Michael Bernays (27 November 183425 February 1897) was a German literary historian, and an important Goethe and Shakespeare scholar.

Life

He was born in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. His father,

Isaac Bernays Isaac Bernays ( , , ; 29 September 1792 – 1 May 1849) was Chief Rabbi in Hamburg. Life Bernays was born in Weisenau (now part of Mainz). He was the son of Jacob Gera, a boarding house keeper at Mainz, and an elder brother of Adolphus Bernays. ...

, died when he was fourteen years old. His adjustments were radically different from that of his two brothers, Jacob Bernays (1824-1881) and Berman Bernays (1826-1879), due to the traumatic loss of his father at an early age or other factors. He studied first

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

and then literature at

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 ...

and

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

Career

He obtained a considerable reputation by his lectures on

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 ...

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

and an explanatory text to

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

's music to Egmont. Having refused in 1866 an invitation to take part in the editorship of the ''Preussische Jahrbücher'', in the same year he published his celebrated ''Zur Kritik und Geschichte des Goetheschen Textes''. He confirmed his reputation by his lectures at the university of Leipzig, and in 1873 accepted the post of extraordinary professor of German literature at Munich specially created for him by

Ludwig II of Bavaria Ludwig II (Ludwig Otto Friedrich Wilhelm; 25 August 1845 – 13 June 1886) was King of Bavaria from 1864 until his death in 1886. He is sometimes called the Swan King or ('the Fairy Tale King'). He also held the titles of Count Palatine of the ...

. Thus, he became first ever professor of modern German literary history at Munich University. He was for a while reader to Ludwig II of Bavaria. In 1874 he became an ordinary professor, a position which he resigned only in 1889 when he settled at Carlsruhe. He died there on 25 February 1897. He along with

Ludwig Geiger Ludwig Geiger (born ''Lazarus Abraham Geiger'', also called ''Ludwig Moritz Philipp Geiger''; 5 June 1848 – 9 February 1919) was a German author and historian. Life Ludwig Geiger was born at Breslau, Silesia, a son of Abraham Geiger. After st ...

started a critical Goethe philosophy. Geiger edited the influential ''Goethe-Jahrbuch'' for more than thirty years. At an early age he became a

Jewish Christian Jewish Christians ( he, יהודים נוצרים, yehudim notzrim) were the followers of a Jewish religious sect that emerged in Judea during the late Second Temple period (first century AD). The Nazarene Jews integrated the belief of Jesus ...

, whereas his brother Jakob remained a Rabbinical Jew. Among his other publications were: ''Briefe Goethes an F. A. Wolf'' (1868); ''Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Schlegelschen Shakespeare'' (1872); and an introduction to Hirzel's collection entitled ''Der junge Goethe'' (1875). He also edited a revised edition of Voss's translation of the ''

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major Ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek Epic poetry, epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by moder ...

''. From his

literary remains The literary estate of a deceased author consists mainly of the copyright and other intellectual property rights of published works, including film, translation rights, original manuscripts of published work, unpublished or partially completed w ...

were published ''Schriften zur Kritik und Litteraturgeschichte'' (1895–1899).

Works

* ''Zur Kritik und Geschichte des Goetheschen-Textes'' (1866) * ''Briefe Goethes an F. A. Wolf'' (1868) * ''Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Schlegelschen Shakespeare''. Leipzig 1872, new ed. Celtis Verlag, Berlin 2013, * An introduction to Hirzel's collection entitled ''Der junge Goethe'' (1875) * A revised edition of Voss's translation of the ''

'' * (from his literary remains) ''Schriften zur Kritik und Litteraturgeschichte'' (1895–1899)

References

External links

Michael Bernays
on the

Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on th ...

.
Michael Bernays
on
Messianic Judaism Wiki
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernays, Michael 1834 births 1897 deaths 19th-century German Jews University of Bonn alumni Converts to Protestantism from Judaism