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HOFFMANN, AUGUST HEINRICH (1798–1874)

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 561 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HOFFMANN, See also:AUGUST HEINRICH (1798–1874) , known as HOFFMANN VON FALLERSLEBEN, See also:German poet, philologist and historian of literature, was See also:born at Fallersleben in the duchy of See also:Luneburg, See also:Hanover, on the 2nd of See also:April 1798, the son of the See also:mayor of the See also:town. He was educated at the classical See also:schools of See also:Helmstedt and See also:Brunswick, and afterwards at the See also:universities of See also:Gottingen and See also:Bonn. His See also:original intention was to study See also:theology, but he soon devoted himself entirely to literature. In 1823 he was appointed custodian of the university library at See also:Breslau, a See also:post which he held till 1838. He was also made extraordinary See also:professor of the German See also:language and literature at that university in 2830, and See also:ordinary professor in 1835;but he was deprived of his See also:chair in 1842 in consequence of his Unpolitische Lieder (1840–1841), which gave much offence to the authorities in See also:Prussia. He then travelled in See also:Germany, See also:Switzerland and See also:Italy, and lived for two or three years in See also:Mecklenburg, of which he became a naturalized See also:citizen. After the revolution of 1848 he was enabled to return to Prussia, where he was restored to his rights, and received the Wartegeld—the See also:salary attached to a promised See also:office not yet vacant. He married in 1849, and during the next ten years lived first in Bingerbriick, afterwards in Neuwied, and then in See also:Weimar, where together with Oskar Schade (1826–1906) he edited the Weimarische Jahrbuch (1854–1857). In 186o he was appointed librarian to the See also:Duke of See also:Ratibor at the monasterial See also:castle of See also:Corvey near See also:Hoxter on the See also:Weser, where he died on the 19th of See also:January 1874. Fallersleben was one of the best popular poets of See also:modern Germany. In politics he ardently sympathized with the progressive tendencies of his See also:time, and he was among the earliest and most effective of the See also:political poets who prepared the way for the outbreak of 1848. As a poet, however, he acquired distinction chiefly by the ease, simplicity and See also:grace with which he gave expression to the passions and aspirations of daily See also:life.

Although he had not been scientifically trained in See also:

music, he composed melodies for many of his songs, and a considerable number of them are sung by all classes in every See also:part of Germany. Among the best known is the patriotic Deutschland, Deutschland uber Alles, composed in 1841 on the See also:island of See also:Heligoland, where a See also:monument was erected in 1891 to his memory (subsequently destroyed). The best of his poetical writings is his Gedichte (1827; 9th ed., See also:Berlin, 1887); but there is See also:great merit also in his Alemannische Lieder (1826; 5th ed., 1843), Soldatenlieder (1851), Soldatenleben (1852), Rheinleben (1865), and in his Fiinfzig Kinderlieder, Fiinfzig neue Kinderlieder, and Alte and neue Kinderlieder. His Unpolitische Lieder, Deutsche Lieder aus der Schweiz and Streiflichter are' not without poetical value, but they are mainly interesting in relation to the movements of the See also:age in which they were written. As a student of See also:ancient See also:Teutonic literature Hoffmann von Fallersleben ranks among the most persevering and cultivated of German scholars, some of the See also:chief results of his labours being embodied in his Horae Belgicae, Fundgruben See also:fur Geschichte deutscher Sprache and Literatur, Altdeutsche Blatter, Spenden zur deutschen Literaturgeschichte and Findlinge. Among his See also:editions of particular See also:works may be named Reineke Vos, Monumenta Elnonensia and See also:Theophilus. See also:Die deutsche Philologie See also:im Grundriss (1836) was at the time of its publication a valuable contribution to philological See also:research, and historians of German literature still attach importance to his Geschichte See also:des deutschen Kirchenliedes bis auf See also:Luther (1832; 3rd ed., 1861), Unsere volkstiinzlichen Lieder (3rd ed., 1869) and Die deutschen Gesellschaftslieder des z6. and zq. Jahrh. (2nd ed., 186o). In 1868–187o Hoffmann published in 6 vols. an autobiography, Mein Leben: Aufzeichnungen and Erinnerungen (an abbreviated ed. in 2 vols., 1894). His Gesammelte Werke were edited by H. See also:Gerstenberg in 8 vols.

(1891–1894) ; his Ausgewahlte Werke by H. Benzmann (1905, 4 vols.). See also Briefe von Hoffmann von Fallersleben and See also:

Moritz See also:Haupt an See also:Ferdinand See also:Wolf (1874); J. M. See also:Wagner, Hoffmann von Fallersleben, 1818--z868 (1869–187o), and R. von See also:Gottschall, Portents and Studien (vol. v., 1876).

End of Article: HOFFMANN, AUGUST HEINRICH (1798–1874)

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