Portrait of Karl Morgenstern by Gerhard von Kügelgen

Johann Karl Simon Morgenstern ( – ) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

in Livonia, the first director of the library of the

Imperial University of Dorpat The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

. He coined the term ''

Bildungsroman In literary criticism, a ''Bildungsroman'' (, plural ''Bildungsromane'', ) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood ( coming of age), in which character change is impo ...

''.

Biography

Morgenstern was born in

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...

. He studied at the University of Halle under

Johann August Eberhard Johann Augustus Eberhard (August 31, 1739January 6, 1809) was a German Theology, theologian and "popular Philosophy, philosopher". Life and career Eberhard was born at Halberstadt in the Principality of Halberstadt, where his father was a school t ...

in philosophy and

Friedrich August Wolf Friedrich August Wolf (; 15 February 1759 – 8 August 1824) was a German classicist and is considered the founder of modern philology. Biography He was born in Hainrode, near Nordhausen. His father was the village schoolmaster and organist ...

in philology. In 1802 he moved to Dorpat in Livonia,

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

(now Tartu, Estonia) where he would spend the rest of his life. He held the chair for

rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...

, classical philology,

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

, and

history of art The history of art focuses on objects made by humans for any number of spiritual, narrative, philosophical, symbolic, conceptual, documentary, decorative, and even functional and other purposes, but with a primary emphasis on its aesthetic vis ...

and literature at the newly refounded University of Dorpat and was the first director of its library. The character of his work changed in Dorpat. He discontinued his

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

studies and wrote about literature, art, philology, and philosophy. Morgenstern's former teacher Friedrich Wolf was disappointed by this development, and he remarked in 1808 that his student was growing more elegant, vain, and boring with the years.''Magdeburger Biographisches Lexikon
''">Magdeburger Biographisches Lexikon">''Magdeburger Biographisches Lexikon
''/ref> It was in the course of this work that Morgenstern coined "''

''". Even after his retirement in 1834 Morgenstern stayed in Dorpat. He bequeathed his 12,000-volume library, containing many manuscripts and a good part of the Kant estate, to the university. Four years after his death a medal was issued in his honor. Of this medal, made by Ferdinand Helfricht in Gotha">Immanuel Kant">Kant estate, to the university. Four years after his death a medal was issued in his honor. Of this medal, made by Ferdinand Helfricht in Gotha, seven pieces were issued in silver and 200 in bronze.http://hdl.handle.net/10900/100742 S. Krmnicek und M. Gaidys, Gelehrtenbilder. Altertumswissenschaftler auf Medaillen des 19. Jahrhunderts. Begleitband zu
online-Ausstellung im Digitalen Münzkabinett des Instituts für Klassische Archäologie der Universität Tübingen
in: S. Krmnicek (Hrsg.), Von Krösus bis zu König Wilhelm. Neue Serie Bd. 3 (Tübingen 2020), 78f.

Works

* ''De Plationis Republica commentationes tres'' (1794) * ''Auszüge aus den Tagebüchern und Papieren eines Reisenden'' (1811–1813) * ''Über den Geist und Zusammenhang einer Reihe philosophischer Romane'' (1817) * ''Über das Wesen des Bildungsromans'' (1820) * ''Zur Geschichte des Bildungsromans'' (1824)

Cultural references

In William Goldman's novel ''The Princess Bride (novel), The Princess Bride'' the fictional author S. Morgenstern is almost certainly a nod to Morgenstern's coining of the term ''

'', as the novel is representative of the genre.

Gallery

File:Karl Morgenstern.jpg, File:Area Morgensterniana 1.JPG, Memorial of Morgenstern on Toome Hill in

Tartu Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...

(Dorpat) File:Medaille Karl Simon Morgenstern 1856.png, Medal Karl Morgenstern 1856.

References

External links

''Magdeburger Biographisches Lexikon
''">Magdeburger Biographisches Lexikon">''Magdeburger Biographisches Lexikon
'' 1770 births 1852 deaths Writers from Magdeburg German classical philologists Academic staff of the University of Tartu Estonian philologists Baltic-German people {{Germany-academic-bio-stub