Augustin Dornblüth

Augustin (Josef Anton Sebastian) Dornblüth OSB (born August 13, 1691 in Gengenbach ; † around 1760 ) was a Benedictine monk and scholar from Gengenbach, who was best known for his writings in the baroque language dispute. He was a vehement opponent of the High German language suggested by Johann Christoph Gottsched .

Life

Augustin Dornblüth was born under the name Josef Anton Sebastian on August 13, 1691 in Gengenbach in Ortenau as the son of the mayor Georg Friedrich Dornblüth and Maria Ursula Schmidt. He later entered the Benedictine abbey there under the religious name of Augustine . It is known from 1711 that he was sent to the Abbey of Sankt Blasien in the Black Forest for further training together with the later abbot of Gengenbach Monastery, Father Paulus Seeger . His linguistic writings came into being in response to the " Foundation of a German Language Art " published in Leipzig in 1748 by Johann Christoph Gottsched. Augustin Dornblüth died around 1760.

Role in the baroque language dispute

Augustin Dornblüth appeared as a vehement opponent of Johann Christoph Gottsched and criticized his form of a high German written language. At that time there was still no supraregional High German writing standard and different scholars each brought different suggestions into the discussion. Augustin Dornblüth represented a variant that should also address the regional speaking habits in the southern German-speaking area and sharply condemned the East Central German Meissner German. It stood in the tradition of Upper German literary language , which had emerged from the late 17th century and was based on the imperial or electoral Bavarian chancellery style in Vienna, Prague and Munich.

However, the language dispute was also charged with denominational conflicts and Dornblüth was portrayed as a Catholic fanatic, especially by 19th century Germanists. The Upper German literary language, which arose primarily from the activities of Catholic clergymen, was called Jesuit German and ultimately could not prevail against Gottsched's German.

The most famous work by Dornblüth is:

• Observationes or thorough comments on the way to make a good translation, especially into the German language. Whereby the errors of the previous German translations, together with the causes of such errors and the resulting perversion of the German language, are sincerely discovered. In addition to an inevitable criticism of this project about Herr Gottscheden's so-called rhetoric, and German grammatical, or (as he calls them) the foundation of the German language. From a patriotic eye to prevent further reversal and desecration of foreign books, given to the day by RP Augustino Dornblüth (Augsburg, 1755),

the second edition appeared as

• Mr. Augustin Dornblüths P. i. G. thorough comments on the way to make a good translation, especially into the German language. Whereby the errors of the previous German translations including the causes of such errors, and the resulting inversion of the German language, are sincerely discovered. In addition to a criticism of Herr Gottscheden's so-called rhetoric, and German grammar, or the foundation of the German language (Augsburg and Leipzig, 1768).

Reactions to Augustin Dornblüth have been handed down from Gottsched personally, who accused him of using an outdated “old Franconian” court language, and from the Swabian preacher and writer Sebastian Sailer , who in turn Dornblüth's suggestion was too far removed from the local Swabian dialect.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Baptism belly cath. Parish of Gengenbach
2. ↑ Baptism belly cath. Parish of Gengenbach. - Cf. Killy Literaturlexikon III, 89f.
3. ↑ Werner Besch (Hrsg.): Language history. A handbook on the history of the German language and its research . 2003, p. 2281.
4. ↑ Ernst Cassirer: Postponed manuscripts and texts . 2003, p. 409.

swell

• Ingo Reiffenstein: Aspects of a Bavarian language history since the beginning of modern times. In: Werner Besch (Hrsg.): Sprachgeschichte: A handbook on the history of the German language and its research. 3rd volume, 2nd edition. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-015883-3 , pp. 2942-2971. Google Books
• Karl-Heinz Musseleck: Studies on the language of Catholic Bible translations of the Reformation period. Ed. Of this volume: Hugo Moser u. Werner Besch. Winter, Heidelberg 1981, ISBN 3-533-03057-1 . (Studies on Early New High German, 6)
• Andreas Gardt (Ed.): Nation and Language: The Discussion of Their Relationship in Past and Present. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2000, ISBN 3-11-014841-2 . Google Books
• Killy literary dictionary. Authors and works from the German-speaking cultural area, Volume 3, 89f.
• Sebastian Sailer: Benastasii Liares - Four letters against Mr. P. Augustin Dornblüth. Capitulars of the ... Imperial House of God Gengenbach; translated from Preissgau into German. Christian Ulrich Wagner, Ulm 1756.