Gottfried August Bürger

Gottfried August Bürger (December 31, 1747 – June 8, 1794) was a German poet. His ballads were very popular in Germany. His most noted ballad, Lenore, found an audience beyond readers of the German language in an English and Russian adaptation and a French translation.

He was born in Molmerswende (now a part of Mansfeld), Principality of Halberstadt, where his father was the Lutheran pastor. He showed an early predilection for solitary and gloomy places and the making of verses, for which he had no other model than hymnals. At the age of twelve, Bürger was practically adopted by his maternal grandfather, Bauer, at Aschersleben, who sent him to the Pädagogium at Halle. He learned Latin with difficulty. In 1764 he passed to the University of Halle, as a student of theology, which, however, he soon abandoned for the study of jurisprudence. There he fell under the influence of Christian Adolph Klotz (1738–1771), who directed Bürger's attention to literature and encouraged his natural disposition to a wild and unregulated life. In consequence of his dissipated habits, he was in 1767 recalled by his grandfather, but on promising to reform was in 1768 allowed to enter the University of Göttingen as a law student.

As he continued his wild career, however, his grandfather withdrew his support and he was left to his own devices. Meanwhile, he had made fair progress with his legal studies, and had the good fortune to form a close friendship with a number of young men of literary tastes. He studied the ancient classics and the best works in French, Italian, Spanish and English, particularly Shakespeare, and the old English and Scottish ballads. Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry was his constant companion. In the Göttingen Musenalmanach, edited by Heinrich Christian Boie and Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter, Bürger's first poems were published, and by 1771 he had already become widely known as a poet. In 1772, through Boie's influence, Bürger obtained the post of Amtmann or district magistrate at Altengleichen near Göttingen. His grandfather was now reconciled to him, paid his debts and established him in his new sphere of activity.

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