Werner Kohlschmidt

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Werner Kohlschmidt (born April 24, 1904 in Magdeburg , † April 27, 1983 in Muri bei Bern ) was a German German studies specialist , most recently full professor for modern German language and literature in Bern .

Life

On his father's side, Kohlschmidt comes from a Thuringian theologian family. He is the son of the later superintendent in Calbe Oskar Friedrich Kohlschmidt . The mother Else geb. Nippold was the daughter of the church historian Friedrich Nippold and sister of the international lawyer Otfried Nippold . Werner Kohlschmidt was married to Hildburg geb. Geist (* July 24, 1900, † December 4, 1981). The couple had two adopted sons.

After graduating from high school in 1923, Kohlschmidt studied German, theology and art history in Marburg , Berlin and Göttingen . He received his doctorate in 1929 in Göttingen on Herder's critical style and its basic literary insights. From 1931 to 1938 Kohlschmidt worked as a teacher in the Hanover school service. He began his university career with a habilitation in 1938 on the subject of "Self-confidence and the fate of death in the song of the German soldier. Investigations into the history of the German soldier's song and the determination of the sentimental folk song".

Kohlschmidt was a lecturer at the University of Göttingen from 1939 to 1940 , from 1941 to 1944 a permanent lecturer at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau , from 1944 to 1953 full professor in Kiel and from 1953 to 1971 full professor in Bern, Switzerland. He retired in 1971 and was a visiting professor at Aarhus University, Denmark, in 1972.

During the Second World War he was drafted into the military several times. From 1934 membership in the Confessing Church, which was critical of National Socialism; nevertheless he was a member of the NSDAP since 1937.

Werner Kohlschmidt had a special relationship with Switzerland, as he and his parents visited it almost every year as a child. On February 19, 1942, he applied to leave Switzerland to do research on Swiss writers. This trip was not approved and his passport was confiscated.

As the son of a pastor, K. remained connected to the (Protestant) Church throughout his life. In addition to participating in the Confessing Church in Hanover, he also worked in the Confessing Church of Northern Elbe, following a request from Anna Paulsen in 1946. In 1947 he was appointed to the fraternity council as head of the school commission.

Kohlschmidt's estate is in the Bern Burger Library .

Fonts (selection)

  • Rainer Maria Rilke. Lübeck 1948
  • Rilke interpretations. Lahr 1948
  • The divided world. Gladbeck 1953
  • Form and inwardness. Contributions to the history and impact of German Classical and Romanticism, Bern 1953 (Dalp Collection)
  • Poet, tradition and zeitgeist. Collected studies on literary history. Bern and Munich 1965.
  • Sturm und Drang / The Classic / The Romantic. In: Bruno Boesch (Hrsg.): German history of literature in basics. The Epochs of German Poetry. 3. Edition. Bern and Munich 1967.
  • History of German literature from the baroque to the classical, Stuttgart 1965 (translation of the second part into English). London and New York 1971.
  • History of German literature from Romanticism to Goethe's death. Stuttgart 1974.
  • History of German Literature from Young Germany to Naturalism. Stuttgart 1975.
  • Contours and transitions. Twelve essays on the literature of our century. Bern and Munich 1977.

As editor

  • The German Soldier's Song according to its main motifs and their development (selection), Berlin 1935
  • Late times and late temporality. Lectures given at the II International Germanist Congress 1960 in Copenhagen, Berne 1962
  • Together with Wolfgang Mohr : Reallexikon der deutschen Literaturgeschichte. 2nd Edition. Volume 1-3. Berlin 1955–1976.
  • Together with Hermann Meyer: tradition and originality. Files of the III. International Germanist Congress 1965 in Amsterdam.
  • Together with Paul Zinsli: Philologia Deutsch. Festschrift for the 70th birthday of Walter Henzen. Bern 1965.
  • Together with Hildburg Kohlschmidt: Novalis, Gesammelte Werke (introduction and edition). Gütersloh 1967.
  • Together with Hildburg Kohlschmidt: Theodor Storm - Eduard Mörike. Theodor Storm - Margarete Mörike. Correspondence. Critical edition in connection with the Theodor Storm Society. Berlin 1978.

student

  • Participants in World War II in Kiel (selection): Dietrich Jöns, Werner Klose, Herbert Lehnert.
  • Students in Bern (selection): Rätus Luck, Hans Jürg Lüthi, Alfred Reber, Hellmut Thomke.

literature

Articles / obituaries (selection)

  • Ueli Jaussi: Prof. Dr. Werner Kohlschmidt at the age of 75. Open conversation partner of the students. Berner Zeitung, April 24, 1979.
  • Paul Zinsli: Professor Werner Kohlschmidt in memory. The Federal Government, April 30, 1983.
  • Hellmut Thomke: writer of old grist and grain. Berner Zeitung, May 3, 1983.
  • Paul Zinsli: German Studies in European Contexts. Werner Kohlschmidt in memory. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, May 3, 1983.
  • Maria Bindschedler, Paul Zinsli (ed.): History, interpretation, criticism. Literary contributions made on the occasion of Werner Kohlschmidt's 65th birthday (contains bibliography of W. Kohlschmidt's publications)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rosmarie Zeller: Werner Kohlschmidt. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  2. ↑ Documents on this in the University Archives Freiburg im Breisgau
  3. ↑ Werner Kohlschmidt's estate in the Bern Burger Library catalog

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kohlschmidt, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Germanist
DATE OF BIRTH April 24, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Magdeburg
DATE OF DEATH April 27, 1983
Place of death Muri near Bern