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Wilhelm Schäfer

 
German Literature Companion: Wilhelm Schäfer
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Schäfer, Wilhelm (Ottrau, Hesse, 1868-1952, Überlingen), of peasant stock, was trained as a teacher and taught in an elementary school (Volksschule) from 1888 to 1896, first in Vohwinkel, then in Elberfeld. He greatly admired Naturalistic writing and in 1894 published under its influence the stories collected in Mannsleut. He resigned his teaching post, travelled in France and Switzerland, and in 1900 became editor of the cultural journal Die Rheinlande (until 1918). His most successful works were collections of terse, mostly historical, anecdotes, inspired by the writings of J. P. Hebel. The first volume appeared as Anekdoten (1907), the second as 33 Anekdoten (1911), followed later by Neue Anekdoten (1926) and Wendekreis neuer Anekdoten (1937).

Schäfer was strongly nationalistic and much occupied with concepts such as Volkstum and Deutschheit, and he valued as his best work the pseudo-historical Dreizehn Bücher der deutschen Seele (1922). Of his many historical novels Lebenstag eines Menschenfreundes (1915, the story of Pestalozzi), Huldreich Zwingli (1926), and Der Hauptmann von Köpenick (1930) deserve mention. Schäfer also wrote a story about Hölderlin, Hölderlins Einkehr (1930). A second work entitled Huldreich Zwingli (1927), termed ‘Ein epischer Versuch’, is written in classical elegiac verse. Schäfer was one of the fourteen founder members appointed in 1933 to the new Dichterakademie (see Akademien). His collected stories appeared as Novellen and his collected anecdotes as Anekdoten (3 vols.) in 1943. Rechenschaft (1948) was an extended edition of his autobiography, first published as Mein Leben in 1934.

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Wilhelm Schäfer (January 20, 1868 - January 19, 1952) was a German writer.

Contents

Life

Born in Ottrau (Hesse), until 1896 Schäfer was a school teacher. He gained a scholarship to study in Switzerland and France through the Cotta-Verlag publishing house, and in 1898 became a freelance writer in Berlin. He lived in Vallendar from 1900 to 1915, and from 1918 until his death in 1952, he lived in Bodman on the Bodensee.

His work (drama, novels, and short prose pieces) were naturalist in style and marked with "völkisch" and national elements. In 1930 he published a novel about the shoe-maker Wilhelm Voigt with the title "Der Hauptmann von Köpenick".

From 1900 to 1920, he published the magazine Die Rheinlande. His early work was especially influenced by naturalism. Important novellas were "Die unterbrochene Rheinfahrt" (1913) und "Hölderlins Einkehr" (1925). Schäfer's folksy language and mystification of the "German soul" made his work popular with the Nazis.

Awards

Selected works

  • Die zehn Gebote. Erzählungen des Kanzelfriedrich, 1897
  • Rheinsagen, 1908
  • Karl Stauffers Lebensgang. Eine Chronik der Leidenschaft, 1912
  • Das fremde Fräulein (Novelle über den Tod der Idilia Dubb auf Burg Lahneck)
  • Die dreizehn Bücher der deutschen Seele, 1922
  • Winckelmanns Ende, 1925
  • Der Hauptmann von Köpenick, 1930
  • Mein Leben, 1934
  • Theoderich, König des Abendlandes, 1939
  • Lebenstag eines Menschenfreundes (Ein Pestalozzi Roman), 1915

References

  • Sabine Brenner: "Wir ungereimten Rheinländer wollen es wieder richtig machen". Wilhelm Schäfer und die Kulturzeitschrift "Die Rheinlande". In: "Ganges Europas, heiliger Strom!" Der literarische Rhein (1900-1933), hrsg. v. Sabine Brenner. Düsseldorf 2001. (= Veröffentlichungen des Heinrich-Heine-Instituts Düsseldorf). S. 47-74. ISBN 3-7700-1141-4
  • Mechthild Curtius: Über die Möglichkeiten und Schwierigkeiten, sich einem Heimatdichter filmisch zu nähern. Essay über den rheinischen Schriftsteller Wilhelm Schäfer. In: Literatur in Westfalen. 7 (2004) S. 397-412.
  • Conrad Höfer: Wilhelm Schäfer. Bibliographie. Berlin: Privatdr. bei Steinkopf 1937-1943.
  • Hans Lorenzen: Typen deutscher Anekdotenerzählung (Kleist - Hebel - Schäfer). Hamburg: Univ. Diss. 1935.
  • Maik Irmisch: Kapitel "Greither und Wilhelm Schäfer" in "Aloys Greither - Hautarzt zwischen Mozart, Hesse, Dix und Scharl" Norderstedt: Books on Demand, 2006 ISBN 3-8334-4909-8
  • Wilhelm Schäfer. Zu seinem 50. Geburtstag, hrsg. v. Karl Röttger. München: Müller 1918.
  • Bekenntnis zu Wilhelm Schäfer. Zum 60. Geburtstag des Dichters am 20. Januar 1928, hrsg. v. Otto Doderer. München: Müller 1928.
  • Franz Stuckert: Wilhelm Schäfer. Ein Volksdichter unserer Zeit. München: Langen/Müller 1935.

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German Literature Companion. The Oxford Companion to German Literature. Copyright © 1976, 1986, 1997, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
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