Ernst Anton Zündt

Ernst Anton Zündt , actually Ernst Anton Joseph Zündt Freiherr von Kenzingen , (born January 12, 1819 in Mindelheim , Bavarian Swabia ; † May 2, 1897 in Jefferson City , Missouri ) was an American writer and editor of German origin.

Life

Zündt came from an old civil servant and military family: his father Max Wilhelm Zündt (1791–1831) was an officer in the Bavarian army under Napoleon , his grandfather a senior administrative officer under Field Marshal Friedrich Michael von Pfalz-Birkenfeld .

Zündt received his first lessons from private tutors , later he came to the Dutch institute in Munich where he was soon counted among the best students. During this time he was honored three times and each time he received a prize presented to him by Prince Luitpold , who later became Prince Regent . Immediately after leaving school, Zündt began studying law at the University of Munich . Although he was able to complete this degree, he was more interested in literature and theater from the start.

His friendship with the writer Hermann Lingg also did the rest. In 1843, at the age of 24, Zündt made his successful debut as a writer. He edited and translated a tragedy by the French writer François Ponsard , for which he received an award from the Académie française . The literary critic Wolfgang Menzel also praised this work in his literature sheet (supplement to the morning paper for educated classes ).

After successfully completing his studies, Zündt stayed with his family for some time. On May 8, 1849, he married Johanna Ammann and had two sons with her. His family rejected this marriage as "not befitting". As a result, the economic situation for Zündt, including his wife and children, deteriorated. In 1856 he therefore decided to emigrate and reached New York in the spring of the following year .

In the same year, Zündt and his family settled in Milwaukee ( Wisconsin ). There he soon found work in the editorial offices of various German-language newspapers and magazines such as "Banner", "Gradaus" or "Herold". Some also see Zündt as a kind of successor to Otto Ruppius , who returned to Germany in 1861. In 1864, Zündt went to St. Louis (Missouri) and became a columnist for the "Western Post". Since he was also able to make a name for himself as a translator as a journalist during this time, he was brought to Jefferson City in 1868 as a teacher of German .

In 1876, Zündt gave up this position and returned to St. Louis. There he worked as a civil servant and official translator for various authorities until 1884. When he lost this job after a long illness, he came a little later in Minneapolis ( Minnesota ) as an editor at the German-speaking "Herold". After the bankruptcy of this newspaper he worked from 1886 to 1888 for the "Free Press". He also had to give up this job due to illness and in the spring of 1890 he settled with one of his sons in Jefferson City. Occasionally he worked there until the end of his life as a German language teacher.

He died there on May 2, 1897 at the age of 78 and was also buried there. On the occasion of his commemoration, the German community (in charge of the German gymnastics club of Jefferson City) erected a memorial in the cemetery.

“We encounter his best skills in his epic-didactic poems, all of which are written in grand style. Many of his poems are political. Otherwise his lyrical poems are often reminiscent of Brentano and Heine ; the same irony and grace on his own, and the popular tone, as well as the mysterious touch on the other "

- Anton Bettelheim : Biographical Yearbook, Vol. 2

Works (selection)

As an author

Poetry

• Lonely hours .
• Lyric poems .

Plays

• Lucretia. Tragedy in five acts .
• The Gambsenjaga. Alpine scene with song and dance in two acts . 1855.
• Jugurtha. Tragedy in five acts .
• Sleeping Beauty. Acting . 1878.
• Cinderella. Dramatic fairy tale .
• In Olymp. Comedy . 1874.
• The ice fairy, or: the frozen hand. A magical farce .

As translator

• Horace : songs .
• Jean de la Fontaine : Course of Things .
• Mary Russell Mitford : Rienzi, the final tribune
• François Ponsard: Galileo. Play in three acts .

literature

• Ludwig Julius Fränkel:  Zündt-Kenzingen, Ernst Anton Joseph von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 45, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1900, pp. 486-489.
• Anton Bettelheim (Ed.): Biographical Yearbook and German Nekrolog, Vol. 2 . Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1898, p. 102f.
• Franz Brümmer : Lexicon of German poets and prose writers from the beginning of the 19th century to the present, Vol. 4 . 4th edition Reclam, Leipzig 1895, p. 429f.
• Franz Bornmüller: Biographical writer's lexicon of the present. The most famous contemporaries in the field of national literature of all peoples with details of their works (Meyers Fach-Lexika; 11). Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1882, p. 789.