Knut Jungbohn Clement

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Knut Jungbohn Clement (around 1840)

Knut Jungbohn Clement (born December 4, 1803 in Norddorf on Amrum , † October 7, 1873 in Bergen , New Jersey ) was a German writer and linguist .

Life

Knut Jungbohn Clement was the son of the sailor Jung Boh Oldis and his wife Kerrin Knudtsen. After finishing school, he first worked as a primary school teacher. At the age of 17, however, he left Amrum to attend high school in Altona and then studied Protestant theology in Kiel and philosophy, history and linguistics in Heidelberg . He earned his living as a private tutor for the grandchildren of Johann Gottfried Herder. In 1835 he passed the exam in Kiel. From 1836 he traveled to Western Europe for study purposes for three years with a royal Danish travel grant. Even then he came into conflict for the first time with the government, which did not consider his research results, the portrayal of the North Germanic as “creators of universal history, seafaring and world trade”, to be eligible and is angry about his disparaging attitude towards all other historians and Linguists showed. The fact that he positioned himself above Jacob Grimm in his doctoral dissertation from 1835 made him look arrogant in the eyes of scientists.

When he returned, he stayed in Copenhagen with a research scholarship until he was appointed as a private lecturer in Kiel in 1841 , where he worked until 1846 and gave well-attended linguistic and historical lectures. During his time in Kiel, he married Hulda Fries (1813–1855), with whom he had eight children. However, his multiple applications for a professorship remained unsuccessful, probably because he met with little approval from the professors at Christian-Albrechts-Universität with his gruff manner and stubborn insistence on his theses on North Germanism . Instead, they accused him of lacking scientific quality.

In the political dispute with the Eider Danes, Clement moved away from Denmark from 1842. While at the beginning he also saw the Danes as the embodiment of his North Germanism, he soon found this only in the Frisians , especially in the Amrumern, the “noblest race of mankind”. He also saw himself only as a Frisian. Together with Christian Feddersen he was one of the organizers of the "North Frisian Folk Festivals" in Bredstedt in 1844 and 1845 , at which he conjured the affiliation of North Frisia to Schleswig-Holstein . His siblings who remained on Amrum, on the other hand, remained Danish-minded.

When the provisional Schleswig-Holstein government was formed in Kiel on March 24, 1848 , all Danish officials and professors were to be brought to Copenhagen by ship. However, Clement, who felt that he was being treated unfairly by both the Danish and the provisional Schleswig-Holstein government, refused and moved to the vicinity of Hamburg . With that he lost his salary, so that he and his family had to keep afloat as a freelance writer. Among other things, he wrote numerous articles on the Frisian language for the archive for the study of modern languages ​​and literatures . Similar to his contemporary, the Amrum pastor Lorenz Friedrich Mechlenburg , Clement published Frisian fairy tales and lists of words in Öömrang . He also gave Moritz Momme Nissen important suggestions. After the joint government was dismissed, he tried again in vain to claim his salary in Denmark in 1850. The rejection and the lack of recognition of his commitment to the Frisian cause and as a scientist made him bitter after the death of his wife in 1855.

In 1869 Clement left Hamburg and lived on Amrum for two years before emigrating to the USA, where he died with his son in Bergen, New Jersey.

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In his writings, Clement represented the interests of Schleswig-Holstein, especially the Frisians. As early as his doctoral dissertation De origine Theudiscorum (About the origin of the Theudisks) from 1835, he based the thesis that the Frisians were the real original German people. With his thesis of the racial superiority of the northern Germans, which was further elaborated in the following years, he shaped the Germanic myth of the 19th century. His book The Life and Suffering of the Frisians , published in 1845, contains the saying Lewer duad üs Slaav! (German: "Better dead as a slave") ahead. In doing so, he helped to shape the saying, which was also found on the coat of arms of North Friesland .

Based on the American constitution, which he had translated and published together with short biographies of the signatories, in 1848 he drafted The Most Appropriate Means for Improving the State of Schleswig-Holstein and for Defense against a one-sided and anti-people state constitution , the most important aspect of which was land reform. In further writings he proved, financially supported by Duke Christian August von Augustenburg , that the Duchy of Schleswig had never been Danish. His last great work, Schleswig, the native land of the non-Danish people of the Frisians and Angles, and England's motherland as it was and as it was. A historical-ethnological memorandum and evidence , from 1861 even experienced a second edition in 1867.

With his writing The State of the North Sea Coast of Schleswig-Holstein , he campaigned for the building of sea ​​fires , much to the displeasure of the beach bailiffs at the time , who feared for their income from salvage bonuses and beach robbery . The construction of the Amrum lighthouse goes back to him.

Fonts (selection)

  • The North Germanic world and its historical beginnings . Copenhagen 1840 [1]
  • The Lex Salica . Mannheim 1843 [2]
  • The stories of life and suffering of the Frisians, especially the Frisians north of the Elbe. Kiel 1845 [3]
  • The rag basket from Gabe Schneider from West Frisia, with ingredients from North Frisland . Leipzig 1847 [4]
  • The Declaration of Independence of the 13 United States of America . 1848
  • The French and his language . Frankfurt 1848
  • The most suitable means to improve the state of Schleswig-Holstein and to defend against a one-sided and anti-popular state constitution . 1848
  • The true relationship of South Jutian nationality and language . Hamburg 1849
  • Prophecy of the Frisian Hertje 450 years ago . 1850
  • Schleswig, the native land of the non-Danish people of the Frisians and Angles and England's motherland as it was and as it was. A historical and ethnological memorandum and evidence . Hamburg 1861
  • The state of the North Sea coast of Schleswig-Holstein . 1865
  • The Lombards and their Iron Crown . Hamburg 1866
  • The written Danish language and the vernacular language of northern Schleswig . 1869 [5]
  • Research on the law of the Salian Franks . Berlin 1876

as well as numerous travelogues

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Horst Haider Munske , Nils Århammar : Handbuch des Frisian: Handbook of Frisian Studies. Walter de Gruyter-Verlag (Berlin) 2001; P. 473
  2. ↑ Clement, Knut Jungbohn, Dr.phil.  in the German Digital Library , accessed on December 27, 2015
  3. ^ Claas Riecken: North Frisian Language Research in the 19th Century ; Bredstedt 2000; P. 120f
  4. ↑ Munske, Århammar: Handbuch des Frisian ; P. 356; 399
  5. ^ Riecken: North Frisian Language Research in the 19th Century ; P. 122
  6. ↑ Ingo Wiwjorra: The ethnic German myth. A consequence of German antiquity research of the 19th century p. 5, note 25 ( Memento from January 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on archaeologie-online.de
  7. ^ Minority report of the Frisian Council 2011 (PDF file; 4.9 MB), accessed on September 20, 2012
  8. ↑ Ulrich Sengebusch: Amrum ( Memento from December 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) on Leuchttuerme.de
personal data
SURNAME Clement, Knut Jungbohn
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer
DATE OF BIRTH December 4, 1803
PLACE OF BIRTH Norddorf on Amrum
DATE OF DEATH October 7, 1873
Place of death Bergen, New Jersey