Karl Morgenstern - the forgotten "inventor" of the "Bildungsroman"

As familiar as this globally common term is, its "inventor", the Magdeburg-born philologist Karl Morgenstern (1770-1852), who worked for more than three decades as a professor at the University of Dorpat (Tartu) in Estonia, has been forgotten. His two fundamental lectures on the nature and history of the Bildungsroman, which the Goethe admirer held in Dorpat 200 years ago, have now been edited and commented on by the literary scholar Dirk Sangmeister from the Gotha Research Centre of the University of Erfurt on the basis of Morgenstern's annotated hand copies. This first book edition of two texts with worldwide implications has now been published by Lumpeter & Lasel (Eutin) in the run-up to Morgenstern's 250th birthday (on August, 28).