Gustav Freytag

Gustav Freytag (13 July 1816 – 30 April 1895) was a German novelist and playwright.

Freytag was born in Kreuzburg (Kluczbork) in Silesia. After attending the gymnasium at Oels (Oleśnica), he studied philology at the universities of Breslau (Wrocław) and Berlin, and in 1838 received his degree with a dissertation titled Über die Anfänge der dramatischen Poesie bei den Germanen, which translates as On the Beginnings of Dramatic Poetry among the Germans. He became member of the student corps Borussia zu Breslau.

In 1839, he settled in Breslau, as Privatdozent in German language and literature, but organ of German and Austrian liberalism. Freytag helped to conduct it until 1861, and again from 1867 till 1870, when for a short time he edited a new periodical, Im neuen Reich. In 1863 he developed what is known as Freytag's pyramid; see Dramatic structure.

Freytag's literary fame was made universal by the publication in 1855 of his novel, Soll und Haben (Debit and Credit), which was translated into almost all European languages. It was translated into English by Georgiana Harcourt in 1857.

It was hailed as one of the best German novels and praised for its sturdy but unexaggerated realism. Its main purpose is the recommendation of the German middle class as the soundest element in the nation, but it also has a more directly patriotic intention in the contrast it draws between the supposedly homely virtues of the German, while presenting in negative light Poles and Jews. In the novel a Jewish merchant is presented as a villain and threat to Germany German colonists are presented as "superior" to "wild", "inferior" and "uncivilized" Poles who are also shown sometimes in racist terms The novel affirmed the claim of German "masters" to seize the land of the "weaker race" justified by supposedly "superior" German culture The novel applied blatant racism to Slavs while focusing on Poles; author stated that Poles have "no culture" and are unable to create civilization. Freytag also claimed that Poles will only become proper human beings through German rule and colonization, and giving up their language and culture. Soll und Haben set an example for a body of colonial literature about the "eastern marches" and also started a public-reinterpretation of the Ostsiedlung, which was now presented as historical mission of the Germans (Kulturträger), legitimizing continued occupation of Polish areas and suppressions of Polish population.

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