Johann Wilhelm Sauerwein

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Johann Wilhelm Sauerwein , pseudonym : Philipp Dietrich Wittlich (born May 9, 1803 in Frankfurt am Main ; † March 31, 1847 ibid) was a German author , journalist and professor in France for German and English.

He campaigned for the preservation of freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Germany and was a participant in the Hambach and Wilhelmsbad Festival in 1832. He became famous for his local humoristic literary works on the city of Frankfurt.

Life

Johann Wilhelm Sauerwein was born on May 9, 1803 as the son of master tailor Johann Adam Sauerwein in the stone house on the market , which his father had leased. He first attended a private neighborhood school and in 1813 switched to the newly founded urban men's school of the Weißfrauenkirche . In 1817 the pastor of the Weißfrauenkirche, Anton Kirchner, induced him to transfer to the municipal high school in preparation for studying theology . From 1822 to 1825 Sauerwein studied at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg . There he joined the Old Heidelberg Burschenschaft in 1822 . As Predigtamts- candidate , he returned to his hometown of Frankfurt. There he came, however, like the almost same age comrade Johann Friedrich Funck (1804-1857), from the career in the pastoral office .

The Ministry of Preachers refused to allow him to take the exam on May 24, 1828, allegedly after he had participated in the private performance of the local posse Der alten Bürger-Capitän by Carl Malß in his parents' apartment and mocked a consistorial councilor . It is likely that after his return Sauerwein devoted himself more to writing at the end of the 1820s, like his friends Funck and Johann Christoph Freyeisen (1803–1849). They became involved in the liberal movement in the early 1830s. Unlike his friends, however, he found the connection rather hesitant, because in 1831 Sauerwein applied several times unsuccessfully for a teaching position at the grammar school as a theology candidate. Nevertheless, Sauerwein took a lively interest in all the goings-on in the Frankfurt area and had connections with the German Press and Fatherland Association . The censorship authority of the Free City of Frankfurt put pressure on the magazine Zeitbilder not to print any journalistic attacks on the German Confederation . With Freyeisen, he ended up in the more liberal Electorate of Hesse . On September 6, 1831, we can read of him: “ Germany is still a large forest, but full of barriers, and barriers are the most productive trees for princes. “In other articles he also vented the German patriotic oppression of those days.

On May 27, 1832, Sauerwein and a delegation from Frankfurt took part in the Hambach Festival . Later at the end of June 1832 at the Wilhelmsbader Fest , he even acted as a speaker and spoke out in favor of fraternization between the military and the people. Sauerwein's literary collaboration in political journals during this period, such as the Volkshalle , Eulenspiegel , Proteus and Zeitschwingen , remained unpunished until 1833, unlike his journalistic colleagues, because many of his articles were more humorous and satirical in character than political. On July 9, 1832, Sauerwein received a police warning to abstain from attacks against the German Confederation.

On June 28, 1832, the Federal Assembly of the German Confederation passed “Six Articles to Maintain Statutory Peace and Order in the German Confederation” and another ten follow-up articles on July 5, 1832. Sauerwein opposed this in newspaper articles and described the resolutions as unjust. Sauerwein was charged and sentenced by the court to four weeks in prison. In the appeal hearing, his lawyer Friedrich Siegmund Jucho successfully pointed out that the electoral Hessian censorship in Hanau had approved the article and obtained an acquittal. On August 11th, after only 24 issues, the Deutsche Volkshalle was banned and forced to relocate to leaflets that were less censable than a periodical magazine.

After the unsuccessful Frankfurt Wachensturm on April 3, 1833, the German Confederation temporarily imposed federal execution against the Free City of Frankfurt and set up a federal central authority that proceeded against over 2,000 suspects by 1842. After Bernhard Lizius , a student involved in the guard storm, was able to escape from the prison he spent in the Konstablerwache , Sauerwein wrote the Lizius song , which was soon sung all over the city to the tune "I am the Doctor Eisenbarth ". Sauerwein founded together with Funck and Freyeisen as well as the doctor Carl Bunsen the liberal men's association (it was called "Essig"). He continued his revolutionary activities and in particular distributed the Bauern-Conversations-Lexikon , which he published with friends in Marburg an der Lahn . After his friends were arrested, he left Frankfurt as a preventative measure in March 1834 under the pretext of not finding a job. In fact, he was also wanted as the alleged author and distributor of a brochure published in 1831, “ Der 1. Mai ” ( May 1st ).

Sauerwein fled via Liestal to Bern , Switzerland . There he did translation to make a living. He probably published some articles in the magazine Nordlicht . He also kept loose contact with Young Germany . He found employment with the Berner Volksfreund and worked with Hartwig von Hundt-Radowsky and Bernhard Lizius . In the summer of 1835 he traveled to Paris to look for a job with income from literary work. The hope for it was dashed and he returned to Bern. In 1836 he became a professor of German and English at the Collège in Saint-Marcellin (Isère) in France . In Lyon , he met the Frankfurt poet and publisher Friedrich Stoltze, with whom he was already in contact at the beginning of the 1830s, when the Frankfurt Democrats met regularly in Stoltze's father's restaurant, Zum Rebstock .

Sauerwein fell ill with spinal cord paralysis and had to give up the professorship in Saint Marcellin in 1844. He went to Lyon in August 1844 in the hope of a cure. Here, however, he could not be helped, so he decided to return to his hometown. There Sauerwein surrendered to the Inquisition authorities. However, she refrained from persecuting him and left Sauerwein unmolested. After a long illness, he died in Frankfurt on March 31, 1847.

Act

Rudolf Jung writes that Sauerwein's literary activities can hardly be proven in detail. Sauerwein participated in the various newspapers and magazines directed against the Bund, which appeared in quick succession in Frankfurt and the surrounding area, were suppressed and then immediately revived under a new name. He also wrote articles in the 1930s that described the decisions of the German Confederation as injustice and oppression. In all likelihood, he wrote the song “ Prince to the land out ” and the “ Sturmgesang ” (How we lament you, German fatherland!). He also wrote many political brochures such as " Christkindchen " or " Pfeffernuss ".

His dialect antics and dramatic scenes “ The American ”, “ The Count, how he lives and lives ”, “ Frankfurt, how it lives and lives ” and others give a splendid humorous description of petty bourgeois life in Frankfurt.

Characteristics of sour wine

Rudolf Jung does not see Sauerwein as the rigid, radical stalwart like his friend Funck. He is said to have been a lovable, cheerful poet and humorist. In addition, his manuscripts, such as the Brückenauer Colleg-Zeitung in the Frankfurt city archive, testify that Sauerwein must have been humorous to the point of rascal . The numerous circulation and joy of his compatriots over his humorous Frankfurt stories are said to have given him consolation in exile. Richard Schwemer remarks about Sauerwein that he would have enjoyed it at the beginning of the 30s as well. His half ironic, half sentimental manner would be characteristic. He would have been driven by inner unrest, but his striving for a permanent position was unsuccessful.

Eduard Beurmann characterized him in the Frankfurt pictures in 1835 : “With all the liberalism, Sauerwein was only a Frankfurt Philistine , enlightened enough not to be a wise man and to believe in the aristocracy, funny enough to be able to satirize the old mundane Besides, a man who was very, very fond of the old, good comfort in Frankfurt, who liked to drink punch, a scoop and Bavarian beer, was amused by intellectual philistineism and praised freedom. It came from his heart what he said and shouted; but whether Poland fell, whether the free press became unfree, he liked food and drink just as good, and I don't think that was why he had sleepless nights. "

souvenir

According to Rudolf Jung, only Sauerwein's dialect and local humoristic literary works, which appeared in a complete edition in 1887, are remembered. However, his political work in the hometown remains unnoticed. His estate is in the Institute for City History .

Works

Songs
  • " Princes out to the country "
  • " Sturmgesang "
  • " Lizius song "
Works
  • The Count as he lives and breathes .
  • The American .
  • ABC book of freedom for country children . Hanau 1832.
  • German citizens protest for freedom of the press in Germany . Hanau 1832.
  • The Christ Child . Offenbach a. Main 1832.
  • Pepper nuts . Offenbach a. Main 1833.
  • The prisons and the prisoners: a word to promote humanity . Offenbach a. Main 1833.
  • Frankfurt as it lives and breathes. First view. The vegetable market . Frankfurt am Main 1838.
  • The Bernemer Curb . 1839.
  • Frankfurt as it lives and breathes. Third view. The 18th Octower . 1840.

literature

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ^ A b Walther Killy & Rudolf Vierhaus: Dictionary of German Biography . Volume 8: Plett - Schmidseder. de Gruyter / KG Saur, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-598-23298-5 , p. 563 f . ( online at: books.google.de ).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rudolf Jung:  Sauerwein, Johann Wilhelm . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 53, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1907, pp. 718-720.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Antje Gerlach: German literature in exile in Switzerland . Lostermann, Vittorio, 1975, ISBN 978-3-465-01042-5 , pp. 46 f., 104–112 ( online at: books.google.de ).
  4. ↑ a b c d e Richard Schwemer, Hist. Commission d. City of FFM: history of the free city of Frankfurt a. M. (1814-1866) Volume 2 . J. Baer, ​​1912, p. 425-428, 520, 536, 603, 740 ( online at: archive.org ).
  5. ↑ a b Otto Büsch: Handbook of Prussian History . Volume two. Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-11-008322-1 , p. 195 ( online at: books.google.de ).
  6. ↑ Harald Lönnecker : The Frankfurter Wachensturm 1833 - consequences and persecution. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 30, 2013 ; Retrieved on February 10, 2013 (on Neuhoff, Nahm and Dehner (t) died in custody from the prisoners, Rubner had a fatal accident in May 1834 while attempting to escape with the help of Frankfurt residents, while Alban and Lizius, later, on 20 October 1836, Rochau, who initially attempted suicide, and on January 10, 1837 Matthiae, Fries, Sartori, Handschuh, Zehler and Wilhelm Obermüller escaped from prison. ). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.burschenschaft.de
  7. ↑ a b Johann Georg Krünitz: economic-technological encyclopedia . tape 195 . Paulische Buchhandlung, Berlin 1848, p. 117 ff . ( online at: books.google.de ).
  8. ↑ Lukas Gschwend: The student murder of Zurich. A criminal history and criminal process analytical investigation into the unsolved killing of the student Ludwig Lessing from Freienwalde (Prussia) on November 4, 1835. Zurich 2002, p. 288
  9. ↑ a character from Malss' comedy Die Entführung or the old Bürger-Capitain
personal data
SURNAME Sauerwein, Johann Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wittlich, Philipp Dietrich (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German poet and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH May 9, 1803
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH March 31, 1847
Place of death Frankfurt am Main