Valentin Ickelsamer

Valentin Ickelsamer (also: Ikelschamer, Ikelsheimer, Eckelsheimer, Ikkersamer, Becklersheimer, Zangsthamer ; * around 1500 near Rothenburg ob der Tauber ; † 1547 in Augsburg ) was a German grammarian .

Life

In 1518 the matriculation records of the University of Erfurt noted Ickelsamer. There he made his first acquaintance with humanism and in 1520 acquired the academic degree of " Baccalaureus ". He then moved to the University of Wittenberg , attracted by Martin Luther . Luther's action against Andreas Bodenstein , who made a name for himself under the pseudonym Karlstadt , repelled him so much that he left Wittenberg and returned to his hometown. There he built a school that was also heavily attended.

During the German Peasant War he acted as a mediator and was elected to the citizens' committee of Rothenburg odT on March 24, 1525. At that time he supported Bodenstein, who was staying in the city, with his writing "Clag a number of brothers ...". In it he mainly accuses Luther, who behaved unchristian towards Bodenstein. As a representative of the rights of the peasants, he had to flee Rothenburg after the defeat of the Peasants' War. He seems to have found a new domicile in Erfurt . It is not certain whether this was an elementary school in Pilse. In Erfurt Valentin Ickelsamer published his little reading lesson "The right way to learn to read in short ...". Further disputes with Martin Luther about Bodenstein forced Ickelsamer to leave Erfurt again in 1530. Via Arnstadt he reached Augsburg , where he completely withdrew from public life.

Act

Nevertheless he published his main work "Teutsche Grammatica ..." in 1534, which u. a. It was reprinted in 1537 and in 1882 as a reprint of the second edition in Fechner's “Four rare (n) writings of the 16th century” with the title “Ein Teütsche Grammatica”. With the “Grammatica” Ickelsamer wanted to create a grammar for the German language. Now, for the first time, the mother tongue was given a higher rating and placed on an equal footing with the three holy languages Hebrew, Greek and Latin. Above all, simple and even adults should now learn to read independently, because this was particularly important in the time of the Reformation and economic change in Germany in the early modern period . Ickelsamer saw his goal in the conscious use of the mother tongue . He established etymology , orthography and the theory of syntax as indispensable parts for dealing with the German language. In this way, he tied in with the traditions of the Latin elementary grammars of Aelius Donatus . 100 years later Justus Georg Schottel quoted Ickelsamer again in his “Detailed Work on the German Main Language” and in 1762 Johann Christoph Gottsched referred to him as one of his spiritual predecessors in “Complete and Newly Explained German Language Art”. Many years later, and even more so in the 19th century, these ideas were taken up again and processed by Konrad Duden and the Brothers Grimm .

German Grammatica

Valentin Ickelsamer wrote the first German grammar "Teutsche Grammatica" in German in 1534. In a certain sense, the “Teutsche Grammatica” also has revolutionary features. They show up in the learning to read guides, which make up most of the text.

With Ickelsamer, two paths lead together: the use-oriented upgrading and codification of the mother tongue and the demand for a theoretical foundation of the grammatical categories, as it is more peculiar to the analytical line of grammarography , such as the modists . Grammar is therefore neither exclusively a matter for theorists who are uninterested in questions of application, nor is it a matter for practitioners who are exclusively interested in coping with everyday linguistic problems.

Ickelsamer's remarks on German grammar and etymology can be characterized as follows:

• The participle serves mainly stylistic purposes;
• Syntax only occurs in connection with the segmentation of complex sentences and the identification of the segments with punctuation marks ;
• Etymology is the easiest way to connect language inflection with metaphysical concepts.

Up until Ickelsamer, reading lessons were shaped by the primary aim of teaching children how to write correctly. The spelling method prevailed : the teacher suggested a word, spelled it, and the students repeated it. “Man” is segmented into [εm] - [a] - [εn] - [εn]. This should ensure that students learn the correct spelling right away, e.g. B. know that "man" is written with a double consonant . What the students learn, however, are not the sounds , but the names of the letters.

In the “Teütschen Grammatica”, Ickelsamer placed the German language on an equal footing with Latin , (Old) Greek and (Old) Hebrew as the then classical and generally recognized languages, thus documenting the importance he attached to his own language, his mother tongue .

Selection of works

• “The right way to learn to read in a kürtzist”, probably Erfurt 1527; 2nd, increased edition Marburg 1534. In: Johannes Müller: Sources and history of German language teaching up to the middle of the 16th century. Thienemann's Hofbuchhandlung, Gotha 1882, pp. 52–64. Reprint Olms, Hildesheim / New York 1969. Also in: Heinrich Fechner (Ed.): Four rare writings from the sixteenth century with a previously unprinted treatise on Valentinus Ickelsamer by Friedrich Ludwig Karl Weigand . Wiegand and Grieben, Berlin 1882. Reprint Olms, Hildesheim / New York 1972.
• “Teutsche Grammatica”, various editions, without location, without year; dated: Edition Nuremberg 1537 (for phonetic sound analysis).
  In: Johannes Müller: Sources and history of German language teaching up to the middle of the 16th century. Thienemann's Hofbuchhandlung, Gotha 1882, pp. 120–159. Reprint Olms, Hildesheim / New York 1969. (The reprint reproduces one of the two undated editions.)

reception

• The radio play Ickelsamers Alphabet was voted radio play of the year 2014. Composition: Stefan Scheib . With: Christian Higer, Elodie Brochier, Katharina Bihler . Production: Liquid Penguin Ensemble for SR / Deutschlandradio Kultur 2014.

literature

• Jakob Franck :  Ickelsamer, Valentin . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1881, p. 739 f.
• Heinrich Niederer:  Ickelsamer, Valentin. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 10, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-428-00191-5 , p. 112 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Heinz Scheible: Melanchthon's correspondence. People 12
• Spamers Konversationslexikon, Vol. 5, Leipzig / Berlin 1890
• Monika Rössing-Hager: Ickelsamer, Valentin. In: Walther Killy (Ed.): Literaturlexikon. Authors and works in German (15 volumes). Gütersloh, Munich: Bertelsmann-Lexikon-Verl., 1988–1991 (CD-ROM: Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-932544-13-7 ), Vol. 6, p. 31
• Birgit Eichler (Freyni / Wetzker): Valentin Ickelsamer and Hans Fabritius - linguistic reminiscences of two early Erfurt schoolmasters. In: Horst Ehrhardt / Edith Sonntag (eds.): Historical aspects of German teaching in Thuringia. Contributions to the history of German teaching. Vol. 24. Peter Lang Verlag Frankfurt a. M. 1995, pp. 33-47.
• Ludwig Schnurrer: Valentin Ickelsamer (approx. 1500-1547), lay theologian and educator , in: Fränkische Lebensbilder Vol. 19 (Fränkische Lebensbilder, series VII A, Vol. 19), ed. v. Erich Schneider, Würzburg 2002, pp. 51-64, ISBN 3-7686-9296-5

Web links

• Literature by and about Valentin Ickelsamer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Biography of Valentin Ickelsamer ( memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) on www.erfurt-web.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ So in the literary notes in Johannes Müller, Quellenenschriften ..., p. 402.
2. ↑ So in the literary notes in Johannes Müller, Quellenenschriften ..., pp. 416–418.
3. ↑ Deutschlandradio Kultur , Ursendung , January 7, 2015, deutschlandradiokultur.de: Ickelsamers Alphabet
4. ↑ Deutschlandradio , January 13, 2015, deutschlandradio.de: “Ickelsamers Alphabet” is radio play of the year 2014