Sándor Petőfi

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Sándor Petőfi, daguerreotype Petőfi Sándor aláírása.png

Petőfi [ ʃaːndor pɛtøːfi ] Slovak Alexander Petrovics ( Petrovich ), Hungarian Petofi Sandor (* 1. January 1823 in Kiskőrös (or Kiskunfélegyháza ) ( Slovak Malý Kereš, Bács-Kiskun ), † 31 July 1849 in Segesvár , today Romania ), was a Hungarian poet and folk hero of the Hungarian Revolution in 1848 .

Life

Memorial plaque for Janos Arany and Sandor Petöfi in Debrecen

Alexander Petrovics came from a Serbian - Slovak family; his parents were the Serbian butcher and landlord Stefan Petrović and the Slovak Mária Hrúz. Just like the place where he died, people still discuss his place of birth today: He himself always stated the city of Kiskunfélegyháza as his place of birth. In his poem Szülöföldemen ( ~ In my homeland ) this affiliation comes to the fore .

From 1828 he attended the Protestant elementary school in Kecskemét and from 1833 to 1834 the Protestant grammar school in Pest , then the Piarist grammar school until 1835 and then the grammar school in Aszód until 1839 . Then he went to Schämnitz and enrolled at the Evangelical Lyceum there in August 1838 to learn rhetoric and German . Because of nationalistic differences of opinion (Petőfi always considered himself Hungarian) with his teacher Daniel Gabriel Lichard , who was a nationally conscious Slovak, he left high school and went to Pest for the time being . There he worked at the Hungarian National Theater as an assistant and sometimes he played in extras. He later joined a traveling theater company and played in various roles. He was a soldier from 1839 to 1841. Then he worked again as an actor and studied in Papa . On January 15, 1844 he appeared in Debreczin in the theater group of "Mr. Lajos Fáncsy" in Shakespeare's comedy The Merchant of Venice , where he played the Prince of Morocco . At that time he used his pseudonym Sándor Petőfi through which he became known as a later poet and writer. All of his later works came to be known by this name.

His first poem appeared in 1842 and was published by the then important editor and poet József Bajza, the publisher of the literary magazine Athenaeum . At that time, however, no fee was paid for poetry. In Debreczin, Petőfi also experienced one of the low points of his life. After the theater group was disbanded, he kept himself afloat with translation work from foreign languages, which, however, did not improve his precarious financial situation. In February 1844 he packed up his poems and left Debreczin hungry and freezing to go to Pest and to ask for help from Mihály Vörösmarty, the most important poet of that time in Hungary . Vörösmarty, who recognized his talent, stood up for Petőfi in the association "National Ring" (Hungarian Nemzeti Kör ). This group of intellectuals and wealthy Pest citizens financed the first edition of Petőfi's poetry collection (1844), which was a huge success with the readership. At this time, on the recommendation of Vörösmarty, he was also assistant editor at Imre Vahot in Pest, who was the publisher of the Pesti divatlap magazine (German “Pester Modeblatt”).

Now began the most fruitful period of his work, especially since he rose to one of the most famous Hungarian poets in a very short time. He wrote one of his most famous poems, Der Held János (Hungarian: János vitéz), within just six days (and without correction). During this time he fell in love with the blonde Etelka Csapó, whom he also intended to marry. The girl died suddenly and unexpectedly shortly before the wedding on January 7, 1845. He expresses his grief in the well-known poem "Cypress leaves at the grave of Etelka" (Hungarian Cipruslombok Etelka sírjáról ).

In the spring of 1845 he left Pest and set out on a tour of what was then Upper Hungary (now Slovakia ). In the meantime he was a famous poet and he was received with storm and enthusiasm at every stop on his tour.

From the beginning, Petőfi called for an independent Hungarian nation-state in his works.

In 1846 Petőfi went to Transylvania . In Groß-Karol ( Sathmar County ) he fell in love with Júlia Szendrey, the daughter of the land manager Ignác Szendrey (* 1800, † 1895). Ignác Szendrey, who at that time administered the property of Count Lajos Károlyi as “inspector”, did not agree with this connection. For him, Petőfi was a runaway "traveling comedian", the son of an impoverished innkeeper. He did not realize that Petőfi had become a poet recognized and admired throughout the country. The marriage took place on September 8, 1847, against the resistance of the father. Julia's father did not take part in the wedding ceremony (only Julia's mother and her sister were present) and refused the daughter's dowry. The honeymoon spent the couple on the estate of Petőfi's only friend 'aristocratic circles', the "Wild Count" (Hungarian vad gróf) Sándor Teleki in Koltó ( rum. Coltǎu, Muramureş).

On December 15, 1848, the son Zoltán emerged from this union. After Sándor Petőfi's death, Zoltán was raised by his grandfather, his guardian was the only brother of the poet István Petőfi (* 1825, † 1880). The son did as his father actor and poet also, but he died at the age of 22 of complications from tuberculosis .

First print of the national song from 1848

In the revolutionary year of 1848, Petőfi took the lead of the “Pest Youth” and became one of the spiritual leaders of the March Revolution . The news of the Viennese Revolution spread like wildfire in Pest too . A group of young people who were based in Pest's Café Pilvax decided to act. Early in the morning of March 15, 1848, Sándor Petőfi, Pál Vasvári, Maurus Jókai and József Irinyi proclaimed a "twelve-point program" which included the demands of the revolutionary youth. Petőfi spontaneously performed his poem Nationallied (Hungarian Nemzeti dal ), which he had composed for a later event. Then they went to mobilize the students. From the university, the crowd, which had grown into a mass demonstration, marched to the Landerer & Heckenast printing works, where the printing press was confiscated by forcing the printers to print the national song written by Petőfi . The printing of this uncensored national song flooded the streets of Pest and was greeted with enthusiasm by the population. In the early afternoon a people's assembly took place in front of the National Museum with the participation of tens of thousands of people, at which the national song had to be repeated. This day, in the events of which Petőfi was not entirely uninvolved, marked the beginning of the March Revolution in Hungary.

On October 15, 1848, Petőfi became a captain in the Honvéd battalion in Debrecen . After a dispute with his superior, he served from 1849 as an adjutant under the Polish general Józef Bem in the Hungarian struggle for freedom against the Habsburgs . In the Battle of Segesvár ( Sighișoara ), Petőfi fell around July 31, 1849. To this day - despite numerous speculations - it has not been possible to clarify where his body was buried. His grave remained unknown.

Sándor Petőfi (Hungarian banknote, 50 pengő, 1932)

Works

  • The reveler. - his first poem, published in 1842
  • First collection of poems, published in 1844
  • Second collection of poems, published in 1846
  • National song. March 13, 1848
  • Hero Janos. In a German adaptation by J. Schnitzer

Receptions

Petőfi Monument In Preßburg (Bratislava / Slovakia )

literature

  • The ballad A honvéd özvegye (The Soldier's Widow) by János Arany , who was also a close friend of Petőfi, deals in encrypted form with Júlia Szendrey's quick remarriage after the death of her husband.
  • Maurus Jókai , who was a friend of Petőfi, wrote the ballad of The Dead Poet's Love about him posthumously . The poem describes the dead Petőfi, who finds no rest in the grave and leaves his loved ones no rest.

music

  • Franz Liszt set Jókai's ballad The Dead Poet's Ballade to music .
  • Hungarian composers, above all Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967), used Petőfi's poetry to set them to music until recently.
  • Schumann's contemporary Robert Franz (1815–1892) wrote two songs based on poems by Petőfi.
  • The few compositions by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) also include some settings of Petőfi's poems.
  • The German composer Hans Kracke (1910–1989) set Petőfi's poem Das Leben to music in one of his two autumn songs for male choir a cappella.

Film adaptations

  • 1939: János Vitéz
  • 1973: Hero Janos ( János vitéz ) - cartoon

Streets and squares

In Hungary there is a street or a square named after Petőfi in almost every town and village.

  • A road bridge over the Danube was later named after Petőfi in Budapest : The Petőfi híd .
  • A trade fair / exhibition hall in Zichy Mihály út 14 in Budapest was named after Petőfi: The Petőfi Hall.
  • In Cologne , Alexander-Petöfi-Platz in the Longerich district has been named after him since 1961 .
Budapest Petőfi monument on Petőfi tér (translated: Petőfiplatz) in the 5th district (Photo: 1953)

Monuments (selection)

Others

First translations

  • Petőfi's first translations have appeared in German: A lopott ló, A csikós, A rabló by Adolf Dux. Sunday papers, Pest 1845.
  • Selected poems by Alexander Petőfi. German by Adolf Dux . Vienna 1846.
  • Poems by Alexander Petőfi. Along with an appendix, songs by other Hungarian poets. Translated from the Hungarian by KM Kertbeny (ie Karl Maria Benkert). Frankfurt am Main, 1849. - Petőfi and 170 poems.
  • The hero János. A farmer's tale from Petőfi. Translated from the Hungarian by Kertbeny. With portrait of the poet. Stuttgart 1850.
  • Alexander Petőfi's poems. Translated from the Hungarian by Frigyes Szarvady and Moritz Hartmann . Darmstadt 1851.
  • Seals by Alexander Petofi. Edited from the Hungarian, in own and foreign translations by Karl Maria Kertbeny . With a foreword by Friedrich Bodenstedt . Brockhaus, Leipzig 1858.
  • Other translators: Adolf Buchheim, Oskar Falke, CF Daumer, Karl Schröter, Demeter Dudumi, Hugo von Meltzl, Theodor Opitz , Eugen Müller, Ladislaus Neugebauer, J. Schnitzer, Ludwig Reich, W. Berger, J. Goldschmidt, Georg von Schulpe, Alfred Teniers, Ernst Speidl, Heinrich Melas, Ludwig Stein-Abai, Andor von Sponer, Adolph Kohut , Ernő Lindner, Josef Steinbach, Ernst Lindner, René Schwachhofer .

gallery

  • Ödenburg (Sopron)

  • Budapest 1903

  • Petőfi Monument in Budapest (state 2015)

  • Petőfi memorial in his birthplace Kiskőrös from 1861. It was the first Petőfi memorial in the world.

literature

Web links

Commons : Sándor Petőfi  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ismerős vita fél évszázaddal ezelőtt: Petőfi itt született; tehát máshol nem születhetett ... In: szabadfold.hu. February 16, 2016, accessed on August 3, 2016 (966. A szentesi levéltárban talált irat, amelyben Petrovicsék hentesinasa azt vallja, hogy Petőfi mégsem Kiskőrösön, hanem Kiskunfélegyházán született, ismét felkavarta az örát).
  2. ^ Georg Paul Hefty : Frankfurter Anthologie. Sándor Petöfi: "Freedom, Love". This six-line mood report, thrown out on a New Year's morning, is more than a personal confession. With this short poem by Sándor Petöfis one understands Hungary. (In fact, he is considered missing and is believed to have died in battle).
  3. ↑ Since he felt like a Hungarian, he used the spelling of István Petrovics (* August 15, 1791 in Kartal / Pest County , † March 21, 1849 in Pest), which corresponds to the Hungarian orthography . István Petrovics was a successful innkeeper and butcher, who, however, became impoverished in 1839 through speculative transactions.
  4. ^ Szegő Iván Miklós: Igaz-e, hogy Petőfi édesapja szerb volt? ( Memento of March 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). In: National Geographic Magyarország. September 2, 2005, accessed August 3, 2016.
  5. ↑ Maria Hruzová was born in Slovakia (born August 26, 1791 in Necpál , Turz county , † May 17, 1849 in Pest ). She was born as the fifth child of ten children in a large family and worked as a laundress. It was a Protestant Augsburg creed. According to the writer János Arany , she only used the Hungarian language in the family . As a result, Petőfi felt compelled to write in his verses: "I was born a Hungarian".
  6. ↑ Petőfi Sándor: zöveggyűjtemény. SZÜLŐFÖLDEMEN. In: magyar-irodalom.elte.hu, accessed on August 3, 2016.
  7. ↑ Daniel Gabriel Lichard (born January 17, 1812 in Slovenská Lupča , † 17 November 1882 Skalica ) was a Slovak writer, journalist and fighter for the national rights of the Slovaks within the Kingdom of Hungary . Between 1838 and 1844 he was a professor at the Evangelical Lyceum in Schämnitz. In 1849 he was a member of the delegation that demanded more emancipation for the Slovaks living in Hungary from Emperor Franz Joseph I.
  8. ↑ Júlia Szendrey (born December 29, 1828 in Keszthely , † September 6, 1868 in Pest ). After Petőfi's death, she married the historian Árpád Horváth on July 21, 1850 (* February 23, 1820 in Pest, † October 26, 1894 in Budapest), which earned her a lot of public criticism. It was not a happy marriage that she had with her second husband. Shortly before her death, she left her husband and moved out of the shared apartment. She died reconciled with her father Ignác Szendrey, who also took care of her funeral. Today it rests together with the other members of the Petőfi family in the Budapest celebrity cemetery Kerepesi temető .
  9. ^ Sándor József János Graf Teleki (born January 27, 1821 in Cluj , † May 18, 1892 in Nagybánya ) was Honvéd - Colonel , General of the Italian Army and member of the Hungarian House of Lords.
  10. ↑ Zoltán Petőfi (born December 15, 1848 in Debreczin, † November 5, 1870 in Pest)
  11. ↑ German translation of the 1st stanza: Up, the homeland calls, Magyars! / It's time to rally to fight! / Do you want to be free or servants? / Elects! It's about honor and rights / we were slaves, traitors / to the spirit of our fathers, / who could not find rest in the grave / since freedom fell to shame. / Let us swear by the God of ancestors: / Never more / let us bow to the tyrants! / Never more! / Let us swear by the God of ancestors: / Never more / let us bow to the tyrants! / Never more!
  12. ↑ The establishment was founded by Ferenc Pivorsky in 1838 and taken over by Károly Pillwax in 1840 (hence the name "Pilvax"). Today it is located in downtown Budapest in the V district .
  13. ↑ In the "twelve-point program", among other things, freedom of the press, the abolition of censorship and forced labor were called for.
  14. ^ Petőfi Hall - Budapest Exhibition Halls - Galleries - Exhibition. In: www.budapest.com. Retrieved October 22, 2016 .
  15. ^ Rüdiger Schünemann-Steffen: Cologne street names lexicon . 1st edition. Jörg-Rüshü-Selbstverlag, Cologne 1999, p. 6 .
  16. ^ Sándor Petöfi: begging sack and freedom. Life and work of Alexander Petöfis. Selected and ed. by René Schwachhofer. G. Kiepenheuer, Leipzig 1954, DNB 453748937 .
personal data
SURNAME Petőfi, Sándor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Petrovics, Sándor (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian national poet
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1823
PLACE OF BIRTH Kiskőrös
DATE OF DEATH July 31, 1849
Place of death near Schäßburg