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HOFFMANN, ERNST THEODOR WILHELM (1776...

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 563 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HOFFMANN, See also:ERNST THEODOR WILHELM (1776-1822) , See also:German See also:romance-writer, was See also:born at See also:Konigsberg on the 24th of See also:January 1776. For the name Wilhelm he himself substituted Amadeus in See also:homage to See also:Mozart. His parents lived unhappily together, and when the See also:child was only three they separated. His bringing up was See also:left to an See also:uncle who had neither understanding nor sympathy for his dreamy and wayward temperament. Hoffmann showed more See also:talent for See also:music and See also:drawing than for books. In 1792, when little over sixteen years old, he entered the university of Konigsberg, with a view to preparing himself ' for a legal career. The See also:chief features of See also:interest in his student years were an intimate friendship for Theodor Gottlieb von See also:Hippel (1775–1843), a See also:nephew of the novelist Hippel, and an unhappy See also:passion for a See also:lady to whom he gave music lessons; the latter found its outlet, not merely in music, but also, in two novels, neither of which he was able to have published. In the summer of 1795 he began his See also:practical career as a jurist in Konigsberg, but his See also:mother's See also:death and the complications in which his love-affair threatened to involve him made him decide to leave his native See also:town and continue his legal See also:apprenticeship in See also:Glogau. In the autumn of 1798 he was transferred to See also:Berlin, ansichten See also:des Katers Murr, nebst fragmentarischer Biographie des where the beginnings of the new Romantic See also:movement were in Kapellmeisters Johannes Kreisler (1821-1822). the See also:air. Music, however, had still the first See also:place in his See also:heart, Hoffmann is one of the See also:master novelists of the Romantic and the Berlin See also:opera See also:house was the chief centre of his interests. movement in See also:Germany. He combined with a See also:humour that In 'Soo further promotion brought him to See also:Posen, where he reminds us of See also:Jean See also:Paul the warm sympathy for the artist's gave himself up entirely to the pleasures of the See also:hour.

Unfortun- standpoint towards See also:

life, which was enunciated by See also:early Romantic ately, however, his brilliant See also:powers of See also:caricature brought him leaders like See also:Tieck and Wackenroder; but he was See also:superior to into See also:ill odour, and instead of receiving the hoped-for preferment all in the almost clairvoyant powers of his See also:imagination. His in Posen itself, he found himself virtually banished to the little See also:works abound in See also:grotesque and gruesome scenes—in this respect town of Plozk on the See also:Vistula. Before leaving Posen he married, they See also:mark a descent from the high ideals of the Romantic school; and his domestic happiness alleviated to some extent the but the gruesome was only one outlet for Hoffmann's See also:genius, monotony of the two years' See also:exile. His leisure was spent in and even here the See also:secret of his See also:power See also:lay not in his choice of See also:literary studies and musical See also:composition. In 1804 he was subjects, but in the wonderfully vivid and realistic presentation transferred to See also:Warsaw, where, through J. E. See also:Hitzig (1780-1849), of them. Every See also:line he wrote leaves the impression behind it he was introduced to See also:Zacharias See also:Werner, and began to take that it expresses something See also:felt or experienced; every See also:scene, an interest in the later Romantic literature; now, for the first See also:vision or See also:character he described seems to have been real and See also:time, he discovered how writers like See also:Novalis, Tieck, and especially living to him. It is this See also:realism, in the best sense of the word, Wackenroder, had spoken out of his own heart. But in spite that made him the See also:great artist he was, and gave him so extra-of this literary stimulus, his leisure in Warsaw was mainly See also:ordinary a power over his contemporaries. occupied by composition; he wrote music to See also:Brentano's Lustige The first collected edition of Hoffmann's works appeared in ten Musikanten and Werner's Kreuz an der Ostsee, and also an opera addedefi eAvolum sltinS11839te(including8th)e 3rd edition hiof J. E.

Liebe and Eifersucht, based on See also:

Calderon's See also:drama La See also:Banda Hitzig's Aus Hoffmanns Leben and Nachlass, 1823). Other See also:editions y la See also:Flor. of his works appeared in 1844-1845, 1871-1873, 1879-1883, and, The arrival of the See also:French in Warsaw and the consequent most See also:complete of all, Samtliche Werke, edited by E. Grisebach, in 15 See also:political changes put an end to Hoffmann's congenial life there vols. (1900). There are many editions of selections, as well as cheap and a time of tribulation followed. A position which he obtained reprints of the more popular stories. All Hoffmann's important a works—except See also:Klein Zaches and See also:Kater Murr—have been translated in 1808 as musical director of a new See also:theatre in See also:Bamberg availed into See also:English: The See also:Devil's See also:Elixir (1824), The See also:Golden Pot by See also:Carlyle him little, as within a very See also:short time the theatre was bankrupt (in German Romance, 1827), The See also:Serapion Brethren by A. See also:Ewing and Hoffmann again reduced to destitution. But these mis (1886-1892), &c. In See also:France Hoffmann was even more popular than fortunes induced him to turn to literature in See also:order to eke out in See also:England. Cp. G.

Thurau, Hoffmanns Erzahlungen in Frankreich (1896). An edition of his Euvres completes appeared in 12 vols. in the miserable livelihood he earned by composing and giving See also:

Paris in 183e. The best monograph on Hoffmann is by G. Ellinger, music lessons. The editor of the Allgemeine musikalisclze E. T. A. Hoffmann (1894) ; see also O. Klinke, Hoffmanns Leben and Zeibung expressed his willingness to accept contributions from Werke vom Stand punkte eines Irrenarztes (1903); and the exhaustive Hoffmann, and here bibliography in Goedeke's Grundriss zur Geschichte der deutschen appeared for the first time some of the Dichtung, 2nd ed., vol. viii. pp. 468 if. (1905). (J.

G. R.) musical sketches which ultimately passed over into the Phantasie- HOFFMANN, FRANCCOIS See also:

BENOIT (1760–1828), French sliicke in Callots Manier. This See also:work appeared in four volumes in dramatist and critic, was born at See also:Nancy on the 11th of See also:July 1814 and laid the See also:foundation of his fame as a writer. Meanwhile, 1760. He studied See also:law at the university of See also:Strassburg, but a Hoffmann had again been for some time attached, in the capacity slight hesitation in his speech precluded success at the See also:bar, and of musical director, to a theatrical See also:company, whose headquarters he entered a See also:regiment on service in See also:Corsica. He served, however, were at See also:Dresden. In 1814 he gladly embraced the opportunity for a very short time, and, returning to Nancy, he wrote some that was offered him of resuming his legal profession in Berlin, poems which brought him into See also:notice at the little See also:court of and two years later he was appointed councillor of the Court See also:Luneville over which the marquise de See also:Boufflers then presided. of See also:Appeal (Kammergericht). Hoffmann had the reputation of In 1784 he went to Paris, and two years later produced the opera being an excellent jurist and a conscientious See also:official; he had Phedre. His opera Adrien (1792) was objected to by the govern-leisure for literary pursuits and was on the best of terms with ment on political grounds, and Hoffmann, who refused to the circle of Romantic poets and novelists who gathered See also:round make the changes proposed to him, ran considerable See also:risk under See also:Fouque, See also:Chamisso and his old friend Hitzig. Unfortunately, the revolutionary See also:government. His later operas, which were however, the habits of intemperance which, in earlier years, numerous, were produced at the Opera Comique. In 1807 he had thrown a See also:shadow over his life, See also:grew upon him, and his was invited by See also:Etienne to contribute to the See also:Journal de l'See also:Empire See also:health was speedily undermined by the nights he spent in the (afterwards the Journal des debats).

Hoffmann's wide See also:

reading See also:wine-house, in company unworthy of him. He was struck down qualified him to write on all sorts of subjects, and he turned, by locomotor ataxy, and died on the 24th of July 1822. apparently with no difficulty, from reviewing books on See also:medicine The Phantasiestucke, which had been published with a to violent attacks on the See also:Jesuits. His severe See also:criticism of See also:Chateau-commendatory See also:preface by Jean Paul, were followed in 1816 See also:briand's Martyrs led the author to make some changes in a later by the gruesome novel—to some extent inspired by See also:Lewis's edition. He had the reputation of being an absolutely See also:con-See also:Monk—See also:Die Elixiere des Teufels, and the even more gruesome scientious and incorruptible critic and thus exercised wide . and grotesque stories which make up the Nachtstiicke (1817, See also:influence. Hoffmann died in Paris on the 25th of See also:April 1828. 2 vols.). The full range of Hoffmann's powers is first clearly Among his numerous plays should be mentioned an excellent displayed in the collection of stories (4 vols., 1819–1821) Die one-See also:act See also:comedy, Le See also:Roman d'une heure (1803), and an amusing Serapionsbruder, this being the name of a small See also:club of Hoffmann's one-act opera See also:Les Rendez-See also:vous See also:bourgeois. more intimate literary See also:friends. Die Serapionsbruder includes not See Sainte-Beuve, " M. de Feletz et la critique litteraire sous merely stories in which Hoffmann's love for the mysterious l'Empire " in Causeries du lundi, vol. i. and the supernatural is to be seen, but novels in which he draws HOFFMANN, See also:FRIEDRICH (1660–1742), German physician, on his own early reminiscences (See also:Rat Krespel, Fermate), finely a member of a See also:family that had been connected with medicine outlined pictures of old German life (Der Artushof, Meister for 200 years before him, was born at See also:Halle on the 19th of See also:Martin der Kiifner and See also:seine Gesellen), and vivid and picturesque See also:February 1660. At the gymnasium of his native town he incidents from See also:Italian and French See also:history (See also:Doge and Dogaressa, acquired that See also:taste for and skill in See also:mathematics to which he the See also:story of See also:Marino See also:Faliero, and Das Fr¢ulein von Scuderi). attributed much of his after success. At the See also:age of eighteen The last-mentioned story is usually regarded as Hoffmann's he went to study medicine at See also:Jena, whence in 168o he passed masterpiece.

Two longer works also belong to Hoffmann's to See also:

Erfurt, in order to attend Kasper See also:Cramer's lectures on later years and display to See also:advantage his powers as a humorist; See also:chemistry. Next See also:year, returning to Jena, he received his these are Klein Zaches, genannt Zinnober (1819), and Lebens- See also:doctor's diploma, and, after See also:publishing a thesis, was permitted to See also:teach. See also:Constant study then began to tell on his health, and in 1682, leaving his already numerous pupils, he proceeded to See also:Minden in See also:Westphalia to recruit himself, at the See also:request of a relative who held a high position in that town. After practising at Minden for two years, Hoffmann made a See also:journey to See also:Holland and England, where he formed the acquaintance of many illustrious chemists and physicians. Towards the end of 1684 he returned to Minden, and during the next three years he received many flattering appointments. In 1688 he removed to the more promising See also:sphere of See also:Halberstadt, with the See also:title of physician to the principality of Halberstadt; and on the See also:founding of Halle university in 1693, his reputation, which had been steadily increasing, procured for him the primarius See also:chair of medicine, while at the same time he was charged with the responsible See also:duty of framing the statutes for the new medical See also:faculty. He filled also the chair of natural See also:philosophy. With the exception of four years (1708-1712), which he passed at Berlin in the capacity of royal physician, Hoffmann spent the See also:rest of his life at Halle in instruction, practice and study, interrupted now and again by visits to different courts of Germany, where his services procured him honours and rewards. His fame became See also:European. He was enrolled a member of many learned See also:societies in different See also:foreign countries, while in his own he became privy councillor. He died at Halle on the 12th of See also:November 1742. Of his numerous writings a See also:catalogue is to be found in Hailer's Bibliotheca medicinae practicae.

The chief is Medicina rationalis systematics, undertaken at the age of sixty, and published in 1730. It was translated into French in 1739, under the title of Maclaine raisonnee d'Hoffmann. A complete edition of Hoffmann's works, with a life of the author, was published at See also:

Geneva in 1740, to which supplements were added in 1753 and 176o. Editions appeared also at See also:Venice in 1745 and at See also:Naples in 1753 and 1793.

End of Article: HOFFMANN, ERNST THEODOR WILHELM (1776-1822)

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