Friedrich Spielhagen

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Friedrich Spielhagen Signature Friedrich Spielhagen.JPG
Friedrich Spielhagen in his study
Friedrich Spielhagen, 1867. Graphic by Adolf Neumann.

Friedrich Spielhagen (born February 24, 1829 in Magdeburg , † February 25, 1911 in Berlin ) was a German writer .

Life

Friedrich Spielhagen was the son of the Royal Hydraulic Engineering Inspector Friedrich August Wilhelm Spielhagen (1785–1855) and his wife Henriette Wilhelmine, nee. Robrahn (1789-1849). He spent the first six years of his life in Magdeburg. He then lived in Stralsund , where he also attended the Sundisches Gymnasium . Since 1861 he was with the widow Therese Wittich, geb. Boûtin (1835–1900), married and had three daughters with her: Hedda (* 1862), Antonie (called Toni, 1865–1910) and Elsa Spielhagen (1864–1942), their son the 2nd mayor of Wroclaw Wolfgang Spielhagen was. Toni Spielhagen was also active as a writer and wrote under the pseudonym Paul Robran. Therese Spielhagen had two children, Max and Jenny, whom Friedrich Spielhagen adopted. His nephew Dr. Friedrich Spielhagen (1864–1931) was the personal physician of Victoria ("Kaiserin Friedrich"), the mother of Kaiser Wilhelm II. (See family tree below right.)

education

After graduating from high school, Spielhagen studied law and philology in Bonn from 1847 to 1851 (where he became a member of the Frankonia fraternity in 1848 ), Berlin and Greifswald . Spielhagen then worked as a private tutor in Pomerania and also tried his hand at being an actor and soldier . He later returned to the teaching profession and taught at a business school in Leipzig . In addition, he occupied himself intensively with literature and after the death of his father, who had been a government official in Stralsund, began to devote himself entirely to writing.

Writing career

In 1857 Spielhagen wrote his first novella , which was titled Clara Vere . Like his work Auf der Düne , published in 1858 , it was never noticed by a large audience. During this time, Spielhagen also began to write for newspapers or magazines such as the Zeitung für Norddeutschland (1860 to 1862) or Westermann's illustrated German monthly magazines (1878 to 1884). Spielhagen began working for the newspaper for Northern Germany in 1860 after moving from Leipzig to Hanover . In 1861 he achieved a great success with the 1078-page novel Problematic Natures , which is under the influence of Karl Gutzkow . A year later a sequel appeared under the title Through Night to Light . In the same year the novella In the Twelfth Hour was published . At the end of 1862 Spielhagen gave up his job in Hanover and moved to Berlin.

There he worked for some time for various newspapers and made trips to Switzerland , Italy , England , France and other European countries. In 1864 the novella Röschen vom Hofe and the novel Die von Hohenstein appeared , which dealt with the revolutionary movement of 1848 . This was followed in 1866 by the novel In Reih und Glied and in 1868 the humorous novel The Village Coquette . Hammer and Anvil came out in 1869, followed by the novella German Pioneers a year later . A few years later, the most famous text by Friedrich Spielhagen appeared, Sturmflut . This novel is only available in printed form in abridged form. The conclusion of this most intensive creative period was the novel Platt Land in 1878 .

Honorary grave of Friedrich Spielhagen in Berlin-Westend

Spielhagen died on February 25, 1911 in Berlin at the age of 82.

Spielhagen was buried on March 1, 1911 in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Cemetery in Berlin-Westend . Hermann Sudermann gave the funeral speech. Spielhagen rests in a wall grave that was built in the neo-Romanesque grotto style. The presented sandstone aedicula with Etruscan columns frames the inscription panel. Spielhagen's wife Therese and their daughter Toni were also buried here.

By decision of the Berlin Senate , the last resting place of Friedrich Spielhagen (grave site D 1 Erb. 1) has been dedicated as an honorary grave of the State of Berlin since 1958 . The dedication was last extended in 2016 for the usual period of twenty years.

His hometown Magdeburg named a street ( Spielhagenstraße ) after him. Other places, in which Spielhagen worked for a long time, honored him with a street name, such as Hanover, Stralsund, Berlin and Nuremberg.

Appreciation

Berlin memorial plaque in Berlin-Charlottenburg (Kantstrasse 165)
Family tree of Friedrich and Wolfgang Spielhagen

Friedrich Spielhagen's works are strongly influenced by his love for the sea, which he developed during his time in Stralsund. The novels of this writer, often referred to as “Germany's great novelist”, were considered anti- feudal , radical - democratic and liberal . In later years Spielhagen rejected the bourgeoisie and the Prussian-German development more and more. In addition to novels, short stories and theoretical texts, Spielhagen also wrote several dramas, which, however, did not match the quality of his novels and short stories. In a few moves Spielhagen anticipates Eduard von Keyserling's topics and techniques . The best of his late novels already point to Berlin Modernism, even if his works were sharply rejected by the younger literary generation of the Wilhelmine era.

Spielhagen was an unmatched master of the beginning of the novel; later in the plot, his great novels lose some of their momentum; original narrative style is often found alongside passages that approach the usual trivial literature of the time. The strange mixture of tension, routine and psychological observation makes reading many of his novels a pleasure to this day.

Works (in selection)

filming

Others

literature

  • Gunnar Müller-Waldeck : Spielhagen, Friedrich (1829-1911) . In: Dirk Alvermann , Nils Jörn (Hrsg.): Biographisches Lexikon für Pommern . Volume 2 (= publications of the Historical Commission for Pomerania. Series V, Volume 48.2). Böhlau Verlag, Cologne Weimar Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-412-22541-4 , pp. 270-274.
  • Kai Christina Ullrich: Or rather. Models of family relationships in the epic work of Friedrich Spielhagen . Kassel University Press, Kassel 2013, ISBN 978-3-86219-408-7
  • Jeffrey L. Sammons:  Spielhagen, Friedrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , pp. 686-688 ( digitized version ).
  • Jeffrey L. Sammons : Friedrich Spielhagen. Novelist of Germany's false dawn. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2004 (= studies on German literary history; 117) ISBN 3-484-32117-2
  • Gunter Schandera: Spielhagen, Friedrich. In: Guido Heinrich, Gunter Schandera (ed.): Magdeburg Biographical Lexicon 19th and 20th centuries. Biographical lexicon for the state capital Magdeburg and the districts of Bördekreis, Jerichower Land, Ohrekreis and Schönebeck. Scriptum, Magdeburg 2002, ISBN 3-933046-49-1 .
  • Gabriele Henkel: Noise worlds in the German time novel. Epic representation and poetological meaning from romanticism to naturalism. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1996, ISBN 3-447-03827-6 (= Wolfenbütteler research; 68)
  • Henrike Lamers: Hero or World? On the novel by Friedrich Spielhagen. Bouvier, Bonn 1991, ISBN 3-416-02314-5 (= Wuppertal series literature; 24)
  • Rosa-Maria Zinken: The novel as a contemporary document. Bourgeois liberalism in Friedrich Spielhagen's "Die von Hohenstein" (1863, 64). Lang, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 1991, ISBN 3-631-44216-5 (= Kölner zuStudien zur Literaturwissenschaft ; 4)
  • Andrea Fischbacher-Bosshardt: Beginnings of Modern Storytelling. Investigations into Friedrich Spielhagen's theoretical and literary work. Lang, Bern a. a. 1988, ISBN 3-261-03940-X (= Narratio ; 1)
  • Christoph Frey: The subject as the object of representation. Investigations into the creation of consciousness in fictional narration. Heinz, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-88099-131-6 (= Stuttgart works on German studies ; 127)
  • Dieter Kafitz: Figure constellation as a means of apprehending reality. Depicted in novels from the second half of the 19th century (Freytag, Spielhagen, Fontane, Raabe). Athenäum Verlag, Kronberg / Taunus 1978, ISBN 3-7610-8001-8 .
  • Il-Sop Han: Spielhagen's first-person novel theory. Univ. Diss., Heidelberg 1977.
  • Günter Rebing: the poet's half-brother. Friedrich Spielhagen's theory of the novel. Athenäum-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1972. (= literature and reflection; 8)
  • Christa Müller-Donges: Friedrich Spielhagen's novellas in its development between 1851 and 1899. Elwert, Marburg 1970, ISBN 3-7708-0414-7 (= Marburg contributions to German studies ; 33)
  • Martha Geller: Friedrich Spielhagen's theory and practice of the novel. Berlin 1917. Reprint: Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 1973, ISBN 3-8067-0434-1
  • Victor Klemperer : Friedrich Spielhagen's time novels and their roots. Duncker, Weimar 1913. (= research on recent literary history ; 43)
  • Hans Henning : Friedrich Spielhagen . Staackmann, Leipzig 1910.
  • Franz Mehring : Friedrich Spielhagen . In: Die Neue Zeit from February 19, 1909
  • Gustav Karpeles : Friedrich Spielhagen. A literary essay . Staackmann, Leipzig 1889.
  • Spielhagen, Friedrich von . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 25 : Shuválov - Subliminal Self . London 1911, p. 666 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
  • Friedrich Spielhagen . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 15, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 142.

Web links

Commons : Friedrich Spielhagen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Friedrich Spielhagen  - Quotes
Wikisource: Friedrich Spielhagen  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ According to a letter from Toni Spielhagen to Hans Henning , her mother's family came from France and “was noble; on all letters to my mother I found 'Miss. Therese von Boûtin '. "(Hans Henning: Friedrich Spielhagen . Staackmann, Leipzig 1910, p. 229 f.)
  2. ^ Hans Henning: Friedrich Spielhagen . Staackmann, Leipzig 1910. p. 101 and p. 126.
  3. ^ Necrology . In: Gerhard Lüdtke (Ed.): Kürschner's Literature Calendar 1901–1935 . de Gruyter, Berlin / Leipzig 1936, column 590.
  4. ^ Hans Henning: Friedrich Spielhagen . Staackmann, Leipzig 1910, p. 101 f.
  5. ^ Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume II: Artists. Winter, Heidelberg 2018, ISBN 978-3-8253-6813-5 , pp. 652-653.
  6. ↑ FL: The funeral service for Friedrich Spielhagen . In: Berliner Tageblatt , No. 112, morning edition, March 2, 1911. - Sudermann's funerary speech is also reproduced here.
  7. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 480.
  8. ↑ Honorary graves of the State of Berlin (as of November 2018) . (PDF, 413 kB) Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection, p. 84; accessed on March 22, 2019. Recognition and further preservation of graves as honorary graves of the State of Berlin . (PDF, 205 kB). Berlin House of Representatives, printed matter 17/3105 of July 13, 2016, p. 1 and Annex 2, p. 15; accessed on March 22, 2019.
  9. ↑ Spielhagenstrasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
  10. ↑ Several of Spielhagen's works are now digitally accessible. Because of the once high number of copies of his books, copies are now available in second-hand bookshops at affordable prices.
  11. ↑ Westermanns illustrated German monthly books . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . 6th edition. Volume 20, Bibliographical Institute, Leipzig / Vienna 1909, p.  505 .
personal data
SURNAME Spielhagen, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1829
PLACE OF BIRTH Magdeburg , Kingdom of Prussia
DATE OF DEATH February 25, 1911
Place of death Berlin , Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire