Hans Ferdinand Maßmann

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Hans Ferdinand Maßmann

Hans Ferdinand Maßmann (born August 15, 1797 in Berlin , † August 3, 1874 in Muskau in Oberlausitz ) was a medieval philologist who held one of the first chairs for German studies in Munich . Maßmann was also known as an activist of the gymnastics movement and a poet.

Gravestone of the philologist HF Maßmann in the churchyard in Bad Muskau

Life

Maßmann grew up in Berlin as the son of a watchmaker. In his hometown he began studying Protestant theology and classical philology . In addition, he worked as an enthusiastic gymnast with "Turnvater" Friedrich Ludwig Jahn on the Berlin Hasenheide since his high school days . The background for the national German gymnastics movement was the struggle against Napoleonic foreign rule and the time of the wars of liberation .

After his military service, Maßmann continued his studies in Jena , where Jahn had sent him as a messenger for the gymnastics movement. At the same time he was a member of the original fraternity from 1816/17 . In connection with the Wartburg Festival in 1817, he was instrumental in the symbolic burning of several dozen books classified as reactionary, anti-national or “un-German”. Maßmann was punished by the Jena university authorities with eight days of imprisonment for participating in the Wartburg Festival . Even at his later place of work in Breslau , where he moved in 1818 as an assistant teacher and instructor, he got into political difficulties during the Breslau gymnastics feud . In the course of the demagogue persecution , Maßmann was expelled to Magdeburg in 1819. In 1820 he composed the patriotic song I have surrendered .

After several difficult years without sufficient financial means, Maßmann was finally employed in 1821 at the Dittmann School in Nuremberg . After 1826 he lived in Munich, where he became a gymnastics teacher at the Bavarian Cadet Corps . Two years later he headed a general public gymnasium. In November 1829 Maßmann, who had completed his habilitation in 1827 , was appointed associate professor at the University of Munich and then six years later full professor for German language and literature. It was one of the first chairs for German studies. From 1837 to 1843 he was a member of the Munich casual society . In 1843 the Prussian Ministry appointed him to Berlin and also entrusted him with the organization of gymnastics lessons. As a favorite student of Jahn, he wanted to revive the tradition of public gymnastics in the Hasenheide, but failed with this undertaking due to the changed circumstances. Maßmann, on the other hand, decidedly rejected the emerging school race. Since 1847 he was a foreign member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences .

Maßmann's eldest son was the landscape painter Siegfried Massmann .

Aftermath

Maßmann house in Bad Muskau

As a university lecturer, Maßmann published numerous books and editions, in particular on literary and cultural history, which contemporaries had already criticized from a stylistic and scientific point of view. His writings often have the character of extensive collections of material, some of which are still valuable today. This applies, for example, to his portrayal of the medieval game of chess .

For Heinrich Heine, Maßmann represented the prototype of the Teutomanic gymnast. In the poem Inverted World , which is supposed to enumerate impossible things, the poet mocked him with the lines “The Maßmann recently combed his hair, as reported by German newspapers”. In the second part of his “Hymns of Praise to King Ludwig”, Heine Ludwig I of Bavaria put the following verses in his mouth:

But that one stole
the best pearl from my crown , that
my gymnastics master was stolen from me ,
The human jewel, the Maßmann -

That bent me, That bent me,
That shattered my soul:
I now lack the man who is in his Art
Climbed the highest pole.

I no longer see the short legs,
No longer the flat nose;
He hit the
somersaults in the grass like a poodle, fresh-pious-happy-free .

He, the patriot,
only understood Old German, only Jakob-Grimmisch and Zeunisch;
Foreign words always remained foreign to him,
especially Greek and Latin.

He has a patriotic mind,
only drank acorn coffee, he
ate French and Limburg cheese,
he stank of the latter.

In Bad Muskau, Maßmannplatz and a memorial plaque on the house at Berliner Strasse 21. He lived here in this house " since 1873 and died on August 3, 1874 ". The Maßmannstraße in Berlin-Steglitz and Maßmann Park in Munich Maxvorstadt are named after him.

Fonts (selection)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Kaupp (edit.): Stamm-Buch of the Jenaische Burschenschaft. The members of the original fraternity 1815-1819 (= treatises on student and higher education. Vol. 14). SH-Verlag, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-89498-156-3 , pp. 81-82.
  2. ↑ Casual society: A hundred and fifty years Casual society Munich from 1837 to 1987 . University printing and publishing house Dr. C. Wolf and Son KG, Munich 1987, 159 pages
  3. ^ Heinrich Heine: Inverted world

literature

Web links

Commons : Hans Ferdinand Maßmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Hans Ferdinand Maßmann  - Sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Maßmann, Hans Ferdinand
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Germanist, sports educator and poet
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1797
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH August 3, 1874
Place of death Muskau