Manfred Windfuhr

Manfred Windfuhr (born October 24, 1930 in Remscheid - Lennep ) is a German literary scholar and university professor .

Scientific career

Windfuhr studied German literature , philosophy , history and art history in Cologne , Heidelberg and Marburg , where he obtained his doctorate in 1955 with a dissertation on Carl Leberecht Immermann's narrative work supervised by Friedrich Sengle . He then worked from 1957 to 1959 as a research assistant at the Philipps University of Marburg and from 1959 to 1965 at the Ruprecht Karls University of Heidelberg . There he completed his habilitation in 1965/66 with a thesis on baroque imagery. After a substitute professor at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich in 1966/67, he became a full professor for modern German studies at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn in 1967 . In 1969 he accepted a position at the University of Düsseldorf , where he taught until his retirement in 1992.

Heine Philology

In addition to his "normal" scientific career, Windfuhr's reputation in the professional world is primarily based on his role as editor of the historical-critical edition of Heinrich Heine's works , which was published in 16 volumes from 1973 to 1997 by Hoffmann und Campe . Already a decade before the publication of the first volume of the Düsseldorf Heine edition , a work center had been set up for this edition, and Windfuhr had been entrusted with it. In addition to being an editor, Windfuhr has published a biography , a volume with research essays and numerous other articles on Heinrich Heine and played a key role in the discussion about the naming of the Düsseldorf University, which only decided in favor of Heine in 1988 after several attempts. He is an honorary member of the Heinrich Heine Society.

Key theme of his research

The main theme of Windfuhr's work is dealing with committed literature, which, in addition to Heinrich Heine u. a. can be attached to the modern prognostic genre. The focus is on questions about the social and political character of symbols and the critical performance of poetic texts. Future visions with the tape . In 2018 he presented the most comprehensive analysis of utopias and dystopias in German-language literature between 1939 and 1989 on Christian, green and socialist paradises and apocalypses . More than 80 novels and stories are subjected to very detailed, lucid individual analyzes with regard to the prognostic profile, the intention such as warning, deterrence or positive impulses, with regard to the aesthetic design diversity and the cultural and social background. A stringent system distinguishes four large groups of prognostic literature: Christian utopias, green-alternative visions of the future, socialist paradise designs and dystopian visions of annihilation and extinction. A wide variety of types of utopian and dystopian projections are being developed within these overarching categories. The influences of world literature from Plato to Orwell are reflected in each case, and the relevant state of research on all the works examined is taken into account. Windfuhr writes against the previously widespread one-sided accentuation of the dystopian field. In all large groups except for “disaster literature” there are numerous positive utopias in the original sense of Thomas More. Another focus developed from Windfuhr's preoccupation with the novel. He published books on Karl Immermann and Uwe Johnson as narrators (1957, 2003) and an anthology with interpretations of novels from Grimmelshausen to Niebelschütz (1993). In doing so, he is opening up an extraordinarily versatile genre that has been neglected for a long time compared to drama and poetry.

Publications (selection)

author

• Immermann's narrative work. On the situation of the novel during the restoration period. Giessen 1957 (Diss. Marburg 1955)
• Baroque imagery and its critics. Stylistic attitudes in German literature of the 17th and 18th centuries. Stuttgart 1966 (Habilitation thesis Heidelberg 1965)
• Heinrich Heine. Revolution and reflection. Stuttgart 1969 (2nd edition 1976, ISBN 3-476-00321-3 )
• Experience and invention. Interpretations of the German novel from the baroque to the modern. Heidelberg 1992, ISBN 3-8253-4545-9 .
• Riddle Heine. Author profile - work - effect. Heidelberg 1997, ISBN 3-8253-0514-7 .
• Memory and avant-garde: the narrator Uwe Johnson. Heidelberg 2003, ISBN 3-8253-1488-X .
• The Düsseldorf Heine edition . An experience report. Düsseldorf 2005, ISBN 3-89978-043-4 .
• Visions of the future. Of Christian, green and socialist paradises and apocalypses. Bielefeld 2018, 882 pp. ISBN 978-3-8498-1133-4 .

editor

• German fables of the 18th century. Stuttgart 1960.
• Christian Hofmann von Hofmannswaldau: Poems. Stuttgart 1964.
• (with Hermand Jost) On the literature of the restoration era 1815-1848. Stuttgart 1970.
• Heine Studies, Vol. I - VII. Hamburg 1971-1976.
• Heinrich Heine: Historical-critical complete edition of the works. Vol. 1-16. Hamburg 1973–1997.
• (with Gössmann, Wilhelm) Heinrich Heine in the field of tension between literature and science. Essen 1990.
• (with Schlingensiepen, Ferdinand) Heinrich Heine and religion, a critical review. Düsseldorf 1998.

Festschriften

• "The truth will always quarrel with the beautiful". Festschrift for Manfred Windfuhr on his 60th birthday. Edited by Gertrude Cepl-Kaufmann (among others) Cologne / Vienna 1990. pp. 505–513: List of publications from 1955 to 1990. ISBN 3-412-02790-1 .
• Literary finds. Rediscoveries and new discoveries. Festschrift for Manfred Windfuhr. Edited by Ariane Neuhaus-Koch (inter alia) Heidelberg 2002. pp. 517-527: List of publications from 1991 to 2000. ISBN 3-8253-1303-4 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Manfred Windfuhr in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ German studies professor Manfred Windfuhr turned 70: A Germanist through and through. In: rp-online.de. November 8, 2000, accessed September 1, 2018 .