Wilhelm Meinhold

Johannes Wilhelm Meinhold ( born February 27, 1797 in Netzelkow on Usedom, † November 30, 1851 in Charlottenburg ) was a German writer, Doctor of Theology and pastor. As his most important work applies the 1843 anonymously published novel Maria Schweidler, the amber witch.

Life

As the son of Lutheran pastor of Netzelkow Georg Wilhelm Meinhold he was informed of this yourself at home instruction in the classical languages ​​. Holds My mother died 1806. He never went to school. From 1813 to 1815 he studied theology, philology and philosophy at that time still Swedish Greifswald. There he heard Ludwig Gotthard Kosegarten, to whom he submitted his first literary samples, and promoted him in the subsequent period in his literary ambitions. Meinhold left the university after two years for lack of funds. To be able to take the exams, he continued his education even after he had found a job as a tutor near Ueckermuende. In 1817 he passed his theological examination. In 1818 he joined a Prädikantenstelle on to the paralyzed after a stroke Vice Pleban Hansfranz Gering Gützkow. After he had passed the university examination, the 23 -year-old in 1820 Rectors of the city school in Usedom and married Gerings daughter Juliane.

A congratulatory poem on the top presidents of the Province of Pomerania, Johann August Sack, as well as a letter of Jean Paul's, which was forwarded to sack, helped him in 1821 to a pastorate in Koserow on Usedom. In 1824 he published his first book, " Mixed poems ". The 1826 published religious epic " St. Otto, Bishop of Bamberg " helped him through the mediation of blind to the better-paid pastorate in Krummin. Here he began in 1838 his unpublished novel " The pastor's daughter from Coserow " in a antiquisierende language rewrite of the Thirty Years' War. Written in first-person chronicle apparent contributes novel-length trains.

With Mary Schweidler, the amber witch, he created a new literary genre, the chronical story. First Meinhold published from the alleged manuscript Fund in 1841 and 1842 extracts in the periodical Christo terpene. Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV became aware of the alleged 200 year old source, and called on 16 April 1842, the entire manuscript to. Meinhold had his king give his own authorship. The king himself, who knew the pastor personally since his time as Crown Prince, prompted in 1843 the pressure along with deceptive introduction in which the author describes himself as a publisher of a chance finding.

The Amber Witch was in 1844 translated into English and dramatized several times, among others by the Director of the Vienna Burgtheater Heinrich Laube. The premiere took place at the Hamburg Schauspielhaus. Productions, inter alia, in Berlin followed. An English operatic adaptation of William Vincent Wallace was premiered in 1861 at London's Her Majesty's Theatre. My Holds most successful work to date appears in new editions. The alleged Chronicle had generally been initially found to be genuine and had attracted much attention. After a year Meinhold went public and referred to himself as the author. Large parts of the public questioned this, Friedrich Hebbel pointed in a disquisition after that it undoubtedly must be a work of art from the imagination of a poet.

His 1847 published novel Sidonia von Bork, the Monastery Witch is based, in contrast to the pure fiction of the amber witch on a historical model, namely the fate of the Pomeranian nobility of Borcke Sidonia ( 1548-1620 ). The translation into English bersorgte Jane Frances Agnes Elgee, later Jane Francesca Lady Wilde, mother of Oscar Wilde. This novel unfolded significant impact on the themes of artistic and literary circles in the Anglo-Saxon countries. The Pre-Raphaelites by Edward Burne -Jones, John Ruskin and Dante Gabriel Rossetti were of this aspect of German Romanticism, the representation of evil, fascinated. Burne -Jones painted the characters described Sidonia and Clara von Borck (now Tate Gallery London ) at the very beginning of his career. Even in 1893 was William Morris " Sidonia the Sorceress " new release in a lavishly decorated edition of the London Kelmscott Press.

Wilhelm Meinhold also dealt with apologetic studies. 1840 awarded him the theological faculty of Erlangen doctorate for his writing prophecies and miracles from his apology for Christianity. He joined in 1844 after intercession of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV on a pastorate after Rehwinkel at Stargard. In the years 1846-1848, a seven -volume edition of his collected works appeared. The revolutionary efforts in Germany he faced hostile. In his later writings showed tendencies to turn to Catholicism, which he, however, never took place. After lengthy disputes with his community and authorities, he moved to be able to devote himself entirely to literary work may 1850 in Berlin- Charlottenburg, where he died the following year.

He had three sons: George ( * 1821, † 1863) - was tenant farmers in Pomerania; Aurel Emanuel (* 1829) - converted and became a Catholic priest and wrote the novel of the Father " Faithful Knight" to the end and wrote several political pamphlets and even a 1870 novel, " The Cross of Vineta "; Wilhelm ( † 1857) - tenant farmers in Nikolaiken. His wife Julie died on 11 March 1859.

Importance for the island of Usedom

The high level of public attention that had triggered the controversy over the "Amber Witch ", led to the tourist development on the island of Usedom, which until then had eked a secluded, impoverished existence almost beyond the limits of Prussia. Today include annual open-air theater productions of "Amber Witch " for Inselcolorit.

Works

• Mixed Poems (1824 )
• The pastor's daughter from Coserow (1826 )
• St Otto, bishop of Bamberg, or: the cruise to Pomerania (1826 )
• Miniature paintings of Rügen and Greifswald ( 1830)
• Apology of Christianity (1835 )
• Poems (1835 )
• Humorous travel pictures from Usedom Island (1837 )
• Maria Schweidler, the Amber Witch (1843 ), digitized and full text archive in the German text; online.
• Athanasia or the Transfiguration Friedrich Wilhelm the Third (1844 )
• The old German sword button or Frederick the Great as Crown Prince and his father (1846 )
• Collected Writings. J. J. Weber, Leipzig 1846-1849 Volume 3: Religious poems, Leipzig 1846 (280 pages), online.
• 8 Band: The faithful knight Sigismund of Hager and Altensteig and the Reformation, Part 1, Leipzig 1832.
• 9 Band: The faithful knight Sigismund of Hager and Altensteig and the Reformation, Part 2 ( from the estate My Holds continued by his son Aurelius Immanuel ), 2nd edition, Regensburg 1859 ( 310 pages ), online.