Wilhelm Schäfer (20 January 1868 – 19 January 1952) was a German writer.
Life
Born in
Ottrau
Ottrau is a municipality in the Schwalm-Eder-Kreis in Hesse, Germany.
Geography
Ottrau lies about 10 km northeast of Alsfeld.
Constituent communities
The community of Ottrau is made up of six constituent communities:
* Ottrau: 730 ...
(
Hesse
Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...
), until 1896 Schäfer was a school teacher. He gained a scholarship to study in Switzerland and France through the Cotta-Verlag publishing house, and in 1898 became a freelance writer in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
. He lived in
Vallendar
Vallendar is a town in the district Mayen-Koblenz, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Rhine, approx. 4 km north-east of Koblenz. Vallendar is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipali ...
from 1900 to 1915, and from 1918 until his death in 1952, he lived in
Bodman on the
Bodensee
Lake Constance (german: Bodensee, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Lak ...
.
His work (drama, novels, and short prose pieces) were naturalist in style and marked with "völkisch" and national elements. In 1930 he published a novel about the shoe-maker
Wilhelm Voigt
Friedrich Wilhelm Voigt (13 February 1849 – 3 January 1922) was a German impostor who, in 1906, masqueraded as a Prussian military officer, rounded up a number of soldiers under his "command", and "confiscated" more than 4,000 marks from a mu ...
with the title ''
Der Hauptmann von Köpenick''.
From 1900 to 1920, he published the magazine ''Die Rheinlande''. His early work was especially influenced by
naturalism. Important novellas were "Die unterbrochene Rheinfahrt" (1913) und "Hölderlins Einkehr" (1925). Schäfer's folksy language and mystification of the "German soul" made his work popular with the Nazis.
Awards
* 1941
Goethepreis der Stadt Frankfurt
The Goethe Prize of the City of Frankfurt (german: Goethe-Preis der Stadt Frankfurt am Main, links=no) is an award for achievement "worthy of honour in memory of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe" made by the city of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was u ...
* 1948 Honorary citizen of
Bodman
Works (selection)
* ''Die zehn Gebote. Erzählungen des Kanzelfriedrich'', 1897
* ''Rheinsagen'', 1908
* ''Karl Stauffers Lebensgang. Eine Chronik der Leidenschaft'', 1912
* ''Das fremde Fräulein'' (Novelle über den Tod der
Idilia Dubb
''The Diary of Miss Idilia: A Tragic Tale of Young Love Lost'' is a book edited by Genevieve Hill. It presents itself to be the original diary of a young girl who disappeared whilst on holiday with her parents in the German Rhineland in 1851.
...
auf
Burg Lahneck)
* ''Die dreizehn Bücher der deutschen Seele'', 1922
* ''Winckelmanns Ende'', 1925
* ''Der Hauptmann von Köpenick'', 1930
* ''Mein Leben'', 1934
* ''Theoderich, König des Abendlandes'', 1939
* ''Lebenstag eines Menschenfreundes (Ein Pestalozzi Roman)'', 1915
References
* Sabine Brenner: ''"Wir ungereimten Rheinländer wollen es wieder richtig machen". Wilhelm Schäfer und die Kulturzeitschrift "Die Rheinlande".'' In: ''"Ganges Europas, heiliger Strom!" Der literarische Rhein (1900-1933)'', hrsg. v. Sabine Brenner. Düsseldorf 2001. (= Veröffentlichungen des Heinrich-Heine-Instituts Düsseldorf). S. 47-74.
* Mechthild Curtius: ''Über die Möglichkeiten und Schwierigkeiten, sich einem Heimatdichter filmisch zu nähern. Essay über den rheinischen Schriftsteller Wilhelm Schäfer.'' In: Literatur in Westfalen. 7 (2004) S. 397-412.
* Conrad Höfer: ''Wilhelm Schäfer. Bibliographie.'' Berlin: Privatdr. bei Steinkopf 1937-1943.
* Hans Lorenzen: ''Typen deutscher Anekdotenerzählung (Kleist - Hebel - Schäfer).'' Hamburg: Univ. Diss. 1935.
* Maik Irmisch: Kapitel "Greither und Wilhelm Schäfer" in "Aloys Greither - Hautarzt zwischen Mozart, Hesse, Dix und Scharl" Norderstedt: Books on Demand, 2006
* ''Wilhelm Schäfer. Zu seinem 50. Geburtstag'', hrsg. v. Karl Röttger. München: Müller 1918.
* ''Bekenntnis zu Wilhelm Schäfer. Zum 60. Geburtstag des Dichters am 20. Januar 1928'', hrsg. v. Otto Doderer. München: Müller 1928.
* Franz Stuckert: ''Wilhelm Schäfer. Ein Volksdichter unserer Zeit.'' München: Langen/Müller 1935.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schafer, Wilhelm
1868 births
1952 deaths
People from Schwalm-Eder-Kreis
German male writers