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Johann Christoph Gottsched

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Johann Christoph Gottsched
Portrait by Leonhard Schorer, 1744
Born(1700-02-02)2 February 1700
Juditten,Brandenburg-Prussia
Died12 December 1766(1766-12-12)(aged 66)
Leipzig,Saxony
Alma materUniversity of Königsberg

Johann Christoph Gottsched(2 February 1700 – 12 December 1766) was a German philosopher, author and critic of theEnlightenment.[clarification needed]

Biography[edit]

Die Gottschedin,his first wife,Luise Adelgunde Victorie Gottsched (born Kulmus)in an oil portrait byElias Gottlob Haussmannc.1750

Early life[edit]

He was born atJuditten(renamed Mendeleyevo in 1947) nearKönigsberg(Kaliningrad),Brandenburg-Prussia,the son of aLutheranclergyman, and was baptised inSt. Mary's Church.He studied philosophy and history at theUniversity of Königsberg,but immediately on taking the degree ofMagisterin 1723, he fled toLeipzigto avoid being drafted into thePrussian army.In Leipzig, he enjoyed the protection of Johann Burckhardt Mencke, who, under the name of "Philander von der Linde", was a well-known poet and president of theDeutschübende poetische Gesellschaftin Leipzig. Of this society, Gottsched was elected "Senior" in 1726, and in the next year reorganised it under the title of theDeutsche Gesellschaft.[1]

Career[edit]

As editor of the weekliesDie vernünftigen Tadlerinnen(1725–26) andDer Biedermann(1727), Gottsched started a lifelong career of untiring critical activity. Directing his criticism at first chiefly at the bombast and absurd affectations of the Second Silesian School, he proceeded to lay down strict laws for the composition of poetry.[2]He insistedGerman literaturebe subordinated to the laws ofFrench classicism.He enunciated rules by which the playwright must be bound (such as theStändeklausel), and abolished bombast and buffoonery from the serious stage.[1]He insisted on the observance of thedramatic unities.

In his efforts toward the reformation of the German drama, Gottsched was aided by his wife,Luise,a prolific writer and translator, and had the cooperation of the theatrical manager Johann Neuber and his wife,Caroline.They succeeded in bringing about a considerable change in the condition of the German stage by substituting for the prevailing operatic performances translations of French dramas and original plays, and by banishing from it the coarse buffooneries ofHanswurst(Jack Pudding).[2]

In 1730, Gottsched was appointed an extraordinary professor of poetry, and, in 1734, ordinary professor oflogicandmetaphysicsat theUniversity of Leipzig.[1]He was also a corresponding member of the firstlearned societyof theHabsburg monarchy,theSocietas eruditorum incognitoruminOlmütz(Olomouc), and was published in the Society's journal, which was the first scientific journal in the Habsburg monarchy.

Eventually, Gottsched went too far in his criticism. He refused to recognise the work ofKlopstockandLessing.[3]In 1740, he came into conflict with the Swiss writersJohann Jakob BodmerandJohann Jakob Breitinger,who, under the influence of Addison and contemporary Italian critics, demanded that the poetic imagination should not be hampered by artificial rules. As examples, they pointed to English poets, especiallyMilton.Gottsched, although not blind to the beauties of the English writers, clung tenaciously to his principle that poetry must be the product of rules and, in the fierce controversy which for a time raged between Leipzig andZürich,he was ultimately defeated.[1]

In 1741, he fell out with Caroline Neuber regarding practical stage matters, and even placed himself in opposition to his wife.[2]His influence speedily declined, and before his death his name became proverbial for pedantic folly.[1]He died in Leipzig on 12 December 1766.[4]

Works[edit]

Gedichte

Gottsched's chief work was hisVersuch einer kritischen Dichtkunst für die Deutschen(1730), the first systematic treatise in German on the art of poetry from the standpoint ofBoileau.HisAusführliche Redekunst(1728) and hisGrundlegung einer deutschen Sprachkunst(1748) were of importance for the development of German style and the purification of the language. He wrote several plays, of whichDer sterbende Cato(1732), an adaptation ofJoseph Addison'stragedyand a French play on the same theme, was long popular on the stage. HisDeutsche Schaubühne(6 volumes, 1740–45) contained mainly translations from the French,[1]but also some works written by himself, his wife, and others.[3]With this, he provided the German stage with a classical repertory. His bibliography of the German drama,Nötiger Vorrat zur Geschichte der deutschen dramatischen Dichtkunst(1757–65), intended to contain an account of all previous German plays, though not complete is still valuable.[3]He was also the editor of several journals devoted to literary criticism.[1]

Gottsched wrote the texts of twosecular cantatasbyJohann Sebastian Bach:Laß, Fürstin, laß noch einen Strahl(BWV198) andWillkommen! Ihr herrschenden Götter der Erden(BWV Anh. 13, music lost).

Family[edit]

His first wife,Luise Kulmus,was also a prominent author. She died in 1762. After a three-year mourning period, in 1765 inCamburg,Saale,Gottsched married his 19-year-old second wife, Ernestine Susanne Katharina Neunes (1746–1811).

Notes[edit]

  1. ^abcdefgOne or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Gottsched, Johann Christoph".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 279–280.
  2. ^abcOne or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Gilman, D. C.;Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905)."Gottsched, Johann Christoph".New International Encyclopedia(1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
  3. ^abcBaynes, T. S., ed. (1879)."Gottsched, Johann Christoph".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 10 (9th ed.). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
  4. ^Konzett, M. (2015).Encyclopedia of German Literature.Taylor & Francis. p. 358.ISBN978-1-135-94122-2.Retrieved10 December2022.

External links[edit]

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