
Ludwig Speidel (11 April 1830 – 3 February 1906) was a German writer, which in the second half of the 19th century was the leading
music
Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
,
theater
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communi ...
and
literary critic
A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature' ...
in Vienna.
Life
Born in
Ulm
Ulm () is the sixth-largest city of the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with around 129,000 inhabitants, it is Germany's 60th-largest city.
Ulm is located on the eastern edges of the Swabian Jura mountain range, on the up ...
, Speidel received first musical lessons from his father, singer and composer Konrad Speidel (born 16 September 1804 in
Söflingen bei Ulm; died 6 January 1880 in Ulm; married to Anna Steiner) and attended the Gymnasium in Ulm. From 1850 until 1853, he studied different subjects only as a guest student at the
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
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 ...
due to lack of financial means. Besides, he gave piano lessons and from 1852 he wrote reviews for the ''
Augsburger Allgemeine
The ''Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung'' is a major German regional daily newspaper published since 1945.
History
From 1807 to 1882, another paper named '' Allgemeine Zeitung'' was published in Augsburg but it is not connected to the later newspap ...
''; his first ('Musikalisches aus München') was published on October 28. Among his circle of acquaintances in Munich were
Friedrich Kaulbach
Theodor Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Kaulbach (8 July 1822 – 17 September 1903) was a German painter from Bad Arolsen, Principality of Waldeck and Pyrmont. His father was Christian Kaulbach (1777–1847), a cabinet maker in Arolsen. H ...
,
Ernst Förster
Ernst is both a surname and a given name, the German, Dutch, and Scandinavian form of Ernest. Notable people with the name include:
Surname
* Adolf Ernst (1832–1899) German botanist known by the author abbreviation "Ernst"
* Anton Ernst (born ...
,
Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer
Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer (10 December 1790 – 26 April 1861) was a Germans, German county of Tyrol, Tyrolean traveller, journalist, politician and historian, best known for his controversial Discontinuity (Postmodernism), discontinuity the ...
,
Justus von Liebig
Justus ''Freiherr'' von Liebig (12 May 1803 – 18 April 1873) was a Germans, German scientist who made major contributions to the theory, practice, and pedagogy of chemistry, as well as to agricultural and biology, biological chemistry; he is ...
, and
Adolf Bayersdorfer
Adolf Christian Bayersdorfer (7 June 1842, in Erlenbach am Main – 21 December 1901, in Munich), was a German art historian and chess problem, chess composer.
Bayersdorfer, the son to a forester, moved with his mother to Munich after his fath ...
.
In 1853, Speidel came to Vienna, allegedly to report on the marriage of
Empress Elisabeth of Austria
Elisabeth (born Duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie in Bavaria; 24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898), nicknamed Sisi or Sissi, was Empress of Austria and List of Hungarian consorts, Queen of Hungary from her marriage to Franz Joseph I of Austri ...
to
Franz Joseph I
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I ( ; ; 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the ruler of the Grand title of the emperor of Austria, other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 1848 until his death ...
. He became friends with
Carl Rahl
Carl Rahl, sometimes spelled Karl Rahl (13 August 1812 – 9 July 1865), was an Austrian painter.
Life
Rahl was born in Vienna to Carl Heinrich Rahl (1779–1843), an engraver. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and won a prize at ...
and remained in Vienna, where he subsequently worked for numerous newspapers and magazines, including
Pester Lloyd
''Pester Lloyd'' is a German-language online daily newspaper from Budapest, Hungary with a focus "on Hungary and Eastern Europe".
History during the Austrian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Its first stint of existence was from 1854 to 1 ...
(1854), the ''Danube'' (1855-1863), the ''Österreichische Zeitung'' (1855-1858), the ''Jagdzeitung'' and the ''Morgenpost'' (1858), the ''Neuste Nachrichten'' (1859) and the ''
Wiener Zeitung
''Wiener Zeitung'' () is an Austrian newspaper. First published as the ''Wiennerisches Diarium'' in 1703, it is one of the oldest newspapers in the world. Until April 2023, it was the official gazette of the government of the Republic of Austria ...
'' (1858/59). He wrote about many topics: Theatre, music, art, chats, humoresques, travel letters, genre pictures among others 1860-1864 he worked for the newspaper ''Vaterlan''. With the foundation of ''
Neuen Freie Presse'' in 1864, Speidel became its first feature editor for four decades. Around the same time, he was also the music critic of the '. While he wrote for the ''Presse'' rather in a chosen language, he used a very popular way of expression in the ''Fremden-Blatt'', which could remind one of joke magazines.
He only drew his articles with his full name in very special cases, otherwise only with the soon known abbreviation "L. Sp.", in the ''Fremden-Blatt''. In addition, he used numerous other
cipher
In cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption—a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is ''encipherment''. To encipher or encode i ...
s: "§" (also as art consultant of the ''Neue Freie Presse'') in the (''Wiener Zeitung''), "-l", "□", "X", "*" among others.
Speidel became the most important Viennese critic and feature writer of his time and was known and befriended with many of the greats of Viennese music and theatre life of his time, among others
Josef Bayer,
Ludwig Bösendorfer
Ludwig Bösendorfer (10 April 1835 – 9 May 1919) was an Austrian piano manufacturer, son of Ignaz Bösendorfer and inheritor of his father's company Bösendorfer. He modernized the construction of the company's pianos, and made the company well ...
,
Johann von Herbeck
Johann Ritter von Herbeck (25 December 1831 – 28 October 1877) was an Austrian conductor and composer, best known for leading the premiere of Franz Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony.
Life and career
He was practically a self-educated musician, ...
,
Martin Greif
Martin Joel Greif (February 4, 1938, The Bronx, New York City - November 17, 1996, Cork, Ireland) was an American editor, lecturer, publisher and writer. He was the uncle of heavy metal music personality and lawyer Eric Greif.
Background
Son of ...
,
Ludwig Hevesi,
Max Kalbeck
Max Kalbeck (January 4, 1850May 4, 1921) was a German writer, critic and translator. He became one of the most influential critics in Austria and was bitterly opposed to the music of Richard Wagner, Anton Bruckner and Hugo Wolf.
Early life
Kalbe ...
,
Martin Gustav Nottebohm, Ludwig Porges,
Johann Vesque von Püttlingen
Johann Vesque von Püttlingen (pseudonym Johann Hoven) (23 July 1803 – 29 October 1883), born J. Vesque de Puttelange, was an Austrian lawyer, diplomat, author, composer and singer. His full name and title in German was Johann Vesque, Freiherr ...
and . He was one of the first to recognise the importance of
Johann Nestroy
Johann Nepomuk Eduard Ambrosius Nestroy (; 7 December 1801 – 25 May 1862) was a singer, actor and playwright in the popular Austrian tradition of the Biedermeier period and its immediate aftermath. He participated in the 1848 revolutions and ...
,
Adalbert Stifter
Adalbert Stifter (; 23 October 1805 – 28 January 1868) was a Bohemian- Austrian writer, poet, painter, and pedagogue. He was notable for the vivid natural landscapes depicted in his writing and has long been popular in the German-speaking wo ...
and
Anton Bruckner
Joseph Anton Bruckner (; ; 4 September 182411 October 1896) was an Austrian composer and organist best known for his Symphonies by Anton Bruckner, symphonies and sacred music, which includes List of masses by Anton Bruckner, Masses, Te Deum (Br ...
and paid tribute to the operettas of
Johann Strauss II
Johann Baptist Strauss II (; ; 25 October 1825 – 3 June 1899), also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son (), was an List of Austrian composers, Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas as well ...
. He had a very negative attitude towards the works of
Richard 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 ...
, which often brought him into sharp contrast with his admirers. Speidel was highly regarded as a theatre critic, in 1887 he was even offered the direction of the
Burgtheater
The Burgtheater (; literally: "Castle Theater" but alternatively translated as "(Imperial) Court Theater", originally known as '' K.K. Theater an der Burg'', then until 1918 as the ''K.K. Hofburgtheater'', is the national theater of Austria in ...
, but he refused.
About his own work, he once said: "I have never proofread a work and never looked at a printed feuilleton again."
[Ludwig Hevesi: '' Ludwig Speidel, writer''. In ''Biographical Yearbook and German Necrology''. Vol. 11, 1906 (1908), .] His wife Leontine (''née'' Ziegelmayer; † 6 January 1903) collected the newspaper clippings which later formed the basis of his collected works published in 1910.
His brother was the composer (1826-1899)
Speidel died in Vienna at the age of 75. He is buried in a grave dedicated to him in the .
Quotes
The source of these quotations is Ludwig Hevesis' article ''Ludwig Speidel, Writer'' in '' Biographischen Jahrbuch und deutscher Nekrolog'' (1906).
* "Das Feuilleton ist die Unsterblichkeit eines Tages.“
* A propos
Ludwig Anzengruber
Ludwig Anzengruber (29 November 1839 – 10 December 1889) was an Austrian dramatist, novelist and poet. He was born and died in Vienna, Austria.
Origins
The Anzengruber line originated in the district of Ried im Innkreis in Upper Austria. ...
: "As long as Anzengruber wrote, no other German poet has put more solid content into dramatic forms."
* A propos
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; ; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period (music), Romantic period. His music is noted for its rhythmic vitality and freer treatment of dissonance, oft ...
: "An excellent composer, one of the brightest lights of contemporary German music ...", but also "... a far too worldly-wise, ironic nature, which looks far too deeply into people to care about their current applause."
* Speaking of
Anton Bruckner
Joseph Anton Bruckner (; ; 4 September 182411 October 1896) was an Austrian composer and organist best known for his Symphonies by Anton Bruckner, symphonies and sacred music, which includes List of masses by Anton Bruckner, Masses, Te Deum (Br ...
: "Mesner figure with the emperor's skull"
* A propos Grillparzer's ': "One of the poets seems so fairy-tale like an enchanted Habsburg prince, condemned by day to be the archives director of the Court Chamber and at night writing down memories of his glorious past".
* A propos
Hans Makart
Hans Makart (28 May 1840 – 3 October 1884) was an Austrian academic history painter, designer and decorator. Makart was a prolific painter whose ideas significantly influenced the development of visual art in Austria-Hungary, Germany, and other ...
: "Where this youthful talent is headed, the gods know. It is to be feared, unfortunately, that it will lose itself in empty virtuosity.
* A propos
Carl Rahl
Carl Rahl, sometimes spelled Karl Rahl (13 August 1812 – 9 July 1865), was an Austrian painter.
Life
Rahl was born in Vienna to Carl Heinrich Rahl (1779–1843), an engraver. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and won a prize at ...
: "For the first time since Schubert, Vienna has again produced a great creative artist, but one treats him as if the geniuses in this country were like thistles' heads."
* A propos
Ferdinand Raimund
Ferdinand Raimund (born Ferdinand Jakob Raimann; 1 June 1790 – 5 September 1836, Pottenstein, Austria, Pottenstein, Lower Austria) was an Austrian actor and playwright.
Life and work
Raimund was born in Vienna as a son of Bohemian woodturn ...
: "If there was a poet in Vienna, it was Raimund."
* A propos
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; ; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a List of compositions ...
: "The greatest symphonist after Beethoven".
* A propos
Richard 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 ...
: "Wagner's music, on the other hand, is thoroughly external, sensual in the bad sense of the word, homely, briefly un-German ..."
"Wagner is artistically not the expression of the German spirit, but only a distortion of it
..he is an inwardly unproductive, an artificial, hollow, reflected nature ..."
Later, Speidel's attitude to Wagner softened and he wrote
"Apart from the values or unvalues of Wagner's music, it has one positive characteristic. The positive thing about it is that it arouses enthusiasm".
* A propos
Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller
Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (; 15 January 1793 – 23 August 1865) was an Austrian painter. Waldmüller was one of the most important Austrian painters of the Biedermeier period.
Career
In 1807, Waldmüller attended the Academy of Fine Art ...
: "Waldmüller's artistic heyday was short, hardly filling a decade. His best works fall into the 1940s and, just as he had not really wanted to succeed until then, his career rapidly went downhill from 1848 onwards."
Work
: Independent publications during his lifetime
* ''
Rahl’s athenischer Fries''. Erläutert von Ludwig Speidel. Österreichischer Kunstverein, Vienna 1867.
* ''Bilder aus der Schillerzeit. Mit ungedruckten Briefen an Schiller''. Edited by Ludwig Speidel and Hugo Wittmann. Spemann, Berlin 1884.
* ''Das Wiener Theater''. In ''
Die österreichisch-ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild'' (volume 3). K.-k. Hof- u. Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1887.
* ''Theater''. In ''Wien 1848–1888. Denkschrift zum 2. December 1888''. Edited by the City Council of Vienna, 1888.
* ''Auf der Höhe. Zur Erinnerung an Wilhelm Schenner''. O. V., o. O 1891.
* ''Kleine Schriften von ''. With a foreword by Ludwig Speidel. Edlinger, Innsbruck 1893.
* Ludwig Eisenberg: ''
Adolf von Sonnenthal
Adolf von Sonnenthal (21 December 18344 April 1909), Austrian actor, was born of Jewish parentage in Budapest.
Though brought up in penury and apprenticed to a working tailor, he cultivated his talent for drama, and was fortunate in receiving th ...
. Eine Künstlerlaufbahn als Beitrag zur modernen Burgtheater-Geschichte''. With a foreword by Ludwig Speidel. . E. Pierson, Dresden 1896.
: Posthume Buchveröffentlichungen
* ''Ludwig Speidels Schriften''.
** Vol. 1: ''Persönlichkeiten. Biographisch-literarische Essays''. Meyer & Jessen, Berlin 1910.
Online** Vol 2: ''Wiener Frauen und anderes Wienerische''. Meyer & Jessen, Berlin 1910.
** Vol 3. ''Heilige Zeiten. Weihnachtsblätter''. Meyer & Jessen, Berlin 1911.
Online** Vol 4. ''Schauspieler''. Meyer & Jessen, Berlin 1910.
Online* ''Melodie der Landschaft. Essays''. Selected and introduced by Eduard Frank. Volk- und Reich-Verlag, Prag/Wien 1943.
* ''Kritische Schriften''. Selected, introduced and explained by Julius Rütsch. Artemis, Zürich 1963.
* ''Fanny Elßlers Fuß. Wiener Feuilletons''. Edited by Joachim Schreck. Böhlau, Vienna 1989, (Österreichische Bibliothek; vol. 11) und Volk und Welt, Berlin 1989, .
References
Further reading
*
Felix Salten
Felix Salten (; 6 September 1869 – 8 October 1945) was an Austrian author and Literary criticism, literary critic. His most famous work is ''Bambi, a Life in the Woods'', which was adapted into an animated feature film, ''Bambi'', by Walt Disne ...
: ''Ludwig Speidel''. In
Maximilian Harden
__NOTOC__
Maximilian Harden (born Felix Ernst Witkowski, 20 October 1861 – 30 October 1927) was an influential German journalist and editor.
Biography
Born the son of a Jewish merchant in Berlin, he attended the '' Französisches Gymnasium'' ...
(ed.): ''Die Zukunft'' Vol. 54, 1906, .
* Ludwig Hevesi: ''Ludwig Speidel. Eine literarisch-biographische Würdigung''. Meyer & Jessen, Berlin 1910.
*
Hermann Bahr
Hermann Anastas Bahr (; 19 July 1863 – 15 January 1934) was an Austrian writer, playwright, director, and critic.
Biography
Born and raised in Linz, Bahr studied in Vienna, Graz, Czernowitz and Berlin, devoting special attention to philosophy, ...
: ''Ludwig Speidel (Zum siebzigsten Geburtstag.) 10 April 1900.'' In ''Bildung. Essays.'' Insel, Leipzig 1910, .
* : ''Lebensform und Dichtungsform. Essays''. Georg Müller, Munich 1914.
* Wilhelm Bründl: ''Ludwig Speidel. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Feuilletons''. Dissertation Universität Vienna, 1931.
* Charlotte Pinter: ''Ludwig Speidel als Musikkritiker''. Dissertation Universität Wien, 1949.
* : ''Von der Unsterblichkeit eines Tages. Der Kritiker Ludwig Speidel''. In Julius Kainz (ed.): ''Ein Stück Österreich. 150 Jahre 'Die Presse. Holzhausen, Vienna 1998, , pp.168ff.
;Entries in reference works
*
Constantin von Wurzbach
Constantin Wurzbach Ritter von Tannenberg (11 April 1818 – 17 August 1893) was an Austrian biographer, lexicographer and author.
Biography
He was born in Laibach, Carniola (present-day Ljubljana, Slovenia).He later went on to complete a cou ...
Speidel, Ludwig In ''
Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich
''Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich'' (English, ''Biographical Encyclopedia of the Austrian Empire'') (abbreviated ''Wurzbach'' from the author's surname) is a 60-volume work, edited and published by Constantin von Wurzbach, cont ...
''. 36th part. Kaiserlich-königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Wienna 1878, pp. 133
Numerized*
Ludwig Hevesi: ''
Ludwig Speidel, Schriftsteller''. In
Anton Bettelheim
Anton Bettelheim (18 November 1851 in Vienna – 29 March 1930 in Vienna) was an Austrian critic and journalist.
Life and career
He was born to a JewishIKG Vienna, Geburtsbuch B, No. 978 family and studied law, and for some time was engaged ...
(ed.): ''Biographisches Jahrbuch und deutscher Nekrolog''. Volume 11, 1906 (Reimer, Berlin 1908), .
*
Felix Czeike
Felix Czeike (21 August 1926 – 23 April 2006) was an Austrian historian and popular educator. He was an author and partly also editor of numerous publications on the history of Vienna and was the director of the . His main work is the six-volume ...
(ed.): ''Historisches Lexikon Vienna''. Vol 5, Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1997, , .
* Christian Fastl:
Speidel, Ludwig', in the ''
Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon
The ''Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon'Oesterreichisch'' with ''Oe'' is the spelling of the print and online output. (, ) is a five-volume music encyclopedia founded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences' Commission for Music Research. It was offic ...
''. Vol. 5. Publishing House of the
Austrian Academy of Sciences
The Austrian Academy of Sciences (; ÖAW) is a legal entity under the special protection of the Republic of Austria. According to the statutes of the Academy its mission is to promote the sciences and humanities in every respect and in every fi ...
, Vienna 2006, .
*
*
;Press articles by and about Ludwig Speidel
* (Zum 70. Geburtstag. Mit Beiträgen von Julius Bauer,
Oscar Blumenthal
Oscar Blumenthal (or Oskar Blumenthal; 13 March 1852 – 24 April 1917) was a German playwright and drama critic.
Biography
Blumenthal was educated at the gymnasium and the university of his native town in Berlin, and at Leipzig University, ...
, , ,
Martin Greif
Martin Joel Greif (February 4, 1938, The Bronx, New York City - November 17, 1996, Cork, Ireland) was an American editor, lecturer, publisher and writer. He was the uncle of heavy metal music personality and lawyer Eric Greif.
Background
Son of ...
,
Theodor Herzl
Theodor Herzl (2 May 1860 – 3 July 1904) was an Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist and lawyer who was the father of Types of Zionism, modern political Zionism. Herzl formed the World Zionist Organization, Zionist Organizat ...
,
Ludwig Hevesi,
Hans Hopfen,
Ferdinand von Saar
Ferdinand Ludwig Adam von Saar (30 September 1833 in Vienna, Austrian Empire, Austria – 24 July 1906 in Döbling) was an Austrian novelist, playwright and poet.
Together with Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach he was one of the most important realisti ...
,
Julius Stettenheim etc.)
*
* (Das Fest zu seinem 70. Geburtstag.)
*
* (Das von Ludwig Hevesi als "Meisterwerk" bezeichnete
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...
-Feuilleton.) (See ''
Der Misanthrop'' and ''
Tartuffe
''Tartuffe, or The Impostor, or The Hypocrite'' (; , ), first performed in 1664, is a theatrical comedy (or more specifically, a farce) by Molière. The characters of Tartuffe, Elmire, and Orgon are considered among the greatest classical theat ...
'')
*
*
External links
*
Ludwig Speidels Schriftendigitalisiert von
ALO
Alo or ALO may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Alo'' (film), a 2003 Bengali drama
* Alo Creevey, a fictional character in TV series ''Skins''
** "Alo" (''Skins series 5'')
** "Alo" (''Skins series 6'')
* Animal Liberation Orchestra ...
*
Speidel, Ludwigon BMLO
{{DEFAULTSORT:Speidel, Ludwig
19th-century German writers
19th-century German male writers
German theatre critics
German music critics
German literary critics
1830 births
1906 deaths
Writers from Ulm