Berthold Auerbach

Auerbach, Berthold (Nordstetten, Black Forest, 1812-82, Cannes), whose real name was Moyses Baruch, came of a poor Jewish family and was originally intended to be a rabbi. He turned away, however, from Jewish theology to study law and philosophy at Tübingen and Munich universities. From the latter he was sent down as a ‘demagogue’ (he was a member of the Burschenschaft) and in 1837 he was imprisoned for two months in the fortress of Hohenasperg in Württemberg. After completing his studies in Heidelberg he became associated with the Young German movement (see Junges Deutschland), wrote a tract Das Judentum und die neueste Literatur (1836) directed against W. Menzel, the arch-enemy of Young Germany, and collaborated in Lewald's magazine Europa (1838-40). His first novels were Spinoza (2 vols., 1837) and Dichter und Kaufmann (2 vols., 1840), both historical. Spinoza was the expression of Auerbach's admiration for the philosopher (see Spinoza, B. de); Dichter und Kaufmann treats, with much detail of Jewish life, the obscure 18th-c. German-Jewish poet Ephraim Kuh. Auerbach established himself with Schwarzwälder Dorfgeschichten (4 vols., 1843-53), twenty stories in which the simplicity of rural life is, by implication, elevated above the complexities and insincerities of urban existence, or else the two contrasting environments are brought into confrontation, as in Die Frau Professorin (1846). These stories caught on with the public, and Auerbach, relieved of the pressure of poverty, lived in various cities, including Dresden (1850-9), settling for the rest of his life in Berlin. The volume Schrift und Volk. Grundzüge der volkstümlichen Literatur, angeschlossen an eine Charakteristik J. P. Hebels (1846) makes plain his support of folk poetry and literature on political and social grounds. In 1850 appeared his tragedy Andre Hofer (see Hofer, A.). Neues Leben (3 vols., 1852), a novel in which the aristocrat becomes a village schoolmaster, further reflects Auerbach's political and social views. Barfüßele (1856), Joseph im Schnee (1860), and Edelweiß (1861), in spite of sentimentality, are among his most attractive stories with Black Forest settings. Auf der Höhe (3 vols., 1865) shows political conflict resolved in democratic harmony, and Das Landhaus am Rhein (5 vols., 1869), with its modern picture of a ‘Napoleon of commerce’, contains some of Auerbach's most acute and convincing portrayals of character. The political novel Waldfried (3 vols.) appeared in 1874 and his last novel, Der Forstmeister (2 vols.), in 1879. Auerbach's fiction has mostly been dismissed as sentimental or didactic, but he possessed a real grasp of character and an ability to evoke the urban and Black Forest backgrounds which he knew so well.

Sämtliche Schwarzwälder Dorfgeschichten appeared in 1871 in 8 vols., and in 1884 in 10 vols. Gesammelte Schriften (20 vols.) appeared 1857-8, and Werke (22 vols.), 1863-4. A selection, ed. A. Bettelheim (15 vols.) appeared in 1913. Briefe an seinen Freund Jakob Auerbach (2 vols.) was published in 1884 with an introduction by F. Spielhagen. Extant unpublished writings appeared in 1893 as Dramatische Eindrücke.

Sketch of Berthold Auerbach

Berthold Auerbach (February 28, 1812 – February 8, 1882) was a German-Jewish poet and author.

Moses (Moyses) Baruch Auerbach was born in Nordstetten (now Horb am Neckar) in the Kingdom of Württemberg.

On the completion of his studies at the universities of Tübingen, Munich and Heidelberg, he immediately devoted himself to literature. His first publication dealt with "Judaism and Recent Literature", and was to be followed by a series of novels taken from Jewish history. Of this intended series he actually published, with considerable success, Spinoza and Poet and Merchant. But real fame and popularity came to him when he began to occupy himself with the life of the general people which forms the subject of his best-known works. In these later books, of which On the Height is perhaps the most characteristic and certainly the most famous, he revealed an unrivaled insight into the soul of the Southern German country folk, and especially of the peasants of the Black Forest and the Bavarian Alps. His descriptions are remarkable for their fresh realism, graceful style and humour. In addition to these qualities, his last books are marked by great subtlety of psychological analysis. "On the Height" was first published at Stuttgart in 1861, and has been translated into several languages.

Auerbach died at Cannes shortly before his 70th birthday.

Literature on Auerbach

• Jonathan Skolnik, "Writing Jewish History Between Gutzkow and Goethe: Auerbach's Spinoza" in Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History (1999)
• Zabel, Berthold Auerbach (Berlin, 1882)
• E. Lasker, Berthold Auerbach, ein Gedenkblatt (1882)
• A. Bettelheim, B. Auerbach, der Mann, sein Werk (1907)

External links

• Works by Berthold Auerbach at Project Gutenberg
• Works by Berthold Auerbach at Internet Archive

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