Josef von Eichendorff
| Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | Joseph Karl Benedikt Freiherr (Baron) von Eichendorff 10 March 1788 Ratibor, Upper Silesia, Prussia |
| Died | 26 November 1857 (aged 69) Neisse, Upper Silesia, Prussia |
| Occupation | Novelist, poet, essayist |
| Nationality | Prussian |
| Period | 19th century |
| Genre | Novellas, fairy tales, poetry |
| Literary movement | Romanticism |
| Notable works | Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing, The Marble Statue |
Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff (10 March 1788 – 26 November 1857) was a Prussian poet, novelist, playwright, literary critic, translator, and anthologist. Eichendorff was one of the major writers and critics of Romanticism. Ever since their publication and up to the present day, some of his works have been very popular in Germany.
Eichendorff first became famous for his 1826 novella Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing (German: Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts) and his poems. The Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing is a typical Romantic novella whose main themes are wanderlust and love. The protagonist, the son of a miller, rejects his father's trade and becomes a gardener at a Viennese palace where he subsequently falls in love with the local duke's daughter. As, with his lowly status, she is unattainable for him, he escapes to Italy - only to return and learn that she is the duke's adopted daughter, and thus within his social reach. With its combination of dream world and realism, Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing is considered to be a high point of Romantic fiction. One critic stated that Eichendorff’s Good-for-Nothing is the "personification of love of nature and an obsession with hiking." Thomas Mann called Eichendorff's Good-for-Nothing a combination of "the purity of the folk song and the fairy tale."
Many of Eichendorff's poems were first published as integral parts of his novellas and stories, where they are often performed in song by one of the protagonists. The novella Good-for-Nothing alone contains 54 poems.
Eichendorff, a descendant of an old noble family, was born in 1788 at Schloß Lubowitz near Ratibor (now Racibórz, Poland) in Upper Silesia, at that time part of the Kingdom of Prussia. His parents were the Prussian officer Adolf Freiherr von Eichendorff (1756-1818) and his wife, Karoline née Freiin von Kloche (1766-1822), who came from an aristocratic Roman Catholic family. Eichendorff sold the family estates Deutsch-Krawarn, Kauthen, and Wrbkau and acquired Lubowitz Castle from his mother-in-law. The castle's Rococo reconstruction, which was begun by her, was very expensive and almost bankrupted the family. Young Joseph was close to his older brother Wilhelm (1786-1849). From 1793-1801 they were home-schooled by tutor Bernhard Heinke. Joseph began writing diaries as early as 1798, witnesses to his budding literary career. The diaries present many insights into the development of the young writer, ranging from simple statements about the weather to notes about finances to early poems. At a young age, Eichendorff was already well aware of his parents financial straits. On 19 June 1801, the thirteen-year old noted in his diary: "Father travelled to Breslau, on the run from his creditors," adding on 24 June, "mom become terribly faint." With his brother Wilhelm, Joseph attended the Catholic Matthias Gymnasium in Breslau (1801-1804). While previously preferring chapbooks, he was now introduced to the poetry of Matthias Claudius and Voltaire’s La Henriade, an epic poem about the last part of the wars of religion and Henry IV of France in ten songs. In 1804 his sister Luise Antonie Nepomucene Johanna was born (died 1883), who was to become a friend of Austrian writer Adalbert Stifter. After their final exams, both brothers attended lectures at the University of Breslau and the Protestant Maria-Magdalena-Gymnasium. Eichendorff's diary from this time shows that he valued formal education much less than the theatre, recording 126 plays and concerts visited. His love for Mozart also goes back to these days. Joseph himself seems to have been a talented actor and his brother Wilhelm a good singer and guitar player.
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