Johann Friedrich Degen

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Johann Friedrich Degen 1792

Johann Friedrich Degen (born December 16, 1752 in Affalterthal ; died January 16, 1836 in Bayreuth ) was a German pedagogue, philologist, translator and poet.

Life

Degen came from an old Franconian pastor's family. His father was a pastor in Trumsdorf from 1760 and taught the son himself in the ancient languages ​​until he was 15. In 1768 he entered the Casimirianum in Coburg as a scholarship holder , where his later friend Gottlieb Christoph Harleß taught him, through whose Chrestomathia graeca poetica (1768) he became acquainted with the progressive neo-humanist conceptions of ancient poetry.

In 1772 he enrolled at the University of Erlangen , where Harleß taught ancient and German poetry. There he deepened his occupation with the poems of Anacreon , Horace and the Latin Elegians, which together with questions of translation and the reproduction of ancient forms in German were to be the focus of Degen's work from then on. These interests and his preoccupation with contemporary poetry of grace moved him to join the Institute of Morals and Fine Sciences , a local branch of the German Society founded by Georg Friedrich Seiler (1733–1807) , which had numerous students and professors until the beginning of the 19th century belonged to the university. There it was customary to read treatises at weekly meetings and to submit them for criticism, and Degen also read a first literary-theoretical treatise on poetic interest , which was noted among the Erlangen scholars , and which has now disappeared. In 1774 he received his doctorate with a dissertation on Horace.

In 1774 he received a call to the famous Philanthropinum in Dessau , but did not accept it and initially became a collaborator at the grammar school in Erlangen. In 1776 he was appointed to teach the second grade at the Carolo-Alexandrinum grammar school in Ansbach , where he met the poet Johann Peter Uz, who lived there, and his Zechgesellschaft . The epistles published in 1793 date from the time in Ansbach and give an insight into literary life in Franconia at that time.

In 1791 he became director of the Princely School in Neustadt an der Aisch , today's Friedrich-Alexander-Gymnasium. This was converted into a community school in 1803 and Degen was transferred to the Christian-Ernestinum in Bayreuth . In 1811 he was appointed its rector and worked there until his retirement in 1821.

Degen was a very productive author who, in addition to his independent writings, published numerous articles in learned publications, especially during his time in Neustadt. He is important as a translator of ancient poetry, understood as cheerful and sensitive, and in his translation-theoretical works and collections. It begins in the 1780s with translations of Tibullus and Anakreon and extends to the splendid edition of the songs Anakreons and Sapphos from 1821, which Eduard Mörike used as a template for his translation in 1864 . In his translations and his own lyrical work, he shows himself to be integrated into a network of poetically interested Franconian citizens and officials, in which an enlightening cult of friendship is cultivated, starting with the circle around Uz in Ansbach up to the Harmonie-Gesellschaft in Bayreuth, where he made the acquaintance of Jean Paul .

Works

Translations
editor

literature

  • Walter Buhl (ed.): Franconian classics. Nuremberg 1971.
  • Karl Felix Halm :  Sword, Johann Friedrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, p. 22 f.
  • Karin Reimer-Sebald: Johann Friedrich Degen. Attempt a monograph. A contribution to the Franconian literary history of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Dissertation Vienna 1981.
  • Karin Reimer-Sebald: Degen, Johann Friedrich. In: Wilhelm Kühlmann (Ed.): Killy Literature Lexicon . Authors and works from the German-speaking cultural area. 2., completely revised Ed. De Gruyter, Berlin 2008, 2nd vol. Pp. 572-574.
  • Hellmuth Rössler: Franconian spirit - German fate. Kulmbach 1953.
  • Herbert Zeman: The German anacreontic poetry. Stuttgart 1972.

Web links

Commons : Johann Friedrich Degen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johann Georg Veit Engelhardt : The University of Erlangen from 1743 to 1843. Barfus, Erlangen 1843. Reprint: Erlangen 1991, ISBN 3-922135-74-9 , p. 166 ff.
  2. ↑ Eduard Mörike: Anacreon and the so-called anacreontic songs. Revision and addition of J. Fr. Degen's translation. Stuttgart 1864.
personal data
SURNAME Sword, Johann Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pedagogue, philologist, translator and poet
DATE OF BIRTH December 16, 1752
PLACE OF BIRTH Affalterthal
DATE OF DEATH January 16, 1836
Place of death Bayreuth