Oskar Höcker
Encyclopedia
Oskar Höcker was a German author
of historical novel
s for children and a stage actor.
, like his brother, author Gustav Höcker
. He was educated in Chemnitz
.
At the age of 19 he became an apprentice actor with F.W. Porth, a well-established actor for the royal court in Dresden
, Kingdom of Saxony
. He performed in Bremen
, Rostock
, Reichenberg
, Stettin, Meiningen
, and from 1866 to 1882 at the court in Karlsruhe
. In 1883 his career shifted to Berlin
, where he played on all the big stages and was a member of the Deutsches Theater
. Oscar Blumenthal
referred to him as one of the company's most players, and critic Otto Brahm
praised his "discrete art," comparing him to Josef Kainz
. He later joined the Lessing Theater
.
To support his ever-increasing family (he had ten children) he began a second career as writer of children's books
, and after 1870 published regularly for the well-known publisher Arnold Hirt of Leipzig
. Especially in the south of Germany his books (which came to be known as Höckerle) became very popular. In many of the books he authored he attempted to educate young readers in the history of the Christian church and the cultural history of Germany
. His magnum opus is a series of five cycles of historical novels, totaling 20 volumes, on the development of the German bourgeoisie, Frederick II of Prussia
and the history of Prussia
, the German Navy
, the history of Germany since the Reformation, and the history of Christianity. He died from a nervous condition at the height of his theatrical and publishing career, in Berlin. His son, Paul Oskar Höcker
, also became a writer.
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
of historical novel
Historical novel
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
s for children and a stage actor.
Biography
Oskar Höcker was born in a suburb of EilenburgEilenburg
Eilenburg is a town in Germany. It lies in the district of Nordsachsen in the Free State of Saxony, approximately 20 km northeast of the city of Leipzig.- Geography :...
, like his brother, author Gustav Höcker
Gustav Höcker
Gustav Höcker was a German author and translator of popular historical novels.-Biography:Gustav Höcker was born on 28 September 1832 in a suburb of Eilenburg. His father was a colorist in the textile industry, and his younger brother was Oskar Höcker, who also became a writer...
. He was educated in Chemnitz
Chemnitz
Chemnitz is the third-largest city of the Free State of Saxony, Germany. Chemnitz is an independent city which is not part of any county and seat of the government region Direktionsbezirk Chemnitz. Located in the northern foothills of the Ore Mountains, it is a part of the Saxon triangle...
.
At the age of 19 he became an apprentice actor with F.W. Porth, a well-established actor for the royal court in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, Kingdom of Saxony
Kingdom of Saxony
The Kingdom of Saxony , lasting between 1806 and 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. From 1871 it was part of the German Empire. It became a Free state in the era of Weimar Republic in 1918 after the end of World War...
. He performed in Bremen
Bremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
, Rostock
Rostock
Rostock -Early history:In the 11th century Polabian Slavs founded a settlement at the Warnow river called Roztoc ; the name Rostock is derived from that designation. The Danish king Valdemar I set the town aflame in 1161.Afterwards the place was settled by German traders...
, Reichenberg
Liberec
Liberec is a city in the Czech Republic. Located on the Lusatian Neisse and surrounded by the Jizera Mountains and Ještěd-Kozákov Ridge, it is the fifth-largest city in the Czech Republic....
, Stettin, Meiningen
Meiningen
Meiningen is a town in Germany - located in the southern part of the state of Thuringia and is the district seat of Schmalkalden-Meiningen. It is situated on the river Werra....
, and from 1866 to 1882 at the court in Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
. In 1883 his career shifted 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 played on all the big stages and was a member of the Deutsches Theater
Deutsches Theater
The Deutsches Theater in Berlin is a well-known German theatre. It was built in 1850 as Friedrich-Wilhelm-Städtisches Theater, after Frederick William IV of Prussia. Located on Schumann Street , the Deutsches Theater consists of two adjoining stages that share a common, classical facade...
. Oscar Blumenthal
Oscar Blumenthal
Oscar Blumenthal or Oskar Blumenthal was a German playwright and drama critic.-Biography:...
referred to him as one of the company's most players, and critic Otto Brahm
Otto Brahm
Otto Brahm was a German drama and literary critic, theatre manager and director. His productions were noted for being accurate and realistic. He was involved in the foundation of the progressive Freie Bühne company, of which he became president and producer...
praised his "discrete art," comparing him to Josef Kainz
Josef Kainz
Josef Gottfried Ignaz Kainz was an Austrian actor of Hungarian birth. He was highly active in theatres in Austria and Germany from 1873–1910...
. He later joined the Lessing Theater
Lessing Theater
The Lessing Theater was a theater in Berlin-Mitte, Germany, at Friedrich-Karl-Ufer 1 . It opened in 1888 and was destroyed in April 1945 in a bombing raid; its ruins were demolished after World War II....
.
To support his ever-increasing family (he had ten children) he began a second career as writer of children's books
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
, and after 1870 published regularly for the well-known publisher Arnold Hirt of Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
. Especially in the south of Germany his books (which came to be known as Höckerle) became very popular. In many of the books he authored he attempted to educate young readers in the history of the Christian church and the cultural history of Germany
Culture of Germany
German culture began long before the rise of Germany as a nation-state and spanned the entire German-speaking world. From its roots, culture in Germany has been shaped by major intellectual and popular currents in Europe, both religious and secular...
. His magnum opus is a series of five cycles of historical novels, totaling 20 volumes, on the development of the German bourgeoisie, Frederick II of Prussia
Frederick II of Prussia
Frederick II was a King in Prussia and a King of Prussia from the Hohenzollern dynasty. In his role as a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, he was also Elector of Brandenburg. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel...
and the history of Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
, the German Navy
German Navy
The German Navy is the navy of Germany and is part of the unified Bundeswehr .The German Navy traces its roots back to the Imperial Fleet of the revolutionary era of 1848 – 52 and more directly to the Prussian Navy, which later evolved into the Northern German Federal Navy...
, the history of Germany since the Reformation, and the history of Christianity. He died from a nervous condition at the height of his theatrical and publishing career, in Berlin. His son, Paul Oskar Höcker
Paul Oskar Höcker
Paul Oskar Höcker was a German editor and author, who also wrote under the pseudonym Heinz Grevenstett. He was one of the 88 signatories of the 1933 proclamation of loyalty to Adolf Hitler, the Gelöbnis treuester Gefolgschaft.-Biography:Paul Oskar Höcker was born the third son of author and actor...
, also became a writer.
Books authored (selection)
- Soldatenleben im Kriege. Eine Erzählung aus Deutschlands jüngster Vergangenheit. Stuttgard: Schmidt u. Spring, 1871.
- Aus Moltkes Leben. Unterm Halbmonde. Historische Erzählung aus der Zeit der Wanderjahre eines deutschen Kriegshelden während seines Aufenthaltes im Osmanischen Reiche. Leipzig: Spamer, 1873.
- General von Werder, der Vertheidiger Süddeutschlands. Bielefeld: Velhagen u. Klasing, 1874.
- Du sollst Deinen Bruder nicht hassen in Deinem Herzen! (3. Mos. 19, 17.). Eine schwedische Dorfgeschichte, der reiferen Jugend erzählt. Stuttgart: Schmidt u Spring, 1874.
- Die Rache ist mein! (5. Mos. 32, 35.). Eine Geschichte aus unserer Zeit, den Jungen und Alten erzählt. Stuttgard: Schmidt u. Spring, 1875.
- Die Lüge ist ein häßlicher Schandfleck (Sir. 20, 26). Eine lehrreiche Erzählung für Knaben und Mädchen. Stuttgard: Schmidt u. Spring, 1878.
- Der Marschall Vorwärts und sein getreuer Piepenmeister. Historische Erzählung aus der Zeit der deutschen Befreiungkriege. Leipzig: Spamer, 1880.
- Elternlos. Erzählung für die Jugend, 1880.
- Dämonen im Bauernhof. Eine Schwarzwälder Dorfgeschichte der reiferen Jugend und dem Volke erzählt. Düsseldorf: Bagel, 1882.
- Jesus, meine Zuversicht! Erzählung aus der Zeit des großen Kurfürsten. Düsseldorf: Bagel, 1883.
- Schulstube und Schlachtfeld. Eine Erzählung für die Jugend. Düsseldorf: Bagel, 1883.
- Preußens Heer - Preußens Ehr! Militär- und kulturgeschichtliche Bilder aus drei Jahrhunderten. Leipzig: Hirt, 1883.
- William Shakespeare und Altengland. Kulturhistorische Erzählung aus der Regierungszeit Elisabeths. Berlin: Ebhardt, 1884.
- Unter dem Joche der Cäsaren. Kulturgeschichtliche Erzählung aus der Zeit des Kaisers Hadrian und den Tagen des Verfalls Judäa’s. Leipzig: Hirt, 1884.
- Bilder aus dem Städteleben Augsburgs und Nürnbergs. Leipzig: Wigand, 1884.
- Merksteine deutschen Bürgertums. Kulturgeschichtliche Bilder aus dem Mittelalter. Leipzig: Hirt, 1886.
- Der Storchenbauer. Eine Dorfgeschichte aus dem badischen Schwarzwald für die Jugend. Stuttgard: Schmidt u. Spring, 1886.
- Ein deutscher Apostel. Leipzig: Hirt, 1887. Tr. in DutchDutch languageDutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
as De Duitsche Heiden-Apostel, Rotterdam: Wenk & Birkhoff, 1902. - Kaiser Friedrich als Prinz, Feldherr und Herrscher. Berlin: Leo, 1888.
- Fürs Vaterland! Eine Geschichte aus Deutschlands größten Tagen. Stuttgart: Schmidt u. Spring, 1888.
- Die Turmkäte von Köln. Erzählung aus dem rheinischen Kaufmannsleben im 16. Jahrhundert. Berlin: Mehring, 1888.
- Spare in der Zeit, so hast Du in der Not. Eine Erzählung aus dem oberschlesischen Volksleben. Woywod, Breslau 1891.
- Das Kind des Seiltänzers. Eine Erzählung für die liebe Jugend. Stuttgart: Schmidt u. Spring, 1893.
Reprints
- Robinson Crusoe. Nach der Defoe'schen Erzählung. Reprint of the fifth edition (Berlin: Meidinger 1895). Wolfenbüttel: Melchior, 2007. ISBN 978-3-939791-14-0.
External links
- Oskar Höcker with bibliography and illustrations