Self-life description

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Jean Paul (1763-1825)

The self-life description contains childhood memories that Jean Paul wrote from July 14, 1818 to January 22, 1819. Christian Otto published the fragment in 1826 at Joseph Max's in Breslau from the poet's estate in the first volume of the series “Truth from Jean Paul's Life”.

A childhood of depressing poverty is revealed with a smile. “My biography is just an idyll; limited happiness ”, a sentence by Jean Paul introduces the first edition.

shape

With his autobiography, Jean Paul wanted to make his novels easier for the reader to understand. For example, it is about that longing that has no name. It is also described how Jean Paul “hungered for sounds” as a boy. He writes: "Oh, light, thin, invisible sounds harbor whole worlds for the heart." At several points in the text, Jean Paul points to coincidences in the life of little Paul with passages from the life of his novel heroes - for example from that of Quintus Fixlein - there.

“Most inclined friends!” Jean Paul begins his “historical lectures”. If the self-proclaimed "professor of history" digresses, he returns rather quickly to "our history"; proceeds "immediately again with the hero's life chronologically". Some memories of “this little historical monodrama” are pale - especially when they flash across from early childhood like that “distant darkening picture” of the alumnus who was friendly with little Hans Paul. And the name of his first love in Joditz - was that Augusta or Augustina? Jean Paul, the author of the Vogtland idyll , no longer knows, but even in matters of love he encourages the reader to ponder; for example when he distinguishes between loving and love.

"Believe me ..." Jean Paul turns to the reader. This author no longer needs lying. And yet he would much rather write a story of lies - read a novel - than his autobiography.

The chapters of the biography are named after the hero's place of residence - Wunsiedel , Joditz, Schwarzenbach . The author has mastered his craft. For example, when he writes of “a short, white and dark December day”, the reader is in the picture. The writer even includes “childish little things” in his “lectures”. But these could just make up the value of the text, because the reader probably has equivalent childhood memories like this: “I never forget the appearance in me, which I have not yet told anyone, where I stood at the birth of my self-confidence, of which I specify the place and time White. One morning I was standing under the front door as a very young child and looked to the left at the wooden bed when suddenly the inner face "I am a me" flashed before me like a bolt of lightning from the sky and since then remained shining: there was my I seen himself for the first time and forever. Delusions of memory are hard to imagine here. "

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  • Wunsiedel

The poet was born in early spring 1763 at 1.30 a.m. in “Wonsiedel”. His mother Sophia Rosina Richter was the daughter of the wealthy cloth maker Johann Paul Kuhn in Hof . The name Johann Paul Friedrich Richter is "shot together" from the names of Jeans Paul's two godparents. One was his grandfather from Hof ​​and the other a certain bookbinder Johann Friedrich Thieme. The paternal grandfather was called Johann Richter and was rector in Neustadt am Kulm ; drew from "this common Bavarian source of hunger for school people" for 35 years . Jean Paul's father Johann Christian Christoph Richter was born there on December 16, 1727, had studied Tonkunst in Jena and theology in Erlangen, and worked as a private tutor in Bayreuth until 1759. In 1760 the father had won the position as organist and teacher in Wunsiedel and on October 13, 1761 married Sophia Rosina.

  • Joditz (1765 to 177 [5])

In 1765 the Baroness von Plotho in Zedwitz appointed her father as pastor of Joditz. Paul and his three younger brothers - Adam, Gottlieb and Heinrich - are instructed by their father seven hours a day in the catechism and Latin. Actually, the boys just have to learn by heart. Jean Paul praises himself and his teacher. The pupil Paul is never "beaten up"; he always knows “what is his”. Once and for all, Jean Paul confesses his “home and nooks and crannies”. He is happy when the long table is pushed against the stove bench in grim frosty weather. In summer Paul and his brothers frolic in the yard next to the parish; imitate the village swallows crossing above them. In the barn, Paul climbs a cantilever beam and jumps deep into the hay "to enjoy flying on the way".

Every time a funeral procession is on its way from the church to the cemetery, Paul has to stay behind alone in the church, carry the Bible into the sacristy and has the "world of spirits rushing after" on his neck. In the bed of a very old, gout-frail woman he visits the sick just like his father - armed with a hymn book. Paul's march to his grandparents in Hof not only brings the sometimes starving family in Joditz a sack full of much sought-after groceries. The brave wanderer from the village explores Hof, the city on the Saale .

Paul leaves two little sisters who died early in Joditzer Erde.

  • Schwarzenbach on the Saale

After Pastor Barnickel "finally" died, Paul's father was allowed to take his position in Schwarzenbach. The family is out of the woods. Paul doesn't just devour " Robinson Crusoe " reading. The budding philosopher dares to approach Gottsched's "Weltweisheis" and finds it refreshing "like fresh water" "despite all the dryness and emptiness". Paul gives his second love, Katharina Bärin, the first kiss on the mouth. Jean Paul writes: “... then I - who in Joditz could never get to the heaven of the first kiss, and who was never allowed to touch the beloved hand - for the first time press a long-loved being on the chest and mouth. I couldn't think of anything else to say, it was a single pearl of a minute, something that was never there, never came back; a whole longing dream of the past and the future was pressed into one instant; - and in the darkness behind the closed eyes the fireworks of life unfolded for a glance and was gone. But I haven't forgotten it, the unforgettable. " Immediately afterwards, however, Paul falls back into loving at a distance - “from the window”.

Quotes

  • "Because pure love only wants to give and only become happy through happiness."
  • "Death is the actual theater director and machine master of the earth."
  • “There are hardly any farewells for children; because they know no past, only a present full of future. "
  • "Perhaps none are even better than all the tasks."

reception

  • Eckermann reproduces a saying of Goethe from March 30, 1831: "Jean Paul has now, out of a spirit of contradiction, written truth from his life!"
  • While Miller assures that Jean Paul broke off writing because he had lost interest, de Bruyn states that the poet would have liked to continue; wanted to honor her friend, Herder .
  • Robert Minder wrote in 1963 that Jean Paul wrote his memoirs "as a refreshment drink for those in need".
  • Goltz ( Book of Childhood (1847)) and von Kügelgen ( memories of an old man's youth (published in 1870)) would have taken the “description of one's own life” as a model.
  • Jean Paul biographers (for example Ortheil and Ueding) refer to the text as evidence of the bitter poverty in the father's house.

literature

Text output

Used edition

Secondary literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. Jean Paul invented Self-life description ” as a neologism for “autobiography”.
  2. Jean Paul only gave the decade. Berend determined the year (edition used, p. 1314, entry 1050.2).
  3. Goethe speaks beforehand about the issue of his own autobiography and then refers to the title "Truth from Jean Paul's Life", which does not come from Jean Paul at all. The poet called his work "Description of Self-Life".

Individual evidence

  1. Edition used, p. 1312
  2. cited in Zeller, p. 150, 13. Zvo
  3. Edition used, p. 1312, 10. Zvo
  4. Edition used, p. 1077, 22. Zvo to 29. Zvo
  5. Edition used, p. 1091, 13. Zvo
  6. Edition used, p. 1054, 15. Zvo
  7. Edition used, p. 1312, 18. Zvu
  8. Edition used, p. 1054, 22. Zvo
  9. Edition used, p. 1061, 9. Zvo
  10. Edition used, p. 1041, 21. Zvo
  11. Edition used, p. 1042, 22. Zvo
  12. Edition used, p. 1086, 9. Zvo
  13. Edition used, p. 1073, 28. Zvo
  14. Johann Christoph Gottsched: First reasons of the whole world wisdom: in it all philosophical sciences, in their natural combination, are dealt with in two parts, designed for the use of academic lessons, provided with a short philosophical history, necessary coppers and a register. Published by Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf, Leipzig 1762. ( digitized version http: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Freader.digitale-sammlungen.de%2Fde%2Ffs1%2Fobject%2Fdisplay%2Fbsb11273110_00005.html~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~ SZ% 3D ~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D)
  15. Edition used, p. 1099, 5th Zvo
  16. Edition used, p. 1069, 9. Zvo
  17. Edition used, p. 1086, 15. Zvo
  18. Edition used, p. 1089, 15. Zvo
  19. Edition used, p. 1094, 9. Zvo
  20. Schönberger, p. 508, 12. Zvo
  21. Edition used, p. 1312 middle
  22. de Bruyn, p. 363 middle
  23. Robert Minder in Sprengel (ed.), P. 293 below
  24. ^ Sprengel, p. XLVIII, 9. Zvo
  25. ^ Ortheil, p. 13, 1st Zvu
  26. Ueding, p. 13 ff.