant of a nerve attack as a result of exhaustive suppuration of a meat abscess.

Sponsored by Goethe

When Goethe visited Falkenau with the Cheb police advisor Joseph Sebastian Grüner on August 3, 1822 and met the local miner Ignaz Lößl (1782–1849) to visit his mineral collection, Goethe von Loessl also received some of the poems of the poet's association, in particular those presented by Fürnstein, whereby Lößl pointed out the physical ailments, the lack of schooling and at the same time Fürnstein's extensive self-training.

Goethe himself writes in his diaries about the visit to Falkenau: a well-built place ... which I often saw lying gracefully in the valley on the Eger while driving to Carlsbad ... about the meeting with Fürnstein: ... One laid also poems by a natural man, named Firnstein, on whose body, which has been contracted since the seventh year, a very good head has developed. His works bear the stamp of the so-called nature poets ... '. When he arranged a meeting with Fürnstein on the following day, August 4th 1822, Goethe wrote, ... I saw him (Fürnstein) curled up on my path in his chair-cart - a heart-rending sight, because I would have chewed how he was you can cover it with a moderate cube. He greeted me kindly, pointed to his misery and showed good cheer, although I hardly dared to look at him. On superficial glances I had very soon realize how out of this disfigured body a cerebral system had developed, whereby a regular shape even probably would could be satisfied ... . Goethe recognized his talent and decided to promote it by giving him the task of writing a poem about hop growing. After saying goodbye to Fürnstein, he was visibly affected.

Fürnstein implemented the task that Goethe had set him and wrote his poem Der Hopfenbau . When it was available to Goethe, he wrote about it: How he solved this task, how he began to work, and inculcated everything that was to be done, one after the other, incorporating a moral word, always going on, and these vines the vines knows how to approximate needs no interpretation; the whole is brighter and under a sunny, favorable sky, and will certainly be felt with the greatest interest by everyone on the spot, especially during busy hours of work. I would like to call these poems the rising ones, they are still floating on the ground, do not leave it, but glide gently over it . Goethe praised Fürnstein's poems for a certain grace, the presence of open nature, comfort in a limited sociability, enjoyment and hope and a humanly noble seriousness.

In 1823, Goethe published Fürnstein's poems Der Hopfenbau , To April and Encouragement to Winter in his magazine About Art and Antiquity . In the same year, Goethe asked him to write a Weber poem.

Fürnstein's original manuscripts were considered lost as early as 1882. His works were published in full by the Association for the History of Germans in Bohemia in a special edition and in 1880 by Ludwig Schlesinger .

Works

• The hop growing

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Taufmatrik Falkenau 1783–1795, Vol. 17, fol. 8th
2. ↑ ^{a b} Falkenau death register, vol. 32, 1795–1854, p. 249
3. ↑ The Fürnstein family based in Falkenau since 1642
4. ↑ Family Zürchauer first attested with Jorg Circhawer 1483 in Falkenau (city book).
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Memories of the City of Falkenau, Vol. 2, Tachau 1882 by Mich. Pelleter, pp. 76f
6. ↑ ^{a b} Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich, Vol. 11 1864, from p. 405 ( WikiSource: Firnstein, Anton )
7. ↑ zeno.org: Johann Wolfgang Goethe : Talks - 1822
8. ↑ Communications from the Association for the History of Germans in Bohemia, Vol. XVIII, Issue 2
9. ^ Anton Fürnstein and his poems, Verlag A. Haase, Prague 1880