Karl Julius Schröer
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Karl Julius Schröer (January 11, 1825 in
Pressburg Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...
,
Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...
,
Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...
– December 16, 1900 in
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
,
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...
) was an Austrian linguist and literary critic. He was the son of the educator and writer Tobias Gottfried Schröer (1791–1850).


Life

Schröer studied literature and linguistics from 1843 to 1846 in Leipzig, Halle, and Berlin. In 1849 he became a professor of German literature and language in Pest. He returned to Pressburg (Pozsony, today's
Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...
) in 1850 and became a schoolteacher. Political developments in 1860 forced Schröer to leave Hungary for Vienna. From 1861-1866 he was the director of the Evangelical Lutheran School in Vienna's
Karlsplatz is a town square on the border of the first and fourth districts of Vienna, Austria. It is one of the most frequented and best connected transportation hubs in Vienna. The Karlskirche is located here. The first district can be reached either ...
district. In 1866, he became a professor of Literary History at the
Vienna University of Technology TU Wien () is a public research university in Vienna, Austria. The university's teaching and research are focused on engineering, computer science, and natural sciences. It currently has about 28,100 students (29% women), eight faculties, and ...
. In the following years, Schröer researched the folklore of the ethnic Germans, or
Danube Swabians The Danube Swabians ( ) is a collective term for the ethnic German-speaking population who lived in the Kingdom of Hungary in east-central Europe, especially in the Danube River valley, first in the 12th century, and in greater numbers in the 17 ...
, of Hungary. As part of his research, Schröer discovered a medieval cycle of Danube Swabian
mystery play Mystery plays and miracle plays (they are distinguished as two different forms although the terms are often used interchangeably) are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the represe ...
s in Oberufer, a village since engulfed by the Bratislava's borough of Főrév (, today's
Ružinov Ružinov (, , ) is a borough of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, located in the Bratislava II district. It is the city's second most populated borough, housing over 80,000 inhabitants and its Nivy neighbourhood is the place of the emerging ne ...
). Schröer collected manuscripts, made meticulous textual comparisons, and published his findings in the book ''Deutsche Weihnachtspiele aus Ungarn'' ("The German Nativity Plays of Hungary") in 1857/1858. Several scholars later extended this work. In Vienna, Schröer became a major figure in Goethe scholarship. He was a founding member of the Goethe Society of Vienna in 1878 and edited the society's official publication, "Die Chronik", from 1886 to 1894. Schröer was especially devoted to
Faust Faust ( , ) is the protagonist of a classic German folklore, German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust (). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a deal with the Devil at a ...
scholarship, editing the work and providing a commentary in a two-volume edition of that play. In 1884 he published one of his most well-known works, a text dedicated to Goethe's biography, manner of poeticizing, and relation to women: "Goethe und die Liebe" (Goethe and Love). Schröer also edited a six-volume edition of Goethe's dramas. He campaigned for the erection of a Goethe monument in Vienna, which was approved in 1894 with a design by Edmund Hellmann. Schröer died on 16 December 1900, one day after the monument was unveiled.


Legacy

Schröer's student
Rudolf Steiner Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (; 27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century ...
later founded the Waldorf system of education and included the Oberufer plays in a curriculum that still includes them today. An English translation of the Oberufer Plays, made by Cecil Harwood of
The Inklings The Inklings were an informal literary discussion group associated with J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis at the University of Oxford for nearly two decades between the early 1930s and late 1949. The Inklings were literary enthusiasts who prai ...
, was published in 1944 with the title, ''Christmas Plays from Oberufer. The Paradise Play, The Shepherd's Play, The Three Kings' Play''. In the year 2000, on the hundredth anniversary of Schröer's death, an English edition of Schröer's book "Goethe and Love" (1884) appeared, translated by David W. Wood.


Schröer's Edition of Goethe's Faust

K. J. Schröer published his edition of Goethe's Faust, parts 1 and 2, in 1881 (Publisher: Verlag Gebr. Henninger, Heilbronn). The full title in German is: "Faust von Goethe. Mit Einleitung und fortlaufender Erklärung, herausgegeben von K. J. Schröer." The two volumes contained detailed introductions and an extensive commentary by Schröer to Goethe's drama, and went through numerous editions. Further editions appeared in the years, Part I: 1886, 1892, 1907, 1926, 1986, 1999; Part II: 1888, 1896, 1903, 1914, 1926, 1986.


Writings of Schröer online in English translation

* Karl Julius Schröer, "The Natural-Scientific Writings of Goethe" (1884):

* Karl Julius Schröer, "My First Visit to Weimar" (1844)


References

*


External links

*
Biographical entry from ostdeutsche-biographie.de (German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schroer, Karl Julius 1825 births 1900 deaths Writers from Bratislava Linguists from Austria-Hungary Literary critics from Austria-Hungary