Wolfgang Robert Griepenkerl

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Wolfgang Robert Griepenkerl

Wolfgang Robert Griepenkerl (born May 4, 1810 in Hofwil near Bern , † October 16, 1868 in Braunschweig ) was a German playwright , storyteller and art critic .

Life

The Swiss- born son of the pedagogue and musicologist Friedrich Konrad Griepenkerl (1782–1849) came to Braunschweig with his father in 1816. There he attended the Katharineum and the Collegium Carolinum , where his father was a professor. From 1831 to 1835 he studied theology in Berlin and pursued philosophical, aesthetic and literary studies. In 1839 he was in Jena to the Dr. phil. PhD. In the same year he began lecturing on the history of art and literature at the Braunschweig Collegium Carolinum, where he also held a professorship for German language and literature from 1844 to 1847, albeit without a salary. From 1840 to 1847 he was married to Auguste von Morgenstern († after 1869). She was the daughter of the Prussian major Friedrich Morgenstern (1786–1855) and niece of the director of the Brunswick War College Franz Morgenstern (1787–1869). One son died at the age of one and a half.

Revolutionary dramatist and "German Shakespeare"

As a freelance writer, Griepenkerl published the dramas Maximilian Robespierre (1849) and The Girondists (1852), which were influenced by the 1848 revolution . The performances at the Braunschweiger Hoftheater and then on all major German stages brought Griepenkerl to the height of his literary fame. He was hailed by critics as a "German Shakespeare".

Social descent

Less successful dramas and slow social decline followed. In 1860 he was sentenced to prison for fraudulent bankruptcy. Wilhelm Raabe , who met him several times in 1858 and 1859, noted in his memoirs: “Constant intercourse with Griepenkerl could not be maintained. The weak-willed sank lower and lower. Even today I can see him stumbling drunk through the alleys and finally falling into the spurting gutter. ... But he shouldn't be condemned. He died at the Duchy of Braunschweig. Have we ever understood how to support a genius? "

Griepenkerl died embittered and impoverished in 1868. He was buried in the Brunswick Katharinenfriedhof . His grave was saved from leveling in October 1937. The Griepenkerlstraße in Braunschweig is named after Robert Griepenkerl and his father.

plant

As a writer he made his debut with the pictures of ancient Greek times (Berlin, 1833), to which the epic poem The Sistine Madonna (Braunschweig, 1836), the novella Das Musikfest or the Beethoven (Leipzig, 1838; 2nd edition, Braunschweig, 1841), the Treatises of Ritter Berlioz in Braunschweig (Braunschweig, 1843), Die Oper der Gegenwart (Leipzig, 1847), in which he sought to work towards a redesign of the art of music, followed. After the two above-mentioned revolutionary dramas, he also created the often performed plays Ideal and World (Weimar, 1855) and Auf der high Rast (Freiberg, 1860), the drama Auf St. Helena (Hamburg, 1862) and a volume of short stories (Braunschweig, 1868).

Works (selection)

  • Images of ancient Greek times. Mittler, Berlin 1833. ( digitized version )
  • The Sistine Madonna. A narrative poem in 10 songs. Vieweg, Braunschweig 1836. ( digitized version )
  • The music festival or the Beethoven. Novella. Wigand, Leipzig 1838. ( digitized version )
  • Knight Berlioz in Braunschweig. About the characteristics of this tone poet. Leibrock, Braunschweig 1843. ( digitized version )
  • The artistic genius of German literature of the last century, in its historically organic development. Lectures. 1. Hinrichs, Leipzig 1846. ( digitized version )
  • Dramatic works. Schlodtmann, Bremen 1851-1855.
  • On the high rest. Dramatic painting from the life of a miner in four elevators. Engelhardt, Freiberg 1860. ( digitized version )
  • To Sanct Helena. Drama in three acts. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1862. ( digitized version )

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Griepenkerl, Wolfgang Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Griepenkerl, Robert Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German playwright, storyteller and art critic
DATE OF BIRTH May 4, 1810
PLACE OF BIRTH Hofwil , Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH October 16, 1868
Place of death Braunschweig