Max Hecker

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Four Weimar Germanists: Max Hecker, Hans Wahl , Hans Gerhard Gräf and Julius Wahle (around 1918). Photo by Louis Held .
Grave site not far from the Weimar Princely Crypt

Max Franz Emil Hecker (born April 6, 1870 in Cologne , † April 9, 1948 in Weimar ) was a German philologist , literary historian and archivist . He worked for the Goethe and Schiller Archive in Weimar for 46 years and was involved in the editing of more than 200 publications.

Life

Hecker studied German , English and philosophy in Bonn . His doctoral thesis was for the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer . The merchant and Schopenhauer lover Stavenhagen, the father of the composer Bernhard Stavenhagen , a pupil of Franz Liszt, became aware of this work . He invited him to Weimar for several weeks, where Hecker also met Bernhard Suphan , the director of the Goethe and Schiller Archives . Suphan offered him to take part in the scientific recording and evaluation of the Goethean legacy in Weimar.

Hecker came to the Goethe and Schiller Archives in Weimar on April 1, 1900 - as a freelancer. This became an activity until the end of life. His restless work for the Sophien edition (later: Weimar edition ) of the Goethe works began with the commentary on Achilles . Hecker's colleagues included Bernhard Suphan and Julius Wahle . From 1924 to 1936 he was also the editor of the Goethe Yearbook of the Goethe Society .

plant

On the occasion of Max Hecker's 70th birthday, Anton Kippenberg , the head of Insel-Verlag , had the bibliography of the jubilee published in a volume called Heac otia fecit (= leisure accomplished this ) - the compilation of all publications from this creative scholarly life comprised more than 200 Publications. Max Hecker also published his “Red Book” after years of work after work: he had evaluated all the newspapers in the city of Weimar that were published between 1775 and 1832 and collected hundreds of notes on the life dates, promotions and fate of those citizens who were contemporaries of Goethe. This resulted in a unique collection of résumés in Weimar during Goethe's time.

Honors

Hecker became a professor at an early age. On May 29, 1920 he was honored with the highest distinction of the Goethe Society Weimar, the Golden Goethe Medal . In 1932 the Italian government invited Max Hecker as one of three Goethe scholars to the inauguration of the “Casa di Goethe”. Hecker is an honorary citizen of the University of Jena .

family

Max Hecker was born with Lili Hecker. Kaiser (1877–1943) married; the couple had three children: Wolfgang, Irma and the writer Jutta Hecker . From 1936 the family lived in the Altenburg in the ground floor apartment (where Bernhard Suphan once lived) opposite the Goethe and Schiller Archives.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jutta Hecker: Bernhard Suphan or The victims in the castles of the spirit. In: Jutta Hecker: Miracle of the word - life under the spell of Goethe. Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-373-00322-9 , p. 43: “... as a freelancer (...); a position which, although it highest fulfillment of life, but no life-long financial security offered. " .
  2. ↑ DNB 580373967
  3. ↑ Jutta Hecker: Max Hecker or a life for the Goethe and Schiller Archives. In: Jutta Hecker: Miracle of the Word. Life under the spell of Goethe . Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-373-00322-9 , pp. 82-101.
  4. ↑ goethe-gesellschaft.de

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Commons : Max Hecker  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Hecker, Max
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hecker, Max Franz Emil
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philologist, literary historian and archivist
DATE OF BIRTH April 6, 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH April 9, 1948
Place of death Weimar