August Ferdinand Robert Petsch (born Berlin 4 June 1875, died Hamburg 10 September 1945) was a German researcher of Germanic culture and folklore.

Life and work

Petsch studied in Berlin with Erich Schmidt and at the

University of Würzburg The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. The University of Würzburg is one o ...

, where he received his doctorate in 1898 on "Volksrätsel" ('the traditional riddle') and completed his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

in 1900 on "Formelhafte Schlüsse im Volksmärchen" ('formulaic endings in folk-tales'). He belonged to the pioneering Berlin school of Germanic studies associated with

Wilhelm Scherer Wilhelm Scherer (26 April 18416 August 1886) was a German philologist and historian of literature. He was known as a positivist because he based much of his work on "hypotheses on detailed historical research, and rooted every literary phenomeno ...

. In 1914 he held a lectureship in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

. Then he was appointed full professor at the Königliche Akademie zu Posen — German Academy in Poznán. When Germany lost Poznán through the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

, Petsch lost his job. In October 1919, Petsch became a professor at the University of Hamburg, taking up the first chair of modern German literary history, and he taught beyond retirement age until 1945. He was a founding figure there in ''Allgemeine Literaturwissenschaft'' ('general literary study'), which moved away from focusing on history and authorial biography in favour studying the nature, typology and form of literature. Petsch dealt intensively with the work of

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (, ; 22 January 1729 – 15 February 1781) was a philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and a representative of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the developme ...

and

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tre ...

, in particular accruing 32 publications on Goethe's ''Faust''. In 1924 he was a co-founder of the Hamburg Goethe Society. In the field of folklore he focused on fairy tales. Petsch joined the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported th ...

in 1933, the year they came to power, and was in November 1933 one of the signatories of the professors' commitment to Adolf Hitler at German universities and colleges. In 1937, Petsch argued that Nordic poetry of the "echt germanischen Form" ('genuinely Germanic form') was particularly close to German literature. He viewed

Selma Lagerlöf Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf (, , ; 20 November 1858 – 16 March 1940) was a Swedish author. She published her first novel, '' Gösta Berling's Saga'', at the age of 33. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, which she wa ...

Sigrid Undset Sigrid Undset () (20 May 1882 – 10 June 1949) was a Norwegian- Danish novelist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928. Undset was born in Kalundborg, Denmark, but her family moved to Norway when she was two years old. In 1924 ...

, and

Knut Hamsun Knut Hamsun (4 August 1859 – 19 February 1952) was a Norwegian writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. Hamsun's work spans more than 70 years and shows variation with regard to consciousness, subject, perspective a ...

as poets fitting the Germanic tradition who wrote in "artgemäßen Denkbahnen" ('species-appropriate ways of thinking'), by contrast with German writers like

Alfred Döblin Bruno Alfred Döblin (; 10 August 1878 – 26 June 1957) was a German novelist, essayist, and doctor, best known for his novel ''Berlin Alexanderplatz'' (1929). A prolific writer whose œuvre spans more than half a century and a wide variety of ...

and

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novella ...

, whom Petsch saw as decadent. For Petsch, Hamsun in particular was the greatest Nordic storyteller, as one of the "wärmsten Bewunderern und Verteidigern" ('warmest admirers and defenders') of Nazi Germany abroad.Robert Petsch, ''Nordische Dichtung. Olav Duun und seine Zeitgenossen.'' In: '' Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift.'' 25, 1937, pp. 242–256. Among Petsch's students were Paul Böckmann and Fritz Martini. Because of his early membership of the Nazi Party, Petsch was suspended by the British occupation authorities at the age of almost 70 in May 1945, dying a few months later.

Key works

* ''Freiheit und Notwendigkeit in Schillers Dramen'' (= ''Goethe- und Schillerstudien.'' 1, ). Beck, München 1905. * ''Lessings Briefwechsel mit Mendelssohn und Nicolai über das Trauerspiel. Nebst verwandten Schriften Nicolais und Mendelssohns'' (= ''Philosophische Bibliothek.'' Bd. 121, ). Dürr, Leipzig 1910. * ''Gehalt und Form. Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur Literaturwissenschaft und zur allgemeinen Geistesgeschichte'' (= ''Hamburgische Texte und Untersuchungen zur deutschen Philologie.'' Reihe 2: ''Untersuchungen.'' 1, ). Ruhfus, Dortmund 1925. * ''Wesen und Formen der Erzählkunst'' (= '' Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte. Buchreihe.'' 20, ). Niemeyer, Halle (Saale) 1934. * As editor, with Hermann Blumenthal: ''Goethes Werke.'' 12 Bände. Kleine Festausgabe. Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1938.

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Petsch, Robert 1875 births 1945 deaths German philologists German folklorists Germanic studies scholars Linguists of Germanic languages Nazi Party members 20th-century philologists

Life and work

Key works

Further reading

External links

References