Johann Christoph Gottsched

(b Juditten, 2 Feb 1700; d Leipzig, 12 Dec 1766). German writer and critic, a leading figure in the literary reform movement of the German Enlightenment. Though he rejected opera, his ideas for the theatre foreshadowed Gluck. He was one of the first to urge the use of incidental music between the acts of plays. He wrote texts for several secular works by Bach.

Gottsched, Johann Christoph (Judittenkirchen nr. Königsberg, 1700-66, Leipzig), son of a Protestant pastor, began to study theology at Königsberg University when still under 15, later changing his course to philosophy and literature. In 1723 he qualified to give lectures at the university. Because of his height and strong build (Goethe described him as ‘der große, breite, riesenhafte Mann’) Gottsched was in danger of compulsory enrolment in King Friedrich Wilhelm I's pet regiment of tall grenadiers, and he therefore slipped out of Prussia to Saxony, establishing himself at Leipzig. Up to this point, his writings had consisted mainly of occasional poems. In Leipzig he became tutor to the sons of Johann Burkhard Mencke, president of the Deutschübende Poetische Gesellschaft in which Gottsched became ‘Senior’ in 1726. He reorganized the society in the following year, changing its title to Die Deutsche Gesellschaft, and using it to serve his own reformative literary purposes. He was appointed a supernumerary professor at Leipzig University in 1730 and Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in 1734.

Gottsched, who was a man of strong character, energy, and determination, conceived the idea of a linguistic reform which should establish a single German educated tongue, based on Saxon usage, and of a literary renewal which was to assimilate German poetry and drama to the admired French model. Nearly all the works he published in the 1730s were designed to support this policy, for which he could claim Opitz as an antecedent. They include the literary periodical Beyträge zur kritischen Historie der deutschen Sprache, Poesie und Beredsamkeit (1732-44) and especially his Versuch einer critischen Dichtkunst vor die Deutschen (1730). His efforts to reform the theatre were seconded by an alliance with the troupe of Friederike Neuber (1697-1760), which performed his tragedy Der sterbende Cato (1732), and by the translations and original writings of his wife, Luise Adelgunde Gottsched. In conjunction with Frau Neuber's troupe a ceremony was held in 1737 banning the clown (see Hanswurst) from the stage. Gottsched set about establishing a repertoire of modern German plays after the French classical model, publishing from 1740 to 1745 the six volumes of Die deutsche Schaubühne (Pts. 4-6 reprinted 1972). He also wrote a compendium of philosophy, Erste Gründe der gesamten Weltweisheit (2 vols., 1733, repr. 1965), based on the teachings of C. Wolff.

Gottsched's considerable reputation began to wane about 1740. His obstinate character involved him in sterile and sometimes ridiculous disputes, and his dictatorial attitude provoked a growing opposition. His authority was flouted by the Swiss professors J. J. Bodmer and J. J. Breitinger, whom he attacked as Merbod and Greibertin in his satire Der Dichterkrieg (1741); and in 1741 Frau Neuber turned against him and burlesqued him on the stage. In his last years Gottsched was a lonely figure, whose remarkable combination of dignity and indignity is portrayed by Goethe in Dichtung und Wahrheit, Bk. II, 7. His services to German literature have often been ridiculed along the lines of Lessing's savage attack in the 17th Literaturbrief (1759; see Literaturbriefe). His Francophile ideal of literature was hardly suited to German conditions, and his inflexibility was a serious hindrance, but he took German literature seriously and induced others to do the same. His philological efforts (Grundlegung einer deutschen Sprachkunst, 1748) have had a better reception, and he also compiled a valuable bibliographical work, Nötiger Vorrat zur Geschichte der deutschen dramatischen Dichtkunst (1757-65). Gottsched was a pioneer with moralizing weeklies (see Moralische Wochenschriften), publishing Die vernünftigen Tadlerinnen (1725-6) and Der Biedermann (1727-9, repr. 1975, ed. W. Martens). He was, in addition, the editor of the literary periodical Das Neueste aus der anmutigen Gelehrsamkeit (1751-62). His translations include Bayle's Dictionnaire, plays of Racine, and the Théodicée of Leibniz. Gottsched is a leading character in H. Laube's comedy Gottsched und Gellert.

Ausgewählte Werke (12 vols.) were edited by J. Birke and P. M. Mitchell, 1968 ff.

Johann Christoph Gottsched
Johann Christoph Gottsched
Born	2 February 1700(1700-02-02) Juditten, Prussia
Died	12 December 1766 (aged 66) Leipzig, Germany

Johann Christoph Gottsched (2 February 1700 – 12 December 1766), was a German author and critic.

He was born at Juditten near Königsberg, Brandenburg-Prussia, the son of a Lutheran clergyman. He studied philosophy and history at the University of Königsberg, but immediately on taking the degree of Magister in 1723, he fled to Leipzig in order to avoid being drafted into the Prussian army. In Leipzig he enjoyed the protection of JB Mencke, who, under the name of "Philander von der Linde," was a well-known poet and president of the Deutschübende poetische Gesellschaft in Leipzig. Of this society Gottsched was elected "Senior" in 1726, and in the next year reorganized it under the title of the Deutsche Gesellschaft. In 1730 he was appointed extraordinary professor of poetry, and, in 1734, ordinary professor of logic and metaphysics in the university. He died at Leipzig.

Gottsched's chief work was his Versuch einer kritischen Dichtkunst für die Deutschen (1730), the first systematic treatise in German on the art of poetry from the standpoint of Boileau. His Ausführliche Redekunst (1728) and his Grundlegung einer deutschen Sprachkunst (1748) were of importance for the development of German style and the purification of the language. He wrote several plays, of which Der sterbende Cato (1732), an adaptation of Joseph Addison's tragedy and a French play on the same theme, was long popular on the stage. In his Deutsche Schaubühne (6 volumes, 1740-1745), which contained mainly translations from the French, he provided the German stage with a classical repertory, and his bibliography of the German drama, Nötiger Vorrat zur Geschichte der deutschen dramatischen Dichtkunst (1757-1765), is still valuable. He was also the editor of several journals devoted to literary criticism.

As a critic, Gottsched insisted on German literature being subordinated to the laws of French classicism; he enunciated rules by which the playwright must be bound, and abolished bombast and buffoonery from the serious stage. While such reforms obviously afforded a healthy corrective to the extravagance and want of taste which were rampant in the German literature of the time, Gottsched went too far. In 1740 he came into conflict with the Swiss writers Johann Jakob Bodmer and Johann Jakob Breitinger (1701-1776), who, under the influence of Addison and contemporary Italian critics, demanded that the poetic imagination should not be hampered by artificial rules; they pointed to the great English poets, and especially to Milton. Gottsched, although not blind to the beauties of the English writers, clung the more tenaciously to his principle that poetry must be the product of rules, and, in the fierce controversy which for a time raged between Leipzig and Zürich, he was inevitably defeated. His influence speedily declined, and before his death his name became proverbial for pedantic folly.

Gottsched died in Leipzig at the age of 66.

His wife, Luise Kulmus was also a prominent author.

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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