Maria Heinrich Hoster

Maria Heinrich Hoster (born September 9, 1835 in Cologne , † February 20, 1890 in Strasbourg ) was a Cologne retoucher , dialect author , carnivalist and handicraft speaker .

He was a co-founder and first Bannerhär (President) of the well-known Cologne Fools Guild from 1880. In his role as the somewhat narrow-minded, nouveau riche Tillekatessen dealer Här Antun Meis (Anton Meise), he inspired his audience in lectures and writings far beyond Cologne and is valid today as one of the classics of the Cologne dialect literature.

Life

He was born in the center of Cologne on Schildergasse . His parents were the extremely popular main teacher Johann Peter Hoster and his second wife Maria Katharina Nicolini, who was descended from Italians who immigrated to Cologne. She died in 1851 giving birth to her ninth child. Her eldest son Maria Heinrich initially wanted to be a painter and studied this for three years at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, but then turned to porcelain painting and later to the art of retouching. During a stay of several years in Strasbourg , he met his future wife Elisabeth Zimmermann.

He then joined one of the most renowned photography shops in Cologne and worked there as a retoucher. His specialty was assembling individual photos into group photos. He was so good at it that he was able to set up his own business and open his own studio in Ehrenfeld . He married in 1869 as soon as he was financially able to do so, but his marriage was not a happy one and remained childless.

Because of his wife's illnesses, he had to spend time at home again and again and began to work as a writer. Observations of the nouveau riche in the early days inspired him to create the figure of Mr. Anton Meise, a delicatessen dealer in Cologne. Meanwhile, attempts to include the so-called better society and to give formed, ensured Heiterkeitsstürme than Hoster 1873 for the first time in this role as Büttenredner in carnival occurred. She became the hoster's alter ego for the rest of his life and made him known far beyond the borders of Cologne. Accordingly, he was also able to publish several small volumes with his lectures and stories, some of which were reprinted several times. Most of them appeared under the pseudonym of his protagonist Antun Meis , with Hoster mostly appearing as an illustrator under his own name.

In 1880, Hoster and others founded a carnival society , which, based on a medieval model, was also a charity. Many of the customs, rules and names of that time are being resumed and revitalized, right down to the historical costumes. However, the name of the Cologne Fools Guild is new. He also gave her her founding motto “Well everybody , nobody hurts!” And was promptly elected President ( banner hair ). It is the first society to allow women to participate in their activities, a small revolution in those days.

In 1888, at the height of his fame, Hoster's wife Elisabeth inherited the inn where they had met. With a heavy heart he gave up his chairmanship of the fool's guild and closed his studio. The couple moved to Strasbourg, where Hoster died unexpectedly in 1890 after suffering from the effects of a stroke for a long time.

Da Tilleka grocer Här Antun Meis

The Tünnes is a central figure in Cologne's Hänneschen Theater . He is the rural, uneducated type of person, sometimes a little inflexible, sometimes opinionated, especially when he has had a drink. He is the first name giver for Hoster's character. Hoster's mother-in-law's maiden name was Meise. Hoster's figure was given the surname from her. In Kölsch someone with this name would be labeled ' Tünnes Meis ' and usually called ' dä Meiße Tünn '. But since Mr. Meise wants to set himself apart from the common people, he uses the High German form of his first name, Anton, which sounds like in a barrel in the Cologne pronunciation with an open 'o'. Instead of the usual article in Rhenish Platt, he insists on the title 'Herr', and after he is not really familiar with the standard language, it turns into an involuntarily funny one: ' da Tillekatessen dealer Här Antun Meis '

At meetings , Heinrich Hoster appeared in the role of Mr. Delicatessen dealer Mr. Anton Meise, who reports on his experiences, although he always tries in vain to achieve an elegant High German instead of Kölsch , his actual language, according to his supposed high level . But the result is only Familienkölsch or what is called High German with Knubbeln in Rhenish jargon , which could be described as 'dented High German'.

The fact that he became known far beyond Cologne shows that he had hit a topic of the time. The new travel options, over half a century of Prussian rule on the Rhine and the Prussian school policy, which was based entirely on the High German language, created a situation in which rich and educated classes tended to use the standard language, while the rest of the people usually used the down-to-earth dialect. Schoolchildren and upper-class employees were forced into a diglossia in which, depending on where they were, one language or the other was appropriate. This antagonism offered a variety of comedic, socially critical, satirical and cabaret possibilities, which Hoster knew how to translate into lectures or writings by Antun Meis with a great deal of language, precise observation and skill . In doing so, he established a tradition that continues to this day and has been further developed.

Honors

In 1913, the Cologne fools guild decided to donate a fountain in honor of its founder, for which a successful competition was held in 1914 and a model was made. It should have been inaugurated on Heinrich Hoster's 80th birthday, but was not built in 1915 during the First World War and the money saved over the years was “donated to war welfare”.

The city of Cologne later honored him by naming Hosterstraße in the Neu-Ehrenfeld district , where he spent a significant part of his life.

The Cologne fools guild in 1935 issued a medal with his portrait as a session medal in the 100th year of his birth.

Publications (selection)

• Antun Meis at the trade and art exhibition in Düsseldorf . 1880.
• Antun Meis: Intelligence sheet . The Kölsch cheese leaves for the educated people and for ten fennig. 1881.
• Meis, Antun: Kölsch Levve . Humoresques by Mr. Antun Meis. Edited and illustrated by H. Hoster. 7th edition. Published by J. P. Mischel, Düsseldorf (no year, approx. 1928).
• Heinrich Hoster: Legacies of the Härrn Tillerkatessen dealer Härrn Antun Meis . Staufen-Verlag, Cologne 1941.
• Antun Meis: Mr. Antun Meis, formerly Tillekatessen dealer in Cologne and Rentenirer in Knollendorf Collected works . Zesammegeknuv, with appropriate pebble tongue vers. u. ed. f. educated people from Jupp Klersch. Ed .: Joseph Klersch. Kölnische Verl.-Druckerei, Cologne 1962 (Contributions to the history, language and character of the city of Cologne. [Contributions to the history of Cologne, language, character]; No. 37 in the series of the Heimatverein Alt-Köln eV) (276 pages with 9 illustrations) .

literature

• Otto Küpper: Chronicle of the Cologne Narren Guild of 1880 eV 1880 - 2005. Published by the Cologne Narren Guild of 1880 eV, Cologne 2005, p. 9–14 ( pixobytes.de [PDF; accessed on March 4, 2019] without ISBN, short biography).
• Christina Lupa: The stories of the fictional author Antun Meis, invented by Maria Heinrich Hoster . A satire on the Cologne bourgeoisie at the end of the 19th century. Hennef 2004.
• Peter Paul Trippen: Maria Heinrich Hoster, A literary monument . Festschrift for the 50th anniversary of the Cologne fools' guild. Cologne 1930.

Web links

• Picture of a medal of the Cologne fools guild for the 100th birthday of Maria Heinrich Hoster (the English text is partly wrong)
• Literature by and about Maria Heinrich Hoster in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Otto Küpper: Chronicle of the Cologne Narren Guild of 1880 eV 1880 - 2005. 2005 (Foreword (Hans Horst Engels from FKK )).
2. ↑ See, for example, the interview on January 20, 2010 by Emmanuel van Stein with the Viennese writer Dr. hc Gerhard Rühm - Kölner Stadtanzeiger - (accessed on December 04, 2017)
3. ↑ ^{a b} Otto Küpper: Chronicle of the Cologne Narren Guild of 1880 eV 1880 - 2005. 2005, p. 14 .
4. ↑ Otto Küpper: Chronicle of the Cologne Fools Guild of 1880 eV 1880 - 2005. 2005, p. 10 .
5. ↑ At that time it was practically the only method of producing group pictures.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Otto Küpper: Chronicle of the Cologne Narren Guild of 1880 eV 1880 - 2005. 2005, p. 11 .
7. ↑ ^{a b} Otto Küpper: Chronicle of the Cologne Narren Guild of 1880 eV 1880 - 2005. 2005, p. 13 .
8. ↑ ^{a b c} koelnernarrenzunft.de (accessed on August 5, 2011)
9. ↑ ^{a b} Otto Küpper: Chronicle of the Cologne Narren Guild of 1880 eV 1880 - 2005. 2005, p. 12 .
10. ↑ ^{a b} See also publications
11. ^ The Geselschap van den Gecken , donated in 1381 by Count Adolf I von Cleve .
12. ↑ Fool's Mirror . 8th year, edition of the 2nd Festival Committee Cologne Carnival of 1823 eV, December 2004, p. 18 .
13. ↑ Which held a big farewell party in his honor on Ash Wednesday 1888, see “Chronicle” on page 14 left
14. ↑ Prof. Dr. Heribert A. Hilgers , approx. 1977
15. ↑ Dr. Georg Cornelissen : Rhenish German . Greven Verlag , Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-7743-0367-3 .
16. ↑ See also: Georg Cornelissen : Kleine Niederrheinische Sprachgeschichte (1300-1900) . A regional linguistic history for the German-Dutch border area between Arnhem and Krefeld. With a Nederlandsaalige inleiding. Stichting Historie Peel-Maas-Niersgebied - Foundation history of the area Peel-Maas-Niers, Geldern, Venray 2003, ISBN 90-807292-2-1 .
17. ↑ See u. a. Dr. Georg Cornelissen : My grandma still speaks Platt - where is the dialect in the Rhineland? Greven Verlag , Cologne 2008, ISBN 3-7743-0417-3 .
18. ↑ Among many others, for example:
    • by Jean Jenniches (1894–1979), see several of his speeches, radio and puppet plays, for example Die Drei Wünsche (pages 159-172) or Dä Ervonkel (pages 150-158) in Jean Jenniches: Foder för Laachduve . Kölsche Verzällcher and Gedeechte . In: Published by Heimatverein Alt-Köln eV Greven Verlag , ISBN 978-3-7743-0435-2 (Contributions to the history, language and character of the city of Cologne. [Contributions to the history of Cologne, language, character]; No. 65 in the series of the Heimatverein Alt-Köln eV).
    • in numerous Schwänken that got and still get performed in the Millowitsch Theater
    • also in completely different literary forms, as in Heinrich Böll : End of a business trip . Kiepenheuer & Witsch , Cologne, Berlin 1966.
    • also outside of the Rhenish-speaking area, for example through Karl Valentin in Munich , the Ohnsorg Theater in Hamburg , through several comedians today , such as Kaya Yanar , Bülent Ceylan and others with reference to immigrant languages, etc.
19. ↑ Otto Küpper: Chronicle of the Cologne fools guild of 1880 e. V. 1880 - 2005. 2005, p. 79 u. 80 .
20. ↑ cf. Küpper 2005, p. 85.
21. ↑ This somewhat strange formulation sheds light on another ( hardly applicable , see below) statement about the Cologne fools' guild: “Every year they donated huge sums of money to charity and ultimately gave all of their fortune to the state during the First World War to support widows and war orphans. "( Online (accessed on August 5, 2011)) The binding effect of such a" dedication "may be doubted in the case of the cameralistics of the time. The fact that Max Wallraf - as Lord Mayor responsible for approving the fountain and the location, but also obliged to collect war money from the Prussian state - was also a member of the fools' guild speaks for the fact that it could have been hidden war financing . In addition, the fool guild only ruined itself over a year later with the subscription of war bonds in roughly the same amount as the savings amount for the hosters' fountain, financially practically irrevocably. See “History,” page 88.
22. ^ Rüdiger Schünemann-Steffen: Cologne Street Name Lexicon , District 4 , Jörg-Rüshü-Selbstverlag, Cologne 2018, p. 46.
23. ↑ See web links
24. ↑ Otto Küpper: Chronicle of the Cologne fools guild of 1880 e. V. 1880 - 2005. 2005, p. 119 .