Siegfried Kapper was the literary pseudonym of Isaac Salomon Kapper (21 March 1821, Smíchov – 7 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]

Siegfried Kapper (1870), by Friedrich Kriehuber

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

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  • "Das Böhmerland" (1865)
  • "Die Handschriften Altböhmischer Poesien" (1859)
  • "Die Böhmischen Bäder" (1857)
  • "Fürst Lazar" (1853)
  • "Falk" (1853)
  • "Südslavische Wanderungen" (1853)
  • "Die Gesänge der Serben" (1852 – in 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

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  • Tales of the Prague Ghetto. Prague: Karolinum Press (2022). ISBN 9788024649450. The stories Kapper wrote about the Jews of Prague (collected posthumously as Prager Ghettosagen, 1896).

References

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  1. ^ Miloslav Uličný: Vedlejší efekt: Mácha's Mai, in: Plav magazine
  2. ^ "Nina (Anna) Stollewerk (1825 - 1914) - Vocal Texts and Translations at the LiederNet Archive". www.lieder.net. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  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. ^ Kapper, Siegfried (1844). Slavische Melodien (in German). Einhorn.
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