Anastasius Green
Anastasius Grün (eig. Anton Alexander Graf von Auersperg), born 11.4.1806 in Ljubljana (Slovenia), died 12.9.1876 in Graz; politician, lyricist, translator, editor
from one of the oldest noble families in Austria, son of the district commissioner Alexander Count von Auersperg and Baroness Cäcilia von Billichgrätz; grew up on the family estates in Thurn am Hart (today: Šrajbarski turn/Slovenia), which he inherited in 1818 after the death of his father and managed progressively after taking over the majorate; changed schools several times due to unruly behavior, encouraged by the later Slovenian national poet France Prešeren; 1824 Studies at the University of Vienna (artistic cursus), first literary publications there, 1826 transfers to the University of Graz (law); after the publication of the collection of poems Spaziergänge eines Wiener Poeten (1831), critical of the times, problems with censorship and the police, which lead to the removal of his pseudonym in 1838 and a publication ban by Metternich; 1839 Marriage to Maria Rosalia Countess von Attems, the daughter of the Styrian governor; friendship with liberal-conservative politicians such as Archduke Johann and critical intellectuals such as Nikolaus Lenau (whose work he later publishes); 1848, as a celebrated 'poet of freedom', elected as a member of the Frankfurt Pre-Parliament and the National Assembly, agenda for the unification of Austria with the rest of Germany, including the Slavic peoples according to the model of a Greater German federal state; collection and translation of Slovenian songs(folk songs from Carniola, 1850) and further lyrical and 1859 birth of his son Theodor; 1861 member of the House of Lords and the Carniolan Parliament, after differences with the Slovenes over the nationality question from 1867 in the Styrian Parliament; 1864/65 construction of Palais Auersperg in Graz's Elisabethstraße according to plans by Johann Schöbl; 1871 honorary member of the Academy of Sciences, honorary doctorates from Vienna and Graz, numerous honorary citizenships and awards; death in the family palace in Graz, final resting place in the mausoleum in the castle park of Thurn am Hart.
Works include:
Leaves of Love. Stuttgart: Franckh 1830. The last knight, Romanzen-Kranz. Munich: Franckh 1830. walks of a Viennese poet. Hamburg: Hoffmann & Campe 1831. Schutt. Poems. Leipzig: Weidmann 1835. poems. Leipzig: Weidmann 1837. Nibelungen im Frack. A poem. Leipzig: Weidmann 1843. Drei Walhalla-Nichtgenossen. Graz: Kienreich 1848. Pfaff vom Kahlenberg. A rural poem. Leipzig: Weidmann 1850. Folk songs from Carniola. Translated by Anastasius Grün. Leipzig: Weidmann 1850. Robin Hood. A wreath of ballads based on old English folk songs. Stuttgart: Cotta 1864.
Complete editions:
Anastasius Grün's collected works. 5 vols. Edited by Ludwig August Frankl. Berlin: Grote 1877.
Anastasius Grün's complete works in ten volumes. Edited by Anton Schlossar. With 6 likenesses, 6 illustrations, 2 title engravings of the first edition and a letter as a manuscript sample. New revised edition. Leipzig: Hesse 1907.
Anastasius Grün's works. Volumes 1-6 in three books. Edited and with a biography by Eduard Castle. Berlin: Bong 1909.
Stock
for the acquisition history see object of the month January 2022
Extent:
8 archive boxes with mapped letters to and from Anastasius Grün
1 archive box with letters from Hormayr to Grün (separated at the time of the edition project)
5 smaller archive boxes with (unsystematically classified) manuscripts, prints, various autographs not belonging to the collection (Stifter, Saar, Droste-Hülshoff, etc.), documents on the acquisition history, later correspondence on purchases, donations, offers, ownership issues, exhibitions, etc.
8 folders with loose material (newspaper clippings, playbills, documents, pictures, etc.)
8 historical archive slipcases (around 1900, empty, mostly damaged)
1 'Inventory of the literary estate' (1898, bound) by Spiridion Wukadinović, continued by Bernhard Seuffert, Otto Janda and Hellmuth Himmel
Contents:
cf. also inventory overview by Hellmuth Himmel and Alfred Kracher in Goedeke's Grundriß zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung (NF I, 1962, pp. 567f.):
about 2500 letters to and from Anastasius Grün; drafts and copies of letters
autograph manuscripts of Volkslieder aus Krain / Robin Hood / In der Veranda / Pfaff von Kahlenberg
Galley proofs, proofs, handwritten drafts of the folk songs from Carniola etc.
3 volumes with drafts of poems / single sheets with drafts of poems
1 sketchbook
1 volume with poem inscriptions / individual poems
2 travel diaries and fragments
1 notebook
1 folder 'Auersperg'schen Nachlass betreffend' with documents on the acquisition history up to 1926
1 folder 'Political, literary matters': concepts for speeches, forewords, pamphlet, fragment of a historical sketch, political notes, committee reports, statement of assets, printed invitations, etc.
1 folder 'From Schlossar's estate': newspaper cuttings, dedication poems, handwritten and printed sheet music (some dedication copies), concert programs, essays on Anastasius Grün, offprints of early secondary literature, contributions to the 70s celebrations, party leaflets
1 folder with biographical material: certificates of appointment and letters of appointment for (honorary) memberships, correspondence, party leaflets, 4 photo prints (Grün, Grün with wife and son, veranda in the castle park at Thurn, gift table for Grün's 70th birthday), photo print with Grün's places of life
1 folder of miscellaneous items with direct or peripheral reference to Grün (probably from his estate), several autograph poems by unknown and lesser-known authors
1 folder with typescript of Peter Sernetz's (unprinted) doctoral thesis in Graz: 'Anastasius Grün als Übersetzer slovenischer Volkslieder' (1932)
1 folder with revised lists of correspondence partners and occasional typescript transcripts
1 folder with discarded envelopes and enclosures
Degree of processing:
Letters to Anastasius Grün (estate) and from Anastasius Grün (individual purchases, Schlossar estate etc.) old, finely indexed (without signature; any losses, unrecorded additions or incorrect allocations not yet checked)
Poetry (manuscripts and prints) old, finely or partially catalogued (without shelfmark; any losses, unrecorded additions or incorrect attributions not yet verified)
Rest roughly or not yet catalogued
shelfmark: FNI-GRÜN
Current/core period: 1806-1876