Jean-Paul? Unlike his contemporaries Goethe and Schiller, he is not known to a wide audience. It’s for specialists. In his homeland of Upper Franconia, there are of course two museums about him. One has closed, one has to move.
Joditz/Bayreuth (dpa/lby) – Jean Paul Friedrich Richter (1763-1825) was a true Upper Franconian – the author was born in Wunsiedel and died in Bayreuth. Two museums in northern Bavaria are dedicated to his life and work – actually. Because one museum has closed, another will have to move soon.
Jean Paul spent his childhood in Joditz, a small village near Hof. The Jean Paul connoisseur Eberhard Schmidt has brought together numerous exhibits here and opened a private museum that is valued by literary scholars and is unrivaled in the German museum landscape. In 2016, however, Schmidt passed away. Since then the museum has been closed.
But now things are moving again. The Hof district office recently reported: There are talks about the future of the museum. “It is very important to me to put the life’s work, which my late husband in particular built up, in good hands,” said Karin Schmidt, owner of the Jean Paul Museum.
The first committees in the district have already dealt with the topic. “The museum is a cultural attraction with national appeal. It is important to us to maintain and strengthen this,” said district administrator Oliver Bär (CSU) and Joditz mayor Matthias Beyer. “That’s why we’re delving deeper into the considerations about the future of the museum.” A viable concept for the future is being discussed. The old vicarage in Joditz will also be included in the considerations. The pastor’s son Jean Paul lived in the building from 1765 to 1776.
And now to Bayreuth, where there is also a museum dedicated to the poet: this is housed in the former Chamberlain House, where Richard Wagner’s son-in-law Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855-1927), a mastermind of racism and anti-Semitism, lived. Therefore, according to the city’s plans, this building is to become part of a Nazi documentation center. So the museum has to move – to Jean Paul’s former home, where he also died.
There is no timetable for this and no cost estimate yet. In 2023, “all relevant questions, including costs, should be clarified in order to be able to bring about a decision by the city council,” said a city spokesman. It must also be taken into account that the museum concept will be adapted to the new rooms.
Jean Paul wrote novels such as “Hesperus” and “Siebenkäs”, but also theoretical writings. Dirty fink, goose feet or scaredy-cat are neologisms that go back to Jean Paul and are still in use today.
