Samuel Dresden

In 1987 Samuel Dresden (left) presented Hugo Brandt Corstius (right) with the PC Hooft Prize

Samuel Dresden (also Sem Dresden ; born August 5, 1914 in Amsterdam ; † May 6, 2002 in Leiden ) was a Dutch Romance studies and literary scholar.

Life

Samuel came from a Jewish family. He was the son of the diamond cutter Abraham Dresden (born January 8, 1890 in Amsterdam; † January 31, 1945 in Oranienburg) and his wife Henriette Smit (born September 5, 1889 in Amsterdam, † April 22, 1945 in Eidelstadt). He attended the Vossius Gymnasium in Amsterdam. From 1933 to 1938 he completed studies in the French language and literature at the University of Amsterdam and at the Sorbonne in Paris . After a short time as a teacher in The Hague , Dresden became a teacher at the Lyceum in Amsterdam in 1939 and received his doctorate on September 29, 1941 in Amsterdam with the thesis L'artiste et l'absolu. Paul Valéry et Marcel Proust (German: The Artists and the Absolute. Paul Valery and Marcel Proust ) cum laude doctor of philosophy.

From 1941 to 1943 he worked as a teacher at the Jewish Lyceum and the Jewish Trade School in Amsterdam. Dresden was interned in the Westerbork transit camp from September 23, 1943 to April 12, 1945 during the German occupation of the Netherlands (1940–1945) in World War II . At the end of the war he returned to Amsterdam, where he found a job as a teacher at the local Lyceum. On January 30, 1947, he was appointed associate professor of modern French literature at the University of Leiden , which he took up on March 14, 1947, and on May 23 of the same year took up the introductory speech Moderne Franse Romankunst (German: Modern French Novel Art ) . On June 23, 1951, he became a full professor of French literature, and on August 13, 1975, he was appointed lecturer in general literature.

In the academy year 1962/63 he was rector of the Alma Mater , for which he gave the rector's speech Souvenir, een beschouwing over kunst en kitsch (German: souvenir, a reflection on art and kitsch ) on the 388th university anniversary on February 8, 1963 . On May 2, 1980 he was retired from his professorship. Dresden had written over 200 smaller articles in various magazines and journals of its time and received numerous literary prizes, including the 2002 PC Hooft Prize . Since 1950 he was a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences , accompanied the presidency of the learned society from 1978 to 1981 and was appointed commander of the Order of Orange-Nassau in 1981 .

family

Dresden married on July 26, 1939 in Amsterdam with Henny Clara Konijn (* March 2, 1916; † September 12, 2013), the daughter of the businessman Jacob Konijn (* March 19, 1884 in Amsterdam; † October 26, 1942 in Auschwitz ) and his wife Judith Chumaceiro (born December 27, 1885 in Amsterdam, † December 7, 1942 in Auschwitz). The marriage has two daughters and a son. From the children we know:

• Henriette (Hans) Dresden (born January 23, 1940 in Amsterdam) married to Heko Köster
• Judith Dresden (born March 1941 in Amsterdam) married in December 1974 to Herman Verhaar (born September 3, 1944 in The Hague; † May 28, 2010 in Rijswijk)
• Mark Job Dresden (born June 12, 1948 in Leiden) married to Marianne Hensel

Works (selection)

• Humanism and Renaissance (from the Dutch by Lilo Riedel). Munich, Kindler, 1968
• 'Erasmianische Humanitas and Enlightenment Humanity', in: Enlightenment and Humanism , ed. by Richard Toellner (1980)
• L'artiste et l'absolu. Paul Valéry and Marcel Proust . 1941

literature

• SA Varga: Levens report S. Dresden. In: Levensberichten en herdenkingen, the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen. 2004, Amsterdam, pp. 38–45 ( online )
• Evert van der Starre: Samuel Dresden (Amsterdam August 5, 1914 - Leiden 6 May 2002). In: Jaarboek van de Maatschappij of the Nederlandse Letterkunde te Leiden, 2001-2002. Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde, Leiden, 2003 ( online )

Web links

• Dresden in the professorial catalog of the University of Leiden
• Dresden entry at the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences
• Dresden at the digital library of Dutch literature (DBNL)
• Dresden im Joods Biografisch Woordenboek