Sebastian Brunner

File:Sebastian Brunner JS.jpg

Sebastian Brunner

Sebastian Brunner (10 December 1814 – 27 November 1893) was an Austrian Roman Catholic priest, historian, poet, novelist and travel writer.

Biography

He was born in Vienna, and received his college education from the Benedictines of his native city. He received his philosophical and theological training at the University of Vienna, was ordained priest in 1838, and was for some years professor in the philosophical faculty of the Vienna University. The University of Freiburg honored him with the degree of Doctor of Theology. In the revolutionary year, 1848, he founded the Wiener Kirchenzeitung, which he edited until 1865, and in which he satirised what he saw as the Josephinist bondage of the Church. He wrote some ascetical books and many volumes of sermons, also a biography of Clemens Maria Hofbauer, the patron saint of Vienna. Some of his writings in the Kirchenzeitung have been described as antisemitic, and this was the subject of libel cases which he launched against Ignaz Kuranda and Heinrich Graetz.

His books of travel dealing with Germany, France, England, Switzerland, and especially Italy, include observations on men and manners, art and culture, and most of all on religion, and are thus connected closely with his apologetic and controversial writings. Among the latter may be mentioned his book on The Atheist Renan and his Gospel. Brunner's voluminous historical works include some on the history of the Church in Austria. His humorous works were composed partly in verse, and partly in the form of prose stories. An example of the former is Der Nebeljungen Lied; of the latter, Die Prinzenschule zu Möpselglück. A collection of his stories in prose and verse was published in eighteen volumes in Regensburg in 1864. In his later years he turned his satirical pen against what he saw as the undiscriminating worship of modern German literary celebrities. He died in Vienna.

Works

Poetry

• Die Welt ein Epos. Ein didaktisches Gedicht. Eine fanatisch-geistlose Verketzerung der Philosophie (1844; 4th ed., 1857)
• Der Nebeljungen Lied (1845; 3rd ed. 1852; poetry directed against liberal tendencies in politics, literature, and theology)
• Der deutsche Hiob (1846; satirical poem against Heinrich Heine)
• Johannes Ronge, der Luther des 19. Jahrhunderts (1848; partial reprint of the above work)
• Blöde Ritter. Poetische Galerie deutscher Staatspfiffe (1848)

Novels

• Des Genies Malheur und Glück (1843; 2 volumes)
• Fremde und Heimat (1845)
• Die Prinzenschule zu Möpselglück (1847)
• Diogenes von Azzelbrunn (1853)

Travelogues

• Kennst du das Land? Heitere Fahrten durch Italien (1857)
• Aus dem Venediger- und Longobardenland (1860)
• Unter Lebendigen und Toten (1862)

History

• Klemens Maria Hofbauer und seine Zeit (1858)
• Die theologische Dienerschaft am Hof Josephs II (1868)
• Die Mysterien der Aufklärung in Österreich 1770-1800 (1869)
• Der Humor in der Diplomatie und Regierungskunde des 18. Jahrhunderts (1872; 2 volumes)
• Joseph II. Charakteristik seines Lebens, seiner Regierung und seiner Kirchenreform (1874)
• Ein Benediktinerbuch. Geschichte etc. der Benediktinerstifter (1880)
• Ein Cisterzienserbuch (1881)
• Ein Chorherrenbuch (1883)
• Hau- und Bausteine zu einer Litteraturgeschichte der Deutschen (1884)

Art history

• Die Kunstgenossen der Klosterzelle (1863)
• Heitere Studien und Kritiken in und über Italien (1866; 2 volumes)

Miscellania

• Das deutsche Reichsvieh (1849; 2 volumes)
• Keilschriften (1856)
• Woher? Wohin? Eine Art Selbstbiographie (1855)
• Correspondances intimes de l'empereur Joseph II avec son ami le comte de Cobenzl et son premier ministre le prince de Kaunitz (1871; editor)
• Zwei Buschmänner. (Börne und Heine). Aktenmäßig geschildert (1891)

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:  cites:
  • Selbstiographie (Autobiography; Regensburg, 1890–91)
  • Scheicher, Sebastian Brunner (Wurzburg and Vienna, 1890);