Bogumil Goltz

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Bogumil Goltz

Bogumil Goltz (born March 20, 1801 in Warsaw , † November 12, 1870 in Thorn ) was a West Prussian humorous and educational writer.

Life

Bogumil Goltz was born as the son of a Prussian administrative officer who was the director of the city court in Warsaw , which was under Prussian administration at the time . He left his parents' house at the age of seven, lived with a friend of the family in Königsberg and received his education at the Marienwerder high school and in Königsberg, learned agriculture near Thorn from 1817-21, then studied philosophy at the University in Breslau , philological and theological lectures. At the request of his sick father, however, he broke off his studies and took over the management of the family property, the Lissowo estate near Thorn, which he inherited after the soon-to-be death of his father. As a farmer, Goltz had little luck and eventually had to sell the estate. He then leased several estates in Poland and Prussia one after the other without success and finally settled in the town of Gollub in 1830 with the small remnants of his fortune that had been saved . Heavily oppressed by the small-town philistinism of the citizens, he broke with his previous life radically, became a writer and moved to Thorn in 1847.

In the last decades of his life, Goltz devoted himself exclusively to literary work and, according to the terms of the time, undertook extensive trips through Germany, France, England, Italy and as far as Egypt. On the way in Germany he also gave lectures on the subjects of his works. He died on November 12, 1870 in Thorn and was buried there.

In all of his works Goltz shows himself to be a realistic eccentric. Like Rousseau, an enemy of culture that has become unnatural, he, like Rousseau , would like to pave the way for a stronger sex and a new spiritual life for mankind through radical reorganization of the educational system. True to nature to the extreme, so that he does not shy away from the cynical, he often becomes inedible when presenting his ideas due to the lack of artistic perfection and the abundance of disordered masses of thought. In his portrayal of virtuoso small painters, in his assessment thoroughly moral and political rigor, he draws from the details of real life, raves about patriarchal customs and only feels sympathetically touched where he is confronted with natural strength and coarseness.

His autobiography from 1801 to 1812, entitled Childhood in Warsaw and Königsberg , was reprinted in 1992, edited by Marek Zybura ( ISBN 3-87584-397-5 ).

Works (selection)

  • Book of Childhood (Frankfurt 1847, 4th ed.);
  • German degeneration in the light-friendly and modern way of life (Frankfurt. 1847);
  • Human existence in its eternal features and signs (Frankfurt 1850, 2 vol .; 2nd edition, Berlin 1867);
  • A small town dweller in Egypt (Berlin 1853, 3rd ed. 1877);
  • The human being and the people (Berlin 1858, 5 booklets);
  • On the natural history and characteristics of women (Berlin 1858, 5th ed. 1874);
  • On the physiognomy and characteristics of the people (Berlin 1859);
  • The Germans, ethnographic studies (Berlin 1860, 2 vol .; 2nd edition under the title: Zur Geschichte und Characteristik des Deutschen Genius , 1864);
  • Types of society (Berlin 1860, 2 vols .; 4th ed. 1867);
  • Fig leaves, a philosophy of life (Berlin 1862–64, 3 vols.);
  • Education and the educated (Berlin 1864, 2nd ed. 1867);
  • Worldly wisdom and wisdom with their corresponding studies (Berlin 1869, 2 vols.);
  • Lectures (Berlin 1869, 2 vol.).

Awards

  • Award of an honorary salary by Friedrich Wilhelm IV.

Literature (selection)

  • Dr. Adolf Sellmann: On child psychology. Essays from the literature of child psychology , Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld and Leipzig 1913.
  • Theodor Kuttenkeuler: Bogumil Goltz. Leben und Werke , Diss., Leipzig 1913 (extended edition published by Coppernicus-Verein für Wissenschaft und Kunst zu Thorn: Danzig 1913).
  • Alice Randzio: Bogumil Goltz's childhood problem . Kopal & Schulz, Königsberg 1931 (dissertation).
  • Rudolf Trenkel: Bogumil Goltz, a brilliant Vistula Prussian in memory . Hamburg 1978.
  • Weronika Jaworska: The Thorner writer Bogumil Goltz in the mirror of his memoirs . Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, Toruń 1986 (habilitation thesis).
  • Marek Zybura : Bogumil Goltz 'childhood in Warsaw and Königsberg . In: Marek Zybura: lateral thinker, mediator, border crosser . Dresden 2007.
  • Dieter Borchmeyer : What is German? A nation's search for itself. Berlin 2017. pp. 170–177.
  • Hyacinth Holland :  Goltz, Bogumil . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1879, pp. 353-355.

Web links

Wikiquote: Bogumil Goltz  - Quotes
Wikisource: Bogumil Goltz  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Verlag Velhagen & Klasing: Collection of educational writers No. 14, p. 150
  2. ↑ Verlag Velhagen & Klasing: Collection of educational writers No. 14, p. 150
personal data
SURNAME Goltz, Bogumil
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish humorous and educational writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 20, 1801
PLACE OF BIRTH Warsaw
DATE OF DEATH November 12, 1870
Place of death Thorn