William Lewis Hertslet
William Lewis Hertslet (born November 21, 1839 in Memel ; † May 2, 1898 in Berlin-Friedenau ) was a banker, writer and author of the book The stair joke of world history .
Live and act
He was the son of the British consul at Memel, WJ Hertslet. After attending secondary school, he joined his father's business and then continued his commercial training in London. Back in Germany, Hertslet worked for the English railway company Bray, and later he set up a banking business in Berlin. From 1895 he devoted himself entirely to writing.
The Neue Deutsche Biographie notes about him:
“He made use of his extraordinary literacy and historical education as a collaborator on Büchmann's 'Winged Words' and for his work 'The stair joke of world history', which has become famous similar to the 'Büchmann'. He defined the 'stair joke', which he introduced as a German term for the French 'esprit d'escalier', using the following image: 'Just like the supplicant coming down the stairs from the audience, the story almost always comes up with a piquant, just fitting word afterwards one. Only it will be easier for her than the supplicant to have what she missed subsequently entered in the protocol ... '"
The stair joke of world history was initially 60 pages long (1882), but in the 4th edition in 1895 it already comprised 469 pages and has been published again and again to this day, in sequence by Hans Ferdinand Helmolt , Friedrich Wencker-Wildberg and Winfried Hofmann.
William Lewis Hertslet died in 1898 at the age of 58 in Friedenau near Berlin and was buried in the Old St. Matthew Cemetery in Schöneberg . The grave has not been preserved.
literature
- Friedrich Wencker-Wildberg : Hertslet, William Lewis. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , pp. 704 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Ludwig Fränkel: Hertslet, William Lewis . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 50, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1905, pp. 254-256.
- William Lewis Hertslet: The stair joke of world history. Historical errors, distortions and inventions 6th edition Haude & Spener in Berlin, 1905 (full text); 10th edition, edited by Hans Helmolt , 2nd unaltered reprint Berlin 1927.
Web links
- Literature by and about William Lewis Hertslet in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Friedrich Wencker-Wildberg : Hertslet, William Lewis. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , pp. 704 f. ( Digitized version ).
- ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende: Lexicon of Berlin tombs . Haude & Spener, Berlin 2006. p. 303.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hertslet, William Lewis |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German banker and writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 21, 1839 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Memel |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 2, 1898 |
| Place of death | Berlin-Friedenau |