Hans Reiss (literary scholar)

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Hans Siegbert Reiss (born August 19, 1922 in Mannheim ; † April 2, 2020 in Heidelberg ) was a German-Irish literary scholar .

Life

Hans Reiss was the son of the Jewish print shop owner Berthold Reiss and the actress Maria Reiss-Petri, who was engaged at the Mannheim National Theater. He managed to escape from Nazi Germany one week before the outbreak of war in 1939 to Ireland , where he finished his schooling and in 1940 received a scholarship to study at Trinity College (Dublin) . He graduated there with a Bachelor of Arts in 1943 and received his doctorate in German studies in 1945 . From 1946 to 1953 he was a lecturer at the London School of Economics (LSE), from 1953 to 1958 at Queen Mary, University of London (then Queen Mary College). In 1958 he became Professor and Head of Department for German Studies at McGill University in Montreal , from 1965 he was Professor and Head of Department for German Studies at the University of Bristol until his retirement in 1988. He then held a number of visiting professorships; from 1995 to 2009 he was a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bristol.

His two essays on Arthur Schnitzler are among the earliest works on the author after the Second World War.

From 1963 Hans Reiss was with the artist Linda, geb. Wahter, married. The couple had two children and lived in Heidelberg from 2009, where Hans Reiss died in spring 2020 at the age of 97.

Works

Reiss's main research areas were Goethe and German literature of the 20th century as well as German political thinking around 1800. He gained an international reputation through the publication of Kant's Political Writings . He has published the following books:

  • Franz Kafka. 1952, 1956.
  • The Political Thought of the German Romantics (1793-1815). 1955.
  • Goethe's novels. 1963.
  • Political thinking in German romanticism. 1966.
  • (Ed.): Immanuel Kant: Political Writings. 1970. 2nd edition: 1991, ISBN 0-521-39837-1 . Chinese edition 2013.
  • Goethe's novels. 1969. New edition 1971, ISBN 0-870-24198-2 .
  • Kant's Political Thought. 1977, ISBN 3-261-02071-7 . Japanese edition 1989.
  • The Writer's Task from Nietzsche to Brecht. 1978, ISBN 0-87471-870-8 .
  • Design and politics, Goethe studies. 1993, ISBN 3-88479-689-5 .
  • Memories from 85 years. 2009, ISBN 978-3-87115-007-4 .

From 1974 he was first with Idris Parry, then alone and since 1988 together with W. Edgar Yates editor of the series British and Irish Studies in German Language and Literature / British and Irish Studies in German Language and Literature ; so far more than 50 issues have been published.

Articles (selection)

  • The Problems of Fate and of Religion in the Work of Arthur Schnitzler. In: Modern Language Review, Vol. 40, H. 4, October 1945, pp. 300-308.
  • The Significance of Arthur Schnitzler. In: Hermathena, No. 66, November 1945, pp. 72-84.

Awards

  • 1972: Goethe's Novels voted Outstanding Book of the Year by the American Association of College and Research Libraries
  • 1988: Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
  • 1997: Golden Goethe Medal from the Goethe Society Weimar
  • 2011: Member for life of the British Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA)
  • From 1981: Member of the Free Academy of the Arts Rhein-Neckar (formerly Free Academy of the Arts Mannheim)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary SZ, accessed on April 5, 2020
  2. ↑ Publishing information ( Memento from August 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ Members of the Free Academy of the Arts Rhein-Neckar
personal data
SURNAME Reiss, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reiss, Hans Siegbert (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Irish literary scholar
DATE OF BIRTH August 19, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Mannheim
DATE OF DEATH April 2, 2020
Place of death Heidelberg