Klaus Groth (24 April 1819 – 1 June 1899) was a
Low German
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(70,000)
(30,000)
(8,000)
, familycolor = Indo-European
, fam2 = Germanic
, fam3 = West Germanic
, fam4 = North Sea Germanic
, ancestor = Old Saxon
, ancestor2 = Middle L ...
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
.
Biography
Groth was born in
Heide
Heide (; Holsatian: ''Heid'') is a town in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is the capital of the ''Kreis'' (district) Dithmarschen. Population: 21,000.
The German word ''Heide'' means "heath". In the 15th century four adjoining villages decided ...
, in
Ditmarschen, the western part of the
Duchy of Holstein
The Duchy of Holstein (german: Herzogtum Holstein, da, Hertugdømmet Holsten) was the northernmost state of the Holy Roman Empire, located in the present German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It originated when King Christian I of Denmark had his ...
. He was the oldest son of Hartwig Groth, a miller, and his wife Anna Christina. He spend an idyllic childhood in Heide which later inspired him to a lot of his poetic works. After visiting the local school, he visited the teacher seminar in
Tondern from 1838 to 1841. Afterwards, Groth became a teacher at the girls school in his native village, devoting his spare time to the study of philosophy, mathematics, and the natural sciences. Furthermore, he valued his homeland's traditions so that he was involved in the revival of a couple of old traditions in Dithmarschen. Finding no joy in teaching, Groth had many differences with the school board as well as his pupils' parents. In 1847, he suffered a breakdown. Fellow teacher and friend Leonhard Selle invited Groth to spend time with him on the island of
Fehmarn
Fehmarn (, da, Femern; from Old Wagrian Slavic "''Fe More''", meaning "''In the Sea''") is an island in the Baltic Sea, off the eastern coast of Germany's northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is Germany's third-largest island, after Rüg ...
, in the
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...
. He remained six years with Selle, and it was there that his famous Low German poetry compilation ''Quickborn'' was written.
Becoming famous in all of Germany when the ''Quickborn'' was published in 1852, Groth moved to
Kiel
Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021).
Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...
shortly after where he set to write more poems and first prose works in Low German.
Since he was often of poor health, in 1855 he attempted to travel to Rome to recuperate, but he only came as far as
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
. There, the University of Bonn awarded him with an honorary doctorate for his service to the German language.
Back in Kiel after two years of travelling, he courted and married Doris Finke in 1859, the daughter of a wealthy wine merchant from
Bremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
. The couple had four sons. To provide for his family, Groth strove for a position as professor of literature at the University of Kiel where he was appointed professor in 1866, the same year, his oldest son died, and the family moved into a house of their own in the "Schwanenweg". Groth lived in this house until his death.
Through many social gatherings and music evenings in their home that his wife organised, the Groth family established important social contacts, and became friends with many contemporary musicians, for example
Clara Schumann
Clara Josephine Schumann (; née Wieck; 13 September 1819 – 20 May 1896) was a German pianist, composer, and piano teacher. Regarded as one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era, she exerted her influence over the course of a ...
and
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...
, a close friend of Groth. He became acquainted with many painters of his time as well which makes Klaus Groth the most painted poet in the 19th century.
Several calamities in the following years hit Groth very hard. Doris Groth died in 1878 because of
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
, and his youngest son died in 1889 from
appendicitis
Appendicitis is inflammation of the appendix. Symptoms commonly include right lower abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and decreased appetite. However, approximately 40% of people do not have these typical symptoms. Severe complications of a rup ...
.
His eightieth birthday in 1899 gave cause for big festivities, especially in Kiel. The cities of Kiel and Heide respectively awarded him with the honorary citizenship. Only a few weeks after his birthday, Klaus Groth died on 1 June 1899. The big funeral service in Kiel was attended by many representatives of the government, politicians, contemporary poets, musicians, and artists.
Works
In his
Low German
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(70,000)
(30,000)
(8,000)
, familycolor = Indo-European
, fam2 = Germanic
, fam3 = West Germanic
, fam4 = North Sea Germanic
, ancestor = Old Saxon
, ancestor2 = Middle L ...
lyric and epic poems, which reflect the influence of
Johann Peter Hebel
Johann Peter Hebel (10 May 1760 – 22 September 1826) was a German short story writer, dialectal poet, Lutheran theologian and pedagogue, most famous for a collection of Alemannic lyric poems (''Allemannische Gedichte'') and one of Ge ...
, Groth gives poetic expression to the country life of his northern home; and though his descriptions may not always reflect the peculiar characteristics of the peasantry of Holstein as faithfully as those of his rival
Fritz Reuter
Fritz Reuter (7 November 1810 – 12 July 1874; born as ''Heinrich Ludwig Christian Friedrich Reuter'') was a novelist from Northern Germany who was a prominent contributor to Low German literature.
Early life
Fritz Reuter was born at Stavenha ...
- Groth strived to show the Low German language as well as the people who spoke it as something noble and worthy of high poetry -, Groth is a lyric poet of genuine inspiration.
His chief works are ''Quickborn, Volksleben - in plattdeutschen Gedichten Ditmarscher Mundart'' (1852; 25th ed. 1900; and in
(standard) German translations, notably by MJ Berchem, ''Krefeld'', 1896); and two volumes of stories, ''Vertelln'' (1835-1859, 3rd ed. 1881); also ''Vær de Gærn'' (1858) and ''Ut min Jungsparadies'' (1875).
Groth's ''Gesammelte Werke'' appeared in 4 volumes (Kiel, 1893). His ''Lebenserinnerungen'' were edited by E. Wolff in 1891; see also K. Eggers, ''K. Groth und die plattdeutsche Dichtung'' (1885); and biographies by A. Bartels (1899) and H. Siercks (1899).
Music
Since Groth and his wife were well acquainted with many musicians of their time, a lot of his poems were set to music. All in all, there are 1149 known musical versions of his poems by 224 composers.
Johannes Brahms set thirteen High German poems to music, among them the poem "Wie Melodien zieht es mir leise durch den Sinn" that became Brahms' No. 1 of his
''Fünf Lieder'', Op. 105.
[*]
References
Citations
Cited sources
* Bichel, Ingel, Bichel, Ulf, Hartig, Joachim, ed. (1994): Klaus Groth. Eine Bildbiographie, Heide 1994, .
*
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*Höhne, Peter (2010): Klaus Groth - Gesungene Gedichte. Klaus Groth und seine Komponisten, Hamburg: Arezzo Musikverlag.
External links
Selected poems with English translationslowlands-l.net
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Groth, Klaus
1819 births
1899 deaths
People from Heide
People from the Duchy of Holstein
19th-century German poets
Writers from Schleswig-Holstein
University of Bonn alumni
German male poets
German-language poets
19th-century German male writers