Felix Dahn
Felix Dahn | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Felix Ludwig Julius Dahn 9 February 1834 Hamburg,Germany |
| Died | 3 January 1912(aged 77) Breslau,Germany |
| Spouses | Sophie Fries
(m.1835–1898)Therese von Droste-Hülshoff
(m.1873–1912) |
| Parents | |
Felix Ludwig Julius Dahn(9 February 1834 – 3 January 1912) was a German law professor andnationalistauthor, poet and historian.
Biography
[edit]Felix Ludwig Julius Dahn was born inHamburgas the oldest son of Friedrich (1811–1889) and Constanze Dahn who were notable actors at the city's theatre. The family had both German and French roots. Dahn began his studies in law and philosophy inMunich(he had moved there with his parents in 1834), and graduated asDoctor of LawsinBerlin.After hishabilitation treatise,Dahn became a lecturer of German Law in Munich in 1857. In 1863 he becamesenior lecturer/associate professorinWürzburg,received a professorship inKönigsberg(in 1872).
Dahn was married to the artist Sophie Fries (1835–1898), with whom he had a son. He tutored baroness Therese von Droste-Hülshoff, a relative of the poetAnnette von Droste-Hülshoff,in poetry from 1867 and entered an illicit love affair with her, which he gave a literary treatment in hisSind Götter?(1874). He divorced his wife and married Therese, against opposition from both families, in 1873.
Dahn relocated toUniversity of Breslauin 1888, again as a full professor, and was electedrectorof the university in 1895. As rector, he enforced a ban on Polish student associations.[1]
Works
[edit]Dahn's writings were influential in the conception of the EuropeanMigration Period(Völkerwanderung) in German historiography of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His multi-volumePrehistory of the Germanic and Roman Peoples,a chronology of the Migration Period that first appeared in print in 1883, was so definitive that abbreviated versions were reprinted until the late 1970s.
From the 1860s, Dahn regularly wrote forDie Gartenlaube,Germany's most popular family magazine. His nationalist historical novels were widely received, and according to Houdsen (1997) were influential in the formation of thevölkischideology that formed the "Germany's pre-Hitlerian intellectual background for National Socialism".[2] His 1876Ein Kampf um Romaccording to Kipper (2002) contributed to theethnic essentialismand opposition toethnic miscegenationof the "völkisch avant-garde".[3]
Dahn published numerous poems, many with a nationalist bent. HisMette von Marienburgportrays bands of "Masuresand Poles "hiding in the"Podolianforest ".[4]
Besides his historical and literary production, Dahn also published a large amount of specialist legal literature, on topics such astrade lawandinternational law.
Bibliography
[edit]- 1861 – 1911Die Könige der Germanen(Germanic Kings,11 parts)
- 1865Prokopius von Cäsarea. Ein Beitrag zur Historiographie der Völkerwanderung und des sinkenden Römertums(Procopius of Caesarea)
- 1875König Roderich(King Roderick)
- 1876Ein Kampf um Rom(A Struggle for Rome)
- 1877Die Staatskunst der Frauen(Women's Statecraft)
- 1880Odhin's Trost(Odin's Consolation)
- 1882 - 1901Kleine Romane aus der Völkerwanderung(Short Novels of the Migrations,13 parts)
- 1883Urgeschichte der germanischen und romanischen Völker(Prehistory of the Germanic and Roman Peoples,four parts)
- 1884Die Kreuzfahrer(The Crusaders)
- 1893Julian der Abtrünnige(Julian the Apostate)
- 1902Herzog Ernst von Schwaben(Duke Ernst of Swabia)
References
[edit]- ^Norman Davies,Microcosm(2003), p. 305
- ^Housden, Martyn (1997).Resistance and Conformity in the Third Reich.Routledge. p. 3.
The philosophies of Fichte, Hegel, or Nietzsche did not contribute as much to Germany's pre-Hitlerian intellectual background for National Socialism as commemorations of the victory at Sedan (in the Franco-Prussian War), Bismarckian blood and iron quotations, the historical novels of Felix Dahn
- ^Rainer Kipper. Der German mythos in Deutschen Kaiserreich: Formen und Funktionen historischer Selbstthematisierung. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2002. 394 pp.ISBN978-3-525-35570-1., review atHumanities and Social sciences - Online - Net
- ^Gesammelte Werke. Band 5: Gedichte und Balladen,Leipzig 1912. The comparison to packs of wolves is mentioned as stressing the "implacability of the Poles" alongside the writings ofArthur Jonetzand "many other German nationalists" bySmith, Helmut Walser (2014).German Nationalism and Religious Conflict: Culture, Ideology, Politics, 1870–1914.p. 173.
Sources
[edit]- Festgabe für Felix Dahn zu seinem fünfzigjährigen Doktorjubiläum.Neudr. d. Ausg. Breslau 1905. Scientia-Verlag, Aalen 1979.ISBN3-511-00881-6
- Kurt Frech:Felix Dahn. Die Verbreitung völkischen Gedankenguts durch den historischen Roman,in: Uwe Puschner, Walter Schmitz, Justus H. Ulbricht (Hrsg.),Handbuch zur „Völkischen Bewegung “1871–1918,München, New Providence, London, Paris 1996, S. 685–698.ISBN3-598-11241-6
- Rainer Kipper:Der völkische Mythos. "Ein Kampf um Rom" von Felix Dahn.In: derselbe:Der Germanenmythos im Deutschen Kaiserreich. Formen und Funktionen historischer Selbstthematisierung.Vandenhoeck u. Ruprecht, Göttingen 2002. (= Formen der Erinnerung; 11)ISBN3-525-35570-X
- Stefan Neuhaus:"Das Höchste ist das Volk, das Vaterland!" Felix Dahns "Ein Kampf um Rom" (1876)In: derselbe:Literatur und nationale Einheit in Deutschland.Francke, Tübingen u.a. 2002. S. 230-243.ISBN3-7720-3330-X
- Hans Rudolf Wahl:Die Religion des deutschen Nationalismus. Eine mentalitätsgeschichtliche Studie zur Literatur des Kaiserreichs: Felix Dahn, Ernst von Wildenbruch, Walter Flex.Winter, Heidelberg 2002. (= Neue Bremer Beiträge, 12)ISBN3-8253-1382-4
External links
[edit]
- Works by Felix DahnatProject Gutenberg
- Works by Felix DahnatLibriVox(public domain audiobooks)
- Works by or about Felix Dahnat theInternet Archive
- Felix Dahnin theGerman National Librarycatalogue
- "Works by Felix Dahn".Zeno.org(in German).
- Works by Felix DahnatProjekt Gutenberg-DE(in German)
- Ein Kampf um Rom (PDF; Reprint of 1888 edition at Arno-Schmidt-Referenzbibliothek der GASL)
- Ein Kampf um Romin context of conservative-nationalist literature
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
- 1834 births
- 1912 deaths
- Writers from Hamburg
- 19th-century German historians
- German male novelists
- German historical novelists
- 19th-century German novelists
- 20th-century German novelists
- German nationalists
- Jurists from Hamburg
- Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni
- Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
- Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin
- Academic staff of the University of Königsberg
- Academic staff of the University of Breslau
- Writers of historical fiction set in the Middle Ages
- 19th-century German male writers
- 19th-century German writers
- 20th-century German male writers
- German male non-fiction writers