Gustav Freytags lateinische Qualifikationsschriften De initiis scenicae poesis apud Germanos (1838) und De Hrosuitha poetria (1839)

Abstract

Abstract The article investigates Gustav Freytag’s dissertation De initiis scenicae poesis apud Germanos [On the beginnings of dramatic poetry in Germany] and his habilitation De Hrosuitha poetria [On the poetess Hrotsvitha], written and published in 1838 and 1839, respectively. Usually disregarded in analyses of Freytag’s oeuvre as insignificant minor texts or pointless Latin writings among his otherwise exclusively German historiographical and literary production, they serve, in a nutshell, as early comprehensive samples of his life-long approach to cultural historiography and German literature. More precisely, one could term them the ›groundwork‹ constitutive for many of his later efforts as a historian and author. Apart from dissecting Freytag’s qualification papers in this respect for the first time, the article also expands on the institutional framework of early nineteenth-century university education in Germany and its upheld practice of Latin scientific discourse.