Kurt Krolop

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Kurt Krolop (born May 25, 1930 in Kravaře v Čechách (Graber), Czechoslovakia ; † March 22, 2016 in Prague ) was a German philologist and literary historian who taught in Prague for a long time.

Youth and education

From 1941 to 1945 Kurt Krolop attended the high school for boys in Litoměřice . After the end of the war, the family was relocated to the former Soviet occupation zone (SBZ) in the summer of 1946 as part of the expulsion of the Germans from Czechoslovakia . In 1950 Krolop passed the Abitur examination at the Willy-Lohmann-Oberschule in Köthen ( Saxony-Anhalt ). From 1950 to 1954 he studied German , English and Slavic studies at the Martin Luther University in Halle an der Saale .

Academic career

From 1954 to 1957 Kurt Krolop worked as an assistant at the German Department of the Martin Luther University in Halle and from 1957 to 1962 as a lecturer for German language and literature at the Charles University in Prague . Then he was senior assistant at the aforementioned University of Halle until 1967. In 1968, Krolop accepted a call from Charles University in Prague to head the Research Center for Prague German Literature at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences . After the Prague Spring (1968), the Research Center for Prague German Literature was finally closed in 1969 as part of the so-called “ normalization ”. Krolop and his family were forced to return to the GDR , where from then on he worked outside the university, initially for the Volk und Wissen Verlag . From 1980 to 1983 Krolop worked at the Institute for Classical German Literature at the National Research and Memorial Sites in Weimar . From 1984 to 1989 he researched and worked at the Central Institute for the History of Literature of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR . During this time he published numerous studies, in particular on the history of 19th century Austrian literature, on Johann Wolfgang Goethe and Karl Kraus . In 1990 he was appointed professor . From 1990 he resumed teaching at the Charles University in Prague, which he held until his retirement in 2000. In 2004 Krolop was one of the founders of the Prague House of Literature for German-Language Authors .

Significance for literary research

In 1963 Kurt Krolop took part as a guest at the Kafka Conference at Liblice Castle near Prague. At the follow-up conference in 1965 he gave one of the main presentations. Kurt Krolop's importance for both Czech and German German studies is based on four pillars. With his main lecture, which he held at the Kafka Conference in 1965 and which appeared in 1967 in the conference volume Weltfreunde under the title On the History and Prehistory of Prager German Literature of the “Expressionist Decade” , he went into the prehistory of Prague German literature and thus distinguished itself from Pavel Eisner's theory of the “triple ghetto”. The lecture text has 236 footnotes and is therefore still considered a particularly detailed research; and that at a time when research on German literature in Prague was still in its infancy in the ČSSR.

Another reason for his importance as a literary scholar is his position as head of the first research center for Prague German literature before the Prague Spring. A confrontation with Prague's German as well as Bohemian-Moravian literature was politically explosive during communism . The following quotes from an essay by Manfred Weinberg speak for themselves: “The first Liblice conference in 1963, which promised 'Franz Kafka from Prague's point of view', showed what resistance needs to be overcome with regard to this author, but was actually only reflected in reflections exhausted to read Kafka from a Marxist perspective. "

“It speaks for itself that Eduard Goldstücker only started German literature in Prague at the second conference in Liblice in 1965 with the publication of Rilke's first volume of poems in 1894. Because only under the sign of the three great 'world-famous' authors Rilke , Werfel and Kafka could it be possible to ascribe to them a special position completely free of 'suspicious' ideological tendencies, which allowed them to be discussed under the conditions of socialism in the first place. "

“The communist regime, however, did not sponsor such research; Nevertheless, a first position on German literature in Prague could be set up at the Academy of Sciences [...], but it was closed in the early 1970s [...] "

After the “ Soft Revolution ” in 1989, Charles University in Prague was initially isolated internationally as a result of the communist policy of isolation. Krolop made the first new contacts to the west and taught at the University of Vienna in the 1990s .

The fourth reason for his importance as a literary scholar is not least his numerous studies, researches and publications on Karl Kraus and Franz Kafka, even after 1989. Kurt Krolop was and remained basically the world's leading expert on German literature in Prague and the work of Karl Kraus.

Memberships and honors

Since 1990 Krolop has been a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences . In 1996 he received the Wilhelm Hartel Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Kurt Krolop was a member of the German Schiller Society , the Sudeten German Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Collegium Carolinum in Munich. He was President of the Prague Kafka Society and Honorary Chairman of the Goethe Society in the Czech Republic. In 2005 he was awarded the Charles University Memorial Medal in the Czech Republic . In April 2007 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class at the German Embassy in Prague . In 2008 the Republic of Austria honored him with the Decoration of Honor for Science and Art .

Opening of the Kurt Krolop Research Center in 2015

On May 29, 2015, the Kurt Krolop Research Center for German-Bohemian Literature was opened in the German Embassy in Prague . It is considered to be the successor to the first research center for Prague German literature, which was forcibly closed in Prague in 1969 .

Fonts (selection)

  • On the history and prehistory of German literature in Prague in the “Expressionist Decade” . In: Eduard Goldstücker (Ed.): Weltfreunde - Conference on German literature in Prague . Prague 1967, pp. 47-96.
  • Poetry and satire with Karl Kraus. In: Comments on Karl Kraus (together with: Dietrich Simon: Karl Kraus - Voice against Time ). Berlin 1971.
  • Language satire as a contemporary satire with Karl Kraus. Nine studies . Berlin 1987.
  • Kafka's complete fool and Goethe's terrible being - variations on two diary themes . Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1989, ISBN 3-7001-1643-8 .
  • Linguistic satire as satire of the time . Berlin 1992.
  • Language problems while reading the "process" . In: Scientific Journal. Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg , vol. 41 (1992), series Geisteswissenschaften, issue 1, pp. 49-57.
  • Reflections of the torch. New studies on Karl Kraus . Vienna 1994.
  • The listener as speaker: Sidonie Nádherný and “her language teaching” . Warmbronn 2005.

bibliography

  • Kurt Krolop: Bibliography 2000–2011 . In: Peter Becher , Steffen Höhne, Marek Nekula (eds.): Kafka and Prague. Literature, cultural, social and linguistic historical contexts. Böhlau, Cologne 2012, ISBN 978-3-412-20777-9 , pp. 349-351.

literature

  • Manfred Weinberg: Work program of the Kurt Krolop Research Center on German-Bohemian Literature at the Charles University in Prague . In: bridges 2012 - Germanistic Yearbook - Czech Republic - Slovakia , pp. 169–185, here p. 172 ( online ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kurt Krolop died, Germanist and literary historian died on March 22nd at the age of 85 , prag aktuell, by Niels Köhler, March 25th, 2016, accessed on April 8th, 2016.
  2. ↑ Kurt Krolop: On the history and prehistory of Prague German literature of the "expressionist decade" . In: Eduard Goldstücker (Ed.): Weltfreunde - Conference on German literature in Prague . Prague 1967, pp. 47-96.
  3. ^ Manfred Weinberg: Work program of the Kurt Krolop Research Center on German-Bohemian Literature at the Charles University in Prague. In: bridges 2012 - Germanistic Yearbook - Czech Republic - Slovakia , pp. 169–185, here p. 172 ( online ).
  4. ^ Manfred Weinberg: Work program of the Kurt Krolop Research Center on German-Bohemian Literature at the Charles University in Prague. In: bridges 2012 - Germanistic Yearbook - Czech Republic - Slovakia , pp. 169–185, here p. 170 ( online ).
  5. ^ Manfred Weinberg: Work program of the Kurt Krolop Research Center on German-Bohemian Literature at the Charles University in Prague. In: bridges 2012 - Germanistic Yearbook - Czech Republic - Slovakia , pp. 169–185, here p. 169 ( online ).
  6. ↑ See Thomas Kirschner, Radio Prag from May 25, 2005.
  7. ↑ Press release of the German Embassy in Prague ( Memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (April 13, 2007)
  8. ↑ See announcement on the website of the Kurt Krolop Research Center
personal data
SURNAME Krolop, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Germanist and literary historian
DATE OF BIRTH May 25, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Kravaře v Čechách , Czechoslovakia
DATE OF DEATH March 22, 2016
Place of death Prague