Hermann Lange
German composition : $b A theoretical and practical guide to the art of translating English prose into German
"German Composition: A Theoretical and Practical Guide to the Art of Translating English Prose into German" by Hermann Lange is a language-instruction manual written in the late 19th century. It teaches students to render English prose into clear, idiomatic German through a blend of concise grammar rules, guided practice, and carefully chosen texts. Aimed at classroom learners and exam candidates, it emphasizes method, accuracy, and style over word-for-word translation. The opening of the manual sets out its purpose, audience, and method in two prefaces, highlighting careful text selection, analytic translation, and extensive notes, along with a synopsis of the then-new German spelling reforms. It then gives explicit directions for use (viva voce preparation with notes, written translation, correction, and a second fluent oral rendering without notes), a lesson plan, and a list of abbreviations. The instructional content begins with brief rules on notation and core grammar points, followed by early sections that pair short English extracts with detailed guidance on issues like the passive with werden, the “zu”-infinitive (supine), rendering the gerund, pronoun and article use, relative clauses, and idiomatic choices—immediately modeling how to think through and produce correct German.