Erich Schmidt (20 June 1853, in

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

– 29 April 1913, in Berlin) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

historian of literature.

Biography

He was the son of a zoologist Oskar Schmidt. He studied Germanic

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

and literary history at

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

, and

Strassburg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

, established himself as

privatdozent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualifi ...

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is, after Nuremberg and Fürth, the Franconia#Towns and cities, third-largest city in Franconia located in the north of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. It sp ...

in 1875, became a professor at Strassburg in 1877, at

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

in 1880, and director of the

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

archive at

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), German state of Thuringia, in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt to the west and Jena to the east, southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together w ...

in 1885. Thence he was called to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

in 1887, to succeed Wilhelm Scherer in the chair of German language and literature.Schmidt, Franz Erich
In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, , S. 182 f. From 1907 onward, he served as president of the Goethe Society.Schmidt - Theyer
edited by

Walther Killy Walther Killy (26 August 191728 December 1995) was a German literary scholar who specialised in poetry, especially that of Friedrich Hölderlin and Georg Trakl. He taught at the Free University of Berlin, the Georg-August-Universität Götting ...

Published works

Devoted almost exclusively to the investigation of modern literature, being the distinguished author of works involving writers and German literature of the 18th and 19th century, he published: * ''Richardson, Rousseau, und Goethe'' (1875) –

Samuel Richardson Samuel Richardson (baptised 19 August 1689 – 4 July 1761) was an English writer and printer known for three epistolary novels: '' Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded'' (1740), '' Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady'' (1748) and '' The Histo ...

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Republic of Geneva, Genevan philosopher (''philosophes, philosophe''), writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment through ...

and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. * ''Lenz und Klinger'' (1878) –

Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz (; ; 23 January 1751 ( OS 12 January 1750) – 4 June 1792 .S. 24 May 1792 was a Baltic German writer of the ''Sturm und Drang'' movement. Life Lenz was born in Seßwegen (Cesvaine), Governorate of Livonia, Russia ...

Friedrich Maximilian Klinger Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger (17 February 1752 – 9 March 1831) was a German dramatist and novelist. His play ''Sturm und Drang'' (1776) gave its name to the Sturm und Drang artistic epoch. He was a childhood friend of Johann Wolfgang vo ...

. * ''Heinrich Leopold Wagner'' (1879) – Heinrich Leopold Wagner. * ''Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Klopstockschen Jugendlyrik'' (1880). * ''Komödien vom Studentenleben aus dem sechzehnten und siebzehnten Jahrhundert. Vortrag gehalten auf der Trier Philologenversammlung.'' Leipzig 1880.
Digitalisat
* ''Charakteristiken'' (1st series 1880; 2d series 1900). * A biography of

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

, titled ''Lessing: Geschichte seines Lebens und seiner Schriften'' (2d edition 1899). He edited: * Two volumes of the ''Schriften der Goethe-Gesellschaft'' (Weimar, 1886 and 1893) * ''Faust'', for the Weimar edition * ''Goethe's Faust in ursprünglicher Gestalt'' (Goethe's ''Faust'' in its original form; 3rd edition, 1894) which was discovered by him in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

Notes

References

* 1853 births 1913 deaths Writers from Jena People from Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach 19th-century German historians German literary historians German male non-fiction writers University of Graz alumni University of Jena alumni University of Strasbourg alumni Academic staff of the University of Strasbourg Academic staff of the University of Vienna Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences 20th-century German historians Goethe scholars {{Germany-historian-stub