Joseph Peter Maria Stern, FBA (25 December 1920 – 18 November 1991) was an authority on German literature. Born into a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family,Martin Swales, "J. P. STERN (1920–1991)" in ''German Life and Letters'', Volume 45, Issue 2, April 1992, p. 190 he was educated in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and

St. John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. The ...

, where he took his MA in 1947. During the war he served in the

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

n army in exile. He took up a lectureship at Bedford College, London, and then at Cambridge in 1952, returning to St. John's. He was Professor of German at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

from 1972 to 1986. A prolific scholar of nineteenth- and twentieth-century German literature, he wrote on

Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his car ...

Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typi ...

, Jünger, Rilke and Mann, and edited the series ''Landmarks in World Literature''. One of his most influential works was ''On Realism'' (1973). He was also known for his study ''Hitler: The Führer and the People'', which was translated into several languages. He married Sheila McMullan (23 June 1922 – 16 November 2005) in 1944, having met her as a student in 1940. He was cremated on 25 November 1991 at Cambridge Crematorium, and his ashes were interred at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge. His wife's ashes, following her cremation on 29 November 2005, are also interred there.

Works

*''Leibniz and the Seventeenth-Century Revolution'' by R. W. Meyer (1952) (translator) *''Ernst Jünger: A Writer of Our Time'' (1953) *''Lichtenberg: A Doctrine of Scattered Occasions Reconstructed from His Aphorisms and Reflections'' (1959) *''Re-interpretations: Seven Studies in Nineteenth-Century German Literature'' (1964) *''Liebelei/Leutnant Gustl/Die Letzten Masken'' by Arthur Schnitzler (1966) (editor) *''Thomas Mann'' (1967) *''Idylls & Realities: Studies in Nineteenth-Century German Literature'' (1971) (editor) *''On Realism'' (1973) *''Hitler: the Führer and the people'' (1975) *''Nietzsche'' (

Fontana Modern Masters The Fontana Modern Masters was a series of pocket guides on writers, philosophers, and other thinkers and theorists who shaped the intellectual landscape of the twentieth century. The first five titles were published on 12 January 1970 by Fontana ...

, 1978) *''Nietzsche: His Life, Work, Writings and Ideas'' (1978) *''A Study of Nietzsche'' (1979) *''The World of Franz Kafka'' (1980) (editor) *''Nietzsche on Tragedy'' (1981) (with M. S. Silk) *''Nietzsche: Die Moralität der äußeren Anstrengung'' (1982) *''Paths and Labyrinths: Nine Papers read at a Kafka Symposium'' (1985) (editor with J. J. White) *''The Heart of Europe: Essays on Literature and Ideology'' (1992) *''The Dear Purchase: A Theme in German Modernism'' (1995)

References

*Ritchie Robertson, ''An appreciation of the work of Siegbert Prawer, J. P. Stern and George Steiner'', in Stephen D. Dowden and Meike G. Werner (eds), German Literature, Jewish Critics: The Brandeis Symposium (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2002), pp. 237–61 * M. Beddow, ''J. P. Stern: a memoir''. Proceedings of the British Academy

Notes

External links

* 1920 births 1991 deaths British literary theorists British people of Czech-Jewish descent Writers from Prague Academics of University College London Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Academics of Bedford College, London Fellows of the British Academy Czechoslovak emigrants to the United Kingdom Czechoslovak expatriates in Austria {{UK-academic-stub