Georg Büchner
Karl Georg Büchner (October 17th 1813 with Goddelau, close to Darmstadt (Hesse) - February 19th 1837 with Zurich) is a Médecin, Poète, writer, revolutionary and German Scientifique .
Childhood
Wire of Ernst Büchner, a Doctor and famous Chemist industrial; inventor of scientific tools like the Buchner funnel and of Louise Caroline Büchner. Those élèvérent and educated their children in a world of sciences, culture and Article.
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Mathilde Büchner
- Wilhelm Ludwig Büchner, politician.
- Shines Büchner, writer and feminist.
- Ludwig Büchner, doctor whose philosophical work will mark the history of the Matérialisme of this century.
- Alexander Büchner, professor of literature.
Georg Büchner grows in the State of the Grand-duché of Hesse-Darmstadt, in the south-west of the Germany where the revolutions of 1789 and especially of July 1830 have strong repercussions.
In 1816, the family settles with Darmstadt where the father had just been appointed doctor of district. As from 1821, it is his/her mother who undertakes her instruction. She teaches the reading to him, the letters and calculation, makes him include/understand all the large religious texts (L has Bible) and the history of the people of the Earth. At 10 years, Georg devours the works of Schiller. It is also initiated with sciences, while being interested by the study of the languages (English, French, Italian).
Studies and first writings
After studies with the college of Darmstadt, it is registered in November 1831 at the medical college of the university of Strasbourg. It comes into contact with the republican groups of opposition. Admitted like “perpetual host” in the association of theologists Eugenia, it defends there of the radical republican positions. It places in the house of Pasteur protesting Johann Jakob Jäglé, whose Wilhelmine girl will become its been engaged.
In 1833, Büchner returns to Gießen to finish its studies with the Université of Gießen. It takes part in the political agitation which seized the south of Germany after the Hambacher Fest of the May 27th, 1832, a demonstration for the national unit being opposed to the despotic modes in the majority of some fifty Germanic States.
In January 1834, it meets the Pasteur Weidig, figurehead of the opposition in Hesse, and undertakes with him, in July, the drafting of the wording, true revolutionary lampoon the Messenger of the campaigns hessoises ( Der Hessische Landbote ), intended to make raise the country populations, launching the watchword: " Friede den Hütten, Krieg den Palästen! " (" Peace with the thatched cottages, war with the palates! "). He will affirm in his correspondence with Karl Gutzkow that " the fight between rich person and the poor is the single revolutionary combat with the monde".
The same year, in March, Büchner, defendant of the socialist ideas, influenced by Auguste Blanqui and Saint-Simon will be cofounder, of a revolutionary secret association: the Association for the human rights (Gesellschaft für Menschenrechte).
It goes back in April in his parents to Darmstadt, where it founds a second section of the Company of the human rights; then it resumes its studies with Gießen.
As from October 1834, Büchner works with “the Death of Danton”. He writes many polemical articles and satirists published in the Messenger Hessois, written who will be worth to him the lightnings of the authorities and the censure. Pasteur Weidig was stopped, tortured and died imprisoned. It is the same fate that Büchner waits.
The exile
In 1835, put under warrant for arrest for Treason, it must flee to be withdrawn from justice. it finds refuge with Strasbourg where it is made register near the authorities under the name of Jacques Lutzius. Constrained to be held quiet - the police force suspects it of subversive activities -, it composes in less than two months a drama of an elliptic nervousness whose trace seemed lost since the Elizabéthains: the death of Danton ( Dantons Tod ).
It translates, also, two parts of Victor Hugo Lucrèce Borgia and Marie Tudor .
The history of Jakob Lenz, large dramarturge and disciple of the philosopher Emmanuel Kant, friend of youth of Goethe marked Büchner. The poet with the sick, suicidal heart asking of the assistance in the hope to cure his mental health disorders, accepted the care of Pasteur Jean-Frederic Oberlin. Büchner writes the news Lenz of it while taking as a starting point the newspaper held by Pasteur, who collected Lenz at his place lasting the winter 1778.
In same time, it continues its scientific research, being directed towards biology; in 1836 he becomes corresponding member of the Company of natural history of Strasbourg and, with his report the nervous system of the barbel (Cyprinus bearded L.) , obtains a doctorate of the university of Zurich where he settles. He undertakes the drafting of a first version of Leonce and Léna .
At the end of 1836, Büchner moves with Zurich where one proposes a post of professor associated with the medical college to him. It will be also Privat-docent of natural history at the university. it is devoted to scientific and literary work. It is, moreover, in liaison with other political refugees.
He works on Woyzeck , inspired by the true story of a private of the name of Woyzeck which assassinated its mistress with Leipzig in 1821. Büchner had not completed its part: the fragments are disseminated by it between four manuscripts and the way in which it conceived the end of its drama remains to us unknown.
In February 1837, it falls seriously sick; one notes an infection of Typhus. It re-examines its been engaged Wilhelmine Jäglé last once on February 17th and dies 19, at the 23 years age.
His/her brother Ludwig collects his writings and it makes them publish with an introduction and a biography in 1850 at Sauerländer with Frankfurt.
Notes on work
If the theatrical work of Büchner shows, on the formal plan, some influences of Shakespeare, Hugo and Musset and of the authors of the German movement preromantic Sturm und Drang ( Tempête and dash ), it is very innovating in the representation of the social drama. Its Woyzeck trampled by a whole company and the grotesque history of prince Leonce mislaid in a romantic fog, do of Büchner one of the precursors of the currents naturalist and expressionist of the beginning of the twentieth century, while the Pessimisme and the moral distress of the death of Danton illustrate the disenchantment vis-a-vis the Rationalisme of the Lumières.
Works
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1834 : the Messenger of the campaigns hessoises , with Friedrich Ludwig Weidig ( Der Hessische Landbote )
- 1835: the death of Danton , theater ( Dantons Tod )
- 1835: Lucretia Borgia (translation of the part of Victor Hugo)
- 1835: Maria Tudor (translation of the part of Victor Hugo)
- 1835: Lenz , news. Translation in French by Albert Béguin in Romantic German of Armel Guerne, Desclée de Brouwer, 1956 and 1963, rééd. Phébus, 2004.
- 1836: Leonce and Léna , satirical comedy ( Leonce und Lena )
- 1837: Woyzeck , play
See too
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Price Georg-Büchner, German literary prize
- Wozzeck , opera of Alban Berg (1914)
- Woyzeck, film of Werner Herzog with Klaus Kinski (1978)
- Jakob Lenz , opera of Wolfgang Rihm (1979)
Quotation
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“ the fight between rich person and the poor in the world ”
- “ I do not manage to know which part of myself is the single revolutionary combat misleads the other ”
- “ You do not hear? You do not hear the terrible voice which shouts the entire horizon and this man who usually calls silence? ”
Simple: Georg Büchner