Klaus Groth

Groth, Klaus Johann (Heide, Holstein, 1819-99, Kiel), a countryman by birth and upbringing, from the district of Dithmarschen, became in his teens factotum to the parish clerk, and was then trained at Tondern as a teacher. From 1841 to 1847 he taught in a girls' school in Heide; he spent his leisure hours in the study of the dialect of the region, working so hard that in 1847 he had a breakdown. From then until 1853 he lived at the home of a friend on the Baltic island of Fehmarn, writing his best-known work, the collection of poems in Low German dialect (Holsteiner Platt), which was published in 1852 as Quickborn. From 1853 to 1855 he worked at Kiel with K. Müllenhoff (1818-84) on the orthography of Holstein dialect, and in the following years visited Bonn, Leipzig, Dresden, and Weimar. He married in 1858 and became a professor at Kiel University in 1866. He visited England in 1872-3.

Groth's other publications did not equal Quickborn (which was expanded in 1853, 1854, and especially in 1871) either in popularity or importance. They include Hundert Blätter (1854, in High German), Vertelln (2 vols. of stories, 1855-9), the verse idyll Rotgetermeister Lamp un sin Dochder (1862), and a further set of stories (Ut min Jungsparadies, 1876). He also published treatises on dialect (Briefe über Hochdeutsch und Plattdeutsch, 1858; Über Mundarten und mundartige Dichtung, 1876). He was awarded the Schiller prize in 1890. Groth's importance lies in his combination of dialect poet, scholar, and propagandist. The seriousness with which he approached the matter is reflected in his rejection of Reuter's Läuschen un Rimels as frivolous. His poetry is simple in structure, warm in tone, and inclined to sentimentality.

Gesammelte Werke appeared in 1893 (4 vols.) and Sämtliche Werke, 1952-65 (8 vols.).

Klaus Groth (1888, by C.W.Allers)

Klaus Groth (April 24, 1819 - June 1, 1899), Low German poet, was born at Heide in Schleswig-Holstein.

After studying at the seminary in Tondern (1838–1841), he became a teacher at the girls school in his native village, but in 1847 went to Kiel to qualify for a higher educational post. Ill health interrupted his studies and it was not until 1853 that he was able to resume them at Kiel. In 1856 he took the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Bonn, and in 1858 settled as Privatdozent in German literature and languages at Kiel, where, in 1866, he was made professor, and where he lived until his death.

Groth was good friends with Johannes Brahms, and Brahms set many of his songs to music.

In his Low Saxon (Low German, Plattdüütsch) lyric and epic poems, which reflect the influence of Johann Peter Hebel, Groth gives poetic expression to the country life of his northern home; and though his descriptions may not always reflect the peculiar characteristics of the peasantry of Holstein as faithfully as those of Fritz Reuter, yet Groth is a lyric poet of genuine inspiration.

His chief works are Quickborn, Volksleben - in plattdeutschen Gedichten Ditmarscher Mundart (1852; 25th ed. 1900; and in (standard) German translations, notably by MJ Berchem, Krefeld, 1896); and two volumes of stories, Vertelln (1835-1859, 3rd ed. 1881); also Vær de Görn (1858) and Ut min Jungsparadies (1875).

Groth's Gesammelte Werke appeared in 4 vols (1893). His Lebenserinnerungen were edited by E. Wolff in 1891; see also K. Eggers, K. Groth und die plattdeutsche Dichtung (1885); and biographies by A. Bartels (1899) and H. Siercks (1899).

External links

• http://lowlands-l.net/groth/ (selected poems with English translations)

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