Friedrich Fiedler (translator)

Fiedler at a meeting of the Russian Literary Society, April 19, 1893. Drawing by Ilya Repin

Friedrich Ludwig Konrad Fiedler , known in Russia under Fyodor Fjodorowitsch Fiedler ( Фёдор Фёдорович Фидлер , "Ф. Ф. Ф." or "Ф³") (* 4th November ^jul. / 16 November  1859 ^greg. In Saint Petersburg ; † 24 February. ^jul. / 9 March  1917 ^greg. in Petrograd ), a translator (was predominantly Russian poetry into German), educator, collector and founder of a private literary Museum, which was dedicated to writers from Russia and Germany.

His parents were Volga Germans , the father came from Ekaterinenstadt . Friedrich was born in Saint Petersburg, mastered the Russian language as a child and was well acquainted with Russian literature.

translator

During his studies, Fiedler began to translate plays (he also worked as a theater critic) and prose into German. From 1890 to 1900 the works of practically all classics of 19th century Russian poetry ( Lermontow , AK Tolstoy , Pushkin , Nekrasow , Tjuttschew ) and many contemporary authors - personal acquaintances of Fiedlers such as Nadson, Fofanow, Majkow, Polonskij and Fet - appeared in his translation . In 1889 he published the anthology Russian Parnassos (58 authors) in German , then Russian Poetinnen (1907, 20 authors). Fiedler published his translations in the German-language newspaper St. Petersburg Herold .

Pedagogue

From 1884 he worked as a German teacher in various St. Petersburg educational institutions. In 1913 he was retired as a State Councilor. Among his students were many well-known cultural workers, for example Nikolaj Gumiljow , whom Fiedler later referred to as a "lazy student".

Social activity

Fiedler was an active member of the literary life of Petersburg for 30 years and participated in all of the city's literary societies (many arose on his initiative). Dmitrij Mamin-Sibirjak , but also Alexander Kuprin and the now almost forgotten Michail Albow and Kasimir Baranzewitsch belonged to his immediate circle . Among his German and Austrian correspondents were Friedrich von Bodenstedt , Georg Brandes , Kuno Fischer , Lou Andreas-Salomé , Rainer Maria Rilke and others.

Fiddler Museum

Fiedler went down in the history of Russian culture as the founder of the first Russian culture museum, which he set up in his small apartment. The manuscripts of a large number of Russian and German authors (including Heine , Gogol , Nekrasow , Herzen ) went into this huge collection . It contained photographs, drawings, newspaper articles, rare editions and also "relics", some of a curious kind, such as cigarette butts, dishes or parts of the grave cross of well-known poets, as well as a library with books that the authors had signed and given to Fiedler. The collection was financed by Fiedler's salary as a teacher.

During his lifetime, newspapers and magazines reported about the “Fiddler Museum”, often saying that “no Russian loves Russian literature as much as this German”.

diary

Fiedler's diary, which he kept for almost 30 years (from 1888 until his death), is of particular importance. He called it From the World of Letters . The diary did not contain any personal entries, only a “chronicle of observations” by well-known Russian and German writers (over a thousand people). This included descriptions of everyday life, habits, favorite idioms, details of private life and the like. a. The accuracy and authenticity of Fiedler's entries are beyond any doubt. Using the material in his diary, Fiedler wrote and published several essays.

The last few years. Fate of the collection

With the beginning of the First World War , the publication of the German-language newspaper was banned, and some writers turned away from the German fiddler. Defamatory rumors about him as a German spy made the rounds. In recent years he has completed his collection, but changed his will out of concern for the financial situation of his daughter Margarita. Originally his collection was supposed to become the property of the state, now his daughter had the right to sell it to museums. Fiedler died on the eve of the February Revolution ; shortly thereafter his collection was dissolved. A significant part is now in the Institute of Russian Literature, some documents in state archives in Moscow (especially in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art) and private collections, but much is lost. Material from the Fiedler albums has been published several times since the 1960s; his diary was published in German (1996) and a Russian translation (2008).

Fonts

• The Russian Parnassus. Anthology of Russian Poets. Heinrich Minden, Dresden 1889.
• From the literary world. Character traits and judgments. Diary. Edited by Konstantin Asadowski. Wallstein, Göttingen 1996. ISBN 3-89244-183-9 ( digitized in the Internet Archive ).
• Из мира литераторов: Характеры и суждения. Edited by Konstantin Asadowski. Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, Moscow 2008. ISBN 978-5-86793-544-3 .

literature

• Friedrich Dukmeyer: Who I met at Friedrich Fiedler's in St. Petersburg. In: Düna-Zeitung ( Riga ) No. 168 of July 26th (August 7th) 1890 ( digitized in the “digital library” of the LNB ).
• Oskar Grosberg : The Fiedler Museum in Petrograd. In: German Monthly for Russia , No. 1/2, 57th year (1915), pp. 5–10 ( digitized in the “digital library” of the LNB).
• Р. Ю. Данилевский: Переводчик русских поэтов Ф. Ф. Фидлер. In: Русская литература. No. 3, 1960, pp. 174-177.
• Л. Н. Иванова: К биографии Л. Н. Андреева (по материалам коллекции Ф. Ф. Фидлера). In: Ежегодник Рукописаного отдела Пушкинского дома на 1995 год. СПб., 1999, pp. 36-41.
• К. М. Азадовский: Рыцарь русской литературы. In: Ф. Ф. Фидлер: Из мира литераторов: Характеры и суждения. Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, Moscow 2008, pp. 5–28.
• Carola L. Gottzmann / Petra Hörner: Lexicon of the German-language literature of the Baltic States and St. Petersburg . 3 vol .; Verlag Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-019338-1 . Volume 1, p. 420 f. ( limited preview of the book on Google Books ).

Web links

• Literature by and about Friedrich Fiedler in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ According to Gottzmann / Hörner 2007, Vol. 1, p. 420 on March 10th. In the foreword by Konstantin Asadowski to Aus der Literatenwelt (Wallstein 1996) it says somewhat ambiguously on p. 34: “The outbreak of the World War and obviously other reasons prompted Fiedler to change his will at short notice, on the day before his death on February 23, 1917. "