Friedrich Wilhelm Weber
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
doctor, politician of the Prussian House of Deputies, and poet.
Weber was born in Alshausen, near Bad Driburg
Bad Driburg
Bad Driburg is a town and spa in Höxter district in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, pleasantly situated on the Aa and the historic railway Soest-Höxter-Berlin....
, in Westphalia
Province of Westphalia
The Province of Westphalia was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1815 to 1946.-History:Napoleon Bonaparte founded the Kingdom of Westphalia, which was a client state of the First French Empire from 1807 to 1813...
. His father was forester for the Count of Asseburg. Weber first attended the village school, then when thirteen years old he went to the Gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
at Paderborn
Paderborn
Paderborn is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader, which originates in more than 200 springs near Paderborn Cathedral, where St. Liborius is buried.-History:...
, and afterwards studied medicine at the University of Greifswald. His talent for poetry had been evidenced at the gymnasium; at university, it grew. After spending two years at Greifswald he went to Breslau, where he became acquainted with Gustav Freitag. After a year, however, he returned to Greifswald, where he obtained a doctorate; thence he went to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, where he passed the state medical examination with great honour. After a brief journey for recreation to southern Germany he settled as a physician in Driburg, where he spent twenty-six years.
His practice as a doctor did not keep him from writing poetry. In 1887 he settled permanently at Nieheim
Nieheim
Nieheim is a town in Höxter district in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.- Constituent communities :Nieheim consists of the following 10 centres:* Entrup* Eversen* Erwitzen* Himmighausen* Holzhausen* Merlsheim* Nieheim* Oeynhausen* Schönenberg...
. In 1863 he was made Sanitätsrat (honorary title given to a distinguished doctor) in recognition of his medical services; he was made an honorary doctor of philosophy by the academy in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, and when he celebrated his semi-centennial as a physician he received the Order of the Red Eagle
Order of the Red Eagle
The Order of the Red Eagle was an order of chivalry of the Kingdom of Prussia. It was awarded to both military personnel and civilians, to recognize valor in combat, excellence in military leadership, long and faithful service to the kingdom, or other achievements...
, fourth class, while three years before his death he received the further honour of the title of Geheimen Sanitätsrat. He was elected a member of the Prussian House of Deputies. He remained a member of the Centre Party
Centre Party (Germany)
The German Centre Party was a Catholic political party in Germany during the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic. Formed in 1870, it battled the Kulturkampf which the Prussian government launched to reduce the power of the Catholic Church...
until 1893, when he declined a re-election on account of his health.
His poetry fell into the genres of epic, lyric, and didactic. His early poems were frequently imitations of foreign poets. He was also one of the translators who made Scandinavian and English poetry accessible to Germans, including Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language....
's Enoch Arden
Enoch Arden
"Enoch Arden" is a narrative poem published in 1864 by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, during his tenure as England's Poet Laureate. The story on which it was based was provided to Tennyson by Thomas Woolner....
, Aylmers Field and Maud, and Esaias Tegnér
Esaias Tegnér
Esaias Tegnér , was a Swedish writer, professor of Greek language, and bishop. He was during the 19th century regarded as the father of modern poetry in Sweden, mainly through the national romantic epos Frithjof's Saga. He has been called Sweden's first modern man...
's Axel. His reputation, however, was founded on his epic, Dreizehnlinden (1878). It enjoyed a wide circulation, and was arranged for the stage; he was nicknamed 'Dreizehnlinden-Weber' after it. His second work is his Goliath (1892). His Gedichte(1881) and Herbstblätter (1895) were published after his death. Other works include Marienblumen (1885), and two other religious poems written for special occasions, Vater unser and Das Leiden unseres Heilandes (1892).
Sources
Attribution Cites-
- KEITER, Friedr. W. Weber, der Dichter von Dreizehnlinden (1884);
- SCHWERING, Friedr. W. Weber, sein Leben u. sein Werke (1900)