Josef Kajetán Tyl

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Josef Kajetan Tyl, lithograph by Josef Bekel, 1844

Josef Kajetán Tyl (born February 4, 1808 in Kutná Hora , † July 11, 1856 in Plzeň ) was a Czech playwright .

Life

At the time of his birth, Kuttenberg (Kutná Hora) only had the reflection of the former fame of the second most important city in the Bohemian kingdom . In Tyl's time, the Bohemian kingdom, along with the Bohemian nobility, was on the verge of decline. However, the efforts of the first generation of the Czech national revival were already showing the first fruits. Tyl, who was passionate about reading Czech books as a high school student, openly admitted that the work of the first Czech playwright Václav Kliment Klicpera had the strongest impact on him, which in turn testified to his love for the theater. Due to his penchant for the theater, Tyl joined a traveling troupe when he was just starting out at university. He then saw organizational and dramaturgical work for the Czech theater as the meaning of his life. The period 1845–1850 in particular was one of the high points of Josef Kajetán Tyl's creative activities. It was during this period that his dramatic pictures from everyday life emerged, such as Des Arson's Daughter (1847), the dramatic fairy tales The Bagpiper von Strakonitz (1847) and the historical dramas Die Bergarbeiter aus Kuttenberg (1848), Jan Hus (1848) or Drahomira and hers Sons (1849). With these works the Czech drama was founded. They all expressed the zeitgeist of the time, reacted to all social and political impulses, and yet they are still the focus of the repertoire of Czech theaters today; not only because they are dramatic, but also because their democratic content and the ability to typify have a timeless character.

The three of Tyl lived with his wife Magdalena Forchheimová and their sister Anna, who was 21 years his junior and with whom he had seven children. He was also politically active and took part in the Kremsier Constituent Diet in 1848 as a member of the Unhošgeordnet district. In 1851 the ensemble of the Prague Estates Theater was dissolved and Tyl continued to work in a touring theater group. Seriously ill and impoverished, he died in 1856 during a theater stay in Pilsen and was buried there in the St. Nicholas cemetery ( Mikulášský hřbitov ).

From 1948 to 1992 the Prague Estates Theater was named after Tyl ( Tylovo divadlo ). Today the theaters in Kutná Hora and the Pilsen theater bear his name.

See also

  • Kde domov můj , the text of the Czech national anthem is by Josef Kajetán Tyl

literature

Web links

Commons : Josef Kajetán Tyl  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Tyl, Josef Kajetán
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech playwright
DATE OF BIRTH February 4, 1808
PLACE OF BIRTH Kutná Hora
DATE OF DEATH July 11, 1856
Place of death Plzeň