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FormatJournal Article
Author, AnalyticSchueppen, Franz
Title, Analytic'Amerika' im Koeniglichen Schauspielhaus Berlin: Rudolf Geneés Charakterbild Stephy Girard nach Charles Sealsfields Morton und Theodor Fontanes Kritik in der Vossischen Zeitung zum 12. October 1978
Journal TitleYearbook of German-American Studies
Date of Publication2004
Volume ID39
Location in Work105-121
Language or Document TypeEnglish
ISSN0741-2827
AbstractFrom the summary: In October 1878 the Royal Theatre of Berlin performed a one-act play by Rudolf Geneé about Stephen Girard, an important nineteenth-century banker and wholesaler in Philadelphia. Charles Sealsfield had written a two-volume novel in which he described how John A. Morton, having become bankrupt, becomes Girard's London agent in the banking industry, forsaking his life as a farmer on the Susquehanna. While Sealsfield's work contains a "certain demonization of banking establishments," novelist Theodor Fontane favorable review of Geneé's play finds the character of Girard to represent the "typical American" as "a representative of a new world and a new age." Geneé and Fontane's writings "indicate a certain rapprochement of Prussia to the United States in those years." The "American" qualities of such businessmen, in contrast to those of slave-holding planters, are held to be leading to "a better world."
NotesIncludes English summary and bibliographical references; [italicize Stephy Girard, Morton, and Vossischen Zeitung]
Call NumberMKI Periodicals
MKI TermsSealsfield, Charles (Postl, Karl), 1793-1864/ Literature, German-American/ National characteristics, American, in literature/ National characteristics, American -- Public opinion, German/ America in German literature