Johann Baptist von Alxinger

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Johann Baptist von Alxinger

Johann Baptist von Alxinger (* January 24, 1755 in Vienna ; † May 1, 1797 ibid) was an Austrian writer who represented the ideals of the Enlightenment in his epics and poems .

Life

Alxinger was born in Vienna in 1755 as the son of a lawyer. He followed in his father's footsteps, studied in Jena and obtained a doctorate in law in Vienna. He was later appointed Imperial and Royal Court Agent and in 1794 was appointed Imperial Knight. In 1794 he became secretary and member of the theater committee at the Burgtheater . Independent of his father's fortune, the Enlightenment was able to devote most of his time to writing and to support his destitute friend Lorenz Leopold Haschka , to whom he allegedly donated 10,000 guilders of his fortune (70,000 to 80,000 guilders).

In 1793 Alxinger published the Österreichische Monathsschrift , published in Prague and Vienna , for which he wrote some poems. The monthly publication appeared u. a. because of the strict censorship only one year; The magazine drew a decidedly educational and against reaction directed position and campaigned for reforms in the hope that Francis II. , like his uncle Joseph II would be reformist active, Alxinger saw progress through Joseph very critical. A trip to Berlin in 1783 and 1784 led to a lifelong friendship with Friedrich Nicolai and a growing dissatisfaction with censorship and backwardness in Austria.

Alxinger also worked for the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung and contributed to Friedrich Schiller's Horen , but in a letter to Nicolai took clear offense at the publication of Johann Wolfgang Goethe's erotic cycle of poems Römische Elegien in Schiller's magazine:

Properz was allowed to say aloud that he had spent a happy night with his girlfriend. But if Herr von Goethe and his Italian Maitresse exercises con-cubitum [= cohabitation] in front of the whole of Germany, who will approve of that? The annoying and offensive is not in the matter, but in the individuality.

Alxinger was an active Freemason ; In 1779 he became a member of the Viennese Masonic lodge Zum Heiligen Joseph , of which he became overseer in 1782. In 1785 he moved to the Lodge on True Concord in Vienna, where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart frequented, and was also accepted into the Lodge on Truth . At the end of 1781 he also joined the Order of Illuminati . Alxinger published several Masonic poems and a Masonic paperback.

Alxinger, who sometimes used the pseudonym Johannes Xilanger , died in Vienna in 1797.

The Alxingergasse in Vienna- favorites was named in 1875 after him.

plant

Role models for his epics were Virgil , Homer , Torquato Tasso and above all Christoph Martin Wieland , for him the last and current representative of a timeless epic tradition . He replaced the knightly ideal of virtue in his epics with the humanitarian virtue doctrine of Freemasonry using the example of the Knights Templar . His knight epics in Stanzen Doolin von Mainz (1787) and Bliomberis (1791) were praised by contemporary critics and sought after by the public.

He also wrote many occasional poems , odes , songs, and didactic poems in addition to numerous translations by classical poets. In collaboration with Christoph Willibald Gluck , he translated his opera Iphigénie en Tauride into German. Seine from Freemasonry openly critical of religion poems influenced Toleration , The celibacy , the priest of God and the song of an ancient Jews were banned by the Austrian censors, but could in Leipzig are published. The song of an old Jew is surprisingly free of prejudice, even for the Age of Enlightenment.

Alxinger memorial stone by Johann Nepomuk Amann in the Pötzleinsdorf palace gardens

Poem example

Morning prayer (first three stanzas)
All good, who that night
With more than fatherly worries
By his angel guarding me,
Bent over in the dust, I thank you this morning.
Let my eye never open
That I don't think of you first
You father, but terrible,
As soon as I move my step from your ways.
When sickness draws its bow
So protect me; yes, do you want to hit
I honor your hand in adoration;
Just give me the courage to endure my evil.

Quote

Can you call people enlightened who seriously believe [...] that to make up for an apple bite, that God the Father fabricated a God Son through God the Holy Spirit and then had to be executed by the Jews, and what other follies might be called that are common to all three religions?

Works

  • Poems by Mr. Johann von Alxinger. Gebauer, Halle, 1780
  • Paperback for Brothers Freemasons for the year 1784. Published for the benefit of the poor. Gassler, Vienna, 1784
  • JB Alxinger's complete poetic writings. Leipzig, 1784. (Contains poems and Eduard the Third. A tragedy in five acts. After Franz des Greset .)
  • Doolin from Maynz. A knight poem. Göschen, Leipzig, 1787
  • Alxinger's Complete Poems. 2 volumes. Kleinmayer, Klagenfurt and Laibach, 1788 (Contains poems, the Seneca translation Agamannon and the Euripides translation Hecuba .)
  • Bliomberis. A knight poem in twelve songs. Göschen, Leipzig, 1791
  • About Leopold the Second. Vieweg, Berlin, 1792
  • Numa Pompilius. From Alxinger to Florian. Leipzig and Klagenfurt, 1792
  • Alxinger's latest poems. Camesina, Vienna, 1794. (Contains poems, Die Vergötterung des Hercules. A cantata. And the Euripides translation Medea .)
  • To Germany on the occasion of the last Austrian seats. Vienna, 1795
  • Johann von Alxinger's Complete Works. 10 volumes. Haase, Vienna, 1810

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Franz Gräffer: Small Vienna Memoirs , Vienna 1845, Vol. II, p. 71
  2. ↑ Heike Grundmann: Grundmann: Shakespeare Society. In: shakespeare-gesellschaft.de. February 22, 2012, accessed January 2, 2015 .
  3. ↑ a b Poems by Johann Baptist von Alxinger. In: payer.de. Retrieved January 2, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Morning prayer (Alxinger)
  5. ↑ Ernst Wangermann: The weapons of publicity. Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, 2004, ISBN 9783486568394 , p. 108. Limited preview in Google book search

literature

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Alxinger, Johann Baptist von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Alxinger, Johann Baptist Edler von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian poet and writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 24, 1755
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH May 1, 1797
Place of death Vienna