Felix Dahn
| Felix Dahn | |
|---|---|
 Geheimer Justizrat Prof. Dr. jur. et phil. Felix Dahn | |
| Born | 9 February 1834 Hamburg, German Confederation |
| Died | 3 January 1912 (aged 77) Breslau, Province of Silesia, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire |
| Spouse | ∞ 1858 Sophie Fries (1835–1898); 1 son ∞ 1873 Therese Freiin Droste zu Hülshof (1845–1929) |
Ludwig Julius Sophus Felix Dahn (1834–1912) was a German historian, jurist and poet. Besides his historical and literary production, Dahn also published a large amount of specialist legal literature, on topics such as trade law and international law. He was an honorary member of German Student Corps (Deutsche Burschenschaft) and an active member of the patriotic Alldeutscher Verband. He was a knight of the Order of Saint John (Bailiwick of Brandenburg) and took part in the Franco-German War as such, caring for the wounded and sick.
Life
Dahn was born 1834 in Hamburg, where his father, Friedrich Dahn (1811-1889), was a leading actor at the city theatre. His mother, Constance/Konstanze Dahn, neé Le Gaye (1814–1994), was a noted actress. In 1834 the family moved to Munich, where the parents took leading roles in the classical German drama, until they retired from the stage: the mother in 1865 and the father in 1878. His younger brother Ludwig Dahn (1843–1898) was also an actor.
He studied law and philosophy in Munich and Berlin from 1849 to 1853. His first works were in jurisprudence, Über die Wirkung der Klagverjährung bei Obligationen (dissertation, Munich 1855), and Studien zur Geschichte der germanischen Gottesurteile (Munich 1857). In 1857, he became docent in German law at Munich university, and in 1862 professor-extraordinary, but in 1863 was called to Wiirzburg to a full professorship. In 1872, he removed to the University of Konigsberg, and in 1888 settled at Breslau, becoming rector of the university in 1895. Meanwhile in addition to many legal works of high standing, he had begun the publication of that long series of histories and historical romances which has made his name a household word in Germany. The great history of the German migrations, Die Konige der Germanen (volumes I to VI, Munich and Würzburg 1861-1870; volumes VII to XI, Leipzig 1894-1908) was a masterly study in constitutional history as well as a literary work of high merit, which carries the narrative down to the dissolution of the Carolingian empire. In his Urgeschichte der germanischen and romanischen Völker (Berlin 1881-1890), Dahn went a step farther back still, but here as in his Geschichte der deutschen Urzeit (Gotha, 1883-1888), a wealth of picturesque detail has been worked over and resolved into history with such imaginative insight and critical skill as to make real and present the indistinct beginnings of German society. Together with these larger works, Dahn wrote many monographs and studies upon primitive German society.
Many of his essays were collected in a series of six volumes entitled Bausteine (Berlin 1879-1884). Not less important than his histories are the historical romances, the best-known of which Ein Kampf um Rom (A Struggle for Rome), in four volumes (Leipzig 1876), which has gone through many later editions, was also the first of the series (Decline of the Roman Empire). Others are Odhins Trost (Leipzig 1880); Die Kreuzfahrer (Leipzig 1884); Odhins Rache (Leipzig 1891); Julian der Abtrünnige (Leipzig 1894), and one of the most popular, Bis zum Tode getreu (Leipzig 1887). The list is too long to be given in full, yet almost all are well-known.
Parallel with this great production of learned and imaginative works, Dahn published some twenty small volumes of poetry. The most notable of these are the epics of the early German period. His second wife Therese, neé Freiin Droste zu Hülshof, was joint-author with him of Walhall – Germanische Götter und Heldensagen (Leipzig 1898). A collected edition of his works of fiction, both in prose and verse, has reached twenty-one volumes (Leipzig 1898), and a new edition was published in 1901. Dahn also published four volumes of memoirs, Erinnerungen (Leipzig 1890-1895).
Bibliography (excerpt)
- 1861 – 1911 Die Könige der Germanen – Das Wesen des ältesten Königtums der germanischen Stämme und seine Geschichte (Germanic Kings, 12 volumes[1])
- 1865 Prokopius von Cäsarea. Ein Beitrag zur Historiographie der Völkerwanderung und des sinkenden Römertums (Procopius of Caesarea)
- 1871 Macte Imperator! Heil dem Kaiser! (read online)
- 1874 Sind Götter?
- 1875 König Roderich (King Roderick)
- 1876 Ein Kampf um Rom (PDF-Dateien: All four volumes, 1888; 47. Auflage, 1906: Band 1, Band 2)
- 1878 A Struggle for Rome (English)
- 1877 Die Staatskunst der Frauen (Women's Statecraft)
- 1880 Odhin's Trost (Odin's Consolation)
- 1880 Walhall – Germanische Götter- und Heldensagen für alt und jung am deutschen Herd erzählt (Valhalla; together with his wife Therese, née Freiin Droste zu Hülshoff), 1880 (dedicated to the memory of Jakob Grimm); read 8th edition online (1888)
- 1882 - 1901 Kleine Romane aus der Völkerwanderung (Short Novels of the Migrations, 13 parts)
- 1883 Urgeschichte der germanischen und romanischen Völker (Prehistory of the Germanic and Roman Peoples, four parts)
- 1884 Die Kreuzfahrer (The Crusaders)
- 1893 Julian der Abtrünnige (Julian the Apostate)
- 1902 Herzog Ernst von Schwaben (Duke Ernst of Swabia)
External links
Encyclopedias
References
- ↑ Bd. 1. Die Zeit vor der Wanderung. Die Vandalen. 1861 -- Bd. 2. Die kleineren gothischen Völker. Die Ostgothen. 1861 -- Bd. 3. Verfassung des ostgothischen Reiches in Italien. 1866 -- Bd. 4. Die Edicte der Könige Theoderich u. Athalarich. Das gothische Recht im gothischen Reich. 1866 -- Bd. 5. Die politische Geschichte der Westgothen. 1870 -- Bd. 6. Die Verfassung der Westgothen, Das Reich der Sueven in Spanien. 2. durchgesehene und verm. Aufl. 1885 -- Bd. 7. Die Franken unter den Merovingen. 1 -- 3. Abt. 1894-95 -- Bd. 8. Die Franken unter den Karolingen. 1.-6. Abt. 1897-1900 -- Bd. 9. I. Die Alamannen. 1902. II. Die Baiern. 1905 -- Bd. 10. Die Thüringe. 1907 -- Bd. 11. Die Burgunden. 1908 -- Bd. 12. Die Langobarden. 1909
