![Johann Joachim Eschenburg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Johann_Joachim_Eschenburg.jpg)
Johann Joachim Eschenburg (7 December 1743 – 29 February 1820) was a German
critic
A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...
and literary
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
.
He was born and educated at
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
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, postal ...
, going on to study at the
University of Leipzig
Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...
and
University of Göttingen
The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...
. In 1767 he was appointed tutor, and subsequently professor, at the Collegium Carolinum in
Braunschweig
Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the Nor ...
(today
TU Braunschweig
The Technische Universität Braunschweig (unofficially University of Braunschweig – Institute of Technology), commonly referred to as TU Braunschweig, is the oldest ' (comparable to an institute of technology in the American system) in Germany. ...
). The title of ''Hofrat'' was conferred on him in 1786, and in 1814 he was made one of the directors of the Carolinum.
He is best known for his efforts to popularize
English literature
English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...
in Germany. He published a series of German translations of the principal English writers on
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 ...
, such as
Charles Burney
Charles Burney (7 April 1726 – 12 April 1814) was an English music historian, composer and musician. He was the father of the writers Frances Burney and Sarah Burney, of the explorer James Burney, and of Charles Burney, a classicist a ...
,
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted exp ...
and
Richard Hurd; and also produced the first complete translation in German prose of
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's plays (''William Shakespear's Schauspiele'', 13 vols., Zürich, 1775–1782). This is virtually a revised edition of the incomplete translation published by
Christoph Martin Wieland
Christoph Martin Wieland (; 5 September 1733 – 20 January 1813) was a German poet and writer. He is best-remembered for having written the first ''Bildungsroman'' (''Geschichte des Agathon''), as well as the epic ''Oberon'', which formed the ba ...
between 1762 and 1766.
Besides editing, with memoirs, the works of
Friedrich von Hagedorn
Friedrich von Hagedorn (23 April 1708 – 28 October 1754), German poet, was born at Hamburg, where his father, a man of scientific and literary taste, was Danish ambassador. His younger brother, Christian Ludwig, was a well known art historian ...
,
Zachariä and other German poets, he was the author of a ''Handbuch der klassischen Literatur'' (1783); ''Entwurf einer Theorie und Literatur der schönen Wissenschaften'' (1783); ''Beispielsammiung zur Theorie und Literatur der schönen Wissenschaften'' (8 vols, 1788–1795); ''Lehrbuch der Wissenschaftskunde'' (1792); and ''Denkmäler altdeutscher Dichtkunst'' (1799). Most of these passed through several editions.
Eschenburg was also a poet, and some of his hymns, e.g. ''Ich will dich noch im Tod erheben'' and ''Dir trau ich, Gott, und wanke nicht'', remain well-known.
Eschenburg became a correspondent, living abroad, of the
Royal Institute of the Netherlands in 1809. In 1818 he became associated member.
References
*
Further reading
* Cord-Friedrich Berghahn und Till Kinzel (ed.). ''Johann Joachim Eschenburg und die Künste und Wissenschaften zwischen Aufklärung und Romantik. Netzwerke und Kulturen des Wissens.'' Heidelberg: Winter, 2013.
ith Bibliography* Johann Joachim Eschenburg. ''Von Chaucer zu Pope. Essays und Übersetzungen zur englischen Literatur des Mittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit.'' Till Kinzel, editor. Hannover: Wehrhahn, 2013.
* Johann Joachim Eschenburg. ''Über William Hogarth und seine Erklärer.'' (= Edition Wehrhahn. Band 2). Till Kinzel, editor. Wehrhahn, Hannover 2013, .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eschenburg, Johann Joachim
1743 births
1820 deaths
German literary critics
German male dramatists and playwrights
German male poets
Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
Academic staff of the Technical University of Braunschweig
Translators of William Shakespeare
Writers from Hamburg
18th-century German dramatists and playwrights
19th-century German dramatists and playwrights
19th-century German male writers