Siegfried Kapper

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Siegfried Kapper, lithograph by Eduard Kaiser , 1848

Siegfried Kapper ( Isaac Salomon Kapper ) (born March 21, 1820 in Smíchov , † June 7, 1879 in Pisa ) was a German-Czech writer, translator and doctor of Jewish origin. Occasionally he used the pseudonym (Dr.) Rakonitzky .

Life

The son of a teacher who worked in the German-speaking area from 1795 to 1816 attended the Czech primary school in Smíchov and was also taught German by his father. From 1830 he attended grammar school on the Lesser Town in Prague and studied philosophy at Prague University from 1836 to 1839 . After working as a private tutor ("Hofmeister") in Prague for a year, he went to Vienna , where he studied medicine from 1841 to 1846.

As a student he joined the Young German movement in Bohemia. He was also interested in Czech literature , and he made friends with Karel Sabina and Václav Bolemír Nebeský , the representatives of the Young Bohemia ( Mladá Čechie ). He described himself as a Czech, but insisted on his Jewish origins, which met with incomprehension among many representatives of the movement. After the uprising of 1848 was put down, he only wrote in German.

After completing his studies, he took a position as a doctor on the Croatian-Turkish border in Karlstadt ( Karlovac ), from where he undertook extensive trips through the Croatian settlement area between the Save and the Adriatic . In addition, he dealt intensively with the South Slavic languages ; he was disappointed with the political development and the relationship with the Czech student movement .

During the revolution of 1848–1849 he returned to Vienna , where he worked as a journalist; after the suppression he made several long journeys through the southern kingdom of Hungary and the Slavic areas of the Ottoman Empire . Above all, he processed these trips in epic works and travelogues. Later he also traveled through Germany and Italy.

He did not return to Bohemia until 1854, married a sister of his Prague friend Moritz Hartmann and settled as a general practitioner in Dobříš (Dobritz) and in 1860 in Mladá Boleslav (Jungbunzlau).

“The Czech intelligentsia - both Jewish and non-Jewish - knows Siegfried Kapper only as the author of the collection of poems“ České listy ”, as the pioneer of the Czech-Jewish movement. That as a Czech writer, but even more so as a German writer, he created a work that at the time was also recognized by the professional side, that his German works in the 50s and 60s of the last century had as honorable a place as his Czech works a decade later, this is little known to the general public in the Czech Republic.

[...]

His contact with the famous Serbian writer Vuk Stefanović Karadžić was decisive for Kapper's later work . Already in Prague, inspired by the Talvj translation of the Serbian heroic songs and strengthened by the example of Jakob Grimm , who devoted himself to thorough studies of the Serbian language and the Serbian folk song , he had occupied himself with the language, history and customs of the Serbs. Vuk welcomed him in his father's way and frequented his house as a comrade of the closer circle of friends, he now got to know the richness of the Serbian folk poetry treasure in full and made the Serbian language his own to such an extent that it opened up to him the understanding of those treasures in the most lively way . "

- Oskar Donath, 1934

Works

  • Slavic melodies. (Transmissions or replicas, motto: "What the people sung - / How it sounded / In my soul." With notes and a list of foreign words used in the songs.) Leipzig 1844 ( digitized from Google Books ).
  • Liberated songs. Jasper, Vienna 1848 (digital copies of the 1st edition and the 2nd edition on Google Books).
  • Lazar the Serbenczar. According to Serbian legends and heroic songs. Leo, Vienna 1851 (digitized version of the 1st edition as well as the 2nd, revised and improved edition with the title Prince Lazar , published in Leipzig in 1853. Epic poetry based on Serbian sagas and heroic songs in the Internet Archive ).
  • The Serbian Movement in Southern Hungary. A contribution to the history of the Hungarian revolution. Berlin 1851 ( digitized from Google Books); Serbian translation: Srpski pokret u južnoj Ugarskoj. Belgrade 1851 ( digitized from Google Books); New edition edited by Slavko Gavrilović (= Istorijska biblioteka , Volume 2). Gutenbergova Galaksija, Beograd 1996, ISBN 86-7058-040-3 .
  • South Slavic migrations in the summer of 1850. Leipzig 1851 (digitized of the 1st volume as well as the 1st volume and the 2nd volume of the new cheap edition from 1853 on Google Books); English translation: A visit to Belgrade. Translated [and selected from S. Kapper's “South Slavic Walks”] by J. Whittle. Chapman and Hall, London 1854 ( digitized from Google Books).
  • The chants of the Serbs. (Nachdichtungen.) 2 vols., Leipzig 1852 (digitized of the 1st volume and the 2nd volume on Google Books).
  • Falk. A story. Katz, Dessau 1853.
  • Herzel and his friends. Pen-and-ink drawings from Bohemian school life by the author of the "South Slavic Walks". 2 vols., Ms. Ludw. Herbig, Leipzig 1853 (digitized 1st volume and 2nd volume on Google Books).
  • Christians and Turks. A sketchbook from the Save to the iron gate . 2 vols., Leipzig 1854 ( digitized in the Internet Archive).
  • Past life of an artist. Edited by Siegfried Kapper based on his memoirs. 2 vols., Prague a. Leipzig 1855 ( digitized of both volumes in one volume on Google Books).
  • The bohemian baths. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1857 ( digitized from Google Books).
  • The manuscripts of Königinhof and Grünberg . Old Bohemian poetry from the IX. to XIII. Century. Prague 1859 (digitized 1st edition and 2nd edition on Google Books).
  • The Chomutov bell- towers . Historical novel. 3 vols., Prague 1869/70 (digitized volumes 1 and 2 in one volume and volume 3 on Google Books).
  • Prague ghetto sagas. Brandeis, Prague 1876.
in Czech, translation into Serbian:

Opera libretti

Translations of opera libretti

  • Il templario ( Otto Nicolai , libretto by Girolamo Maria Marini, German title The Knights Templar )
  • Il proscritto (Otto Nicolai)

Adaptations to music

How the stars seemed so bright
The girl
Girl curse
Girl song
Rash oath

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kapper, Siegfried
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kapper, Isaac Salomon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bohemian writer, translator and doctor of Jewish origin
DATE OF BIRTH March 21, 1820
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague - Smíchov
DATE OF DEATH June 7, 1879
Place of death Pisa