Niemiecki tłumacz‑polonofil Heinrich Nitschmann (1826–1905) i jego gdańskie debiuty literackie
German translator‑polonophile Heinrich Nitschmann (1826–1905) and his literary debuts in Danzig

Summary/Abstract: The article is devoted to Heinrich Nitschmann, a German translator and propagator of Polish literature in Germany, one of the most influential participants in Polish‑German cultural contacts in the second half of the 19th century. The article emphasizes the regional, borderland aspect of the translator’s biography which was connected with Elbląg, paying attention, however, primarily to Nitschmann’s connections with Danzig, which have been overlooked in previous studies. The paper focuses on Nitschmann’s long‑term cooperation with the Danzig bookseller and publisher Karl Theodor Bertling who enabled his debut as a translator (as editor of several anthologies containing his own translations of Polish poetry) and as an author (a collection of essays Erinnerungen an Oliva, expressing both the translator’s emotional bond with Pomerania and the attitude to nature characteristic of the educated German bourgeoisie of the 19th century). The article posits that it was the Danzig publisher who paved the way for Nitschmann to enter the publishing market in Germany: in Leipzig and Dresden, significantly contributing to his later success. Nitschmann’s publications: his translation anthologies and his popular outline of Polish literature (Geschichte der polnischen Litteratur) had many reprints and shaped the image of Polish culture among German audiences of the Wilhelminian era. The example of Nitschmann’s and Bertling’s successful collaboration shows how the synergy of action between translator and publisher – figures often marginalized from a literary‑historical perspective – resulted in greater power in the literary field and in the possibility of influencing Polish‑German literary contacts in the 19th century.

• Details
• Contents