Hermann Frischbier (1823 – 1891) was a German schoolteacher as well as an author of works about

East Prussia East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...

n local history and culture.

Life

Frischbier was born on 10 January 1823 in Königsberg i. Pr. After passing the examination at the teachers' seminar in 1842, Frischbier became a teacher in

Guttstadt Dobre Miasto (; german: Guttstadt ; literally Good City) is a town in Poland, in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship with 9,857 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is situated in the northwestern part of the Masurian Lake District in the heart of th ...

and Heilsberg and, from 1853, in Königsberg. From 1872 to 1889 he was headmaster of the

Altstadt ''Altstadt'' is the German language word for "old town", and generally refers to the historical town or city centre within the old town or city wall, in contrast to younger suburbs outside. '' Neustadt'' (new town), the logical opposite of ''Alt ...

girls' school. Growing up in the house of a

bricklayer A bricklayer, which is related to but different from a mason, is a craftsman and tradesman who lays bricks to construct brickwork. The terms also refer to personnel who use blocks to construct blockwork walls and other forms of masonry. ...

where they spoke

Low German : : : : : (70,000) (30,000) (8,000) , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 = West Germanic , fam4 = North Sea Germanic , ancestor = Old Saxon , ancestor2 = Middle L ...

, he was familiar with the language, customs and practices of

. His articles appeared in the ''Altpreußischen Monatsschrift'' ("Old Prussian Monthly"), the ''Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie'' ("Journal for German Philology"), in ''Die deutschen Mundarten'' ("The German Dialects"), the ''Korrespondenzblatt des Vereins für niederdeutsche Sprachforschung'' ("Magazine of the Association for Low German Language Research"), the ''Wissenschaftlichen Monatsblättern'' ("Scientific Monthly") and the folklore journals, ''Am Urdsbrunnen'' and ''Am Urquell''. Along with many other colleagues, Frischbier significantly promoted Prussian folklore. The Masurian, Jan Karol Sembrzycki, made famous Frischbier's contribution to Polish folklore - even "the times of the most ferocious Polish oppression" - although Frischbier had barely mastered the Polish language himself. Frischbier died in Königsberg on 8 December 1891.

Honours

* Prussian Order of the Crown * Frischbier Way (''Frischbierweg''), a road that crosses the ''Juditter Allee'' in Königsberg

Works

* ''Preußische Sprichwörter und volkstümliche Redensarten''. 2 vols. Königsberg 1864/76 (; ). * ''Preußische Volksreime und Volksspiele''. Königsberg 1867 (). * ''Hexenspruch und Zauberbann. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Aberglaubens in der Provinz Preußen''. Königsberg 1870 (). * ''Preußische Volkslieder in plattdeutscher Mundart''. Königsberg 1877 * ''Preußisches Wörterbuch'', 2 Bde. Königsberg 1882/83 (; ). * ''Hundert ostpreußische Volkslieder in hochdeutscher Sprache''. Königsberg 1893

Literature

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Frischbier, Hermann 19th-century German educators German male writers Writers from Königsberg German folklorists 1823 births 1891 deaths