Woldemar von Biedermann
Encyclopedia
Gustav Woldemar Freiherr von Biedermann (b. Mar. 5 1817 in Marienberg, d. Feb. 6 1903 in Dresden
) was a jurist, literary historian, and Goethe researcher.
in Leipzig and Heidelberg from 1836 to 1839. After a period as a solicitor
, he entered the Saxon
civil service in 1845. In 1849 he found employment in the railway industry first as the government commissioner to the Executive board of the Chemnitz
-Riesa
railway company , as railway director in Chemnitz in 1851, in Leipzig in 1858, and in 1869 as Finance and Deputy Director-General of the Royal Saxon State Railways–a cabinet post. His son, Flodoard von Biedermann, urged him to publish his assemblage of recorded conversations of Goethe. This collected work was published between 1889 and 1896 in 10 volumes.
Other published writings include more than 180 critical and technical contributions to the Goethe literature. He edited several volumes of the Weimar (Sophie) Edition of Goethe's works, an effort for which he received an honorary doctorate from the philosophy department at the University of Leipzig.
Biedermann died in Dresden in 1903 and was buried in the Alte Annenfriedhof.
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....
) was a jurist, literary historian, and Goethe researcher.
Life and Work
The son of the jurist and politician Gustav Heinrich Freiherr von Biederman, Woldemar von Biedermann studied legal scienceLegal science
Legal Science is one of the social sciences which deals with the institutions and principles that particular societies have developed:Legal science is one of the main components in the civil law tradition .Legal science is primarily the creation of German legal scholars of the middle and late...
in Leipzig and Heidelberg from 1836 to 1839. After a period as a solicitor
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
, he entered the Saxon
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
civil service in 1845. In 1849 he found employment in the railway industry first as the government commissioner to the Executive board of the 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...
-Riesa
Riesa
Riesa is a town in the district of Meißen in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is located at the river Elbe, approx. 40 km northwest of Dresden.The world's first 110 kV power line was inaugurated between Riesa and Lauchhammer in 1912....
railway company , as railway director in Chemnitz in 1851, in Leipzig in 1858, and in 1869 as Finance and Deputy Director-General of the Royal Saxon State Railways–a cabinet post. His son, Flodoard von Biedermann, urged him to publish his assemblage of recorded conversations of Goethe. This collected work was published between 1889 and 1896 in 10 volumes.
Other published writings include more than 180 critical and technical contributions to the Goethe literature. He edited several volumes of the Weimar (Sophie) Edition of Goethe's works, an effort for which he received an honorary doctorate from the philosophy department at the University of Leipzig.
Biedermann died in Dresden in 1903 and was buried in the Alte Annenfriedhof.
Works
[For titles in the original German, see the German Wikipedia entry]- Goethe and Leipzig (Leipzig 1865, 2 Volumes);
- Concerning Goethe's Poetry (Leipzig 1870);
- Goethe and Dresden (Leipzig 1875);
- Goethe and the Saxon Ore MountainsOre MountainsThe Ore Mountains in Central Europe have formed a natural border between Saxony and Bohemia for many centuries. Today, the border between Germany and the Czech Republic runs just north of the main crest of the mountain range...
(Stuttgart 1877); - Goethe Studies. 3 volumes. Leipzig: Biedermann 1879-1889;
- Goethe's Conversations. Complete edition. Authenticated by Woldemar Freiherr von Biedermann. New edition by Flodoard von Biedermann in collaboration with Max Morris, Hans Gerhard Gräf and Leonhard Leopold Mackall. Second revised and greatly expanded edition;
- Goethe's letters to Eichstädt. Berlin: Hempel 1872;
- Goethes correspondence with Friedrich RochlitzJohann Friedrich RochlitzJohann Friedrich Rochlitz was a German playwright, musicologist and art and music critic. His most notable work is his autobiographical account Tage der Gefahr about the Battle of Leipzig in 1813 - in Kunst und Altertum, Goethe called it "one of the most wondrous productions ever to have been...
. Leipzig: Biedermann, 1887.