Heinrich Josef King

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Heinrich Josef König, 1855. Graphic by W. Obermann.
Signature Heinrich Josef König.PNG

Heinrich Josef König (also Heinrich Koenig ) (born March 19, 1790 in Fulda , † September 23, 1869 in Wiesbaden ) was a German author, literary and cultural historian.

Life

König was the son of Johann Georg König, a farmer's son who was drawn to the Fulda military and was born in Schweben (Flieden) and died of a fever during the siege of Mainz in 1792 . König attended the city school in Fulda, from 1802 the city high school and then the Jesuit Lyceum . In 1810 he hastily married Franziska Follenius, daughter of the state procurator Georg Leonhard Follenius, because she was pregnant. The first child, a boy, died after giving birth. Through the mediation of Count Bentzel-Sternau , in the same year he got a job as assistant clerk at the municipal authorities of the city of Fulda and was promoted to district controller for the Burghaun office in 1813 , in 1816 he became government secretary for finances and as such came to the Rentkammer in Hanau in 1819 .

Because of articles critical of religion he was excommunicated in 1831 by the Fulda Bishop Pfaff . In a political memorandum ( bodyguard and constitution guard , Hanau 1831) he proposed the formation of a people's militia to protect the constitution. He was elected several times to the Hessian Estates Assembly and twice had to experience its dissolution by the Hessian government. In 1839, he was transferred to Fulda against his request as Secretary of the Supreme Court. In 1847 he retired and moved to Hanau the following year, but was still politically active and was elected as a member of the rural communities in the Hessian Chamber in Kassel . After the death of his daughter, he lived in Wiesbaden from 1860.

His first wife had died of nonsense in 1835. In 1836 he married Minna Leißler, daughter of a carpet manufacturer from Hanau. From the first marriage he had a daughter, from the second a son, who died in 1841.

Literary works

Since the time in Hanau became king with the representatives of Young Germany in conjunction published in their magazines, so in Mundt's "free port" in Lewald , later Daredevil "Europe", in foliage "Newspaper for the elegant world" and in Gutzkow " Deutscher Revue ”, the“ Telegraph ”and the“ Literaturblatt zum Phönix ”and cultivated friendly relations with poets from Vormärz such as Varnhagen , Wienbarg , Grabbe , Bechstein and Dingelstedt . Therefore, he was temporarily counted among the Young Germany, although half a generation separated from its representatives and his views on love, marriage and emancipation were completely different from those of the Young Germans, even if he was with these, what the rejection of state and church paternalism and censorship concerned, was quite at one with them.

King was a very prolific writer. After insignificant beginnings in the dramatic and lyrical field, he was best known for his carefully researched historical novels enriched with numerous cultural-historical details, which is why he was even called the "Hessian Scott". The epochs covered ranged from the anti-church Waldensian novel through the time of William Shakespeare to the Napoleonic era and the time of the wars of liberation , which he covered in several multi-volume novels ( The Clubists in Mainz , King Jerômes Carneval , Von Saalfeld to Aspern ). His historical writings should also be mentioned, including his biographical works on Georg Forster and Rudolf Eickemeyer , for which he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Marburg , as well as his autobiographical writings.

effect

In the 19th century, König was a recognized, well-read author, his Waldensian novel was highly praised by the critics Heinrich Kurz and Rudolf Gottschall , and the German police authorities called him “Young Germany's most talented luminary”, if the police authorities attribute literary competence want. Richard Wagner planned to make the subject of King's The High Bride into an opera and wrote a corresponding libretto ( Bianca and Giuseppe or: Die Franzosen vor Nizza , later an opera in four acts by Johann Friedrich Kittl based on Wagner's libretto). But some, including von Gutzkow, criticized the excessive wealth of detail in König's historical novels. Today the king's work is forgotten.

Works

Work editions:

  • Collected Writings. (20 vols., 1854–1868)
  • Selected novels (15 vols., 1875)

As editor:

literature

  • Günther Hohmann: Heinrich König. Life and work of the Fulda writer. Fulda 1965 (with bibliography)
  • Heinrich Hubert Houben : Young German Sturm und Drang. Leipzig 1911, pp. 468-480
  • Hans-Wolf Jäger:  King, Heinrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-428-00193-1 , p. 339 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Hans-Wolf Jäger: König, Heinrich (Joseph) In: Killy Literaturlexikon , Gütersloh & Munich 1988, Vol. 6, p. 429
  • Julius Riffert:  King, Heinrich Josef . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1882, p. 513 f.
  • Arnold Schloenbach : A German poet picture . In: The Gazebo , (1855)
  • Rolf Vogel: The narrative work of Heinrich Josef König. Dissertation Halle 1965
  • Michael Mott : A star in the sky of literature. The famous poet Heinrich König grew up in a "five-window house" in the "Heilegass". In: Fuldaer Zeitung , May 6, 2009, p. 10 (Series: Fuldaer Köpfe).
  • Ulrich Schambony, memories of Heinrich Koenig In: Fuldaer Zeitung of October 2, 2012 (with photo)

Web links

Wikisource: Heinrich König  - Sources and full texts


personal data
SURNAME King, Heinrich Josef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Koenig, Heinrich; King, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German author, literary and cultural historian
DATE OF BIRTH March 19, 1790
PLACE OF BIRTH Fulda
DATE OF DEATH September 23, 1869
Place of death Wiesbaden