Heinrich Julian Schmidt (March 7, 1818 – March 27, 1886) was a German
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...
and historian of literature.
Biography
He was born in Marienwerder (today
Kwidzyn
Kwidzyn (pronounced ; german: Marienwerder; Latin: ''Quedin''; Old Prussian: ''Kwēdina'') is a town in northern Poland on the Liwa River, with 38,553 inhabitants (2018). It is the capital of Kwidzyn County in the Pomeranian Voivodeship.
Geogra ...
) in
West Prussia
The Province of West Prussia (german: Provinz Westpreußen; csb, Zôpadné Prësë; pl, Prusy Zachodnie) was a province of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and 1878 to 1920. West Prussia was established as a province of the Kingdom of Prussia in 177 ...
.
After studying
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
and
philosophy at the
University of Königsberg
The University of Königsberg (german: Albertus-Universität Königsberg) was the university of Königsberg in East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke Albert of Pruss ...
, he was appointed in 1842 to a mastership in the Luisenstadt Realschule in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
.
From 1848 to 1861, he owned and edited ''
Die Grenzboten'' conjointly with
Gustav Freytag
Gustav Freytag (; 13 July 1816 – 30 April 1895) was a German novelist and playwright.
Life
Freytag was born in Kreuzburg (Kluczbork) in Silesia. After attending the school at Oels (Oleśnica), he studied philology at the universities of ...
.
In 1861, he moved to
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
where he was editor-in-chief of the ''Berliner allgemeine Zeitung'', and after that dedicated himself to literary history. In 1878 was rewarded for the journalistic services rendered to the government, by a pension from the
emperor William I. He died at
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
on March 27, 1886.
Julian Schmidt's principal contributions to literary history are:
*''Geschichte der Romantik im Zeitalter der Revolution und Restauration'' (History of Romanticism during the times of Revolution and Restoration; 1848)
*''Geschichte der deutschen Nationalliteratur im 19. Jahrhundert'' (History of German national literature in the 19th century; 1853) His numerous critical articles for ''Die Grenzboten'' formed the basis for this. The 5th ed., revised and enlarged, appeared under the title ''Geschichte der deutschen Litteratur seit Lessings Tod'' (History of German literature since Lessing's death; 1865–67).
*''Geschichte des geistigen Lebens in Deutschland von Leibniz bis auf Lessings Tod'' (History of Germany's intellectual life from Leibniz until Lessing's death; 1861–1863)
The latter two works subsequently appeared as ''Geschichte der deutschen Literatur von Leibniz bis auf unsere Zeit'' (History of German literature from Leibniz until modern times; 4 vols., 1886–1896). Schmidt also wrote a ''Geschichte der französischen Literatur seit der Revolution'' (History of French literature since the Revolution; 1857), ''Uebersicht der englischen Litteratur im 19. Jahrhundert'' (Outline of English literature of the 19th century; 1859); ''Schiller und seine Zeitgenossen'' (Schiller and his contemporaries; 1859); the collections of essays ''Bilder aus dem geistigen Leben unserer Zeit'' (Snapshots from the intellectual life of our time; 1870–74), and ''Porträts aus dem 19. Jahrhundert'' (Portraits from the nineteenth century; 1878)
An evaluation from the New International Encyclopædia
Julian Schmidt exercised more influence upon the period of German intellectual life in which he worked than has been accorded him. As a critic in journals and periodicals, his discussions comprised the entire scope of intellectual life in science, arts, and politics. The forte of his criticism, especially in regard to works of art, lay in an almost infallible instinct to perceive truth, power, and sterling worth, which quality enabled him to teach his contemporaries not to borrow their views of things from remote chains of thought, but to trust the spontaneity of their own feelings.
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Heinrich Julian
1818 births
1886 deaths
German journalists
German male journalists
19th-century German historians
University of Königsberg alumni
19th-century German journalists
19th-century German male writers
People from Kwidzyn
People from West Prussia