Karl August Georg Maximilian
Graf von Platen-Hallermünde (24 October 17965 December 1835) was a German
poet and
dramatist. In German he mostly is called ''
Graf'' (
Count
Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York ...
) Platen.
Biography
August von Platen was born on 24 October 1796 at
Ansbach
Ansbach (; ; East Franconian: ''Anschba'') is a city in the German state of Bavaria. It is the capital of the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Ansbach is southwest of Nuremberg and north of Munich, on the river Fränkische Rezat, ...
, the son of the ''Oberforstmeister'' (a senior public servant) of that state, Count
Philipp August von Platen-Hallermünde, by second wife Baroness Christiane Eichler von Auriz. Shortly after his birth Ansbach and other
Franconia
Franconia (german: Franken, ; Franconian dialect: ''Franggn'' ; bar, Frankn) is a region of Germany, characterised by its culture and Franconian dialect (German: ''Fränkisch'').
The three administrative regions of Lower, Middle and Upper ...
n principalities became incorporated with
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
. Platen entered the school of cadets (''Kadettenhaus'') in
Munich, Bavaria, where he showed early poetic talent. In 1810 as an adolescent he passed into the royal school of pages (''Königliche Pagerie'').
In 1814, Platen was appointed lieutenant in the regiment of Bavarian life-guards. With them he took part in the short campaign in France of 1815, being in bivouac for several months near
Mannheim and in the department of the
Yonne
Yonne () is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in France. It is named after the river Yonne, which flows through it, in the country's north-central part. One of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté's eight constituent departments, it is ...
. He saw no fighting, however, and returned home with his regiment towards the close of the same year. Desiring to study, and finding garrison life distasteful, he obtained a long leave of absence, and after a tour in
Switzerland and the
Bavarian Alps
The Bavarian Alps (german: Bayerische Alpen) is a collective name for several mountain ranges of the Northern Limestone Alps within the German state of Bavaria.
Geography
The term in its wider sense refers to that part of the Eastern Alps tha ...
, entered the
University of Würzburg in 1818 as a student of
philosophy and
philology.
In the following year Platen migrated to the
university of Erlangen, where he sat at the feet of
Schelling, and became one of his most enthusiastic admirers.
As a result of his Oriental studies Platen published a little volume of poems—''Ghaselen'' (1821), each consisting of ten to twenty verses, in which he imitates the style of
Rückert; ''Lyrische Blätter'' (1821); ''Spiegel des Hafis'' (1822); ''Vermischte Schriften'' (1822); and ''Neue Ghaselen'' (1823). These attracted the attention of eminent men of letters among them
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tre ...
, both by reason of their contents, which breathe the spirit of the East, and also of the purity and elegance of their form and diction.
Though Platen was at first influenced by the school of
Romanticism, and particularly by Spanish models, the plays written during his university life at Erlangen, ''Der gläserne Pantoffel'', ''Der Schatz des Rhampsinit'', ''Berengar'', ''Treue um Treue'', ''Der Turm mit sieben Pforten'', show a clearness of plot and expression foreign to the Romantic style. His antagonism to the literature of his day became more and more pronounced, and he vented his indignation at the lack of art shown by the later Romanticists, the inanity of the lyricists, and the bad taste of the so-called fate tragedies (''Schicksalstragödien''), in the witty
Aristophanic comedies ''Die verhängnißvolle Gabel'' (1826) and ''Der romantische Oedipus'' (1828).
The want of interest, amounting even to hostility, with which Platen's enthusiasm for the purity and dignity of poetry was received in many literary circles in Germany increased the poet's indignation and disgust. In 1826, he visited
Italy, which he henceforth made his home, living at
Florence,
Rome and
Naples. His means were slender, but, though frequently necessitous, he felt happy in the life he had chosen, that of a "wandering rhapsodist".
Offended by
Heinrich Heine's mockery of "''die Orientsucht''"the obsession with the Orient in poetryin his work ''Reisebilder, zweiter Teil'' (1827), Platen expressed anti-Semitic sentiment directed at Heine in his work ''Der romantische Oedipus'' (1828). Heine reacted in turn by publicizing Platen's homosexuality in ''Reisebilder dritter Teil'' (1830). This back and forth of mockery and ad hominem attacks are also referred to as "''die von Platen Affaire''".
In Naples, where Platen formed the friendship of
August Kopisch
August Kopisch (26 May 1799 – 6 February 1853) was a German poet and painter.
Biography
Kopisch was born on 26 May 1799 in Breslau, Prussia (now Wrocław, Poland). In 1815 he began studying painting at the Prague academy, but an injury t ...
, the poet and painter, were written his last drama ''Die Liga von Cambrai'' (1833) and the delightful epic fairy-tale ''Die Abbassiden'' (1830; 1834), besides numerous lyrical poems, odes and ballads. He also essayed historical work in a fragment, ''Geschichte des Königreichs Neapel von 1414 bis 1443'' (1838), without, however, achieving any marked success.
In 1832, his father died, and after an absence of eight years Platen returned to Germany for a while, and in the winter of 1832–1833 lived at Munich, where he revised the first complete edition of his poems, ''Gedichte'' (1833).
In the summer of 1834, Platen returned to Italy, and, after living in Florence and Naples, proceeded in 1835 to
Sicily. Dread of the
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
, which was at that time very prevalent, induced him to move from place to place, and in November of that year he was taken ill at
Syracuse
Syracuse may refer to:
Places Italy
*Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa''
*Province of Syracuse
United States
*Syracuse, New York
**East Syracuse, New York
**North Syracuse, New York
* Syracuse, Indiana
* Syracuse, Kansas
* Syracuse, Mi ...
, where he died on 5 December 1835. He is buried in the
non-Catholic cemetery of Syracuse.
According to the
''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition, "Like Heine himself, Platen failed in the drama, but his odes and sonnets, to which must be added his ''Polenlieder'' (1831), in which he gives vent to his warm sympathy for the
Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Cen ...
in their rising against the rule of the Tsar, are in language and metre so artistically finished as to rank among the best classical poems of modern times".
He gives his name to the Bavarian literary prize
August-Graf-von-Platen-Preis
August-Graf-von-Platen-Preis is a Bavarian literary prize. It is named after August Graf von Platen
August is the eighth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, and the fifth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. I ...
.
Notes
Bibliography
* A. von Platen, ''Gesammelte Werke'' (i.e. Collected works) (1839).
* A convenient edition is that edited by
Karl Goedeke
Karl Friedrich Ludwig Goedeke (15 April 1814 – 28 October 1887) was a German historian of literature, an author, and a professor.
He was born at Celle and was educated at Göttingen (1833-1838), where he attended lectures by Jacob Grimm, with w ...
in
Cotta's ''Bibliothek der Weltliteratur'' (4 vols., 1882).
* A. von Platen, ''Platens Werke'', ed. G.A. Wolff, D. Schweizer (1895)
* A. von Platen, ''Tagebuch'' (1796–1825), published in its entirety by
Georg von Laubmann and L. von Scheffler (2 vols., 1896–1900).
* A. von Platen, ''Gedichte'', ed. H. Henel (1968)
* A. von Platen, ''Tagebücher'', ed. R. Gorner (1990)
*
Translations
* A. von Platen, ''The Sonnets'', tr. R. Bancroft (1923)
* A. von Platen, ''Selected Poems'', tr. E. Morgen (1978)
* A. von Platen, ''Farbenstäubchen auf der Schwinge'', tr
Translations of Dead German Poets(2013)
Further reading
* J. Minckwitz, ''Graf Platen als Mensch und Dichter'' (1838)
* P. Besson, ''Platen, étude biographique el littéraire'' (1894)
* L. Frey, 'Aus dem Seelenleben des Grafen Platen', in ''Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen''; 1 (1899), p. 159–214, and 6 (1904), p. 357–447
* O. Greulich, ''Platens Literaturkomödien'' (1901)
* A. Fries, ''Platen-Forschungen'' (1903)
* R. Unger, ''Platen in seinem Verhältnis zu Goethe'' (1903)
* X. Mayne
.e. E. I. Prime Stevenson 'The Life and Diary of a Uranian Poet August von Platen 1796–1835', in ''The Intersexes'' (1908; repr. 1975), p. 563–620
*
Thomas Mann
Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novella ...
, 'Platen', in ''Essays of Three Decades'', tr. H. T. Lowe-Porter (n.d.)
ssay written 1930* P. Di Silvestro, ''August von Platen Morire a Siracusa'' (1987. Sellerio, Palermo)
* R. Aldrich, ''The Seduction Of The Mediterranean Writing, art and homosexual fantasy'' (1993) pp. 57–68.
External links
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Platen-Hallermunde, August Graf von
1796 births
1835 deaths
People from Ansbach
People from the Kingdom of Bavaria
German gay writers
German poets
Counts of Germany
German military personnel of the Napoleonic Wars
German LGBT poets
Military personnel of Bavaria
Capri, Campania
LGBT dramatists and playwrights
People from the Principality of Ansbach
German male poets
German male dramatists and playwrights
19th-century poets
19th-century German dramatists and playwrights
19th-century German male writers
LGBT history in Italy