Otto Christoph Eltester

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Otto Christoph Eltester (born March 20, 1666 in Kleve ; † July 6, 1738 in Berlin ) was a German lawyer, court and chamber judge , protonotary of the chief herald's office and gallant poet .

Life

Eltester was a son of Christian Eltester (1630-1697), who was the court cupid of Brandenburg's Elector Friedrich Wilhelm for many years . He spent his youth in Berlin and from 1681 studied at the Brandenburg University of Frankfurt . Like his brother Christian Eltester (1671–1700), he joined the literary circle around Johann Christoph Bekmann , where they mainly dealt with Hoffmann von Hoffmannswaldau and Lohenstein . It was there that Eltester met Benjamin Neukirch , who later became the editor of the anthology known as the “Neukirchsche Collection” with poems by Hoffmannswaldau and other contemporary poets. In 1690 Eltester returned to Berlin, where he founded a literary "Shepherd Society", as a member of which he added the pseudonym "Tityrus" (the shepherd in Virgil's Eclogues ). Brother Christian called himself “Thyrsis”, also a figure from the Eclogues .

At first he was employed as a district clerk, then he worked as a chamber judge and protonotary of the chief herald's office. In 1697 he became secretary and rendant of the Prussian Academy of the Arts, founded a year earlier, and in 1699 its member. In 1694 his beloved Eva Louyse Schultze, whom he sung about as "Sylvia", died suddenly. Possibly in connection with this bereavement, Eltester went on a trip to Italy with his brother in 1694/1695.

Most of his gallant poems have survived in the Neukirch collection , the first two volumes of which contain over 100 works by Eltester. Neukirch paid tribute to Eltester's poetic achievement in his mourning poem on the occasion of the death of Christian Eltester in 1700. In 1697, the younger brother was appointed court architect and engineer. Eltester's sister Eleonore Gerickin died in 1705. Mourning poems published as single prints both on the death of the sister and on that of the brother.

Among the contemporary gallant poets in Berlin (for example Johann von Besser , Benjamin Neukirch and Christian Reuter ) Eltester is considered to be the most important: “His sonnets in particular have a direct tone associated with clarity of thought. Gallant gestures (e.g. she refuses him a bracelet ) and the ut pictura poesis (e.g. he paints her portrait ) - for Eltester's basic pattern of lyrical speaking - still seem natural today. "

Fonts

  • Tirsis who died in the spring and complained of his only brother . 1700.
  • Description of the illumination, which at the coronation Feyr Sr. Königl. Maj. In Prussen, presented by the art academy in Berlin. 1701.
  • Explanation of the copper picture made on the death of Blessed Frau Gericken. 1705.
  • Bey with the shouting at midnight with which Mrs. Eleonore Gerickin nee. Eltester ... called to the wedding of misery ... let his sad song be heard. 1705.

literature

  • Wilhelm Eltester: A Brandenburg-Prussian civil servant family. Dortmund 1959.
  • Franz Heiduk: The poets of gallant lyric poetry. Bern & Munich 1971, pp. 44-50.
  • Erika Alma Metzger: Otto Christoph Eltester. In: Walther Killy (ed.): Killy Literature Lexicon. Bertelsmann-Lexikon-Verlag, Gütersloh 1988. Vol. 3, pp. 240-241.
  • Joachim Schöbel: "lilies-milk and rose-purple". The metaphor in the gallant poetry of the late baroque. Investigation of the Neukirch collection. Frankfurt a. M. 1972.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Otto Christoph Eltester , Berlin Academy of the Arts
  2. ↑ Mr. von Hoffmannswaldau and other Germans selected and as yet unprinted poems. 7 volumes, 1697–1727.
  3. ↑ Gest. April 6, 1694. Cf. the poem “The maiden Schultzin who died and complained under the name of Sylvia” in the Neukirch collection .
  4. ^ Stand speech given before the body was lifted in the mourning house in Berlin. Berlin 1700. The mourning poem with numerous biographical details was reprinted in the 7th volume of the Neukirch collection in 1727.
  5. ↑ Erika Alma Metzger: Otto Christoph Eltester. In: Walther Killy (ed.): Killy Literature Lexicon. Gütersloh 1988. Vol. 3, p. 241.
personal data
SURNAME Eltester, Otto Christoph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Eltester, Otto Christoff; Tityrus (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer, court and chamber judge, protonotary of the senior herald's office and gallant poet
DATE OF BIRTH March 20, 1666
PLACE OF BIRTH Kleve
DATE OF DEATH July 6, 1738
Place of death Berlin