Franz Xaver von Schönwerth (16 July 1810 – 24 May 1886; born Franz Xaver Schönwerth, ennobled in 1859) was a

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

n civil servant who was an important collector of

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

in the Upper Palatinate region.

Life and career

Schönwerth was born in

Amberg Amberg () is a Town#Germany, town in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in the Upper Palatinate about halfway between Regensburg and Bayreuth. History The town was first mentioned in 1034 with the name Ammenberg. It became an important trading c ...

as the first of five children of Joseph Schönwerth, a royal drawing professor. He entered the Erasmus Gymnasium there in 1821 and began university studies in 1832, first in construction at the Munich Academy of Art Hyacinth Holland, "Schönwerth, Franz Xaver von", ''

Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB; ) is one of the most important and comprehensive biographical reference works in the German language. It was published by the Historical Commission of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences between 1875 and 1912 in 56 volumes, printed in Lei ...

'' Volume 32 (1891) 321–24
online
at German WikiSource . and in

cameralism Cameralism ( German: ''Kameralismus'') was a German school of public finance, administration and economic management in the 18th and early 19th centuries that aimed at strong management of a centralized economy for the benefit mainly of the ...

and mathematics,Heidemarie Sander
"Schönwerth, Franz Xaver von"
''

Neue Deutsche Biographie (''NDB''; Literal translation, literally ''New German Biography'') is a Biography, biographical reference work. It is the successor to the ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (ADB, Universal German Biography). The 27 volumes published thus far co ...

'' Volume 23, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2007, , p. 424 . then from 1834 in law at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

. He received his first permanent position with the administration of

Upper Bavaria Upper Bavaria (, ; ) is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany. Geography Upper Bavaria is located in the southern portion of Bavaria, and is centered on the city of Munich, both state capital and seat of the district gove ...

in 1840. In 1845 he became private secretary to Crown Prince Maximilian of Bavaria. In 1847 first the prince and then his wife Marie of Prussia entrusted him with managing their wealth, which he did well; during the upheavals of 1848, he disguised himself as an odd-job-man, loaded some 3 million

thaler A thaler or taler ( ; , previously spelled ) is one of the large silver coins minted in the states and territories of the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburg monarchy during the Early Modern period. A ''thaler'' size silver coin has a diameter o ...

s' worth of cash, securities, and valuables on a handcart, and took them to

Nymphenburg Palace The Nymphenburg Palace (, Palace of the Nymphs) is a Baroque palace situated in Munich's western district Neuhausen-Nymphenburg, in Bavaria, southern Germany. The Nymphenburg served as the main summer residence for the List of rulers of Bavaria, ...

for safekeeping. After the prince's accession as King Maximilian II, he headed his cabinet as well as continuing to serve as his private secretary and manage his wealth; he was responsible for guiding the king in his patronage of the arts and sciences."Schönwerth, Franz Xaver von"
Oberpfälzer Kulturbund e.V., retrieved 3 March 2015 . In 1851 he was made a ''Regierungsrat''; in 1852 he transferred to the Ministry of Finance as a ''Ministerialrat''Wolfgang Rappel, "Schönwerth, Franz Xaver von, Ministerialrat und Volkskundler 1810–1886", ''Bosls bayerische Biographie'', ed. Karl Bosl, Regensburg: Pustet, 1983,
online
at

University of Regensburg The University of Regensburg () is a public research university located in the city of Regensburg, Germany. The university was founded on 18 July 1962 by the Landtag of Bavaria as the fourth full-fledged university in Bavaria. Following groundbr ...

. and in 1859 he was personally ennobled. Schönwerth read Greek, Latin and Hebrew and also the Scandinavian languages and Gothic, and later in life studied

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

and

cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

. After beginning his folklore research, he served on the board of the Historical Association of Upper Bavaria from 1868 to 1875. He retired in 1880 and died in Munich in 1886; he is buried in the Old North Cemetery there.

Folklore collecting

Inspired by

Jacob Grimm Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863), also known as Ludwig Karl, was a German author, linguist, philologist, jurist, and folklorist. He formulated Grimm's law of linguistics, and was the co-author of the ''Deutsch ...

, particularly his ''

Deutsche Mythologie ''Deutsche Mythologie'' (, ''Teutonic Mythology'') is a treatise on Continental Germanic mythology, Germanic mythology by Jacob Grimm. First published in Germany in 1835, the work is an exhaustive treatment of the subject, tracing the mythology an ...

'', beginning in 1854, Schönwerth researched the lives of the people of the Upper Palatinate."Schönwerth: Lebenslauf"
, Town of Amberg, 17 April 2008 . His wife, Maria Margaretha Rath, was like him a native of the region and was able to provide him with much information about its folklore and traditions. He also drew on the knowledge of the family's housekeeper and her acquaintances in Munich, and showed an unusual ability to draw information from informants without prying, and in exchange for no more than coffee and cigars. From 1854 he also sent out a standardised questionnaire. In 1857–59 he published some of his observations in a 3-volume work titled ''Aus der Oberpfalz—Sitten und Sagen'' (From the Upper Palatinate—Customs and Legends). In 1860 and 1861 he went on personal folklore collecting expeditions in the region, but most of that material remained unpublished at his death. Schönwerth recorded legends, fairytales, comic stories, children's games, nursery rhymes, children's songs and proverbs. He also observed how people lived, describing the everyday life of peasants, their customs and their traditional costumes. Grimm wrote in a review: "Nowhere in the whole of Germany has anyone collected more circumspectly, more completely, or leaving so few traces."

, "Schönwerth, Fr., k. b. Ministerialrath u. Generalsekretär, aus der Oberpfalz. Sitten und Sagen. 1. u. 2. Thl. Augsburg, 1857, 58. Rieger. (X, 448; 2 Bll., 460 S. 8) geh. 3 Thlr", ''Literarisches Centralblatt für Deutschland'' 21, 22 May 1858, pp. 336–37: "Nirgendwo in ganz Deutschland ist umsichtiger, voller und mit so leisem Gespür gesammelt worden."Victoria Sussens-Messerer
"Five hundred new fairytales discovered in Germany"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 5 March 2012: "Nowhere in the whole of Germany is anyone collecting olkloreso accurately, thoroughly and with such a sensitive ear." His questionnaires and the care with which he recorded the dialect of responses served as models as folklore collecting became more objective and scientific; Grimm, with whom he corresponded from 1858 on, recommended his methods in a letter to Karl Julius Schröer and told the king that Schönwerth was the only person who could continue his and his brother's work after their deaths. Unlike Grimm, Schönwerth did not seek a unified picture of Germanic folk culture and its pre-Christian origins, but focussed on the distinct features of the Upper Palatinate; he held a now discredited view that the regional dialect showed close parallels to Gothic. In 2009, unpublished material collected by Schönwerth, including some 500 folktales, was discovered in

Regensburg Regensburg (historically known in English as Ratisbon) is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the rivers Danube, Naab and Regen (river), Regen, Danube's northernmost point. It is the capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the ...

by the Oberpfalz cultural expert Erika Eichenseer, who has published some of the tales.

Honours

Schönwerth was made a knight of the Bavarian Order of St. Michael in 1851 and of the Bavarian Order of the Crown in 1859. He was an honorary member of a number of German historical associations. A memorial plaque was placed on the Schönwerth family house in Amberg in 1889. The ''Staatliche

Realschule Real school (, ) is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), F ...

'' in Amberg has been named for him since 2010, and a "Schönwerth summer" was held in the town in 2005. The Franz Xaver von Schönwerth Gesellschaft (Society) was founded in 2008.

Publications

* Fr nz XaverSchönwerth. ''Aus der Oberpfalz. Sitten und Sagen.'' 3 vols. Augsburg: Rieger, 1857, 1858, 1859. 2nd ed. repr. Volkskundliche Quellen 4, Hildesheim: Olms, 2007, * F. X. v. Schönwerth. ''Sprichwörter des Volkes der Oberpfalz in der Mundart''. From ''Verhandlungen des historischen Vereins von Oberpfalz und Regensburg'' 29. Stadtamhof: Mayr, 1873. * Fr. X. von Schönwerth. "Johann Andreas Schmeller und seine Bearbeitung der baierischen Mundarten mit Bezugnahme auf das Oberpfälzische". ''Verhandlungen des historischen Vereins von Oberpfalz und Regensburg'' 28 (1872) 221–49

Posthumous editions

* Franz Xaver von Schönwerth. ''Die Rübenprinzessin und andere Märchen''. Retold by J hannB ptistLaßleben. Illustrations by Albert Reich. Kallmünz: Michael Laßleben, 923 * Karl Winkler (Ed.). ''Oberpfälzische Sagen, Legenden, Märchen und Schwänke''. From Schönwerth's papers. Kallmünz: Michael Laßleben, 935 * Roland Röhrich (Ed.). ''Das Schönwerth-Lesebuch. Volkskundliches aus der Oberpfalz im 19. Jahrhundert''. Oberpfälzer Sprachmosaik. Regensburg: Pustet, 1981. . * Erika Eichenseer and Roland Röhrich (Ed.). ''Oberpfälzische Sagen und Märchen''. Franz Xaver von Schönwerth centennial reader. Bezirk Oberpfalz. Regensburg: Mittelbayerische Zeitung, 1986. * Franz Xaver von Schönwerth. ''Der rote Zwerg''. 12 unbekannte Märchen aus der Oberpfalz. Illustrated by Irmingard Jeserick. Tr. Julia Weigl. Afterword by Lutz Röhrich. Ed. Franz Anton Niedermayr. Regensburg: Niedermayr, 2000. * Franz Xaver von Schönwerth. ''Prinz Roßzwifl und andere Märchen aus der Sammlung von Franz Xaver von Schönwerth (1810–1886)''. Ed. Erika Eichenseer for the Schönwerth-Gesellschaft e.V. Illustrations by Barbara Stefan. Afterword by Daniel Drascek. Regensburg: Morsbach, 2010. . * M. Charlotte Wolf (Tr.). ''Original Bavarian Folktales: A Schönwerth Selection: A Dual-Language Book''. Mineola, New York: Dover, 013
GoogleBooks preview
. *

Maria Tatar Maria Magdalene Tatar (born May 13, 1945) is an American academic whose expertise lies in children's literature, German literature, and folklore. She is the John L. Loeb Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures, and Chair of the Committee o ...

(Tr.). '' The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales''.

Penguin Classics Penguin Classics is an imprint (trade name), imprint of Penguin Books under which classic works of literature are published in English language, English, Spanish language, Spanish, Portuguese language, Portuguese, and Korean language, Korean amon ...

. London / New York: Penguin, 2015. . *Franz Xaver von Schönwerth. ''White As Milk, Red As Blood: The FORGOTTEN FAIRY TALES of Franz Xaver von Schönwerth.'' Alfred A. Knopf. Canada, 2018.

References

Further information

Print

* Daniel Drascek, Helmut Groschwitz, Erika Lindig and Manuel Trummer (Ed.): ''Schönwerth – "mit so leisem Gespür gesammelt." Neue Perspektiven auf Franz Xaver von Schönwerth (1810-1886) und seine Forschungen zur Alltagskultur der Oberpfalz''. Regensburger Kulturleben 5. Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, 2011. . * Roland Röhrich. ''Der oberpfälzische Volkskundler Franz Xaver Schönwerth – Sein Leben und sein Werk''. Kallmünz: Michael Laßleben, 1975. . * Roland Röhrich. "Die Gewährsleute und die Mitarbeiter des oberpfälzischen Volkskundlers Franz Xaver von Schönwerth". In: ''Volkskultur und Heimat. Festschrift für Josef Dünninger zum 80. Geburtstag''. Ed. Dieter Harmening and Erich Wimmer. Quellen und Forschungen zur europäischen Ethnologie 3. Würzburg: Königshausen + Neumann, 1986. . pp. 137–47.

Film

* ''Schönwerths Oberpfalz – Sagengelichter''. Sander-Film, Amberg/Don Bosco, Munich 2007, . * ''Grüße an Herrn Wiesawittl''. DVD, Sander-Film, Amberg, Hofa-Media, 2010, .

External links

*
Material by and about Schönwerth
at German Wikisource * *
Franz Xaver von Schönwerth Gesellschaft e.V.
(schoenwerth.de)

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schonwerth, Franz Xaver 1810 births 1886 deaths German folklorists Collectors of fairy tales German male non-fiction writers