Gerhard Fricke

Gerhard Paul Fricke (born August 20, 1901 in Waschke , Posen ; † April 18, 1980 in Cologne ) was a German German scholar , literary scholar and historian .

Professional background

Fricke, the son of a pastor, began studying Protestant theology in Greifswald in 1920 , continued it in Tübingen and Rostock and received his doctorate in 1925. He then studied German philology , obtained his doctorate in 1929 and qualified as a professor in Göttingen in 1931 .

Fricke worked as a private lecturer for German language and literature at the University of Göttingen in 1931 and was a member of the NSDAP from 1933 . As a "fire speaker" he took part in the book burning on May 10, 1933 in Göttingen .

In 1934 Fricke worked as an associate professor in Berlin, later he was a full professor at the Universities of Kiel , and also worked in the Scientific Academy of the Nazi Lecturers' Association, where he was head of the field for the war effort of the humanities , also known as Aktion Ritterbusch after its director . His attitude becomes clear at the end of an article printed in the "Zeitschrift für Deutschkunde" in 1940 on "The tragic in German style and poetry": "We protect us from that real and ever-present threat to the tragic meaning and our being in general ... ours Fate that shows us, in the midst of a hostile world, that we Germans can only live if we are not frightened to live dangerously, that only those who are prepared for victory are those who are ready for destruction. " In 1941 he became head of the historical Germanic major seminar at the National Socialist Reich University of Strasbourg .

In 1949 Fricke appeared, together with Ernst Anrich , who was also known from Strasbourg , as a founding member of the Darmstadt Scientific Book Association . In 1950 he taught at the University of Istanbul and from 1957 at the Mannheim Business School . From 1960 to 1966 he held the chair for modern German literary history at the University of Cologne .

His teaching style at the University of Cologne is very detailed in the 2014 novel, game time by Ulla Hahn described (about the middle of the book).

literature

• Gudrun Schnabel: Gerhard Fricke. Career development of a literary scholar after 1945. In: Petra Boden, Rainer Rosenberg (Hrsg.): Deutsche Literaturwissenschaft 1945–1965. Case studies on institutions, discourses, people. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-05-002930-7 , pages 61–84 ( limited preview in Google book search).
• Gudrun Schnabel: Fricke, Gerhard Paul. In: Christoph König (Ed.), With the assistance of Birgit Wägenbaur u. a .: Internationales Germanistenlexikon 1800–1950 . Volume 1: A-G. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-015485-4 , pages 525-527 in the Google book search.
• Wilfried Barner : Pioneers, schools, pluralism: studies on the history and theory of literary studies. Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen 1997, page 232 f. in Google Book Search.

Web links

• Literature by and about Gerhard Fricke in the catalog of the German National Library
• Catalog of works in the online catalog of the Berlin State Library
• Works directory on Google books

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Registration of Gerhard Fricke in the Rostock matriculation portal
2. ↑ Petra Boden, Rainer Rosenberg (ed.) :: Deutsche Literaturwissenschaft 1945-1965 , Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-05-002930-7 , page 62.
3. ↑ Fricke's “Brandrede” can be read in: Göttinger Hochschulzeitung No. 2 from 18./19. May 1933, page 2f.
4. ↑ An early statement by Fricke on the incendiary speech in: Rolf Seeliger: Braune Universität - German university lecturers yesterday and today. Issue 3, Munich 1965 / an evaluation in: Albrecht Schöne: Göttingen Book Burning 1933, in the same: From stepping on the lawn. Seventeen speeches on literature , Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-52889-9 , pp. 187–222, (esp. Pp. 203ff with note 36)
5. ↑ Ernst Klee: The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich , updated. Frankfurt 2005 edition, ISBN 3-596-16048-0 , p. 166.