Philipp Blommaert

Philipp Blommaert (born August 24, 1809 in Ghent ; † August 14, 1871 there ) was a Flemish writer .

Act

Philipp Blommaert studied law in his hometown and lived there as a private scholar and as Hendrik Consciences friend and comrade in the fight for the Flemish language . As early as 1834, he appeared in the Dutch magazine Vaderlandsche Letteroefeningen with poems in Flemish, which, however, had little further success due to the somewhat rough form.

More important was the publication of Flemish poems from the 12th to 14th centuries, such as Theophilus (Gent 1836; 2nd edition 1858), the Oudvlaemsche poems (3 vols., Gent 1838-51), Leven van St. Amand ( 2nd edition 1858) Vol., 1842–43), Geschiedenis der rederijkkamer de Fonteine ​​te Gent (1847), De Grimbergsche oorlog (2 vols., 1852–54), De nederduitsche schryvers van Gent (1861) and others. He dealt with old Norse sagas with preference , wrote one Flemish partial translation of the Nibelungs in iambic verse and edited the Beowulf and the Edda .

His most excellent work, however, is the Aloude geschiedenis der Belgen of Nederduitschers (Gent 1849), in which he takes the view that the Low German areas, despite their political turmoil, are still called to fulfill a high cultural-historical idea as a national unit.

Blommaert founded the Flemish Bibliographical Society in Ghent in 1839. He also worked as a collaborator in several Belgian magazines against the French influence and in 1840, alongside Jan-Frans Willems, was the main author of the language petitions in favor of the Flemish language (see also Flemish-Walloon conflict ). Member of the Belgian Academy since 1860 , he took part in the work of the Commission for the Publication of Flemish Linguistic Monuments and was busy editing Jacob van Maerlant's recently discovered poem Van Troyen when he died in 1871.

literature

• Philipp Blommaert . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 3, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 41.