Henrik Pontoppidan

Henrik Pontoppidan ( born July 24, 1857 in Fredericia, † August 21, 1943 in Copenhagen) was a Danish writer who emerged primarily as a storyteller. With Hans in Luck, first published 1898-1904 in eight volumes, he created " one of the most extensive and important novels in Danish literature ". In 1917 he received the Nobel Prize.

Life

Pontoppidan was from a pastor Grundtvigian house. His childhood was spent mostly in the East Jutland port town Randers in Aarhus, which is encrypted, is also found in his major work, Hans in Luck. Much like the hero took Pontoppidan at Copenhagen Polytechnic engineering studies to which he did not graduate. He supported himself first as a folk high school teacher and journalist. His debut as a narrator he gave in 1881 in the illustrated weekly journal Ude og Hjemme. In the same year he married Mette Marie Hansen ( 1855-1937 ). He traveled to Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In 1884 he had his first personal encounter with the anti-clerical philosopher and literary critic Georg Brandes, who influenced not only Pontoppidan strong. In his key work of Hans in Luck Pontoppidan " an appealing and impressive " Portrait of Georg Brandes in the figure, Dr. Nathan has given.

Pontoppidan drew in his life to frequently, lived once rural, now in Copenhagen. The Danish government granted him, at least in parts grants for livelihood. 1892 divorce from Mette, with the Pontoppidan had three children. In the same year he married Antoinette Kofoed (1862-1928), two children. This was followed by trips to Italy, Dresden, Norway - and numerous book publications. Pontoppidan in 1917 the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his vivid portrayals of contemporary life in Denmark " award. He had the prize with Karl Gjellerup to share. 1927 granted him the Danish State a gift of honor. 1937 said the Danish writer Henrik Pontoppidan the Association Fond memory to life. Pontoppidan, already increasingly deaf and blind around 1927, died ( during the Second World War ) with 86

The age prevented Pontoppidan not intend to follow the current events, but made ​​him unmistakably darker. Life must be suffered, we populate the country not only for the sake of pleasure, quoted Peter Urban - Hall the elderly writer. "This Pontoppidan attacks again almost pietistic ideas on, he was a man of contrasts. This makes him look a little torn, which makes his work but also more comprehensive. The novel as a genre is a total structure which einbegreift all currents of the time and society for him. Although at the end of his life outweighed resignation and pessimism, he always remained a political writer. "

Style

Pontoppidan used a simple and clear language that was admittedly not without irony and subtlety. Based on Hans in Luck, Erhard Schütz calls this " unpretentious " language even " gently outdated ". She has caution. Pontoppidan avoids his "hero" more than to judge with kid gloves - which he cashed his hereafter cited self-understanding, which he opened ( in a preface to his novel Sturmlied of 1896) with a bat on the ubiquitous life philosopher and priest.

Effect

Pontoppidan is considered an important representative of naturalism in Denmark. Thinkers such as Georg Lukács, Ernst Bloch, Jean Amery valued him highly and pulled him close in their considerations. In addition to the love he circled all about the contrast cultural nature, so that urban-rural. On the one hand he welcomed the much-lauded 1900 "progress"; on the other filled him whose egalitarian, destructive and indifferent -making trains with concern. It was also the era of cynicism, as he succinctly in the triumph of the press and, more generally, the money was ( the Georg Simmel described in the same time ). From political parties Pontoppidan held aloof. As for his Danish homeland, he was a patriot.

Hans in Luck

Between 1891 and 1916 published Pontoppidan with The Promised Land, Hans in Luck and Sheol three large-scale, the social and religious struggles of the time reflecting novels, which are closely related and in his own words. This is highlighted Hans in luck as Pontoppidan's most important and impressive work mostly. Title Held by Sidenius, who came from oppressive religious - poor conditions, would sit up as an engineer can, as the creator of a gigantic system of canals, bulwarks, harbors the world. First, he captures some luck handles about by Jakobi, Daughter of stone rich Jewish home, but in the end he ends up being nameless land surveyor in self-imposed seclusion between dunes, where he is barely 40 years old, soon buried. Thus, the novel as its author moved for Winfried Menninghaus between the "poles revolt and resignation ." In the case of the hero they turn out to be sure as incurable disruption. The worm does not sit in social relations, rather Sidenius is divided against himself in strife, so that even its numerous twists and new start-ups never get caught - such as in the arms of the country parson's daughter Inger who impressed him by their " unvergrübelt practical sense " as Henner riding Meier writes.

Works ( German editions )

• A church robbery, narratives, German Stuttgart 1890
• The sand Inger community, novella, 1883, dt 1905
• Henrik, the polar bear, short stories, 1887, German Berlin 1903
• The Promised Land, Roman, 1891 /95 dt 1908, Jena 1922
• Vigil, story, 1894, dt 1896
• The old Adam, novel, 1894, dt 1912
• Hans in Luck, Novel, 1898-1904, German Leipzig 1919
• Little Red Riding Hood, 1900, dt 1904
• Hans Quast, novel, 1907, dt Tübringen 1929
• The realm of the dead, novel, 1912/16, dt Leipzig 1920
• The Devil at the stove, 5 stories, dt Jena 1922
• The royal guest, narrative, dt Bremen 1982