Emanuel von Geibel (17 October 18156 April 1884) was a German poet and playwright.
Life
Geibel was born at
Lübeck
Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...
, the son of a pastor. He was originally intended for his father's profession and studied at
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
and Berlin, but his real interests lay not in theology but in classical and romance
philology
Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...
. In 1838 he accepted a tutorship at
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
, where he remained until 1840. In the same year he published, in conjunction with his friend
Ernst Curtius
Ernst Curtius (; 2 September 181411 July 1896) was a German archaeologist, historian and museum director.
Biography
He was born in Lübeck. On completing his university studies he was chosen by C. A. Brandis to accompany him on a journey to ...
, a volume of translations from Greek. His first poems were published in a volume entitled ''Zeitstimmen'' in 1841. In 1842 he entered the service of
Frederick William IV
Frederick William IV (german: Friedrich Wilhelm IV.; 15 October 17952 January 1861), the eldest son and successor of Frederick William III of Prussia, reigned as King of Prussia from 7 June 1840 to his death on 2 January 1861. Also referred to ...
, the king of
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
, with an annual stipend of 300
thaler
A thaler (; also taler, from german: Taler) is one of the large silver coins minted in the states and territories of the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburg monarchy during the Early Modern period. A ''thaler'' size silver coin has a diameter of ...
s; under whom he produced ''König Roderich'' (1843), a tragedy, ''König Sigurds Brautfahrt'' (1846), an epic, and ''Juniuslieder'' (1848), lyrics in a more spirited and manlier style than his early poems.
In 1851, Geibel was invited to
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
by
Maximilian II of Bavaria
Maximilian II (28 November 1811 – 10 March 1864) reigned as King of Bavaria between 1848 and 1864.
Unlike his father, King Ludwig I, "King Max" was very popular and took a greater interest in the business of Government than in personal extra ...
as an honorary professor at the university, and he relinquished his Prussian stipend. While in Munich he was at the center of the literary circle called ''
Die Krokodile ''Die Krokodile'' ('The Crocodiles') was a small poets' society in Munich which existed from 1856 to the 1870s.
Background and beginnings
King Ludwig I had constructed the Glyptothek and the Pinakothek to house art collections. Part of his inten ...
'' (''Crocodile Society''), which was concerned with traditional forms. In 1852 he married Amanda Trummer and the next year they had a daughter, Ada Marie Caroline. A volume of ''Neue Gedichte'', published at Munich in 1857, and principally consisting of poems on classical subjects, denoted a further considerable advance in his objectivity. The series was worthily closed by the ''Spätherbstblätter'', published in 1877. He had left Munich in 1869 and returned to Lübeck, where he remained until his death.
His works further include two tragedies, ''Brunhild'' (1858, 5th ed. 1890), and ''Sophonisbe'' (1869), and translations of French and Spanish popular poetry (''
Spanisches Liederbuch
''Spanisches Liederbuch'' (English: Spanish songbook) is a collection of translations of Spanish poems and folk songs into German by Emanuel Geibel (181584) and Paul Heyse
Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse (; 15 March 1830 – 2 April 1914) was a d ...
'' (1852), with
Paul Heyse
Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse (; 15 March 1830 – 2 April 1914) was a distinguished German writer and translator. A member of two important literary societies, the '' Tunnel über der Spree'' in Berlin and ''Die Krokodile'' in Munich, he wrote n ...
). Beginning as a member of the group of political poets who heralded the
revolution of 1848
The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europea ...
, Geibel was also the chief poet to welcome the
establishment of the Empire in 1871. His strength lay not, however, in his political songs but in his purely lyric poetry, such as the fine cycle ''Ada'' and his popular love-songs. He may be regarded as the leading representative of German lyric poetry between 1848 and 1870.
His poem ''Schön Ellen'' was set to music by
Max Bruch
Max Bruch (6 January 1838 – 2 October 1920) was a German Romantic composer, violinist, teacher, and conductor who wrote more than 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a prominent staple of the standard v ...
.
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...
set one of Geibel's paraphrases after Spanish poetry in the second of his
Two Songs for Voice, Viola and Piano
Two Songs for Voice, Viola and Piano, Op. 91, were composed by Johannes Brahms for his friends Joseph Joachim and his wife Amalie. The full title is ''Zwei Gesänge für eine Altstimme mit Bratsche und Klavier'' (Two songs for an alto voic ...
. Composers
Julie Waldburg-Wurzach Princess Julie Furstin von Waldburg-Wurzach (27 April 1841 – 7 December 1914) was an Austrian composer who published over 60 works for voice and/or piano. She was born in Vienna to Count Frans and Frantiska Dubsky von Trebomyslicz. In 1858, she ma ...
and
Maria Anna Stubenberg
Maria Anna Stubenberg (August 9, 1821December 1, 1912) was a German composer who used Hungarian and gypsy folk tunes in her compositions.
Biography
Maria Anna Herrin und Gräfin von Buttlar-Stubenberg was born in Graz, Austria, to Gustav Adolf J ...
also set Geibel's poems to music. Several of his poems were set to music by
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...
.
Bibliography
*''Gesammelte Werke'' published in 8 vols (1883, 4th ed. 1906)
*The ''Gedichte'' have gone through about 130 editions.
*A selection of his poems in one volume appeared in 1904.
For biography and criticism, see
*
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 ...
, ''E Geibel'' (1869)
*
Wilhelm Scherer
Wilhelm Scherer (26 April 18416 August 1886) was a German philologist and historian of literature. He was known as a positivist because he based much of his work on "hypotheses on detailed historical research, and rooted every literary phenomeno ...
's address on Geibel (1884)
*
Karl Theodor Gaedertz
Karl Theodor Gaedertz (8 January 1855 in Lübeck – 8 July 1912 in Berlin) was a German librarian and literary historian, best known for his writings on the Low German author Fritz Reuter.
From 1876 to 1879 he studied at the universities o ...
, ''Geibel-Denkwurdigkeiten'' (1886)
*
Carl Conrad Theodor Litzmann
Carl Conrad Theodor Litzmann (7 October 1815 – 24 February 1890) was a German obstetrician and gynecologist born in Gadebusch, Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
He studied medicine in Halle, Würzburg and Berlin. In 1845 became an asso ...
, ''E Geibel, aus Erinnerungen, Briefen und Tagebüchern'' (1887)
*Biographies by
Karl Ludwig Leimbach
Karl Ludwig Leimbach (18 May 1844, in Treysa – 30 December 1905, in Hanover) was a German educator and literary historian.
He studied theology and philology at the University of Marburg and later worked as a schoolteacher in Schmalkalden, Hanov ...
(2nd ed., 1894), and K. T. Gaedertz (1897).
References
Attribution:
*
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Geibel, Emanuel
1815 births
1884 deaths
German poets
Writers from Lübeck
University of Bonn alumni
People of the Revolutions of 1848
German male poets
19th-century poets
German Calvinist and Reformed Christians
19th-century German writers
19th-century German male writers