August Lafontaine

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Portrait of August Lafontaine (frontispiece to Gruber's biography of 1833)

August Heinrich Julius Lafontaine (born October 5, 1758 in Braunschweig , † April 20, 1831 in Halle ) was a German writer .

life and work

Lafontaine was the son of the painter Ludolph Lafontaine (1704–1774), whose ancestors were Huguenots who immigrated to Germany . He studied theology at the University of Helmstedt and left the university in 1780 without taking a final exam as a candidate. Until 1789 he held mostly private tutor positions and was a private teacher for ancient languages. In Halle (Saale) he passed his preacher's exam and in 1791 married Sophie Abel (1750–1822), the daughter of his spiritual colleague Christian Leberecht Abel (1719–1776) and thus granddaughter of the historian and poet Caspar Abel . In 1792 he followed the Prussian army as a field preacher in Champagne . After that he retired to an estate near Halle (Saale) in 1800 and began to write. He wrote over 60 novels and short stories, mostly with sensitive content. The scope of his work can no longer be determined precisely today, as he published books under pseudonyms such as Miltenberg, Selchow and Gustav Freier. In 1811 he traveled to Venice and Vienna . Lafontaine's novels and short stories have been translated in all European countries and in North America. In his day Lafontaine was one of the most widely read writers in Germany, but later he was almost completely forgotten in the wake of the transcendental-poetic turn of the romantic theory.

His most famous readers include Napoleon , Achim von Arnim , Franz Grillparzer , Joseph von Eichendorff and Queen Luise of Prussia.

As the author of sensitive novels that are also supposed to be bourgeois "family paintings", Lafontaine is the counterpart to the dramatists August Wilhelm Iffland and August von Kotzebue , whose drama is also in the wake of the classical-romantic literary policy of Goethe, Schiller and Friedrich Schlegel Oblivion fell.

A critical judgment of Lafontaine, based on the norm of Goethe's narrative art , is made by Eduard Engel in the first volume of his “History of German Literature” (1917):

“For the sake of completeness, August Lafontaine (1759-1831) should be named as a novelist, originally a theologian, later one of the most fertile and terrible mass writers in Germany. It is said to have filled over 150 volumes with novels and short stories, all of which were once admired and devoured by a sizeable audience. Today it is forgotten down to the last line, although it commanded a not inconsiderable invention and narrative skill. "

Lafontaine's life is described in detail in Arno Schmidt's radio dialogue “Quinctius Heymeran von Flaming - A debt is paid”. Schmidt actively defends Lafontaine against his critics and approves of the early works, including “Klara du Plessis and Klairant. A family history of French emigrants ”(Berlin, 1795), admittedly of considerable literary qualities and originality.

On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of Lafontaine's birthday on October 5, 2008, the publishing house Zweiausendeins in Frankfurt am Main has reissued the work Life and Thats of Baron Quinctius Heymeran von Flaming in a bibliophile version in two volumes. As a committed plea against the racism of the Göttingen scholar Christoph Meiners , this novel is still of great interest today - especially since his satirical writing is still attractive to read. In the same year, the city of Halle (Saale) dedicated its reading campaign “Halle reads” to Lafontaine, in the course of which the “Reading Book” compilation published by mdv was presented. In October 2007, its publisher also provided an additional sign for Lafontainestrasse in Halle. This is located a few hundred meters from his house and was named in his honor in 1885. Also on Lafontaine's 250th birthday, the literary scholars Cord-Friedrich Berghahn and Dirk Sangmeister organized an international scientific conference that took place at the TU Braunschweig . Their results have been available as a book since 2010 and represent the latest state of Lafontaine research to date.

Fonts (selection)

  • The violence of love in stories . Berlin, 1791–94, 4 vols.
  • The nature man . Hall 1792
  • Moral narratives . Berlin, 1794-1802, 6 vols.
  • Klara du Plessis and Klairant. A family history of French emigrants . Berlin, 1795
  • Life and deeds of Baron Quinctius Heymeran von Flaming . Berlin, 1795–96, 4 vols. New edition: Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt a. M. 2008, ISBN 978-3-86150-877-9
  • The von Halden family . Berlin, 1797, 2 vols.
  • The eccentric . Halle, 1799, 3 vol.
  • Little novels and moral stories . Berlin, 1799-1810, 12 vols.
  • Life of a poor country preacher . Berlin 1800–01, 2 vols.
  • Stories from home life . Görlitz, 1805-07, 2 vols.
  • Amalie Horst . 1810, 2 vol.
  • The dangers of the big world or Bertha von Waldeck . Hall u. Leipzig, 1811, 2 vols.
  • The testament. A family story. Vienna, Hass, 1812, 5 vols.
  • The parish by the sea . 1816, 3 vol.
  • Rudolf von Werdenberg. 1819, 3 vols.
  • The siblings or the repentance . 1819, 2 vol.
  • The ways of fate . 1820, 2 vol.
  • August Heinrich Julius Lafontaine: Reader , edited by Ingeborg von Lips, Literature from Central Germany, Volume 1, Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale), 2008, ISBN 9783898125543
  • The heart turned in my chest . Literary letters from the wars of the French Revolution by August Heinrich Julius Lafontaine, edited by Ingeborg and Hermann von Lips, Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale), 2008, ISBN 978-3-89812-579-6

literature

  • Marion Beaujean :  Lafontaine, August. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194-X , pp. 406-408 ( digitized version ).
  • Johann Gottfried Gruber : August Lafontaine's life and work . Schwetschke and Son, Halle 1833 ( digitized version )
  • Franz Muncker :  Lafontaine, August . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1883, pp. 512-520.
  • Dirk Sangmeister: Bibliography August Lafontaine (= Bielefelder Schriften zur Linguistik und Literaturwissenschaft Volume 7). Aisthesis, Bielefeld 1996, ISBN 3-89528-158-1
  • Dirk Sangmeister: August Lafontaine or The Transience of Success. Life and work of a bestselling author of the Late Enlightenment (= Hallesche Contributions to the European Enlightenment, Volume 6). Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen 1998, ISBN 3-484-81006-8
  • Cord-Friedrich Berghahn, Dirk Sangmeister (Ed.): August Lafontaine (1785-1831). A bestselling author between the Late Enlightenment and Romanticism. Publishing house for regional history, Bielefeld 2010, ISBN 978-3-89534-862-4
  • Franz-Ulrich Jestädt, Thomas Kaminski: August Lafontaine, Carl Gottlob Cramer: 250 years, 1758-2008. Antiquarian Book Catalog . Antiquariat Franz-Ulrich Jestädt / Ulenspiegel, Erfurt 2008 [Antiquarian catalog with titles Lafontaines and Cramers; has 346 positions.]
  • Georg Ruppelt : Schöningen's most famous student August Lafontaine and the Anna-Sophianeum (= contributions to the history of the district and the former University of Helmstedt , issue 11). District of Helmstedt, Helmstedt 1997, ISBN 3-937733-10-8
  • Dirk Sangmeister: Forgotten letters from the successful writer August Lafontaine . In: Germanisch-Romanische monthly NF 61, 2011, pp. 453–462.

Web links

Wikisource: August Lafontaine  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Halle reads on in 2008 ( Memento of the original from December 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Article on halleforum.de from January 8, 2008)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / hallelife.de
  2. ↑ Halle reads Lafontaine  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Article on halleforum.de from April 22, 2008)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / hallelife.de  
  3. ↑ Start of the project "Im Vorübergangs" (press release City of Halle (Saale) from October 15, 2007)
  4. ↑ Flow down my quiet life ... ( Memento of the original from December 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Article on halleforum.de from October 2, 2008)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / hallelife.de
personal data
SURNAME Lafontaine, August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lafontaine, August Heinrich Julius; Freier, Gustav (pseudonym); Miltenberg (pseudonym); Selchow (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1758
PLACE OF BIRTH Braunschweig
DATE OF DEATH April 20, 1831
Place of death Halle (Saale)