Franz Hoffmann (writer)

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Alexander Friedrich Franz Hoffmann (born February 21, 1814 in Bernburg , † July 11, 1882 in Dresden ) was a German youth and folk writer and bookseller .

Life

Alexander Friedrich Franz Hoffmann attended grammar school in Bernburg until he was 15, then went to Stuttgart and started working as an apprentice in the bookstore of his older brother Karl. During his apprenticeship he often went to the theater and was inclined to become an actor, but refrained from encouraging his relatives to do so and continued to assist his brother as an assistant. He later went into business for himself and founded his own bookstore , first in Zurich in 1839 , then in Goslar .

In 1842 Hoffmann published his first youth publications. They met with such approval that he decided to only earn his living as a writer. To improve his poor education he attended lectures in philosophy and the natural sciences in Halle and obtained a doctorate in the former discipline. In the next few years he stayed in Ballenstedt am Harz, Stuttgart, Halle and Dessau , at times living in poverty despite tireless activity . In 1856 he chose Dresden as his permanent residence, where he lived very secluded and died in 1882 at the age of 68 after long, serious suffering. He was married three times and had three daughters.

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During his 40-year literary career, Hoffmann wrote around 250 larger and many more smaller stories, some of which appeared individually, some in collections and magazines. To publish his works, he entered into contracts with a total of ten publishers, in particular Schmidt & Spring. In some years, due to contractual obligations, he had to deliver more than 20 extensive stories to booksellers, which are therefore often clearly schematized in structure and linguistic expression. Among the critical historians of youth literature, Heinrich Wolgast in particular noted in his work The misery of our youth literature (1896) the low level of Hoffmann's works and their tendency to falsify reality. In spite of this, most of Hoffmann's writings were widely distributed during his lifetime and had several editions; some of them have been translated into many modern cultural languages.

Hoffmann's stories, intended for children and young people, usually have a strong moral and religious character. For example, his easily understandable short stories, intended for early childhood up to the age of eight, such as 150 moral stories for small children (1842), which has almost the character of an edification and has had no fewer than 17 editions, also fairy tales and Fables for Small Children (1842), storybook for the nursery (1844) and others.

In some cases, Hoffmann's writings for young people praise the moral way of life in general or discourage the shameful behavior of an immoral lifestyle, in some cases they recommend individual virtues such as family love, friendship, honesty, diligence, patience, charity and willingness to help the poor and the unfortunate, or they warn against vices such as self- and recklessness. In an effort to portray it vividly, Hoffmann often falls into pedantry and improbability. His heroes are beyond normal human standards. They are distinguished by an unnaturally great kindness of heart and morality or by extraordinary viciousness. Moreover, regardless of real circumstances, virtue is ultimately always led to victory through suffering, while vice always leads to its downfall (e.g. man thinks, God directs , 1851; how you do it, so it’s , 1869). In Hoffmann's stories, the ultimate reward for decent behavior after suffering is often brought about by improbable “coincidences”. For example, in the story Brave People (1856), the hardship that arose through no fault of one's own suddenly turned to goodness through a lottery win, a returning, missing relative and a promissory note found in the Bible .

The moral of the story is often already presented in the title in the short and haunting form of a proverb (e.g. like the seed, so the harvest ; freshly dared is half won ; everyone is the forge of his luck ; one man, one word ; law must remain right ; time is money ; arrogance comes before the fall ). Occasionally, however, she also appears in religious clothing ( The old God is still alive , 1847; What God does, that is well done , 1848; The blessing of the Lord makes you rich without effort , 1849; etc.). None of Hoffmann's narratives has a decidedly denominational character; some depict tolerance of people of different faiths as behavior that is pleasing to God (e.g. Moschele , 1854; Schmulche-Leben , 1855), and so they were well received by members of all denominations.

For the author, it is not a person's membership of a certain ethnic group that is decisive, but rather his or her virtue (e.g. Mohr and Weißer , 1850). He also tried to present the differences in class and wealth as insignificant and to show that contentment and a happy family life were possible even in the most modest circumstances (e.g. rich and poor , 1845; true happiness , 1846; brave people , 1856; Impotence of Wealth , 1859).

For many of his works, Hoffmann translated and edited exciting stories by foreign authors for German youth, such as Miguel de Cervantes ' novel Don Quixote ( Life of the noble and valiant knight Don Quixote of La Mancha , 1844) and various adventure novels by James Fenimore Cooper ( Leather Stocking - Stories , 2 vols., 1846; Narramatta ; Mark's Riff , 1855; Conanchet , 1857; The Red Pirate , 1861; Captain Spike or the Gulf Islands , 1869), Frederick Marryat ( The New Robinson or the Shipwreck of the Pacific , 1843; Education and Life , 1847, published in 1873 under the title Jack, the Brave Midshipman ), Jonathan Swift ( Gulliver's Travels in Unknown Lands , 1844), Thomas Mayne Reid ( The Settlers on the Prairie , 1854; A Robinson of the Desert ; The Buffalo Hunter at the Campfire , 1875) and Robert Montgomery Bird ( The Dangers of the Wild , 1847).

The popularity of these adventurous stories prompted Hoffmann to write similar stories he had invented himself, set in foreign lands or on distant seas ( The Gold Prospector ; The Conquest of Mexico ; The Inca Treasure ; The Siege of Boston ; Wild scenes in South Africa ; ua), whereby he sometimes fabricated plagiarism . In these stories he also used descriptions of murder and bloodshed, torture scenes and other atrocities to heighten the tension. He also borrowed his material several times from old fables , fairy tales and legends of domestic and foreign literature for very successful own arrangements and collections, such as The story of Reineke the fox (1847), German folk tales (1847); The Most Beautiful Tales of the Thousand and One Nights (1851); and his Deutsche Sagen (4 vols., 1848–50) were so well received that in 1853 another volume of this genre appeared with Rübezahl and other German sagas . The author also took up strange historical events for adaptations in a new guise ( German heroes of the past ; The story of Tell , 1845; etc.). He also sought to encourage young people to emulate themselves through descriptions of the lives of great men, whom he called role models (e.g. Mozart’s youth , 1870; Ludwig van Beethoven , 1871; Schiller ’s youth , 1872).

After the publication of the paperback for the German youth (1844-46), Hoffmann published an impressive anthology of the New German Youth Friend every year shortly before Christmas , which exerted a great influence on the German youth and was continued after his death until the First World War . Each year contains stories, descriptions from geography, ethnology and natural history, biographies, legends, fairy tales, poems, puzzles, games and many mostly artistically worthless illustrations. In the case of the poems alone, he made the effort to include the names of their authors, such as B. Theodor Storm and Friedrich Hebbel should be mentioned. Another periodic enterprise was the youth library that he founded and ran for many years and published by Schmidt & Spring . He also made contributions to Trewendt's youth library , Kröner's universal library for young people , Bagel's new youth library , and a large number of other collections and publications for young people.

In addition, Hoffmann also worked for large circles of adults through his numerous folk writings, which are relatively trivial and seek to entertain and teach without effort of the intellect. The Political House Booklet for the German Citizen and Farmer as well as 300 Charades, word puzzles and riddle questions (1849) should be counted here as a tame product of the storm year 1848 . An illustrated folk calendar , which Hoffmann had published in monthly editions since 1851 with the help of well-known writers and artists, but which was sold again in the second year because of its high price, proved to be a mistake.

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personal data
SURNAME Hoffmann, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hoffmann, Alexander Friedrich Franz (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writers for young people and people as well as booksellers
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1814
PLACE OF BIRTH Bernburg
DATE OF DEATH July 11, 1882
Place of death Dresden