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{{Short description|German author}}
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[[File:PPN663949858 Bildnis von Anton Eduard Wollheim Dafonseca.jpg|239px|thumb|Copperplate engraving by [[August Weger]]]]

'''Anton Eduard Wollheim da Fonseca'''; also known as Wollheim von Secka<ref name=":0">Death register no. 2064/1884, StA Berlin IX</ref> (b. 12 February 1810 in [[Hamburg]]; d. 24 October 1884 in [[Berlin]]) was a German writer, dramaturge, linguist and diplomat.

== Education and military life ==
The son of the Jewish merchant Hirsch Wollheim and his wife Antonie, née von Secka,<ref name=":0" /> he attended secondary school in [[Wrocław]] (then known by its German name as Breslau) and in Hamburg. He then studied [[philosophy]], [[philology]], [[history]] and [[political science]] in Berlin and earned a doctorate there in 1831 for his analysis in [[Latin]] of some chapters of the Sanskrit [[Padma Purana|Padma-Purāṇa]], an encyclopedic [[Vaishnavism|Vaiṣṇava]] religious text.

During a subsequent study trip to Paris, Wollheim became engaged to the daughter of a Portuguese nobleman and was motivated by this to fight in the [[Liberal Wars|Portuguese Civil War]] in the army of Prince Pedro de Alcântara, who later became Emperor [[Pedro I of Brazil]].

After a rapid promotion to lieutenant for unusual bravery, he was seriously wounded by lance thrusts and resigned from the military. For his services to Pedro's cause, he was later knighted by the Emperor's daughter, [[Maria II of Portugal]], and given the title "chevalier de Fonseca".

After the death of his fiancée, Wollheim da Fonseca worked for several years in Det Kongelige Bibliotek, [[Copenhagen]]'s [[Royal Library, Copenhagen|royal library]], cataloguing [[Sanskrit]] and [[Pali|Pāli]] manuscripts from [[Danish India]] and serving as private secretary to the [[Frederick VI of Denmark|Danish king, Frederik VI]].

From 1838 to 1840 he lived in[[Vienna]], where he tried to work as a diplomat for Austria, but was unable to stay because of his liberal views. An 1840 application for a Sanskrit professorship in [[Leipzig]] was rejected because he had converted to [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]] during his military service in Portugal.

== Academic and writing career ==
From 1842 to 1848 Wollheim da Fonseca was dramaturge at the [[Hamburg State Opera|Hamburgische Staatsoper]]. At the same time, from 1847 he was accredited as a government interpreter for 11 languages. In 1842 he married the widowed Dorothea Alexandrie Marie Goldschmidt, née Leffmann, from Copenhagen. From 1849 to 1852 Wollheim da Fonseca was a lecturer in oriental and modern European languages at the University of Berlin and at the same time a correspondent for a London morning newspaper. During this time he was also a member of the literary club ''[[Tunnel über der Spree]]'' and was friends with the realist German novelist and poet [[Theodor Fontane]] (1819–1898).

He moved back to Vienna for a while before taking over the management of the Hamburgische Staatsoper from 1858 to 1861. After further stays in Vienna and Paris, Wollheim da Fonseca founded the seasonal Flora Theatre in the [[St. Georg, Hamburg|St. Georg]] quarter of Hamburg in 1868, but it did not last long.

During the 1870-1871 [[Franco-Prussian War]], he edited the ''Moniteur officiel du Gouvernement general à Reims'', a newspaper for occupied France that supported German interests. He was awarded the [[Iron Cross]] of [[German Empire|Imperial Germany]] for this successful work. His attempt to [[Habilitation|habilitate]] in Berlin in 1878 failed due to objections from the professors there.

In 1840 Wollheim da Fonseca retranslated ''[[Frithiof's Saga|Friðþjófs saga]]'' from [[Esaias Tegnér]]'s renowned 1825 Swedish version into German. Wollheim first performed his stage adaptation of [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe's]] ''[[Faust, Part Two]]'' in 1854. His works include ''Indiscretionen eines patriotischen Reptils'' (“Indiscretions of a patriotic reptile”, a 1883 memoir, and ''Neue Indiscretionen'' (“New indiscretions,” 1884). In 1879 he translated ''[[Os Lusíadas]]'' from Portuguese (1879) into German as ''Die Lusiaden.'' He wrote several language textbooks and dictionaries, as well as stage works, treatises on history and many other works.

Wollheim da Fonseca fascinated contemporaries with his eloquence and his talent for languages. His friend Theodor Fontane reported the ''bon mot'' that "he spoke 33 languages and lied in 34" — alluding to a tendency to exaggeration. 
His last years, however, were marked by financial difficulties, and he became dependent on gifts from a wealthy relative, Caesar Wollheim. A late marriage to Antonie Romanowska from [[St. Petersburg]] was socially inappropriate for his status and put these donations at risk. Anton Eduard Wollheim da Fonseca died in 1884 at the age of 74 in Berlin and was buried in the St. Hedwig Cemetery on Liesenstraße. The tombstone has not been preserved.<ref>Hans-Jürgen Mende: ''Lexikon Berliner Grabstätten''. Haude & Spener, Berlin 2006. P. 56.</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Works ==
'''Scientific works'''
* ''De nonnullis Padmapurâni capitibus'' (“On some chapters of the Padma-Purāṇa”), doctoral thesis, Berlin 1831.
* ''Lokanîti. Ethische Sprüche in der Pali-Sprache'' (“Ethical maxims in the Pāli language”).
* ''Lexicon latino-sanscritum'' (“Latin-Sanskrit dictionary,” Hamburg, 1840.
* ''Kurzgefaßte Mythologie aller Völker der Erde'' (“Brief mythology of all the peoples of the earth”), Hamburg 1850.
* ''[https://archive.org/download/mythologiedesal00fonsgoog/mythologiedesal00fonsgoog.pdf Mythologie des alten Indien]'' (“Mythology of ancient India”). Berlin: Gustav Hempel, 1856.

==External links==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wollheim da Fonseca, Anton Eduard}}
[[Category:19th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:German classical philologists]]
[[Category:German translation scholars]]
[[Category:German Sanskrit scholars]]
[[Category:Linguists of Pali]]
[[Category:Dramaturges]]
[[Category:19th-century German poets]]
[[Category:19th-century German novelists]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Christ (Portugal)]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Iron Cross (1870)]]
[[Category:1810 births]]
[[Category:1884 deaths]]