Karl Scheller

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Karl Friedrich Arend Scheller (born November 6, 1773 in Hesse ; † August 1, 1843 in Braunschweig ) was a German doctor , translator and Low German linguist . He published some of his works under the pseudonyms Arend Wârmund and Karl Nothwehr .

life and work

Scheller was the child of a kotassen and a master shoemaker . Due to a difficult birth in which his mother died, Scheller himself was unable to walk for life ( hip dysplasia ).

doctor

Scheller studied medicine first at the Anatomical-Surgical Institute in Braunschweig, then at the University of Jena under Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland, among others . After his doctorate at the University of Helmstedt , he worked as a doctor in his home town from 1804 to 1807, then moved to Braunschweig and worked there until 1842. Obeying his teacher Hufeland, he always treated the poor free of charge and with great social commitment; but he felt the profession of doctor as a burden for life.

Worked in the Wolfenbüttel library and as a translator

Scheller's low income as a doctor and his penchant for linguistics ultimately led him to accept a position in the Herzog August Library in nearby Wolfenbüttel . There Ernst Theodor Langer , Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's successor in the office of Wolfenbüttel librarian , made him aware of the large holdings of Low German literature that Scheller sifted through and evaluated over the years. He also worked as a translator of medical literature.

Researcher of the "Sassian" language

Scheller's real interest was in researching Low German, the language that at that time was still the predominant spoken language in the Duchy of Braunschweig and in large cities such as Braunschweig. His aim was to see Low German reinstated on an equal footing with High German as the language of fine literature .

For this purpose, the autodidact developed an idiosyncratic new orthography and syntax based on the work of Christian Heinrich Wolke, which was often vehemently criticized as unscientific during his lifetime . He summarized his work in the eight-volume "Sassisch-Niederdeutscherverzeichnis" [Sassisch-Low German Dictionary], which, however, never went to print. In 1826 he published his “Bücherkunde der Sassisch-Niederdeutsche Sprache”, a bibliography of the prints and manuscripts published in Low German from the Middle Ages to the early modern period . This work retained significant importance for Low German linguistics well into the 20th century .

In order to have reading material for his “Sassian language”, Scheller published several new works between 1825 and 1829 that had already appeared in the (late) Middle Ages after he had rewritten them as “Sassian”. In addition to Reineke de Fos (1825), the Braunschweiger Reimchronik (1826) and 1829 the shift book of the Braunschweig customs clerk and city ​​chronicler Hermann Bote , which Scheller carried the title "Dat Shigt-Bôk der Stadt Brunswyk". In 1825 he published his own work, the "Laiendoctrinal", in 1828 under his pseudonym "Arend Wârmund" followed by "Dat Sassishe Döneken-Bôk. Sammed tor tydkortinge ”. However, numerous other manuscripts written by him in Low German never found a publisher .

After the collapse of the French Kingdom of Westphalia , which also included Braunschweig as the capital of the Oker department , Scheller wrote a satirical verse epic entitled "The Jeromiade in seven songs and an apotheosis" as an abuse of Jérôme Bonaparte , the king of this kingdom and brother Napoleon Bonapartes .

criticism

Even during Scheller's lifetime, he was considered stubborn and unteachable. Well-known linguists of his time, such as Jacob Grimm , sharply criticized his work on the Low German language up to the mockery in the Göttingen scholar advertisements and dismissed them as unscientific, with Grimm Scheller showing a large number of errors and inadequacies. Others regarded the works as "consistently unsuccessful", which was not least due to the fact that Scheller had developed the vocabulary and spelling of his dialect, known as "Sassian", " quirky ".

According to Schröder, Karl Scheller is said to have put an end to his life, which was marked by numerous personal strokes of fate, by suicide .

literature

Works

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Database of the ( Memento of the original from July 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Institute for Low German Language @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ins-db.de
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Günter Scheel (ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon. 19th and 20th centuries. P. 517.
  3. ↑ a b c d Edward Schröder: Karl Scheller. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. Volume 31.
  4. ↑ a b Camerer, Garzmann, Schuegraf (ed.): Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon. P. 201.
  5. ↑ Dat Shigt-Bôk der Stad Brunswyk: to supplement GG Leibnitii Scriptores Rerum Brunsvicensium. (Digitized version)
personal data
SURNAME Scheller, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Scheller, Karl Friedrich Arend (full name); Wârmund, Arend (pseudonym); Nothwehr, Karl (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physician and linguist
DATE OF BIRTH November 6, 1773
PLACE OF BIRTH Hesse
DATE OF DEATH August 1, 1843
Place of death Braunschweig