August Lafontaine

August Heinrich Julius Lafontaine ( born October 5, 1758 in Braunschweig, † April 20, 1831 in Halle) was a German writer.

Life and work

Lafontaine was the son of a court painter, whose ancestors had immigrated to Germany Huguenots. He studied at the University of Helmstedt theology, left in 1780, the University without final exam as a candidate. Until 1789 he held most house teaching positions and was a private tutor for ancient languages. In Halle ( Saale ), he passed his exams preacher and married in 1791 the daughter of a spiritual counterpart. In 1792 he followed the Prussian army as a military chaplain in the Champagne region. After he retired in 1800 on an estate near Halle (Saale ) back and began to write. He wrote more than 60 novels and short stories predominantly sensitive content. Accurate description can no longer be the extent of his work today because he also published books under pseudonyms such as Miltenberg, Selchow and Gustav Free. In 1811 he traveled to Venice and Vienna. In translations Lafontaine's novels and short stories in all European countries and in North America appeared. In his time, Lafontaine was one of the most widely read writers of Germany, but later he came in the wake of transzendentalpoetischen turning the novel theory almost completely forgotten.

Among his most famous readers include Napoleon, Achim von Arnim, Franz Grillparzer, Joseph von Eichendorff and Queen Louise of Prussia.

Lafontaine is an author sensitive novels that are to be bourgeois "family Gemählde " at the same time, as the counterpart to the prose dramatists Iffland and Kotzebue, also got their drama in the wake of the Classical and Romantic Literature Politics of Goethe, Schiller and Friedrich Schlegel into oblivion.

A critical, Lafontaine texts on the standard of storytelling Goethe measuring opinion on Lafontaine falls Eduard Engel in the first volume of his "History of German Literature " (1917 ):

Lafontaine's life is in Arno Schmidt's radio dialogue " Quinctius Heymeran Flaming - A liability is settled " described in detail. Schmidt takes Lafontaine against its critics engaged in protection and approves the early works, including. Among other things, " Klara du Plessis and Klairant A family history of French emigrants " (Berlin, 1795), perfectly respectable literary qualities and originality.

On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Lafontaine on October 5, 2008 Publisher Zweitausendeins has reissued in Frankfurt the work life and deeds of Baron Quinctius Heymeran Flaming in a bibliophile facilities in two volumes. This novel is as committed plea against racism of the Göttingen scholar Christoph Meiners still of great interest - especially as his satirical style of writing is still delightful to read. The city of Halle (Saale ) devoted Lafontaine in the same year their reading campaign " Hall reads ," was presented in the framework of the notice published in the mdv compilation " reader". Meanwhile, the editor also made ​​in October 2007 for an additional plate for The Halle Lafontainestraße. This is located a few hundred meters from his home and was named in his honor in 1885 so. Also on Lafontaine's 250th birthday held the literary scholar Cord -Friedrich Berghahn and Dirk Sagmeister an international scientific conference, which took place at the TU Braunschweig. Your results are since 2010 in front of a book and set the date state of the Lafontaine - research dar.

Works (selection)

  • The violence of love stories. Berlin, 1791-94, 4 vols
  • The natural man. Hall 1792
  • Moral stories. Berlin, 1794-1802, 6 vols
  • Klara du Plessis and Klairant. A family history of French emigrants. Berlin, 1795
  • The family of Halden. Berlin, 1797, 2 vols
  • The Nerd. Hall, 1799, 3 vols
  • Small novels and moral tales. Berlin, 1799-1810, 12 vols
  • Life of a poor country preacher. Berlin 1800-01, 2 vols
  • Tales of domestic life. Görlitz, 1805-07, 2 vols
  • Amalie Horst.1810, 2 vols
  • The dangers of the great world or Bertha von Waldeck. Halle and Leipzig, 1811, 2 vols
  • The parish at the lake. 1816, 3 vols
  • Rudolf von Werdenberg.1819, 3 vols
  • The siblings or Repentance. 1819, 2 vols
  • The ways of fate. 1820, 2 vols
  • August Heinrich Julius Lafontaine: Reading book, Edited by Ingeborg von Lips, literature from Central Germany, Volume 1, means German publisher, Halle ( Saale ), 2008, ISBN 9783898125543
  • The heart turned to me in the chest. Literary letters from the wars of the French Revolution of August Heinrich Julius Lafontaine, Edited by Ingeborg and Hermann von Lips, Central German publisher, Halle ( Saale ), 2008, ISBN 978-3-89812-579-6
Champagne (historical province) Sentimentalism (literature) Ludwig Achim von Arnim Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Neue Deutsche Biographie Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Helmstedt (district) Integrated Authority File
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