Volker Mertens

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Volker Mertens (born September 14, 1937 in Hildesheim ) is a German specialist in German . He has been teaching as a professor for older German literature and language at the Free University of Berlin since 1977 . His research areas include the work of Hartmann von Aue , Middle High German minnesong , Arthurian poetry and medieval sermons . Beyond the area of ​​Middle High German literature, he published on topics from recent German literature ( Thomas Mann ) and music (especially Richard Wagner ).

Live and act

Mertens studied German, English , folklore and philosophy in Freiburg , Göttingen , Vienna , Munich and Würzburg . 1962-63 he worked as a lecturer in Glasgow and was then from 1963 to 1975 research assistant in Würzburg, where he in 1967 Kurt Ruh about the sermon book of the priest Konrad doctorate . In 1976 he obtained his habilitation on Gregorius Hartmann von Aue. After a brief activity as a private lecturer in Würzburg, he was appointed professor at the Free University of Berlin in 1977.

Guest professorships have taken him to Olomouc (CR), Beijing (China), Amiens, Bloomington (USA), London (Queen Mary University of London). In 2002 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Olomouc (CR). Mertens is a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen .

For the broadcasting corporations of the ARD Mertens designed the 26-part music literary radio series Thomas Mann and the music and moderated the program Klassik am Morgen on the radio station SFB .

Mertens is a private choir singer and had a short appearance at the Maxim-Gorki-Theater Berlin in a Parzival performance. He collects Chinese art and says: "If I could, I would like to collect medieval manuscripts too ."

Works

Monographs

  • Wagner. The Ring of the Nibelung. (Compact opera guide) Bärenreuter Henschel, Kassel 2013. ISBN 978-3894879075 .
  • Lovers of the Middle Ages . Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2011. ISBN 978-3-7995-0896-4 .
  • Giacomo Puccini - Sound, truth and feeling . Militzke Verlag, Leipzig 2008. ISBN 978-3-86189-808-5 .
  • Big is the secret. Thomas Mann and the music . Militzke Verlag, Leipzig 2006. ISBN 3-86189-747-4 .
  • The grail. Myth and Literature . Reclam, Stuttgart 2003. ISBN 978-3-15-018261-1 .
  • The German Arthurian novel. Reclam, Stuttgart 1998. ISBN 3-15-017609-3 .
  • Laudine. Social problems in the "Iwein" Hartmanns von Aue . Schmidt, Berlin 1978. (Supplements to the journal for German philology 3) ISBN 3-503-01264-8 .
  • Gregorius Eremita. A way of life of the nobility at Hartmann von Aue in its problematic and its change in reception . Artemis, Zurich 1978. ( MTU 67 ; also Habil. -schrift Würzburg), ISBN 3-7608-3367-5 .
  • Priest Konrad's sermon book. Tradition, shape, content and texts . Beck, Munich 1971 (Munich texts and studies on German literature in the Middle Ages 33; also dissertation Würzburg 1966). ISBN 3-406-02833-0 .

Text editions

Editorships (a selection)

  • Sermon in context (ed. Together with Hans-Jochen and Regina D. Schiewer and Wolfram Schneider-Lastin), De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2013. ISBN 978-3-484-64016-0 .
  • Germania litteraria mediaevalis francigena (GLMF). Handbook of German and Dutch medieval language, shapes, motifs, fabrics and works of French origin (1100-1300). Vol. 3: Lyric Works (ed. Together with Anton H. Touber), De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2012. ISBN 978-3-11-022974-5 .
  • Pictures from the Middle Ages. A Berlin lecture series (edited together with Carmen Stange). (Aventiuren. Special volume) V&R unipress, Göttingen 2007. ISBN 978-3899713107 .
  • Walther reading. Interpretations and reflections on Walther von der Vogelweide. Festschrift for Ursula Schulze on her 65th birthday (ed. Together with U. Müller), Kümmerle Verlag, Göppingen 2001. ISBN 978-3874529419 .
  • The German sermon in the Middle Ages. International symposium at the Department of German Studies at the Free University of Berlin from October 3 to October 6, 1989. (Ed. Together with H.-J. Schiewer) Niemeyer, Tübingen 1992. ISBN 978-3484106703 .
  • Epic material from the Middle Ages (ed. Together with Ulrich Müller). Kröner, Stuttgart 1984. ISBN 978-3520483010 .

Festschriften for Volker Mertens

  • Literary life: role drafts in literature of the high and late middle ages. Festschrift for Volker Mertens on his 65th birthday. Ed. V. Matthias Meyer and Hans-Jochen Schiewer, Tübingen 2002. ISBN 978-3484640214 .
  • Read Mertens. Exemplary readings for Volker Mertens on his 75th birthday . Ed. V. Monika Costard, Jacob Klingner and Carmen Stange. Göttingen 2012. ISBN 978-3-8470-0035-8

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Mertens, Volker
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Germanist
DATE OF BIRTH September 14, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Hildesheim