Christoph Heinrich Myller

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Christoph Heinrich Myller (* 1740 in Zurich ; † 1807 there ) was a Swiss high school professor. The student Johann Jacob Bodmer went down in German literary history with his editions of medieval manuscripts . He chose the spelling of his name with 'y' instead of 'ü' on the one hand for reasons of originality, on the other hand he followed a quirk of his teacher, who also preferred this spelling for the spelling of his hometown “Zyrich” because he she thought she was the older, more original and therefore better.

Life

Myller was born in Switzerland in 1740. For political reasons he had to leave his home in 1767 and went to Berlin, where he taught philosophy and history between 1767 and 1788 at the Joachimsthalisches Gymnasium . Then he returned to Zurich - his expulsion from Switzerland had been lifted in 1772 - where he died in 1807.

The collection

Myller's most important publication is the collection of German poems from the XII., XIII. and XIV century . It was published in three volumes in Berlin between 1784 and 1787. In this edition, many significant epic and lyrical texts from German-language literature of the Middle Ages were edited for the first time and thus made known to a modern audience. The rich text collection offers the Nibelungenlied , the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach , the Iwein , the Gregorius and the poor Heinrich of Hartmann von Aue , the Tristan of Gottfried von Strasbourg , the Eneasroman of Heinrich von Veldeke as well as Flore and Blanscheflur and others more or less complete texts, including some Sang saying -Dichtersammlungen, minnesongs , Tierbîspiln and some tales .

Emergence

The collection is not Myller's only work. To a large extent, he edited Bodmer's first copies and prepared them for publication. Even today, the question of which parts of the copies come from Bodmer and which from Myller is a large part of the research into this edition. What is certain, however, is that the publication clearly goes back to the student's initiative: Myller turned in 1780 in a personal letter with his edition plan to Bodmer, who however did not react and left the letter unanswered. Thereupon Myller chose the public route: with a call to subscribe to the project in the scholarly journal Deutsches Museum , he put Bodmer under pressure. This then sent him his copies of the Nibelungenlied. This is why this is leading the issue.

Edits

In addition to the Nibelungenlied , the first volume contains the Parzival Wolframs, which Bodmer published and edited in 1753. He had taken up the Parzival theme again and again and, for reasons of what he thought was easier to read, transformed it into hexameters (“Sing something for the Provencal muse of Parzival”) or into ballads, which he considered to be an epic genre. He always placed his adaptations next to copies of the Middle High German texts, since it was his real concern to bring the latter closer to the audience. The Samlung Myllers now consists of pure extracts from the manuscripts (of course, each editor thinks he can cite improvements). Bodmer's copies alternate with those of Myller's from Codex St. Gallen 857 . Myller corrects some of Bodmer's mistakes.

Contemporary recording

The first volume is also of historical interest. Here Myller dedicates his entire edition to “ His Highness Karl Friedrich. Marckgrafen zu Baaden and Hochberg etc. ”in“ deepest awe ”. The copy sent to him in 1782 (a form) accepted this and initially had it confirmed positively. However, the following letter has survived from 1784, the actual year of publication:

“Well-versed, dear faithful! You judge much too advantageous of those poems from the 12th, 13th and 14th Seculo, the printing of which you promoted and which you consider useful for the enrichment of the German language. To my understanding such are not worth a shot of powder; and didn't deserve to be pulled from the dust of oblivion. In my book collection at least I would not tolerate such wretched stuff; but throw it out. The copy sent to me may therefore await its fate in the large library there. But such a request does not promise much, Your otherwise gracious King Frch. "

This anecdote is generally quoted to indicate the lack of appreciation for literature by the 'great elector'. However, it was not only the latter who reacted distantly to the issue of medieval literature. Friedrich Heinrich von der Hagens' report, for example , that the last copies of Myller's third volume were used as bags in a shop in Breslau, also serves as evidence of the general public's disapproval of the project.

However, the literary audience and the professional world - including Gottsched , the Göttinger Hainbund , Lessing and Herder - received the edition consistently positively. For many years, romantic authors who were enthusiastic about the Middle Ages, such as August Wilhelm Schlegel , Ludwig Tieck or Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, relied on Myller's (as well as Bodmer's) editions for their adaptations of medieval material, which thus formed the basis of many processes of reception of the texts mentioned. In the history of science, they were then replaced from the 20s of the 19th century by the text-critical editions of Karl Lachmann - some of which are still valid today .

Works

The following works were edited by Ch. H. Myller:

  • Collection of German poems from the XII., XIII. and XIV century. First volume. The Nibelung Liet. Enough. Got Amur. Parcival. Poor Heinrich. From the Minnen. This is from the Wibe List. This is from the penny. Berlin 1784
  • Collection of German poems from the XII., XIII. and XIV century. Second volume. Which one includes: Tristan. Master Alexander's singing. Master Stolle's vocals. The Helleviur's song. Master Singolf's singing. Tristan des from Vribert. Master Kelyn's singing. Master Ellis von der Leyne Singing. Master Rudinger's singing. Master Gervelyn's singing. Urenheimer's singing. Shynnenberger's singing. Flore and Blancheflur. H. Walther's song from Vogelweide. Twein. Herman Damen's vocals. The song of the good. An old German master hymn book. Frey thought. The unpredictable song. The Goldener's Singing. Berlin: Spener. 1785.
  • Collection of German poems from the XII., XIII. and XIV century. Third volume: Conrad von Wuerzburg from the Trojan War. Fragments and smaller poems. Berlin: Spener. 1787.

literature

  • Jakob BaechtoldMüller, Christoph Heinrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, p. 521.
  • Wolfgang Bender: Johann Jakob Bodmer and Johann Jakob Breitinger . Metzler, Stuttgart 1973. (Metzler Collection; 113).
  • Johannes Crüger: The first complete edition of the Nibelungs . Rütten & Loening, Frankfurt am Main 1884.
  • Albert M. Debrunner: The golden Swabian age. Johann Jakob Bodmer and the Middle Ages as a model in the 18th century . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1996. (Epistemata. Series Literary Studies, Vol. 170).
  • Ursula Schulze: The Nibelungenlied . Reclam, Stuttgart 1997.
  • Anna Stüssi: Müller (Myller), Christoph Heinrich . In: German Literature Lexicon. Biographical-Bibliographical Handbook . 3rd edition Francke, Bern 1968 ff. (Vol. 10, Sp. 1442f.)
  • Werner G. Zimmermann:  Müller, Christoph Heinrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , p. 350 f. ( Digitized version ).