Georges Zink

The Associate German teacher Georges Zink, who specialized in German medieval literature after in Ph.D in 1948, was invited to join the Sorbonne in Paris, where he worked as a highly appreciated University Teacher till the end of his professional career.
Besides his scientific works, he wrote poetry and prose in Alsatian dialect under the pen name ”Schorsch”.

Carbuncle stone

I’ve looked for you so bad, so bad¶
Carbuncle stone, like blood so red.¶
I’ve hunted  you till old age a little,¶
Death already sharpens its sickle.¶

I dont know if you I will find;¶
I don’t think so, downwards I wind …¶
With rose petals the wind does play¶
Soon on my grave roses they’ll lay.¶

But search I will until the end¶
Your red, red light, carbuncle stone;¶
And if my heart burns to the end,¶
I will search it, and it alone!¶

Life

After having been admitted to the famous Teacher Training College of Paris ”Ecole Normale de Paris” and having passed his ”Agrégation d'allemand”, Georges Zink, native of Sundgau, worked as a German teacher at ”lycées” (secondary or high schools) in Troyes and Vanves between 1932 and 1947.

Besides his job as a teacher, he carried on his research work and passed his Ph.D in 1948.

As a University teacher in Lyon, he became the best specialist in German medieval literature.

After having become ”Doctor Honoris Causa” of the University of Frankfurt, he entered the Sorbonne in Paris where he taught as a medievalist and philologist till the end of his professional career. His numerous publications in French and German prove his astonishing knowledge and high erudition. He is also one of the best poets in Alsatian dialect of our times.

He wrote poems and prose under the pen name ”Schorsch”. His works have been published in several regional anthologies and yearbooks. The University teacher, living at Boulevard Saint-Michel in Paris, paints his home place Sundgau as a lost rural paradise, using sometimes a powerful, sometimes a sweet language.

Works

He wrote with high competence many books and papers in French and German about German medieval literature like the Cycle of Dietrich ”Dietrich-Zyklus”, the Song of Roland ”La Chanson de Roland” or the Song of the Nibelungen ”Nibelungenlied”.

In Alsatian dialect

Bilder vo d’haim vom Schorsch, Annuaire de la Société d’histoire Sundgovienne 1963, 1969, 1970.

Wie dr Nesti un’s Odile sallemols ghirote han, Annuaire de la Société d’Histoire Sundgovienne, 1966.

D’Kaltnàcht, Petite Anthologie de la Poésie alsacienne, Strasbourg, 1970, Recueil V

Wie dr Nesti un’s Odile sallemols ghirote han, Auszüge in  Petite Anthologie de la Poésie alsacienne. Association J.B. Weckerlin, Strasbourg, 1972, Recueil VI

Sichelte – Moisson. Poésies sundgoviennes, Vorbereitet und kommentiert von Raymond Matzen. Porträt des Dichters durch Gérard Gachet. Zeichnungen von Robert Kuven, Strasbourg, 1979.

Haiet, Arn un Ahmtet, Gedichte in oberelsässischer Mundart, überarbeitet und herausgegeben von Raymond Matzen. Zeichnungen von E.H. Cordier. Verlag Moritz Schauenburg GmbH, Lahr / Schwarzwald, 1992.

Distinctions

Officier de l’Instruction Publique, « Palmes Académiques » (Paris, 1959)

Doctor honoris causa of University Frankfurt am Main (1964)

Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (Paris, 1966)

”Bretzel d’Or”, Preis für elsässische Mundartdichtung  des Instituts der volkstümlichen Künste und Traditionen des Elsass - Institut des Arts et Traditions Populaires d’Alsace, Strasbourg, 1976)

Oberrheinischer Kulturpreis 1977 (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Stiftung, Basel, 1977)