Otto Gildemeister
* 13.03.1823 in Bremen; ✝ 26.08.1902 in Bremen
City Senator, Mayor, Journalist, Translator
Biography
Otto Gildemeister (pseudonym: Giotto) was already translating classical English, French, Italian and Persian poetry when he was a school boy. From 1842 onwards he studied history, classical philology and modern European languages in Berlin, where Jakob Grimm was one of his teachers. Upon returning to Bremen in 1845 he was made arts editor of the Bremen Weser-Zeitung. He began his political career in 1852 as state archivist for Bremen, later becoming member for Bremen in the North German Federation, then city senator, and eventually mayor on more than one occasion.
Alongside his political career he was always active as a journalist, translator and publisher. Among others he translated the complete works of Byron, Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso and Dante’s Divine Comedy into German. In addition he contributed twelve translations for Friedrich Bodenstedt’s edition of Shakespeare (1867-1871) and published a translation of Shakespeare’s sonnets (1871). Testimony to his literary fecundity are, among other works, the Essays, published in 1896-7, and Briefe von Otto Gildemeister (1922), which appeared long after his death.
Shakespeare Translations
- König Johann (1867)
- König Richard II. (1867)
- König Heinrich IV. (1868-1870)
- König Heinrich V. (1868-1870)
- König Heinrich VI. (1868-1870)
- König Richard III. (1868-1870)
- König Heinrich VIII. (1868-1870)
- Was Ihr Wollt, oder Heiliger Dreikönigsabend (1868-1870)
- Verlorene Liebesmüh (1868-1870)
- Das Wintermärchen (1868-1870)
- Cymbelin (1871)
- Julius Cäsar (1871)
- Sonette (1871)
Other Translations
- Lord Byrons Werke. 6 vols. Berlin, 1864.
- Ariost’s Rasender Roland. 4 vols. Berlin, 1882.
- Dante’s Göttliche Comödie. Berlin, 1888.
Literature
Primary Literature
- William Shakespeare's Dramatische Werke. Ed. Friedrich Bodenstedt. 38 vols. Leipzig, 1867-1871.
- Shakespeare's Sonette. Leipzig, 1871.
- Essays. 2 vols. Berlin, 1896/97.
- Aus den Tagen Bismarcks. Politische Essays. Leipzig, 1909.
- Briefe von Otto Gildemeister. Ed. Lissy Susemihl-Gildemeister. Leipzig, 1922.
Secondary Literature
- Blaicher, Günther: Die Rezeption Byrons in der deutschen Kritik 1820 – 1914. Eine Dokumentation. Würzburg, 2001.
- Bulthaupt, Heinrich: ‘Otto Gildemeister, Nekrolog’, Shakespeare-Jahrbuch, 39 (1903). Pp. 257-263.
- Prüser, Friedrich: ‘Gildemeister, Otto’. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie, 6 (1964). Pp. 395-396. [Online Version]. Url: http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd116624108.html.
- Schulz, Andreas: Vormundschaft und Protektion. Eliten und Bürger in Bremen 1750 – 1880. München, 2002.
- Thiel, Rudolf: Otto Gildemeister als Übersetzer englischer Dichtungen. Breslau, 1938.
Album pages with this person
Citation and Licence
Gildemeister, Otto, in: The Digital Shakespeare Memorial Album. Edited by Christa Jansohn. URI: http://www.shakespearealbum.de/uri/gnd/116624108. (Accessed on 28.03.2024)
This text is published under the following licence: CC BY-ND 3.0 DE. Digitzed media reproduced with the permission of the library of Birmingham.