Franz Muncker (4 December 1855, in

Bayreuth Bayreuth ( or ; High Franconian German, Upper Franconian: Bareid, ) is a Town#Germany, town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtel Mountains. The town's roots date back to 11 ...

– 7 September 1926, in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

) was a German

literary historian The history of literature is the historical development of writings in prose or poetry that attempt to provide entertainment or education to the reader, as well as the development of the literary techniques used in the communication of these pie ...

. From 1873 he studied

Old German Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...

and

Romance languages The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...

and literature under Konrad Hofmann and modern languages and literature with Michael Bernays at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

, receiving his doctorate in 1878. In 1890 he was appointed successor to Bernays at Munich, where from 1896 to 1926, he served as a full professor of modern German literary history.

Published works

From 1886 to 1924 he worked on a 23-volume edition 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 ...

's writings and letters; title
''Gotthold Ephraim Lessings sämtliche schriften''
His biography of

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

, ''Richard Wagner : Eine Skizze seines Lebens und Wirkens'' (1891), was translated into English and published a
''Richard Wagner; a sketch of his life and works''
Muncker's other principal works are the following: * ''Joufrois : Altfranzösisches rittergedicht'' (with Konrad Hofmann, 1880) – " Joufrois", an old French knight poem. * ''Johann Kaspar Lavater. Eine Skizze seines Lebens und Wirkens'', 1883 –

Johann Kaspar Lavater Johann Kaspar (or Caspar) Lavater (; 15 November 1741 – 2 January 1801) was a Switzerland, Swiss poet, writer, philosopher, physiognomist and theologian. Early life Lavater was born in Zürich, and was educated at the ''Gymnasium (school), Gy ...

, a sketch of his life and works. * ''Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock. Geschichte seines Lebens und seiner Schriften'', 1888 –

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (; 2 July 1724 – 14 March 1803) was a German poet. His best known works are the epic poem ''Der Messias'' ("The Messiah") and the poem ''Die Auferstehung'' ("The Resurrection"), with the latter set to text in the ...

, history of his life and writings. * ''Friedrich Rückert'', 1890 – On

Friedrich Rückert Johann Michael Friedrich Rückert (16 May 1788 – 31 January 1866) was a German poet, translation, translator, and professor of Oriental languages. Biography Johann Michael Friedrich Rückert was born 16 May 1788 in Schweinfurt and was the e ...

.HathiTrust Digital Library
(published works)Franz Muncker
de.Wikisource He was also the author of numerous biographies in the ''

Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB; ) is one of the most important and comprehensive biographical reference works in the German language. It was published by the Historical Commission of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences between 1875 and 1912 in 56 volumes, printed in Lei ...

'',Kategorie:ADB:Autor:Franz Muncker
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie and wrote the introductions to the following literary collections: * ''H. von Kleists sämtliche werke'' (4 volumes, 1882–83) – The works of

Heinrich von Kleist Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist (; 18 October 177721 November 1811) was a German poet, dramatist, novelist, short story writer and journalist. His best known works are the theatre plays ''The Prince of Homburg'', '' Das Käthchen von Heilbronn'' ...

. * ''Klopstocks gesammelte Werke'' (4 volumes, 1887–90) –

's collected works. * ''Wielands gesammelte werke'' (6 volumes, 1888–89) –

Christoph Martin Wieland Christoph Martin Wieland (; ; 5 September 1733 – 20 January 1813) was a German poet and writer, representative of literary Rococo. He is best-remembered for having written the first ''Bildungsroman'' (''Geschichte des Agathon''), as well as the ...

's collected works. * ''Briefwechsel zwischen Schiller und Goethe'' (4 volumes, 1892) – Correspondence between

Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright. He was born i ...

and

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 ...

. * ''Immermanns ausgewählte Werke'', (6 volumes, 1893) –

Karl Leberecht Immermann Karl Leberecht Immermann (24 April 1796 – 25 August 1840) was a German dramatist, novelist and poet. Biography He was born at Magdeburg, the son of a government official. In 1813 he went to study law at Halle, where he remained, after the ...

's selected works.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muncker, Franz 1855 births 1926 deaths People from Bayreuth Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich German literary historians Writers from the German Empire