Wilhelm Creizenach

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Wilhelm Michael Anton Creizenach (born June 4, 1851 in Frankfurt am Main ; † May 13, 1919 Dresden ) was a German literary scholar, particularly in the field of German and English drama, professor in Cracow and member of the Academy of Arts and Knowledge .

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Creizenach came from an old, highly respected Jewish family in Frankfurt. His grandfather Michael Creizenach was an enlightened theologian who succeeded Moses Mendelssohn and was a reformed teacher, his father Theodor was a high school professor and literary historian, whose “poems” and “poems” were rooted in Judaism, but who “lifted his people through freedom and made them truly German “Wanted and converted to Protestantism in 1854. About a baptism of his mother, the banker's daughter Louise Amalie geb. Flersheim (1824–1907), nothing is known.

Wilhelm Creizenach studied history, German and Romance languages from 1870 to 1874 in Göttingen and Leipzig, as well as Sanskrit for a year with Berthold Delbrück in Jena . In Leipzig he received his doctorate in 1875 under Friedrich Zarncke with a dissertation on Judas Ischariot in Legende und Sage des Mittelalter , which was also published in print that same year, and completed his habilitation there in 1879 on the basis of a work on the development of the more recent German comedy . In the years in between he did research and worked at the university libraries of Jena and Breslau , and during his time as a private lecturer for German language and literature at the University of Leipzig, he was also able to use the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris as a library assistant in 1882/83

In 1883 Creizenach received a call as associate professor for German language and literature at the famous Jagiellonian University in Krakow , then Austria , where the first chair for German studies was established in 1850 and occupied by Karl Weinhold . Two years later after Creizenach's appointment, the chair was expanded to include a seminar (i.e. the institute) for German , English and Scandinavian studies , and Creizenach was appointed its first director. In 1886 he was appointed full professor, in 1901/02 he was dean of the philosophical faculty, in 1895 he was elected a corresponding member and in 1904 a full member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences (Akademia Umiejętości) in Cracow. In 1912/13 he withdrew from teaching and moved to Dresden in order to devote himself entirely to completing his life's work, the five-volume history of the more recent drama , which has remained a reference work to this day.

Creizenach researched and taught primarily the history of German literature from the Middle Ages to Romanticism, dealing particularly with the drama, with Goethe, whose Wilhelm Meister he edited in Kürschner's German National Literature, with the figure of Faust, but also with historical grammar. Creizenach found the greatest recognition in the Anglo-Saxon region as a researcher of English drama in Shakespeare's time, as evidenced by the multiple reprints of his work in this regard by British and American publishers up to the very recent times. The international recognition that his research received is also reflected in his honorable election as "foreign member" of the Dutch Literary Society in Liège and as an honorary member of the Shakespeare Society. He published not only in German, but also in English and, from 1883, also in Polish.

Most of Creizenach's literary estate is in the archive of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences (PAU) in Cracow, and his correspondence is in the Biblioteka Jagiellońska of Cracow University, to which he bequeathed his collection of almost 3,000 volumes, mainly on the history of drama, in 1919 .

Publications (selection)

  • Legends and sagas of Pilate . In: Contributions to the history of the German language and literature. (PBB) 1 (1874), pp. 89-107.
  • Armin in poetry and literary history . Berlin 1875
  • Judas Iscariot in legend and saga of the Middle Ages . Diss. Leipzig 1875. In: Contributions to the history of the German language and literature. 2 (1876), pp. 177–207 and special edition, E. Karras, Halle a. P. 1876
  • An attempt at a story of folk drama by Doctor Faust , Habil. Writing Univ. Leipzig, Niemeyer, Halle / Saale 1878
  • On the genesis of the new German comedy . Niemeyer and E. Karras, Halle / Saale 1879
  • The stage history of Goethe's "Faust" . Rütten & Loening, Frankfurt am Main 1881.
  • New messages about Caroline Neuber. Reprint from: Grenzbote Nr. 2, Herbif, Leipzig 1882
  • “Faust” w pomyśle Lessinga . 1883
  • To Greene's James the Fourth . Niemeyer, Halle as 1885
  • Dramatic estate from JMR Lenz. For the first time ed. v. Karl Weinhold . In: Studies on the History of Dramatic Poetry in the Seventeenth Century . In: Literarisches Centralblatt für Deutschland Jg. 1884, No. 37, Leipzig 1884, Sp. 1290f.
  • Studies on the History of Dramatic Poetry in the 17th Century. Leipzig 1886
  • The tragedies of the Dutchman Jan Vos on the German stage. 1886.
  • The punished fratricide . Reports of the philological-historical class of the Royal Saxon Society of Sciences 1886; Teubner, Leipzig 1887, pp. 1ff.
  • The tragedy “The punished fratricide or, Prince Hamlet from Denmark” and its significance for the criticism of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Hirzel, Leipzig 1887
  • The "Punished Fratricide" and Its Relation to Shakespeare's "Hamlet". In: Modern Philology. 10 (1904), University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1904
  • Wilhelm Scherer on the genesis of Goethe's Faust; a contribution to the history of the literary humbug. Reprint from Grenzbote No. 7, FW Grunow, Carl Marquart, Leipzig 1887
  • The oldest Faust prologue . Self-published, printing house of the Imperial and Royal Jagellon University, Cracow 1887.
  • O młodych latach Schillera . Krakow 1887
  • The plays of the English comedians . Kürschner's German National Literature XXIII; Spemann, Berlin-Stuttgart 1889. Reprint: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1967. Reprint: Sansyusya, Tokyo 1974
  • On the history of the Christmas games and the Christmas festival. Based on manuscripts from the Cracow University Library (No. 3526 and No. 3361) . In: Contributions to folklore. Festschrift for Karl Weinhold on the 50th anniversary of his doctorate, presented on behalf of the Silesian Society for Folklore by Wilhelm Creizenach . Germanistische Abhandlungen 12, Koebner, Breslau 1896; Marcus, Breslau 1896. Reprint: Olms, Hildesheim-New York 1977, ISBN 3-487-06166-X
  • History of recent drama . 5 volumes, Niemeyer, Halle / Saale 1893–1916
    1st volume: Middle Ages and Early Renaissance , 1893
    2nd volume: Renaissance and Reformation 1st part, 1901
    3rd volume: Renaissance and Reformation 2nd part, 1903
    4th volume: The English Drama in the Age of Shakespeare 1st Part , 1909
    5th Volume: The English Drama in the Age of Shakespeare 2nd Part 1916; Reprint 2nd verb. Halle 1911–1923, reprint: Blom, New York 1965
  • The English Drama in the Age of Shakespeare . Philadelphia-London 1916. Reprints: Haskell House, New York 1964. Russell & Russell, New York 1967; University Press of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaii, 2005, ISBN 1-4102-2403-1 ; International Law & Taxation Publishers, London 2005, ISBN 1-4102-2403-1 .
  • Greene on Shakespeare . Vienna-Leipzig 1898
  • O niemieckim opracowaniu “Hamleta” Szekspirowskiego z XVII wieku . 1904
  • Badania nad komedyą Szekspira “Poskromienie złośnicy” . 1909
  • The Early Religious Drama . In: Cambridge History of English Literature. Volume 5.1. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1910
  • (Ed.): Johann Wolfgang Goethe: Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre. With an introduction and comments by Wilhelm Creizenach. In: Eduard von der Hellen (Hrsg.): Goethe's complete works, anniversary edition in 40 volumes. Volume 17/18. Cotta, Stuttgart 1904
  • Over 20 biographies in the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB)

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Wilhelm Creizenach  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Adolf Brüll's biography of W. Creizenach's grandfather: Adolf Brüll:  Creizenach, Michael . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 47, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1903, pp. 546-549.
  2. ↑ See W. Creizenach's biography of his father: Wilhelm Creizenach:  Creizenach, Theodor . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 47, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1903, pp. 549-553.
  3. ^ Meyers Conversationslexikon 1888, p. 4.331
    Creizenach, Theod. Adolf . In: Brockhaus Konversations-Lexikon 1894–1896, Volume 4, p. 585 (additional entry with father).
  4. ↑ Der Große Brockhaus , 20 volumes; Leipzig 1928–1935; Volume 4 (1929), p. 273
  5. ↑ see Thuringian University and State Library
  6. ^ Christoph König: Internationales Germanistenlexikon 1800–1950 . de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, p. 346.
  7. ↑ Olga Dobijanska-Witeczakowa: The history of the chair for German, English and Scandinavian studies in Poland , Westpfälzische Verlagsdruckerei, St. Ingbert 1995, pp. 75–98
  8. ↑ a b IGL 1800–1950, p. 346
  9. ^ Bernhard Fabian: Handbook of German Historical Book Holdings in Europe , Volume 6 : An overview of collections in selected libraries ; Hildesheim, New York: Olms, 1997; ISBN 9783487103594 ; P. 109
personal data
SURNAME Creizenach, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Creizenach, Wilhelm Michael; Creizenach, Wilhelm Michael Anton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German literary scholar
DATE OF BIRTH June 4, 1851
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH May 13, 1919
Place of death Dresden