Fritz Reuter
Encyclopedia
German Confederation
The German Confederation was the loose association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to coordinate the economies of separate German-speaking countries. It acted as a buffer between the powerful states of Austria and Prussia...
who was one of the most prominent contributors to Low German
Low German
Low German or Low Saxon is an Ingvaeonic West Germanic language spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands...
literature.
Early life
Fritz Reuter was born at StavenhagenStavenhagen
Stavenhagen is a municipality in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is situated 28 km northwest of Neubrandenburg.-Subdivisions:Stavenhagen is divided into following parts:-History:...
in Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Mecklenburg-Schwerin was a duchy in northern Germany created in 1348, when Albert II of Mecklenburg and his younger brother John were raised to Dukes of Mecklenburg by King Charles IV...
, a small country town where his father was mayor and sheriff (Stadtrichter) and, in addition to his official duties, carried on the work of a farmer. He was educated at home by private tutors and subsequently at Gymnasien in Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a duchy and later grand duchy in northern Germany, consisting of the eastern fifth of the historic Mecklenburg region, roughly corresponding with the present-day Mecklenburg-Strelitz district , and the western exclave of the former Bishopric of Ratzeburg in modern...
and in Parchim
Parchim
Parchim is a town in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is the capital of the Ludwigslust-Parchim district. It was the birthplace of Moltke, to whom a monument was erected in 1876. Founded about 1210, one branch of the family of the duke of Mecklenburg residence in Parchim during part of the 14th...
.
Early career and imprisonment
In 1831, Reuter began to attend lectures on jurisprudenceJurisprudence
Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal theorists , hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions...
at the University of Rostock
University of Rostock
The University of Rostock is the university of the city Rostock, in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.Founded in 1419, it is the oldest and largest university in continental northern Europe and the Baltic Sea area...
, and in the following year went to the University of Jena. Here he was a member of the political students' club, or German Burschenschaft, and in 1833 was arrested in Berlin by the Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n government and interned at Fort Silberberg
Srebrna Góra, Lower Silesian Voivodeship
Srebrna Góra is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Stoszowice, within Ząbkowice Śląskie County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. Prior to 1945 it was in Germany....
in Silesia. Although the only charge which could be proved against him was that he had been seen wearing the club's colours, he was condemned to death for high treason
High treason
High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...
. This sentence was commuted by King Frederick William III of Prussia
Frederick William III of Prussia
Frederick William III was king of Prussia from 1797 to 1840. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel .-Early life:...
to imprisonment for thirty years in a Prussian fortress. In 1838, through the personal intervention of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg, he was delivered over to the authorities of his native state, and he spent the next two years in the fortress of Dömitz
Dömitz
Dömitz is a municipality in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Elbe, 25 km southwest of Ludwigslust, and 37 km northwest of Wittenberge....
, but was set free in 1840, when an amnesty
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
was proclaimed after the accession of Frederick William IV
Frederick William IV of Prussia
|align=right|Upon his accession, he toned down the reactionary policies enacted by his father, easing press censorship and promising to enact a constitution at some point, but he refused to enact a popular legislative assembly, preferring to work with the aristocracy through "united committees" of...
to the Prussian throne.
Although Reuter was now thirty years of age, he went to Heidelberg to resume his legal studies, but was forced by his father to give them up when it was found that he paid little attention to his studies. After returning to Mecklenburg, he spent some time with his uncle, a minister at Jabel, and then began working on an estate, in 1842, as Strom (trainee). Finding out, upon his father's death in 1845, that he had been disinherited, he realized that acquiring an estate of his own was out of the question, and he began to write, first in High German, later, with more success, in Low German. In 1850 he settled as a private tutor in the little town of Treptow an der Tollense in Pomerania (today Altentreptow
Altentreptow
Altentreptow is a town in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It is situated on the river Tollense, 15 km north of Neubrandenburg. Until 1939 the city's name was Treptow an der Tollense....
, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), and was now able to marry Luise Kuntze, the daughter of a Mecklenburg pastor.
Early published works
Reuter's first publication was a collection of miscellaneous poems, written in Low GermanLow German
Low German or Low Saxon is an Ingvaeonic West Germanic language spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands...
, entitled Läuschen un Riemels (anecdotes and rhymes, 1853; a second collection followed in 1858). The book, which was received with encouraging favour, was followed by Polterabendgedichte (1855), and De Reis' nach Belligen (1855), the latter a humorous epic poem describing the adventures of some Mecklenburg peasants who resolve to go to Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
(which they never reach) to learn the secrets of modern farming.
In 1856 Reuter left Treptow and established himself at Neubrandenburg
Neubrandenburg
Neubrandenburg is a city in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is located in the southeastern part of the state, on the shore of a lake called the Tollensesee ....
, resolving to devote his whole time to literary work. His next book (published in 1858) was Kein Hüsung, a verse epic in which he presents with great force and vividness some of the least attractive aspects of village life in Mecklenburg. This was followed, in 1860, by Hanne Nüte un de lütte Pudel, the last of the works written by Reuter in verse.
In 1861 Reuter's popularity was largely increased by Schurr-Murr, a collection of tales, some of which are in standard German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, but this work is of slight importance in comparison with the series of stories, entitled Olle Kamellen ("old stories of bygone days"). The first volume, published in 1860, contained Woans ick tau 'ne Fru kam and Ut de Franzosentid. Ut mine Festungstid (1861) formed the second volume; Ut mine Stromtid (1864) the third, fourth and fifth volumes; and Dörchläuchting (1866) the sixth volume – all written in the Plattdeutsch dialect of the author's home. Woans ick tau 'ne Fru kamm is a bright little tale, in which Reuter tells, in a half serious half bantering tone, how he wooed the lady who became his wife.
Later works
The novel Ut mine Stromtid (3 volumes) is by far the greatest of Reuter's writings. The men and women he describes are the men and women he knew in the villages and farmhouses of Mecklenburg, and the circumstances in which he places them are the circumstances by which they were surrounded in actual life. Ut mine Stromtid also presents some of the local aspects of the revolutionary movement of 1848. M. W. MacDowell translated this book from German into English as From my Farming Days in 1878. The better translation is that by Katharine Tyler which predated MacDowell's, appearing, in 1871, in Littell's Living Age, and in 1872 in book form, entitled Seedtime and Harvest.In 1863 Reuter transferred his residence from Neubrandenburg to Eisenach
Eisenach
Eisenach is a city in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated between the northern foothills of the Thuringian Forest and the Hainich National Park. Its population in 2006 was 43,626.-History:...
, after having received an honorary doctorate from Rostock University, and here he died on 12 July 1874.
Reuter's stories are lacking in plot, but are marked by clever episodes, skillful character drawing and a humor, which, despite the difficulty of his medium, was universally appreciated in Germany. His Sämtliche Werke (collected works), in 13 volumes, were first published in 1863-1868. To these were added in 1875 two volumes of Nachgelassene Schriften, with a biography by Adolf von Wilbrandt, and in 1878 two supplementary volumes to the works appeared. A popular edition in 7 vols was published in 1877-1878 (last edition, 1902); there are also editions by Karl Friedrich Müller (18 vols, 1905), and Wilhelm Seelmann (7 vols, 1905-1906). Interest in Reuter was revived in the period after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, in part through the efforts of Friedrich Griese
Friedrich Griese
Friedrich Griese was a German novelist. He was associated with the nationalist literary movement during the Third Reich.Griese wrote mostly about peasant life in northern Germany. His most important books were written before the advent of the Nazi government in 1933, so he cannot be considered...
.
Among the institutions concerning themselves with the works of Reuter are the Fritz Reuter Gesellschaft e.V. in Neubrandenburg, the Fritz-Reuter-Literaturmuseum in Stavenhagen, the Reuter-Wagner-Museum in Eisenach, and the Fritz Reuter Literary Archive
Fritz Reuter Literary Archive
The Fritz Reuter Literary Archive in Berlin, Germany collects autographs and manuscripts by 19th century authors from Mecklenburg, as well as editions of their works. The collections primarily include Fritz Reuter , who wrote mostly in Low German, and Ida Gräfin Hahn-Hahn , who wrote primarily in...
(Fritz Reuter Literaturarchiv) Hans-Joachim Griephan in Berlin. The latter archive keeps an index of the letters from and to Fritz Reuter.
External links
- Works by Fritz Reuter at Lexikus
Further reading
- Otto Glagau: Fritz Reuter und seine Dichtungen. Berlin: Lemke, 1866 (2nd ed. Berlin: Grote,1875)
- Hermann Ebert: Fritz Reuter: sein Leben und seine Werke Güstrow: Opitz, 1874
- Friedrich Latendorf: Zur Erinnerung an Fritz Reuter: verschollene Gedichte Reuters nebst volkstümlichen und wissenschaftlichen Reuter-Studien. Poesneck: Latendorf, 1879
- Karl Theodor Gaedertz: Fritz Reuter-Studien. Wismar: Hinstorff, 1890
- Karl Theodor Gaedertz: Aus Reuters jungen und alten Tagen : Neues über des Dichters Leben und Werke. 3 Bde. Wismar: Hinstorff, 1894-1900
- Briefe von Fritz Reuter an seinen Vater aus der Schüler-, Studenten-, und Festungszeit (1827 bis 1841) hrsg. von Franz Engel. 2 Bde. Braunschweig: Westermann, 1896
- Abraham Römer: Fritz Reuter in seinem Leben und Schaffen. Berlin: Mayer & Müller, 1896
- Gustav Raatz, Wahrheit und Dichtung in Fritz Reuter's Werken: Urbilder bekannter Reuter-Gestalten. Wismar: Hinstorff, 1895
- Ernst Brandes: Aus Fritz Reuters Leben. 2 Tle. Strasburg i. Westpr.: Fuhrich, 1899-1901 (Wissenschaftliche Beilage zu den Schulnachrichten des Gymansiums Strasburg i. Westpr. 1899, 1901)
- Karl Friedrich Müller: Der Mecklenburger Volksmund in Fritz Reuters Schriften: Sammlung und Erklärung volksthümlicher Wendungen und sprichwörtlicher Redensarten im Mecklenburgischen Platt. Leipzig: Hesse, 1901
A complete bibliography of Fritz Reuter can be found in the Niederdeutsches Jahrbuch for 1896 and 1902.