Johann Friedel (actor)

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Johann Friedel (born August 17, 1755 in Temesvar , † March 31, 1789 in Klagenfurt ) was an Austrian poet, journalist, theater actor, soldier and finally theater director.

Its importance for cultural history research relates to his work "Letters about the Gallanteries of Berlin, collected on a journey by an Austrian officer", published in Gotha in 1782.

Letters about the gallantries of Berlin

In his book Friedel describes the sexual behavior of the Berlin population, especially heterosexual prostitution , adultery and divorce. His book is also considered to be the first known description of the beginnings of a subculture of homosexual men in Berlin. The book was published anonymously. After the publication of several equally anonymous pamphlets to “refute” the book, Friedel confessed himself to be the author in 1784 and justified himself with the remark that “descriptions of this kind would be important for human researchers”.

Friedel's reception took place in West Germany and West Berlin in the early 1970s in connection with the homosexual emancipation movement. In 1987 a new edition was printed by Eulenspiegel-Verlag in East Berlin, followed by another at Ullstein-Verlag, as well as a reprint of the edition from 1782, 2010 at Kessinger Publishing, USA. Friedel's credibility is sometimes called into question within the gay movement. Derks writes: "This does not provide proof of the existence of a homosexual subculture in Berlin."

Fonts (selection)

  • Letters from Vienna of various contents to a friend in Berlin . Leipzig u. Berlin [: s. ed.] 1. ed. 1783, 2. u. 3. verb. Ed. 1784
  • Letters from Berlin about various paradoxes of this age. To the author of the letters from Vienna to a friend in Berlin . Berlin u. Vienna [: s. ed.] 1784.
  • Familiar letters on the characteristics of Vienna . Hermsdorf and Anton, Görlitz 1793
  • Letters about the gallantries of Berlin, collected on a trip by an Austrian officer . Gotha 1782. ( Online in the Google book search = archive.org , online , online in the Google book search)
  • Johann Friedel's collected small printed and unprinted writings. Dedicated to the Friends of Truth , 1784

literature

  • Constantin von Wurzbach : Friedel, Johann . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 4th part. Typogr.-literar.-artist publishing house. Establishment (L. C. Zamarski, C. Dittmarsch & Comp.), Vienna 1858, p. 357 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Egon von Komorzynski:  Friedel: Johann F . , . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 48, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1904, pp. 773-775.
  • Gustav Gugitz : Johann Friedel. A literary portrait from the Josephine enlightenment period. In: Yearbook of the Grillparzer Society, year 15. 1905, pp. 186–250.
  • Karl Goedecke: Outline of the history of German poetry. Book 6, 3rd edition, Leipzig 1910, p. 606 (there is a selection bibliography of Friedel's works)
  • Friedel, Johann, theater director, writer, in: Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie, 2nd CD-ROM edition, KG Saur Verlag 2004.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ quoted in Gugitz 1905, p. 220.
  2. ↑ Paul Derks: The Shame of Sacred Pederasty. Homosexuality and the public sphere in German literature 1750–1850. Berlin 1990: 105.
personal data
SURNAME Friedel, Johann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Friedl, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian actor, author and theater director
DATE OF BIRTH 17th August 1755
PLACE OF BIRTH Temesvar
DATE OF DEATH March 31, 1789
Place of death Klagenfurt