General German library

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General German library

publishing company Nicolai, Berlin and Stettin
First edition 1765
attitude 1806
editor Friedrich Nicolai
ISSN (online) 1866-2439
General German Library 1765 Titel.jpg

The General German Library (AdB) was a review magazine published by Friedrich Nicolai . The journal appeared from 1765 to 1806, from 1793 under the title Neue Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek (NADB). The appearance was quarterly, i.e. that is, two volumes were published per year and each volume in two pieces. 117 volumes of the ADB with 20 supplement volumes and 104 volumes of the NADB with 10 supplement volumes were published. The magazine was published by Nicolais Verlag until 1770, from then on by Bohn in Kiel, the NADB was published by Nicolai again from 1801 on.

Nicolai announced his plan as follows:

The German Publico is presented with the first piece, the general German library, of which a piece of roughly the same size will appear every quarter. Two pieces will make up a volume, and each volume will be adorned with the portrait of a famous German writer.
According to his intention, this work should contain general information on the whole of the new German literature from 1764 onwards. In it one will try to give news of all the new books to be published in Germany, and of other incidents which concern the literature. Writings of some importance, especially German original writings, will be reviewed in detail so that the reader can get a correct idea of ​​the whole work himself from the review. Writings of lesser importance, and translations, will only be reported recently, but with the addition of a brief judgment as to their worth. Academic dissertations, individual sermons and other small tracts (because they ought to deserve an exception due to their importance and peculiarity) will not be reported at all.

In terms of scope, this was a very ambitious project at the time, but Nicolai managed to attract not only numerous, but also prominent employees. In 1766 he was able to win over Johann Gottfried Herder in particular , with whom, however, a falling out occurred in 1774. At times 150 authors worked for the ADB. Over the course of over 40 years, 433 reviewers reviewed over 80,000 new releases.

Books from all subject areas were reviewed. While the ADB followed the developments and advances of the time in the natural sciences, in the field of literature it came into contrast with the more recent through the ideology of the Enlightenment, which unites both editors and reviewers - the ADB was the mouthpiece of the Berlin Enlightenment , a variant of the late Enlightenment Developments in Sturm und Drangs and the Weimar Classic . The differences were partly personally motivated so annoyed Goethe on the written by Nicolai Werther - parody and wrote a slightly obscene replica. Nicolai also appears several times by name in the Xenia . The philosopher Fichte even wrote an anti-Nicolai.

Due to the Prussian censorship dictated on December 19, 1788 , the AdB was published in Kiel and Hamburg from 1791. The editor was Carl Bohn , who had bought it from Nicolai. From 1794 to 1795 it was banned as a “dangerous book against the Christian religion”.

As part of the retrospective digitization of academic review organs and literary magazines of the 18th and 19th centuries from the German-speaking area at Bielefeld University Library, the content of both the AdB and the NadB was made available in full text (see web links).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ADB 1st volume 1st St. (1765) p. I
  2. ^ Otto Hoffmann: Herder as an employee at the General German Library. In: Archives for the history of literature. 15 (1887). Pp. 238-253
  3. ↑ Klaus L. Berghahn : Excessive Criticism. Friedrich Nicolai as a critic and victim of the Weimar Classic. In: Journal for German Studies. 8 (1987) H. 1. pp. 50-60.
  4. ↑ Nicolai on Werther's grave. In: Goethe: Berlin edition. Poetic Works, Volume 2, Berlin 1960ff. Pp. 259-260. (on-line)
  5. ^ Fichte: Friedrich Nicolais life and strange opinions (1801) In: Gesamtausgabe I, 7.331.
  6. ↑ Friedrich Wilhelm II. , Quoted in according to Sigrid Habersaat: Defense of the Enlightenment. Friedrich Nicolai in religious and political debates . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2001, p. 144.

literature

  • Ute Schneider: Friedrich Nicolais General German Library as an integration medium of the learned republic. Wiesbaden 1995.
  • Gustav Friedrich Constantin Parthey: The employees at Friedrich Nicolai's “General German Library” are arranged in two registers according to their names and characters. A contribution to German literary history. Berlin 1842. Reprint Hildesheim 1973.
  • Hans-Jürgen Jakob Gaycken: The critical assessments of the works of Lessing, Wieland and Herder in the "General German Library". Dissertation, Univ. Knoxville 1972
  • Günther Ost: Friedrich Nicolais General German Library. Germanic Studies, Vol. 63. Berlin 1928.
  • Margarethe Kupfer: The literary criticism in Nicolais General German Library. (1765-1794). Dissertation, Univ. Leipzig 1923.

Web links

Wikisource: General German library (music articles)  - sources and full texts
Commons : General German library  - collection of images, videos and audio files