Correspondence Sauer-Seuffert. Annotated Edition

With more than 1200 letters the correspondence between August Sauer (18551926) and Bernhard Seuffert (18531938) is one of the most comprehensive scholarly correspondences of the late 19th and the early 20th century. Sauer and Seuffert rank among the most influential specialists in German studies and among the most profound editors of their time. Their work had a huge impact on the development of the subject Neuere deutsche Literaturgeschichte. The main goal of the project is the presentation of a selection of letters, combined with rich annotations as well as registers for persons and works. Additionally a website was created, which gathers facsimiles and transcriptions of all letters, postcards and telegrams. A full text search is integrated in the web-edition. A timeline provides an overview of the careers of Sauer and Seuffert and links important passages of the correspondence. (http://sauer-seuffert.onb.ac.at/) The letters inform about the scientific and professional careers of Sauer and Seuffert as well as about their academic surroundings, especially about the universities in Würzburg, Lemberg, Graz and Prague. They can be considered documents of the scholars research interests, editorial projects and publications, of their collaborations and mutual assistance and they are a yielding source for the development of academic approaches and methods in the field of Neuere deutsche Literaturgeschichte. The correspondence shows that August Sauer not only was an outstanding scientist and politician in the fields of science and culture, but, at the same time, a strategically thinking and modern promoter of the sciences to whom magazines, bibliographies, handbooks, scientific institutions, philological associations, lectures and conventions were all elements of a transdisciplinary communication network. With regard to cultural history, the correspondence gives insight into the private circumstances in the academic field, friendships and hostility among scholars, the social circumstances in different parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, family matters and descendants, and into illnesses and journeys. On the one hand, the study of Sauers and Seufferts correspondence yields insights into the differing reactions to the bifurcation of the humanities into a positivist branch and one focusing on the history of ideas (Geistesgeschichte). On the other hand, the work of both scholars documents the rapid differentiation of German Studies, which, in turn, necessitated a specialization in research. Our selective edition will constitute a useful long-term reference work for research in the history of the humanities and, furthermore, will allow insights into the transitional period when an Austrian as well as a great German and a little German cultural identity emerged, the nature of which has remained at issue up to the present time.

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