Hermann Theodor Hettner

Hermann Julius Theodor Hettner ( born March 12, 1821 Good Niederleyserdorf at Goldberg / Silesia, today Złotoryja, † May 29, 1882 in Dresden ) was a German literary historian and art historian.

Life and works

Hettner attended high school in Hirschberg, studied in Berlin, Heidelberg and Halle philosophy and philology, but turned since 1843, especially during a stay in Wroclaw, from the philosophical to art and literary-historical studies. To this end he undertook in 1844 a multi-year trip to Italy, stayed mainly in Rome and Naples, and only returned Easter 1847 back to Germany. As a result, the Italian tour the preschool to the visual arts of the ancients (Oldenburg 1848) and The Neapolitan painters schools ( in Schwegler's yearbooks ) published.

Hettner habilitated in 1847 in Heidelberg as a lecturer of aesthetics and art history. In the revolutionary year of 1848, he graduated there friendship with the philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach, the Dutch scientist Jacob Moleschott and the Swiss poet Gottfried Keller. In the same year he married Marie von Stockmar.

Hettner work, The Romantic School in their connection with Goethe and Schiller appeared in 1850 as almost all of his other writings were published by Eduard Vieweg, Braunschweig. The work caused his appointment to the University of Jena, where he went Easter 1851 as an associate professor of aesthetics, art and literature. In the summer of 1852 he undertook from here together with the philologist Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Preller Göttling and a trip to Greece, which he described in the Greek travel sketches (1853 ). Even earlier, his book The Modern Drama (1852 ) published that he had written closely corresponded with his friend cellar.

1855 Hettner was appointed as director of the royal collection of antiques as well as a professor of art history at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden. A year later, his wife died, Marie, with whom he had three children. 1858 married Anna Hettner Grahl, daughter of the Dresden painter August Grahl. From this marriage four more children were born, including the geographer Alfred Hettner.

By taking over the management and the Historical Museum and the appointment as full professor of art history at the Royal Polytechnic is Hettner Dresdner sphere of activity extended significantly. Even before he had left Jena, was the first part of its comprehensive main work: published literary history of the 18th century, which was completed by 1870 and the English, French and German literature treats ( 1855-79 in several editions ). This at the same time scientific and alive through the riveting account also popular literary history is one of the wittiest and most effective works of the 19th century.

After completing his literary history is Hettner turned primarily to art-historical studies of the history of the Renaissance, when the first fruit of the Italian Studies ( 1879) emerged.

Hettner was a member of the ( short-lived ) Corps Silesia Berlin (1839 /40) and the Corps Saxo - Borussia Heidelberg ( 1841).

Hettner died on 29 May 1882. His grave is located on the Old Anne Cemetery in Dresden.

Publications

• History of French literature in the eighteenth century. Friedrich Vieweg and Son, Braunschweig 1860.
• Literary history of the eighteenth century. Friedrich Vieweg and Son, Braunschweig 1869.
• The sculptures of the royal collection of antiquities at Dresden. Dresden in 1856, 3rd edition 1875.
• The Zwinger in Dresden. Leipzig 1873.
• Lesser Writings. Edited by Anna Hettner. Braunschweig 1884.

Correspondence

• Jürgen Jahn: The correspondence between Gottfried Keller and Hettner. Berlin and Weimar in 1964.