Does the German language have a Shakespeare?

Question

Most English speakers cannot read for very long before stumbling onto the words of Shakespeare, one of the language's greatest playwrights, who left an indelible mark on it. A great many of his turns of phrase, from "there's a method in his madness" to "all that glitters is not gold" survive and are current to this day. It's safe to say that his effect on English can scarcely be exaggerated.

Now, when I was reading the book, The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy, which goes on about the harrowing effect the devastation of the Thirty Years War had on the German psyche, I came across this intriguing tidbit:

Friedrich Schiller, the leading Storm and Stress writer, found an eager audeince when he published his history of the war in 1791, followed by his Wallenstein trilogy in 1797-9, which remains the equivalent of Shakespeare's history plays for the German-speaking world."

My questions are pretty simple: Does in fact Schiller hold this reputation as the German-language Shakespeare? If not, who is most able to take his place, and can someone give examples of what that author/playwright/poet bequeathed to German?

Answer 1

I would call Goethe the legitimate equivalent to Shakespeare in this regard. A lot of the words and pictures he used in Faust are common in German today.

Examples:

• des Pudels Kern
• Die Botschaft hör ich wohl, allein, mir fehlt der Glaube
• "da steh' ich nun, ich armer Tor, und bin so klug als wie zuvor."
• was die Welt - im Innersten zusammenhält
• Der Worte sind genug gewechselt
• ... and many, many more.

I guess you will find one common saying per page in Faust, but common saying since Faust, not before. ;)

Answer 2

There is not one German writer that played the role of Shakespeare.

The aspect that one also sees with Dante - namely standardizing a language - is much more the work of the bible translation of Luther than of Goethe and Schiller.

In particular, if you look at the biographical data, you will see that Goethe and Schiller were rather late to have the same language impact.

Answer 3

Personally, I think the answer is not as easy and depends on which quality of "Shakespeare" you want to have equaled in a German poet.

Schiller and Goethe were very much pushed into the position of German "classics", simply because there was no German classic literature at their time. No Shakespeare, no Dante; only bits and pieces. So this German "Klassik" was kinda forced and built up on purpose.

Of course, every major city has its "Goethestraße" and "Schillerstraße", and those two stand for the German literature in commom perception, but you could easily put other writers (e.g. Kleist) at their side. Also, if you really have a close look at their work, I would say it doesn't reach Shakespeare's mastery at all, but that may be an arguable point.

However, the quote may be partly right. If you look again, the quote doesn't just mention Shakespeare, but Shakespeare's history plays. And yes, if you have a look at classic German history plays, you hardly can avoid Schiller. His drama work definitively is very alive on German stages (more alive than Goethe's, I would say). This is something not only true for Wallenstein, but almost all of his plays, though.

In regards to quotes and common sayings, as was posted before, Goethe is probably the main source - also, because almost everybody learns about "Faust" and poems like "Der Zauberlehrling" at school.

Edit: For the language impact, please see Phira's answer on Martin Luther.

Answer 4

I wouldn't call Schiller a "German-language Shakespeare", but he did coin a lot of figures of speech in the German language. (While I do agree with user unknown that the same applies to Goethe, I don't know if any of the two has a priority in this respect.)

Here's a sample:

• Bis hierher und nicht weiter!
• Bretter, die die Welt bedeuten
• Da werden Weiber zu Hyänen
• Da liegt der Hase im Pfeffer
• Daran erkenn ich meine Pappenheimer
• Das Auge des Gesetzes
• Das ging aus wie das Hornberger Schießen.
• Der Dritte im Bunde
• Der Mohr hat seine Schuldigkeit getan
• Die Axt im Haus erspart den Zimmermann
• Drum prüfe, wer sich ewig bindet ...
• Durch diese hohle Gasse muss er kommen
• Es kann der Frömmste nicht in Frieden leben, wenn es dem bösen Nachbar nicht gefällt.
• Früh übt sich, wer ein Meister werden will.
• Leben und leben lassen
• Raum ist in der kleinsten Hütte.
• Was da kreucht und fleucht
• Wehe, wenn sie losgelassen!
• Wo rohe Kräfte sinnlos walten

Answer 5

My experience in Germany is that Shakespeare is almost considered to be a German author. His works are all translated (in quite good quality) to German. Most Germans have heard utterances such as:

• Sein oder Nichtsein; das ist hier die Frage ....

• Die ganze Welt ist eine Bühne, Und alle Fraun und Männer bloße Spieler.

• Brutus, auch du?

And more complicated and lengthy stuff as well. But I do not know enough German to write all that down here. Germans seem quite well-versed in Shakespeare, as much as they know about other German poets.

I do not know how this came to be; but it is a fact. I do not know any other English poet so highly regarded among Germans. Also, I do not think even a single non-English poet is so well-known among English speakers. It seems safe to say that Shakespeare is made an honorary member of the German poets club, i.e., the answer to your question would be that Shakespeare himself is the German equivalent of Shakespeare.

Answer 6

Well, apparently the authorship of Shakespeare's plays is debated. Or is it? Let's ignore it for the moment and assume that it can rightfully be discounted (which seems at least likely from the facts).

There is no single German writer's opus that comes close to Shakespeare's. So while the statement in your quote could be considered correct, as it is qualified by (emphasis mine):

remains the equivalent of Shakespeare's history plays for the German-speaking world

a generalized statement about such figure as insinuated by the title of your question ("Does the German language have a Shakespeare?" at the time of this writing) cannot be made.

That said, the combined works of Goethe and Schiller can probably be considered the closest match to Shakespeare's. Goethe was not only writer but also polymath. Both are also considered philosophers.

Much of the language of the two has made it into modern German. For example "Die Glocke" or "Der Zauberlehrling" have made a lasting impression on generations of German pupils. Examples have been given in other answers.

However, several other people, most prominently Martin Luther. But earlier also medieval Minnesingers, minstrels and poets (Walter von der Vogelweide, Wolfram von Eschenbach) or again around Luther's time poets like Martin Opitz left their mark on the language and the culture.

Decades after Shakespeare, the works of the Brothers Grimm have to be mentioned in such a context. Not only the collected folk tales, but also their "Deutsches Wörterbuch" (German Dictionary).

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However, I think it is moot to attempt to compare Shakespeare's many abilities and skills with a single German writer of (or around) the time when these - assuming the authorship debate can be discounted - were created by pretty unique circumstances: the Elizabethan era. While Shakespeare's Britain saw the beginning of the First British Empire, "Germany" was a patchwork of small competing and warring states.

And we haven't even touched the topic of how the English and the German language developed before, during and after the Elizabethan era.

All in all it means that beyond the scope of the history plays mentioned in your quote we're comparing apples and oranges.

Answer 7

While not a classic poet like Goethe and Schiller, Wilhelm Busch's Max und Moritz also contributed many idioms.

Answer 8

Most English speakers cannot read for very long before stumbling onto the words of Shakespeare

In this context, You can name Schiller as well as Goethe (see previous posts) ... and I wonder if you can name anyone else.

"Duden Allgemeinbildung. Berühmte Zitate und Redewendungen: Die muss man kennen" (ISBN 3411907681, 9783411907687) may be a good source for further quotes that found a way into german everyday language.

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For historical plays, although both of them wrote some (Goethe: Goetz von Berlichingen; Schiller: Don Carlos; Wallenstein; Maria Stuart) no single german writer has that concentration on historical context or this unique position as Shakespeare has. (Is it unique or is he just the only one that we know?)

And: none of them focus on displaying history, but take some artistic license to display general topics in a historical context, as mentioned on http://www.wissen.de/lexikon/historisches-schauspiel (where you can also find a list of other historical plays).

Answer 9

Why does no one mention Jean Paul? He was the same time as Goethe and sold more than him at the time. No one competed with Shakespeare, and since German apparently had such competition, none of them were able to stick out as much. Also it is my impression that Germans would read Shakespeare's works more than the English would of Paul or Goethe.

Answer 10

As Luther set the foundations of the modern German language with his translation of the Latin/Greek/Hebrew bible texts he is close to the role of Shakespeare for the English language. Otherwise, many comments before have correctly pointed out that with respect to citations or sayings Goethe and Schiller are sort of an equivalent to Shakespeare. Most people, in particular the English, do not know or ignore that Bertold Brecht is the most important playwright worldwide as Shakespeare. In socialist and communist countries he was much more highly regarded than Shakespeare. However, it seems to me that the nationalist and selfish attitude of the English-speaking countries does not allow them to respect anything else that is equal or even better, when it comes from foreign speaking people. For example: Shakespeare is confined to a world of medieval and renaissance class structure and could never deal with a topic like Galileo Galilei since he was unaware or not interested that there existed a scientist in conflict with the society at his time.