Hermann Weller

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Hermann Weller (born February 4, 1878 in Schwäbisch Gmünd , † December 9, 1956 in Tübingen ) was a German Indologist and neo-Latin poet. He was considered the " Horace of the 20th century".

Life

Weller was one of nine children of an industrial clerk and a baker's daughter and grew up in Schwäbisch Gmünd. In 1890 Weller was orphaned and was raised with his siblings by the family maid . He first attended the Gmünder Reallyzeum, then switched to the Latin school in Bad Mergentheim and in 1897 passed the matriculation examination in the Ehinger Konvikt . Weller then studied at the universities of Berlin and Tübingen first law later Ancient languages . In 1901 he was promoted to Dr. phil. PhD in Latin and Sanskrit.

The classical scholar taught, after State of completed exams in Latin, Greek, French and Hebrew, 1913-1931 as a teacher at the high school in Ellwangen as well as at school Ehingen operates. Among the languages ​​in which he taught, Weller was distinguished by his in-depth knowledge of English, Italian and Persian. 1931 Weller settled illness retire and moved to Tübingen, where he was in 1930 again habilitation had. There he worked first as a private lecturer , then as an honorary professor for Indian literature, Sanskrit and the sacred language of the Persians - Awesta at the university. In 1952 he gave up his teaching activity completely.

In 1931, the Ellwang city council decided to name a street after him. His hometown Schwäbisch Gmünd named the Hermann-Weller-Weg in the Hardt district after the poet. He was also an honorary member of the Catholic student association KStV Alamannia Tübingen in the KV .

His estate is now in the documents archive of East Württemberg in Heubach-Lautern .

The elegy Y

In 1937 Weller wrote the neo-Latin elegy Y , which describes how the poet dreams, the letters from his volume with the poems of Horace come to life and the A calls in a demagogic speech for the extermination of the alien Y. The Y flees and tries to prove its right to exist with words such as myth, mysticism, rhythm and physics - but the other letters cannot be convinced and are on their way to finish off the Y. The poet asks for redemption and awakens from this nightmare.

Weller, a private lecturer in Tübingen, submitted Elegy Y at the end of 1937 to the Certamen poeticum Hoeufftianum , a competition for neo-Latin poetry that the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (KNAW) in Amsterdam announced every year. In 1938 Weller was awarded the gold medal for this text. The fact that Weller was promoted to associate professor in the same year (despite certain concerns about his Catholicism ) shows that knowledge of Latin was not widespread among National Socialist officials (see also Victor Klemperer , who wrote his analysis of the Nazi language under the abbreviation LTI -  Lingua Tertii Imperii  - concealed).

According to the Latinist Uwe Dubielzig , the text is a playfully disguised accusation against the increasingly obvious anti-Semitism of the National Socialists, the effects of which Weller was able to observe in the immediate vicinity at Tübingen University. It is also conceivable that the text was directed against the minority policy of the National Socialists in general. Even if it cannot be read as a document of anti-fascist resistance, it is a cleverly masked document of contradiction to the inhumane politics of National Socialism , which, however, in all its brutality just before the pogrom of the so-called " Reichspogromnacht " (as described by Charlie Chaplin in his film The Great Dictator even in 1940) was underestimated by Hermann Weller. In this respect, Elegy Y can be seen as a remarkable testimony to inner emigration .

Works

  • Master Hartmuth's Dream , Festival, R. Meeh, Ellwangen 1921
  • Anahita , Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1938
  • The Kingdom of Poverty , Laupp, Tübingen 1938
  • Carmina Latina , Laupp, Tübingen 1938 (2nd, increased edition 1946; last published in 1965 by Dümmler, Bonn.)
  • The guest from Taranto , Laupp, Tübingen 1939
  • Indian wisdom and art of living , Stuttgart, Weil der Stadt 1950 (edited by Wolfgang Hädecke )

literature

  • Heidrun Brückner, Uwe Dubielzig, Konrad Plieninger: Wide horizons. Hermann Weller 1878–1956, classical Indologist, Latin poet, Christian humanist . Schwäbisch Gmünd (Einhorn-Verlag), 2006 ISBN 3-936373-04-3

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Weller, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German neo-Latin poet
DATE OF BIRTH February 4, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Schwäbisch Gmünd
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 1956
Place of death Tübingen