Gottlieb Friedrich Wagner

Gottlieb Friedrich Wagner (born November 3, 1774 in Reusten im Ammertal , † February 14, 1839 in Maichingen ) was a German teacher, politician and Swabian dialect writer.

Life

Gottlieb Friedrich Wagner was a schoolmaster in Maichingen from 1796 to 1831. From 1818 to 1839 he was the first freely elected mayor in Maichingen and was also politically active at the state level.

He became known as the author of several plays in Swabian dialect. These deal with the problem of the political immaturity of the rural population, who first have to get used to their right to participate in the newly established self-government, and want to give a realistic description of the village customs and everyday rural life.

Along with Johannes Nefflen and Friedrich Theodor Vischer, Gottlieb Friedrich Wagner is one of the most important Württemberg satirists of the 19th century. Through his work as mayor in a larger village and the related offices, he was very familiar with the conditions in a commune. That is why the subtitle "Is the people of age?" ironic to understand. In the "schoolmaster's election", residents who are entitled to vote choose the most incompetent candidate from among several candidates, who, however, costs the community the least. Likewise, in the "mayor election", the processes in the elections of the "farmer mayers", as they were elected in most of the municipalities of the Kingdom of Württemberg, are caricatured. Usually the continuation volumes no longer achieve the quality of the first volumes.

Wagner's plays also provide an important source for the Württemberg dialect of the central Neckar region. Today they are no longer performed, although they are very amusing for those who understand dialect and their subtle joke still vividly conveys the downsides of a small community today.

Fonts

In the years 1824 to 1827 the following works were published in Swabian dialect:

• The schoolmaster's choice for blind home or Is the people of age? , Play in 4 Acts, 1824
• Folk poems in the Swabian dialect , 1824
• Appointment and heyrath of the schoolmaster to blind home or is the people of age? , Play in 4 Acts, 1825
• Debates at the town hall in Schwabenheim about the establishment of a help desk , drama, 1826
• Madame Justitia in the peep box, or: precise and thorough investigation of an excess which a goose has committed on the fly , play, 1826
• The election of representatives at Dipplisburg, play in 3 acts, mostly in Swabian dialects , 1826
• The coup d'état down to Spitz und Knopf or Der Bauernstolz, play in 4 acts, in the Swabian dialect , 1827
• There is still a wedding. Play in 3 acts in the Swabian dialect. A continuation of the "coup d'état to the point and button" , 1827

In 1840 the following was published posthumously:

• The mayor election to blind home or is the people of age? , Acting in 3 acts

literature

• Hermann Fischer:  Wagner, Gottlieb Friedrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 40, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1896, p. 500 f.
• Eugen Lutz: Gottlieb Friedrich Wagner. Schoolmaster - politician - dialect poet. A contribution to local literary history as well as to the folklore and regional studies of Württemberg in the beginning of the 19th century (= publications of the Tübingen Association for Folklore; Vol. 10). 1965
• Fritz Heimberger: Maichingen. Our home through the centuries . Röhm-Verlag, Sindelfingen 1981, pp. 173-179
• Felix Burkhardt: School history of the district of Böblingen (= publications of the local history association for Schönbuch and Gäu; Vol. 11). Böblingen 1971, pp. 123-125

Web links

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