Joseph Viktor von Scheffel
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and novelist.
Biography
He was born at KarlsruheKarlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
. His father, a retired major in the Baden
Baden
Baden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine in the southwest of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg of Germany....
army, was a civil engineer and member of the commission for regulating the course of the Rhine; his mother, née Josephine Krederer, the daughter of a prosperous tradesman at Oberndorf am Neckar
Oberndorf am Neckar
Oberndorf am Neckar is a town in the district of Rottweil, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the river Neckar, 15 km north of Rottweil.-Geography:...
, was a woman of great intellectual powers and of a romantic disposition. Young Scheffel was educated at the lyceum at Karlsruhe and afterwards (1843-1847) at the universities of Munich, Heidelberg and Berlin
Humboldt University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...
.
After passing the state examination for admission to the judicial service, he graduated Doctor juris and for four years (1848-1852) held an official position at the town of Säckingen. Here he wrote his poem Der Trompeter von Säckingen (The trumpeter of Saeckingen) (1853), a romantic and humorous tale which immediately gained extraordinary popularity. It has reached more than 250 editions and was made into an opera
Der Trompeter von Säkkingen
Der Trompeter von Säkkingen is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Viktor Nessler. The German libretto was by Rudolf Bunge, based on the epic poem, Der Trompeter von Säckingen , by Joseph Viktor von Scheffel....
by Viktor Nessler
Viktor Nessler
Viktor Ernst Nessler was an Alsatian composer who worked mainly in Leipzig.Nessler was born at Baldenheim near Sélestat, Alsace. At Strasbourg he began his university career with the study of theology, but he concluded it with the production of a light opera entitled Fleurette...
in 1884. Scheffel next undertook a journey to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
Returning home in 1853 he found his parents more than ever anxious that he should continue his legal career. But in 1854, defective eyesight incapacitated him; he quit the government service and took up his residence at Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
, with the intention of preparing himself for a post on the teaching staff of the university. His studies were, however, interrupted by eye disease, and in search of health he proceeded to Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
and took up his abode on the Lake of Constance, and elaborated the plan of his famous historical romance Ekkehard (1857); (Eng. trans. by Sofie Delffs, Leipzig, 1872).
The first ideas for this work he got from the Monumenta Germaniae Historica
Monumenta Germaniae Historica
The Monumenta Germaniae Historica is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published sources for the study of German history from the end of the Roman Empire to 1500.The society sponsoring the series was established by the Prussian reformer Heinrich Friedrich Karl Freiherr vom...
. It was hardly less popular than the Trompeter von Säckingen. In 1901 it reached the 179th edition. Scheffel next returned to Heidelberg, and published Gaudeamus, Lieder aus dem Engeren und Weiteren (1868), a collection of joyous and humorous songs, the subject- matter of which is taken partly from German legends and partly from historical subjects. In these songs the author shows himself the light-hearted student, a friend of wine and song; and their success is unexampled in German literature and encouraged numerous imitators.
For two years (1857-1859) Scheffel was custodian of the library of Prince Egon von Fürstenberg
Fürstenberg
Fürstenberg and can refer to the following.- Historical states :* Fürstenberg , county * Fürstenberg-Baar, county * Fürstenberg-Blumberg, county...
at Donaueschingen
Donaueschingen
Donaueschingen is a German town in the Black Forest in the southwest of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg in the Schwarzwald-Baar Kreis. It stands near the confluence of the two sources of the river Danube ....
, but giving up his appointment in 1850, visited Joseph von Laßberg, at Meersburg on the Lake of Constance, stayed for a while with the grand duke Charles Alexander of Saxe-Weimar at the Wartburg in Thuringia
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
, then, settling at Karlsruhe, he married in 1864 Caroline von Malzen, and, in 1872, retired to his Villa Seehalde near Radolfzell on the lower Lake of Constance. On the occasion of his jubilee (1876), which was celebrated all over Germany, he was granted a patent of hereditary nobility by the grand duke of Baden. He died at Karlsruhe on the 9th of April 1886.
Works
His works, other than those already mentioned, are:- Frau Aventiure. Lieder aus Heinrich von Ofterdingens Zeit (1863)
- Juniperus, Geschichte eines Kreuzfahrers (1866)
- Bergpsalmen (1870)
- Waldeinsamkeit (1880)
- Der Heini von Steier (1883)
- Hugideo, eine alte Geschichte (1884)
Volumes of Reisebilder (1887); Epistein (1892); and Briefe (1898) were published posthumously. Scheffel's Gesammelte Werke have been published in six volumes (1907).
Editions in English
- Ekkehard. A tale of the tenth century. Translated from the German by Sofie Delffs. In: German Authors. Collection of German Authors. (Tauchnitz edition.) vol. 21, 22. 1867.
Further reading
- Anton Breitner (Ed.): Scheffel-Gedenkbuch. Aus Anlaß der Gründung des Scheffel-Bundes in Österreich. Wien, Pest & Leipzig: A. Hartleben's Verlag 1890.
- Manfred Fuhrmann: Scheffels Erzählwerk: Bildungsbeflissenheit, Deutschtümelei, 1981. In: derselbe: Europas fremd gewordene Fundamente. Aktuelles zu Themen aus der Antike. Zürich: Artemis u. Winkler 1995. ISBN 3-7608-1122-1
- Reiner Haehling von Lanzenauer: Dichterjurist Scheffel. Karlsruhe: Verl. d. Ges. für Kulturhistor. Dokumentation e. V. 1988. (= Schriftenreihe des Rechtshistorischen Museums Karlsruhe; 6) ISBN 3-922596-20-7
- Günther Mahal: Joseph Viktor von Scheffel. Versuch einer Revision. Karlsruhe: Müller 1986. ISBN 3-7880-9731-0
- Joseph Victor von Scheffel (1826-1886). Ein deutscher Poet - gefeiert und geschmäht, hrsg. v. Walter Berschin. Ostfildern: Thorbecke 2003. ISBN 3-7995-0128-2
- Joseph Victor von Scheffel. Bibliographie 1945 bis 2001, zsgst. v. Stefan Schank. Karlsruhe: Scheffelbund 2001.
- Rolf Selbmann: Dichterberuf im bürgerlichen Zeitalter. Joseph Viktor von Scheffel und seine Literatur. Heidelberg: Winter 1982. (= Beiträge zur neueren Literaturgeschichte; F. 3, 58) ISBN 3-533-03200-0
- Ludwig Wolf: Der Anteil der Natur am Menschenleben bei Freytag und Scheffel. Amsterdam: Swets u. Zeitlinger 1968. (= Gießener Beiträge zur Deutschen Philologie; 9)
- Werner Wunderlich: "Medieval Images: Joseph Viktor von Scheffel's Novel Ekkehard and St. Gall." In: Medievalism in the Modern World. Essays in Honour of Leslie J. WorkmanLeslie J. WorkmanLeslie J. Workman was an independent scholar and founder of academic medievalism.- Biography :...
, ed. Richard Utz and Tom Shippey (Turnhout: Brepols, 1998), pp. 193-225.