Siegfried Kapper Explained

Siegfried Kapper was the literary pseudonym of Isaac Salomon Kapper (21 March 1821, Smíchov7 June 1879, Prague), a Bohemian-born Austrian writer of Jewish origin. Born in Smichow, Kapper studied medicine at Prague University, later completing a Ph.D. at the University of Vienna. Kapper wrote excellent fairy tales and poems, and was one of the leading figures of Czech-Jewish assimilation. Kapper wrote in both German and Czech. He translated Mácha's Máj into German for the first time (1844).^[1] Austrian composer Nina Stollewerk used Kapper's text for her composition "Zwei Gedichte," opus 5.^[2]

After his death, the Kapper-Society was founded; its aim was Czech-Jewish assimilation and opposition to Zionism and German-Jewish assimilation.^[3]

Selected works

• "Das Böhmerland" (1865)
• "Die Handschriften Altböhmischer Poesien" (1859)
• "Die Böhmischen Bäder" (1857)
• "Fürst Lazar" (1853)
• "Falk" (1853)
• "Südslavische Wanderungen" (1853)
• "Die Gesänge der Serben" (1852in two parts)
• "Lazar der Serbenzar" (1851). Kapper had a Serbian predecessor in the person of Joksim Nović-Otočanin who published his book on the same theme at Novi Sad (Neusatz) in 1847.
• "Befreite Lieder dem Jungen Oesterreich" (1848)
• "České Listy" (1846)
• "Slavische Melodien" (1844)^[4]

English edition

• Tales of the Prague Ghetto. Prague: Karolinum Press (2022). . The stories Kapper wrote about the Jews of Prague (collected posthumously as Prager Ghettosagen, 1896).

External links

• "Siegfried Kapper" at the Jewish Encyclopedia

Notes and References

1. http://www.svetovka.cz/archiv/2010/01-2010-kritika.htm Miloslav Uličný: Vedlejší efekt: Mácha's Mai, in: Plav magazine
2. Web site: Nina (Anna) Stollewerk (1825 - 1914) - Vocal Texts and Translations at the LiederNet Archive. 2021-11-11. www.lieder.net.
3. John Neubauer . 'How Did the Golem Get to Prague,' in Marcel Cornis-Pope, John Neubauer History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe: Junctures and disjunctures in the 19th and 20th centuries, Vol. IV: Types and stereotypes, John Benjamins Publishing 2010pp.296-307 p.305.
4. Book: Kapper, Siegfried . Slavische Melodien . 1844 . Einhorn . de.