150th birthday of Wilhelm Raabe - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1981 - 50 Pfennig

Return of the 150th Birthday Wilhelm Raabe Wilhelm Raabe is one of the great German narrators, also recognized abroad. 68 epic seals come from his pen. In addition to Theodor Fontane and Theodor Storm he is one of the most important realists of German literature of the late 19th century. Wilhelm Raabe was born on 8 September 1831 in Eschershausen in the Weserbergland. His father, Gustav Raabe, lawyer in the service of the Duchy of Brunswick, was transferred to Holzminden a few weeks after the birth of his son, in 1842 to Stadtoldendorf. The multiple school change Wilhelm Raabe's education was not very useful. When his father died unexpectedly early in 1845, Wilhelm was 13 years old. Almost penniless, the mother and her three children moved to Wolfenbüttel, where two relatives worked as teachers. Here Raabe attended the »Great City School«. He showed good performances only in German and in artistic form. Without graduation he left high school and began in 1849 in Magdeburg a bookseller apprenticeship. During this time he gained considerable literary knowledge, but returned to Wolfenbüttel after completing his apprenticeship in 1853. After a year of intensive preparation Wilhelm Raabe went in the summer of 1854 as a guest student at the University of Berlin. Here, in the fall, the student began writing "The Chronicle of the Sparrow Alley." The first work brought the 23-year-old a great success. Friedrich Hebbel wrote: "An excellent overture, but where is the opera?" The good reviews encouraged Wilhelm Raabe to become a writer. Returning to Wolfenbüttel in 1856, he wrote a series of smaller short stories and short stories, first published in Westermann's Monatshefte under the pseudonym Jacob Corvinus. In 1862 he married Bertha Leiste, a lawyer's daughter from Wolfenbüttel. The newlyweds moved to Stuttgart, where they quickly found acceptance and friends in the literary center of Germany. "The People of the Forest", "The Hunger Pastor", "Abu Telfan" and "The Schüdderump" were produced there in large works. In 1870, the Raabe family returned to Lower Saxony and took up residence in Brunswick. Little regarded by the dignitaries and the public as a poet, the poet joined social circles, such as the "Buern im Krayenfelde", the "Dressersellers" and the artists' club "Feuchte Pinsel". Raabe was respected there as the center. Later, he liked to spend the evenings at the Stammtisch in Herbst's Weinstuben, where he was - now famous - visited by many personalities. In the forty years of Braunschweig, the poet's most mature works, including Old Nests, Stuff Cakes, which he valued the most, were published, The Files of the Vogelsang, Odfeld, Hastenbeck, and the novels Der Wild Man, "" Mrs. Salome, "and" Restless Guests. " In 1898, with the completion of Hastenbeck, he called himself a writer. D. His work "Altershausen" remained unfinished. For his 70th birthday in 1901 Wilhelm Raabe finally received the deserved general recognition. The cities of Braunschweig and Eschershausen awarded him the honorary citizenship, the universities of Göttingen and Tübingen the philosophical and then the University of Berlin the medical honorary doctorate. On November 15, 1910 Wilhelm Raabe died in Brunswick. He was buried in the municipal cemetery. (Text: Wihelm Raabe Society, Braunschweig)