Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel (28 June 1736 – 1 May 1809) was a French-German writer and translator from the

Pfeffel family The House of Pfeffel (ennobled as von Pfeffel) is a Bavarian-German noble family originally from Neuburg an der Donau in Bavaria. Some family members were ennobled in Bavaria in the 19th century. The family's history was explored in the BBC serie ...

. His texts were put to music by Ludwig van Beethoven,

Joseph Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions ...

and Franz Schubert. He is sometimes also known as Amédée or Théophile Conrad Pfeffel, which is the French translation of Gottlieb ("Godlove").

Biography

Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel was born in

Colmar Colmar (, ; Alsatian: ' ; German during 1871–1918 and 1940–1945: ') is a city and commune in the Haut-Rhin department and Grand Est region of north-eastern France. The third-largest commune in Alsace (after Strasbourg and Mulhouse), it is ...

. His father, Johann Konrad Pfeffel, was the mayor of Colmar and a legal consultant of the French king, but died when Gottlieb was only two years old. He was raised by his brother Christian Friedrich Pfeffel, who was ten years older. He went in 1751 to the University of Halle to study law, with the intention of becoming a diplomat. There, he was a student of the philosopher Christian Wolff. In 1752, he translated Johann Joachim Spalding's ''Gedanken über den Werth der Gefühle in dem Christenthum'' in French. In 1754, he went to Dresden for treatment of an eye problem; there, he met the poet Christian Fürchtegott Gellert. His eye condition deteriorated, and in 1758, after an operation, he became completely blind and had to abandon his studies. In February 1759, he married Margaretha Cleophe Divoux, a merchant's daughter from

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

. They had thirteen children together, of whom 7 died before adulthood. He started to establish himself as a writer and translator. In 1762, he translated

Magnus Gottfried Lichtwer Magnus Gottfried Lichtwer (30 January 1719, in Wurzen – 7 July 1783, in Halberstadt) was a German fabulist. Biography His father of the same name was a jurist. The younger Lichtwer studied law at Leipzig and Wittenberg. His chief work is to ...

's ''Fabeln'' in French. He also worked on a translation into German of

Claude Fleury Claude Fleury (6 December 1640, Paris – 14 July 1723, Paris), was a French priest, jurist, and ecclesiastical historian. Destined for the bar, he was educated at the elite, Jesuit College de Clermont (now that of Louis-le-Grand) in Paris. In 16 ...

's ''Histoire ecclésiastique''. He opened a military academy for aristocratic Protestants in 1773, since these boys were not allowed at the military academy of Paris. He joined the Helvetic Society in 1776, and in 1782 became a citizen of the city of Biel (Bienne) in Switzerland, and became an honorary member of the city council in 1783. The Prussian Academy of Arts made him an honorary member in 1788. After the French Revolution, he lost the military academy and his fortune, and found jobs with the educational board of Colmar, with the publisher Tübingen- Cotta, and as a translator, until

Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

granted him an annual pension in 1806. He wrote many articles for the magazine ''Flora''. In 1808 he became an honorary member of the

Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (german: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften) is an independent public institution, located in Munich. It appoints scholars whose research has contributed considerably to the increase of knowledg ...

. He died the next year. His poem ''Der freie Mann'' was put to music by Ludwig van Beethoven (catalogue number WoO 117) in 1794 or 1795. Franz Schubert made a

lied In Western classical music tradition, (, plural ; , plural , ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music to create a piece of polyphonic music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German, but among English and French s ...

of his text ''Der Vatermörder'' ( D10), and Leopold Kozeluch put music to his

cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. The meaning of ...

for the blind Austrian singer Maria Theresia von Paradis. In 1773, his ''Philemon und Baucis: Ein Schauspiel in Versen von einem Aufzuge'', a play in verse in one act, was turned into a

Singspiel A Singspiel (; plural: ; ) is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera. It is characterized by spoken dialogue, which is alternated with ensembles, songs, ballads, and arias which were often strophic, or folk-like ...

for a marionette theater by

with the new title '' Philemon und Baucis oder Jupiters Reise auf die Erde'' (''Philemon and Baucis or Jupiter's Travels to the Earth''). It was changed into a regular opera in 1776. Pfeffel was a friend or acquaintance of many well-known persons of his period, including Voltaire, Vittorio Alfieri and the Swiss poet Johann Kaspar Lavater, which whom he corresponded for many years. In 1839, his niece Ernestine von Pfeffel (1810–94) married

Fyodor Tyutchev Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev ( rus, Фёдор Ива́нович Тю́тчев, r=Fyódor Ivánovič Tyútčev, links=1, p=ˈfʲɵdər ɪˈvanəvʲɪt͡ɕ ˈtʲʉt͡ɕːɪf; Pre-Reform orthography: ; – ) was a Russian poet and diplomat. ...

, one of the most famous Russian poets. A statue of Pfeffel by

André Friedrich André Friedrich or Andreas Friederich (17 January 1798, in Ribeauvillé – 9 March 1877, in Strasbourg) was an Alsatian artist, sculptor and lithographer active in Germany and France. Life He studied at the Kunstakademie in Dresden and in ...

was placed in the Unterlinden Museum in 1859, and a copy of that statue was placed on the Grand Rue in Colmar in 1927.

Bibliography

*''Der Einsiedler'', 1761 *''Philemon und Baucis: Ein Schauspiel in Versen von einem Aufzuge'': 6 editions published between 1763 and 1773 in 4 languages: reprinted as ''Philemon und Baucis, oder, Jupiters Reise auf die Erde : deutsche Marionetten-Oper'': music by

, 1773 *''Dramatische Kinderspiele'': 5 volumes published between 1763 and 1774: translated in French *''Magazin für den Verstand und das Herz'', 1764, translated in Russian and French *''Neue Beyträge zur Deutschen Maculatur'': 2 editions published in 1766 *''Freymund, oder der übel angebrachte Stolz: ein Lustspiel in fünf Aufzügen'', 1770 *''Der Einsiedler: ein Trauerspiel in Versen von einem Aufzuge'', 1771 *''Serena: ein bürgerliches Trauerspiel'', 1776, with

Paul Landois Paul Landois was an 18th-century French playwright. We have no information on the life of this obscure writer regarded as the inventor of an intermediary theatrical genre which he called bourgeois tragedy and which was adopted by La Chaussée, Did ...

*''Lieder für die Colmarische Kriegsschule'', 1778 *''Fabeln, der Helvetischen Gesellschaft gewidmet'': 8 editions published between 1783 and 1815 *''Histoire du regne de Marie-Thérèse'', 1786 *''Poetische Versuche von Gottlieb Conrad Pfeffel'': 71 editions published between 1789 and 1968 in 4 language: also published in 3 parts, with a further 11 editions, and with three additional parts in 1802, eventually growing to ten bands by 1810 *''Prosaische Versuche'': 27 editions published between 1794 and 1813, expanded to 10 bands by 1810 *''Contes et nouvelles'', 1822 (French translation of a selection of his work) *''Briefe über Religion an Bettina'': 7 editions published in 1824 in 3 language *''Ausgewählte Unterhaltungen'', Volumes 5–6, 1828 *''Bloemlezing uit de fabelen en vertellingen'', Dutch translation from 1832 *''Fabeln und poetische Erzählungen'': 9 editions published between 1840 and 1861: translated as ''Fables et poésies choisies'' in 1840 *''Historisches Magazin für Verstand und Herz'', 1840 *''Poetische Werke: Mit Biographie und Portrait: Volumes 1-3'', 1841 *''G C Pfeffel's Epistel an die Nachwelt'', 1859 *''Pfeffel-Album: Gaben elsässischer Dichter'', 1859 *''Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffels Fremdenbuch mit biographischen und culturgeschichtlichen Erläuterungen'', 1892 *''Skorpion und Hirtenknabe; Fabeln, Epigramme, poetische Erzählungen, Biographie eines Pudels und andere Prosa'', 1970 *''Biographie eines Pudels und andere Satiren'': 2 editions published in 1987

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pfeffel, Gottlib Konrad 1736 births 1809 deaths French writers in German French opera librettists Blind people from Germany Blind writers People from Colmar Alsatian-German people French male dramatists and playwrights

Biography

Bibliography

Notes

Further reading

External links