Christoph Ruths

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Christoph Ruths

Christoph Ruths (born December 30, 1851 in Neutsch im Odenwald ; † June 6, 1922 in Darmstadt ), pseudonyms Alexander Vulcanus , Alexander Lichtenberg , Alexander Ruths was a German writer . In addition to fiction, he also wrote works on psychology and astronomy .

Life

His parents were Peter Adam Ruths (1826–1872), school administrator first in Herchenrode , then in Obernhausen near Lichtenberg and in Roßdorf , and Elisabeth Ruths, née Keller (1826–1872).

He attended secondary school in Darmstadt and initially studied engineering, but soon turned to natural sciences and mathematics. In the summer of 1868 he entered the pre-school of the newly founded Polytechnic (from 1877: Technische Hochschule Darmstadt ), where he passed the school leaving examination in September 1869. In 1874 he received his doctorate from the University of Würzburg with his thesis on the relationship between hardness and magnetism of steel , where he became an assistant to Georg Hermann Quincke . When he was called back to the University of Heidelberg the next year , Christoph Ruths went to Dortmund to teach mathematics and natural sciences at the municipal trade school, later the upper secondary school. On September 20, 1875, he married Auguste Darmstädter (born 1854), the daughter of a mill owner in Reichenbach (Lautertal) . At the beginning of the vacation, on August 2, 1876, he was seriously injured in both eyes by an explosion of a glass retort in the school laboratory and became completely blind in the fall of 1877. At the same time, his two-year-old son died. He had to give up teaching and moved to Darmstadt, from where he held public lectures. After a serious lung disease he had to break off this activity and now limit himself to literary activity as the only field of activity, where he also worked in the fields of astronomy and psychology in addition to fiction. 1881-1883 he published several smaller novels in various German magazines. This was followed by larger works of fiction, some of which deal with the figure of Alexander the Great , whose personality he admired and whose name he had used as a literary pseudonym, and a series of novels and stories that take place in the Odenwald. In the 1890s, at the same time as Sigmund Freud , he was concerned with dream phenomena. His book Analysis and Fundamental Laws of Dream Phenomena , however, remained unpublished. His wife Auguste stood by him while he was writing.

From 1880 until his death he lived in an apartment at Steinstraße 29 (today: Wilhelm-Glässing-Straße) in Darmstadt.

Works (selection)

  • The patriotic truants. A demonic mask joke . Zurich 1889
  • Talestris . 1904
  • Hertha Ruland . Berlin 1905
  • Army tragedy and international reconciliation . Darmstadt 1909
  • The Indian decision . Darmstadt 1916
  • The billionaire's hunger. A tragedy . Darmstadt 1917
  • The bad guys from Hockenrod . Darmstadt 1922
  • Talestris. The red barbarian . Leipzig 1922

Works published posthumously

  • Titanic scenes from the Alexanderzug . 2 volumes, Darmstadt 1923
  • Rukmini . Darmstadt 1923
  • Erotic problems . Darmstadt 1923
  • In the shepherd's house . Rossdorf 1985

Scientific writings

  • On the magnetism of soft iron cylinders. In addition to an appendix: About the magnetism of different types of steel . CL Krueger, Dortmund 1876, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 6: 1-34553
  • Sunbeam and mankind's labor force. A picture from modern science and industry . CL Krüger, Dortmund 1879, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 6: 1-68575
  • Johann Kepler, a man of freedom and light . In: The Gazebo . Issue 46, 1880, pp. 758-760 ( full text [ Wikisource ]).
  • Experimental studies on music phantoms and a basic law of the creation, reproduction and recording of sound works derived from them . (= Inductive studies on the fundamental laws of psychological phenomena. Volume 1) HL Schlapp, Darmstadt 1898, full text in the Google book search = archive .org , full text in Google Book Search USA
  • New relations in the solar system and the universe . Darmstadt 1915

literature

  • Karl Esselborn: Christoph Ruths, his life and his works . In: Christoph Ruths. The bad guys from Hockenrod . First part. Ekkehard-Verlag, Heppenheim an der Bergstrasse 1923
  • A. Stenzel: Christoph Ruths in memory . In: Astronomische Nachrichten , Volume 218, p. 127, bibcode : 1923AN .... 218..127S

Web links

Wikisource: Christoph Ruths  - Sources and full texts

References and comments

  1. ↑ S. Freud: On the psychopathology of everyday life .
personal data
SURNAME Ruths, Christoph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vulcanus, Alexander; Lichtenberg, Alexander; Ruths, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer, psychologist and astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH December 30, 1851
PLACE OF BIRTH Neutsch in the Odenwald
DATE OF DEATH June 6, 1922
Place of death Darmstadt