Wilhelm Scherer
Wilhelm Scherer ( born April 26, 1841 in Schönborn; † August 6, 1886 in Berlin) was an Austrian German studies.
Life
Scherer was born the son of a franc and an Austrian Schloss Schönborn Göllersdorf in Lower Austria. His father died when he was four years old. The mother soon married a friend of her late husband. After several changes of location Wilhelm Scherer attended in 1854 at the Academic Gymnasium in Vienna and moved at age 17 to the University of Vienna and heard German philology at Franz Pfeiffer.
1860 Scherer went to Berlin, where he was also at Moriz Haupt, Franz Bopp, Leopold von Ranke and Karl Müllenhoff handset. Especially Müllenhoff promoted the talented students and participated in 1864 in the publication of the " monuments German poetry and prose from the VIII to XII. Century ". In Berlin Scherer was in contact with Jacob Grimm, 1865 he published his first book about his life and work.
1862 received his doctorate in Vienna Scherer, 1864 he was habilitated as Privatdozent. In 1868 he succeeded his teacher Pfeiffer at the Vienna Institute of German Philology. In 1872 he was appointed to the newly founded University of Strasbourg in Alsace. After five years he returned to Berlin, where he took over the created for him Professor of modern German literary history.
Scherer posted in any area of German philology. As his main works are the History of the German Language ( 1868) and the much- launched history of German literature (1883 ). He is also considered one of the founders of the Goethe- philology and helped the 1885 Weimar edition ( Sophia edition ) of the works of Goethe prepare.
At 38, he married the singer Marie Leeder ( 1855-1939 ). Wilhelm Scherer died at the age of 45 from a stroke and was buried in the Old St. Matthew Cemetery in Berlin -Schöneberg. Many of his students, including Konrad Burdach, Richard M. Meyer, Gustav Roethe, Erich Schmidt, Ferdinand Wrede and Edward Schroeder, worked well into the 20th century and influenced the development of German literature.
Importance
Scherer is considered one of the most influential German scholars in the late 19th century. As one of the last representatives of his discipline, he represented independently all the main areas of German literature in research and teaching. Scherer founded in Strasbourg and Berlin Germanistic seminars and employed himself as one of the first university in German studies with recent German literature. The he founded Scherer school was controversial in the history of science for a long time as a hotbed of literary positivism.
On him to today's current classification of the German language history especially Old High German (750-1050), Middle High German (1050-1350), Early New High German (1350-1650) and Neuhochdeutsch goes back to 300 - years - sections (1650 to date ).
He also presented the theory of Scherer Bloom eras. This is an attempt at periodization of German literary history. Scherer said that it would come in a cyclical manner epochs to switch from flower stick ( womanly ) epochs epochs of decay ( mercial ) approximately every 300 years. The times of greatest prosperity would thereby be around 1200 and around 1800. Flowering periods would thus be the times between 1050-1350 and 1650 until 1950. Periods of decline would have been 750-1050 and 1350-1650. The separation took place but not as severe, but relatively, as some would inherit from a bygone era to the next. In this Periodisierungstheorie residues were incorporated a biologically determined interpretation of literature that appeal to age and changing of the seasons, so to nature oriented.
Honors
Works ( selection)
- Jacob Grimm, 1865
- Life Willirams Abbot of Ebersberg in Bavaria, 1866
- On the history of the German language, 1868
- German studies Vol I.: Spervogel, 1870
- Vol II: The beginnings of Minne Sanges, 1870
Letters
- Correspondence. Wilhelm Scherer - Erich Schmidt, ed. v. Werner Richter and Eberhard Lammert, 1963
- Correspondence from 1872 to 1886. Wilhelm Scherer - Elias Steinmeyer, ed. v. Horst Brunner and Joachim Helbig, 1982
- Wilhelm Scherer. Letters and documents from the years 1853 to 1886, ed. v. Mirko Nottscheid and Hans -Harald Müller, 2005 ISBN 3-89244-826-4