Historical aspects of the translations and translators of the Quixote in Germany in the 20th century

Abstract

There is nothing new in saying that everyone in Germany knows the Quixote, and that one can find translations of this work everywhere. But it is strange for the average reader to know how many translations there are or when the translation he is reading was done. And it is even stranger for the reader to know who the translator was if he is not one of the “star translators” of German literature, in the case of the Quijote Ludwig Tieck, in other cases for example August Wilhelm Schlegel, Arthur Schopenhauer, Walter Benjamin or Stefan Zweig. However, beyond these “stars” there have been a large amount of good translators that have not been paid the attention they might deserve. This article tries to recover some forgotten or unknown details of the three German translations of the Quixote in the 20th century and, above all, of its translators. Some interesting details will be presented about these personalities and about the conditions under which they carried out their job.