Maximilian Schmidt (writer)

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The "Waldschmidt" around 1912
Maximilian Schmidt as a lieutenant
Grave of Maximilian Schmidt on the old southern cemetery in Munich location

Maximilian Schmidt called Waldschmidt (born February 25, 1832 in Eschlkam ( Künisches Gebirge ) in the Upper Palatinate ; †  December 8, 1919 in Munich ) was a Bavarian native writer.

Life

Maximilian was the son of the chief customs administrator Adalbert Schmidt and his wife Karoline, nee Karg. As a child he invented stories for his two siblings and staged theater performances with the village youth. After attending the monastery schools in Metten and Straubing and the grammar school in Passau , Schmidt graduated from the trade school in Hof an der Saale, where his father had been transferred as a civil servant. At the age of 16 Maximilian began studying at the Polytechnic in Munich , volunteered for military service in 1850 and was an inspection officer at the Royal Cadet Corps in Munich in 1859 . After the campaign in the German War in 1866 , he was promoted to captain, retired a year later due to illness and ended his military service in 1874. Maximilian Schmidt was married to the wealthy Auguste Haßlacher from 1863. Five children were born, two of whom did not survive the first year of life.

Schmidt began to write during his military service. The first stories and novels dealt with people from the Bavarian Forest , whose lives he described sensitively and understandingly. On his 31st birthday, he presented his first publications to the Bavarian King Maximilian II in a personal audience . After his retirement in 1874 he wrote stories from the Upper Bavarian area, the first publications of which appeared as serial novels mostly in newspapers and national magazines, returned thematically to the Bohemian and Bavarian Forest, the Chodenland and the Künische Gebirge ; some of his folk plays played in the Bavarian high mountains. In 1869, with funds from his wife, he founded a wooden tool factory in Regenstein, today a district of Bad Kötzting in the Upper Palatinate, which went bankrupt a few years later because the hoped-for rail connection to the plant was not realized.

The Bavarian King Ludwig II appointed Maximilian Schmidt in 1884 as royal Bavarian councilor and is said to have inspired him to write one of his main works, "The Fisherman's Rose of St. Heinrich". On the occasion of the 60th birthday he received from Furth im Wald , Eschlkam and Lam dignity of a freeman . Prince Regent Luitpold, an avid reader of Schmidt's publications, wanted to raise him to the nobility, which Schmidt is said to have refused. Instead, he was allowed to use the name addition called Waldschmidt from 1898 . This nickname became hereditary and is still used by his descendants today.

tomb

The tomb of Maximilian Schmidt is on the old southern cemetery in Munich (burial ground 3 - Series 1 - Place 45) location .

Act

In 1890 Maximilian Schmidt founded the Bavarian Tourist Association to promote the hitherto insignificant tourism in Bavaria and in 1895 organized a large folk costume festival on the occasion of the Munich Oktoberfest, from which the annual costume and rifle parade for the Oktoberfest developed. Because of his interest in folk costumes, he was also called "Costume Schmidt". In his publications, careful descriptions of the folk costumes in Bavaria and in the neighboring Chodenland in western Bohemia were handed down.

souvenir

At the age of 87, Hofrat Maximilian Schmidt, known as Waldschmidt, died in Munich in 1919, where he was honored and almost blind, where a plaque on the house at Thierschstrasse 47 commemorates him. His gravestone in the old south cemetery in Munich has been preserved to this day. A memorial was erected in his honor on the Großer Riedelstein am Kaitersberg in the Bavarian Forest , the relief plate of which was created by the Munich sculptor and ore caster Hans Klement. The Waldschmidt-Verein eV, founded in 1984 in his place of birth Eschlkam , has been awarding the Waldschmidt Prize every year since then to people who have made literary, musical or other artistic merit through ties to their homeland . The mountain hut on the Großer Rachel is named Waldschmidthaus in his honor .

Works

4th edition 1894

Maximilian Schmidt - a “bestselling author” of the 19th century - wrote around 60 larger “folk tales”, 40 humoresques and sketches, 40 dramatic plays that were performed across Bavaria, as well as numerous occasional poems. He published some of the first books at his own expense. Many of the following works were published in magazines that had become aware of publishers. In the 1890s the publishing house Enßlin & Laiblin from Reutlingen began to publish a complete edition, a total of 32 volumes, which was reissued in 1927 by Waldschmidt-Verlag Josef Habbel from Regensburg. Some of his works were filmed as silent films. A selection of the most famous works:

  • The Christkindlsinger (1863)
  • Glassmakers' (1869)
  • Midsummer Night (1880)
  • The Guardian Spirit of Oberammergau (1880)
  • The Ride of Leonhard (1882)
  • The Miesenbacher (1882)
  • The Knappenlisl from Rauschenberg (1883)
  • The Georgi Thaler (1883)
  • Old Boar. Stories and Poems (1884)
  • The Swan Maiden, Tales from the Berchtesgadner Landl (1885)
  • The Pentecostal Bride (1885) ( online version, PDF )
  • The Fischerrosl of St. Heinrich (1885)
  • The musician of Tegernsee (1886)
  • s'Liserl vom Ammersee (1887)
  • Hancicka, the Chod girl - a cultural image from the Bohemian-Bavarian Forest Mountains (1893)
  • On the golden path (1894)
  • The Prelate's Treasure or the Student of Metten (1895)
  • The Hop Broker (1899/1900)
  • My wandering through 70 years I and II (Autobiography 1901/02, Vol. 1 online  - Internet Archive , Vol. 2 online  - Internet Archive )

literature

Essays
  • Bernd Kellermann: The "Waldschmidt" from Eschlkam . In: Heimat Ostbayern , 1996, pp. 30–31.
  • Manfred Knedlik:  Schmidt, Maximilian. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , p. 206 f. ( Digitized version ). * Helmut Kreutzer: A painter with a pen. On the life and work of the bestselling author Maximilian Schmidt, who received the honorary name "called Waldschmidt" 100 years ago as a poet of the Bavarian Forest . In: Literatur in Bayern , 1998, Issue 52, pp. 2–9 and 26–29.
  • Anton Lichtenstern: A forgotten homeland novel. "'S Liserl vom Ammersee" by Maximilian Schmidt . In: Landsberger Geschichtsblätter , Vol. 107 (2008), pp. 62–68.
  • Rolf Schmidt: Maximilian Schmidt called Waldschmidt (1832-1919). For the 175th birthday . In: Der Bayerwald , vol. 99 (2007), issue 3, pp. 36–37.
  • Helmut Seitz: Maximilian Schmidt called Waldschmidt. Great-grandfather's Bavarian bestselling author . In: Ders .: On the trail of famous people . Nymphenburger Verlag, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-485-00580-0 , pp. 200-206.
Books
  • Günther Bauernfeind: Maximilian Schmidt called Waldschmidt. Guide through the Waldschmidt exhibition Eschlkam . Waldschmidt Association, Eschlkam 1988.
  • Petra Dietl: The folk writer Maximilian Schmidt called Waldschmidt with special consideration of his importance for Eastern Bavaria . Diploma thesis, University of Regensburg 1986.
  • Aloys Dreyer : A German folk poet. For the 80th birthday of Maximilian Schmidt called Waldschmidt . Haessel Verlag, Leipzig 1912.
  • Rolf Waldschmidt: In the footsteps of Waldschmidt. Memento tape for the 150th birthday of Maximilian Schmidt called Waldschmidt . Morsak Verlag, Grafenau 1982, ISBN 3-87553-188-4 .
  • Rolf Waldschmidt: Maximilian Schmidt called Waldschmidt in the press . Dissertation, University of Munich 1955.

Web links

Commons : Maximilian Schmidt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Maximilian Schmidt: My hike through 70 years. Second part. Reutlingen, 1902 (1st – 5th edition), pp. 247–260.
  2. ↑ Bayerische Staatszeitung of July 15, 2011: Lost and reappeared. Retrieved February 6, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Schmidt, Maximilian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schmidt called Waldschmidt, Maximilian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bavarian native writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 25, 1832
PLACE OF BIRTH Eschlkam Lower Bavaria
DATE OF DEATH December 8, 1919
Place of death Munich