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 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 ...

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. Founded in 1402, it is one of the ol ...

, 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 Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

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. In 1914 he held a lectureship in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

. 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 was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...

, Petsch lost his job. In October 1919, Petsch became a professor at the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (, also referred to as UHH) is a public university, public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('':de:Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen, ...

, 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 German philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and a representative of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the dev ...

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 ...

, 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 ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

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 writer. 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 was ...

Sigrid Undset Sigrid Undset (; 20 May 1882 – 10 June 1949) was a Danish people, Danish-born Norwegian people, Norwegian novelist. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928 Nobel Prize in Literature, 1928. Born in Den ...

, 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 Nobel Prize in Literature, 1920. Hamsun's work spans more than 70 years and shows variation with regard to conscio ...

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 novell ...

, 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.

References

External links

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

Life and work

Key works

Further reading

References

External links