Wolfgang Menzel (literary historian)

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Wolfgang Menzel
Menzel's portrait on his tombstone
Menzel's grave in the Hoppenlau cemetery in Stuttgart

Wolfgang Menzel (born June 21, 1798 in Waldenburg (now Polish Wałbrzych ), Silesia , † April 23, 1873 in Stuttgart ) was a German literary critic , literary historian and writer in the Vormärz . The famous saying of the poets and thinkers , which he published in 1828, is attributed to him.

Life

Wolfgang Menzel, the evangelical baptized son of a doctor, took part in the wars of liberation against Napoleon . In 1817 he graduated from high school in Breslau . From 1818 to 1820 he studied history, philosophy and literature at the universities in Jena and Bonn . During his studies he became a member of the original fraternity in 1818/19 and was co-founder of the old Bonn fraternity in 1819 . He was a friend of Karl Ludwig Sand and Heinrich Heine . In 1820 Wolfgang Menzel fled to Switzerland as he was persecuted for his activities in the fraternity movement. From 1820 to 1824 he was a teacher in Aarau and went to Heidelberg in 1824 .

From 1825 he was editor of the literary sheet for Cottas Morgenblatt for educated classes in Stuttgart. There he started a review campaign in the fall of 1835. a. against Karl Gutzkow , whom he brought to Stuttgart as an employee in 1831 and who had since distanced himself from him. Above all, his aggressively presented allegations of a moral, religious and nationalistic nature contributed decisively to an encroachment on literary life that was devastating for the history of German literature: the prohibition of the young Germany - which in this way only became a " school " .

His most important work is his literary history , first published in two volumes in 1828 and revised in 1836 as the second increased edition in four volumes. The first edition was u. a. of great influence on the young Karl Gutzkow , whose mentor Menzel was from 1830 to 1834.

The extremely contentious and opinionated Wolfgang Menzel was, like his critic Ludwig Börne, one of the sharpest opponents of Goethe in the Vormärz . Menzel's original liberalism turned into a folk- oriented nationalism over time .

From 1833 to 1838 and from 1848 to 1849 Menzel was a member of the Württemberg state parliament .

Works

  • Stretching verse . Heidelberg: Winter 1823.
  • (Red.) Literature sheet . Stuttgart / Tübingen: Cotta 1825–1849. Vol. 9–33 (Menzel is only mentioned as editor in the paper from 1830 onwards).
  • German literature. 2 volumes. Stuttgart: Franckh, 1828 ( digitized version and full text in the German text archive ).
  • German literature. Two volumes in one volume. With an afterword by Eva Becker. Hildesheim: Gerstenberg 1981 ( texts on lit. life around 1800. Ed. By Ernst Weber). ISBN 3-8067-0864-9 (reprint of the Stuttgart edition: Franckh 1828).
  • Rübezahl . Stuttgart 1829.
  • Journey to Austria in the summer of 1831 . Tübingen: Cotta 1832.
  • Spirit of the story . Stuttgart: Liesching 1835.
  • (Red.) Wolfgang Menzel's literary sheet . Stuttgart: Neff [from 1856: Menzel] 1852–1869. 18 yrs.
  • Christian symbolism , 2 volumes. Regensburg: Manz 1854.
  • History of the last forty years (1816–1856) . 2 volumes. Stuttgart: Krabbe 1857/1860.
  • History of the Germans down to the most recent days . 5 volumes. Stuttgart / Augsburg: Cotta (1855/1856)
  • German poetry from the oldest to the most recent . 3 volumes. Stuttgart: Krabbe 1858/1859.
  • Rome's injustice . Stuttgart: Kröner 1871.
  • History of the latest Jesuit activities in Germany (1870–1872) . Stuttgart: Kröner 1873.
  • Memorabilia . Edited by the son Konrad Menzel. Bielefeld / Leipzig: Velhagen & Klasing 1877.

literature

  • Heinrich Heine : About the informer. A preface to the third part of the salon . Hamburg: Hoffmann u. Campe 1837.
  • Ludwig Börne: Menzel, the French eater . Paris: Théophile Barrois fils 1837; ders .: All writings . Re-edit a. ed. v. Inge u. Peter Rippmann, Vol. 3. Düsseldorf: Melzer 1964, pp. 871-984.
  • Hermann Fischer :  Menzel, Wolfgang . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, pp. 382-384.
  • Heinrich Meisner u. Erich Schmidt (ed.): Letters to Wolfgang Menzel . With e. Introduction by Richard M. Meyer , Berlin: Verl. Der Litteraturarchiv-Gesellschaft 1908.
  • Friso Melzer : Church and Literature. History of Protestant literary criticism. Gütersloh: Bertelsmann 1933.
  • Carl Otto Colditz: Wolfgang Menzel as a literary critic. Chicago: Univ. Diss. 1934.
  • Emil Jenal: Wolfgang Menzel as a poet, literary historian and critic. Berlin: Junker and Dünnhaupt 1937 (= New German Research 133).
  • Wilhelm Winkler: Wolfgang Menzel's importance in the intellectual debates of the 19th century. Breslau: Priebatsch 1938 (language and culture of the Germanic-Romanic peoples, Germanistic series 25).
  • Erwin Schuppe: The fraternity member Wolfgang Menzel. A source for understanding National Socialism . Frankfurt am Main: Schulte-Bulmke 1952.
  • Wolfgang von Wartburg : Wolfgang Menzel (1798–1873). In: Argovia , annual journal of the Historical Society of the Canton of Aargau, Vol. 68–69, 1958, pp. 523–524 ( digitized version ).
  • Johannes Weber:  Menzel, Wolfgang. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , pp. 92-94 ( digitized version ).
  • Wolfgang Rasch: Bibliography Karl Gutzkow (1829-1880) . 1st part: primary literature ; Part 2: secondary literature . Bielefeld: Aisthesis 1998 ( Bibliographies on the History of German Literature , Vol. 5): Part 2, p. 549.
  • Gerhart Söhn: Wolfgang Menzel - Literature Pope of the 19th Century? His youth in Silesia. In: Yearbook of the Schlesische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Breslau 40–41 (1999–2000), pp. 174–186.
  • Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Sub-Volume 4: M-Q. Winter, Heidelberg 2000, ISBN 3-8253-1118-X , pp. 82-83.
  • Frank Raberg : Biographical handbook of the Württemberg state parliament members 1815-1933 . On behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-17-016604-2 , p. 561 .
  • Gerhart Söhn: Wolfgang Menzel. His life . Part 1. In: Heine-Jb. 43 (2004), pp. 191-215; Part 2: ibid. 44 (2005), pp. 132–151.

Web links

Commons : Wolfgang Menzel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Wolfgang Menzel  - Sources and full texts
Wikiquote: Wolfgang Menzel  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Spiegel-Online: Explosion des Wissens , August 2, 2010, accessed on August 7, 2010
  2. ^ Peter Kaupp (edit.): Stamm-Buch of the Jenaische Burschenschaft. The members of the original fraternity 1815-1819 (= treatises on student and higher education. Vol. 14). SH-Verlag, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-89498-156-3 , p. 144.
personal data
SURNAME Menzel, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German literary historian of the late Romantic period
DATE OF BIRTH June 21, 1798
PLACE OF BIRTH Waldenburg (now Polish Wałbrzych )
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 1873
Place of death Stuttgart