Josef Seiler (writer)

The local poet Joseph Seiler (1823–1877) and his wife Elisabeth, b. Drawe

Josef Seiler (born January 15, 1823 in Lügde , Westphalia , † May 29, 1877 in Münster ) was a German poet , composer and organist .

Life

Josef Seiler was the son of the doctor Ferdinand and Christine Seiler. He first attended school in Lügde , later a grammar school in Paderborn . Here he devoted himself to literary and musical studies, in Dresden he then studied literature and music. There he got to know, among others, Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner , who distinguished various of his poems with compositions. He maintained friendly and written contact with them throughout his life. From August 1852 he had to give up his position as organist in his hometown Lügde because of his modern compositions for the time. In 1859 he therefore took the position of organist at the St. Mauritz Church in Münster. Here Seiler composed many church music pieces, in 1849 he published his first book Volkssagen und Legenden des Paderborner Land . Some of his poems have a patriotic background and testify to the longing for a united Germany, which in its time consisted of small states. One of his poems is about the "Battle of the Birch Tree" and reads

The birch tree near Werl :

At Werl, there is a birch tree

A wondrous rice

Someone has already asked

Who knows what it means.

They come from the south and the north

Once to the birch tree

There they fight the final battle

On red earth space.

And nobody knows the right time

Has none of the report

Who from this birch tree

Braid the wreath of victory.

He stands abandoned and withers

On all the wild heath

But the strength of life rests in him

Quiet until its time.

And when it is green and when it blooms,

Then it is near

Then the German land opens up

The golden gate of unity!

Seiler had three sons with his wife Elisabeth, née Drawe. One of the sons and a grandson became organists after him in St. Mauritz, one son became a friar and poet, the youngest son wrote stories and poems under a pseudonym. Josef Seiler died on May 29, 1877 in Münster, he is buried in the Mauritz cemetery in Münster.

Works (selection)

• Folk tales and legends of the state of Paderborn . Luckhardt, Kassel 1848.
• Legends and fairy tales from home and abroad . Luckhardt, Kassel 1850.
• Litaniæ Lauretanæ. Seals . Schöningh, Paderborn 1856.
• as editor: Laudate dominum! Collection of Latin church chants for male voices by the most excellent composers . Schöningh, Paderborn 1871.

posthumously

• with Friedrich Coenen: Complete May devotion in pious songs . Schwann, Düsseldorf 1878 (musical score).
• From the old days. Sagas and ballads . Schöningh, Paderborn 1991, ISBN = 978-3506743527.

In addition, works by Seiler were included in the book Sagen und Bilder aus Westfalen (3rd edition, G. Grote'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Berlin 1884) compiled by Gisbert von Vincke , as well as his poem about the crouching woman in that published by Diethard H. Klein Anthology Westfälisches Hausbuch - from the good old days on Ruhr and Sieg, Lippe and Ems. Stories, pictures and poems (G. Grote'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Freiburg im Breisgau).

Web links

Wikisource: Josef Seiler  - Sources and full texts

• Josef Seiler in the Lexicon of Westphalian Authors
• Weserbergland Wiki, Joseph Seiler ( Memento from December 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive )