Joseph Victor von Scheffel

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Joseph von Scheffel; drawing by Anton von Werner

Joseph Victor von Scheffel (16 February 1826 – 9 April 1886) was a German poet and novelist.

Biography

He was born at

Heidelberg and Berlin
.

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

opera by Viktor Nessler in 1884. Scheffel next undertook a journey to Italy
.

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

Lake of Constance, and elaborated the plan of his famous historical romance Ekkehard (1857); (Eng. trans. by Sofie Delffs, Leipzig, 1872). Part of this work was later used by Max Bruch as the libretto for his cantata The Lay of the Norsemen.[1][2]

A memorial to von Scheffel in the Heidelberg Castle Schlossgarten (Hortus Palatinus).

The first ideas for this work he got from the

drinking binge with some references to the Classics. The large invoice is being provided in cuneiform on six brick stones. However the carouser has to admit that he left his money already in Nineves' Lamb inn and gets kicked out. In typical manner of Scheffel, it contains an anachronistic mixture of various times and eras, parodistic notions on current science,[3] as e.g. Historical criticism. There are various additional verses, including political parody and verses mocking different sorts of fraternities or even one just and only one for mathematics.[4]
The song has been used as name for traditional students inns, e.g. in Heidelberg. Scheffel however had some melancholic notions as well, as for the unsuccessful German revolution of 1848 and his personal disappointment in vowing for the love of his live, Emma Heim, 1851 had him disappointed as well. He also used natural science to mock the political environment, as he mocked Hegel with his Guano poem or referred to the course of time in his Ichthyosaurus poem. Indirectly, Scheffel coined the expression Biedermeier for the pre 1848 age, as two of Scheffel poems Biedermanns Abendgemütlichkeit and Bummelmaiers Klage, based on the poetry of teacher and poet Samuel Friedrich Sauter, published 1848, were used in later satires about the reactionary petty bourgeois.

"Tale of Herr Spazzo", a component story in Joseph Victor von Scheffel's Ekkehard. A tale of the tenth century as illustrated by Robert Engels for Jugend Magazine (1902)

For two years (1857–1859) Scheffel was custodian of the library of Prince Egon von

Fürstenberg at Donaueschingen, 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, 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 9 April 1886.

Legacy

Joseph Kyselak was described in Scheffels poem 'Aggstein', illustration about 1860

1891

Badischen Landesbibliothek
.

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.
  • Ekkehard. Translated by Helena Easson, Everyman's Library, 1940.
  • Charles Godfrey Leland, Gaudeamus! Humorous Poems by Joseph Viktor von Scheffel, Ebook-Nr. 35848 on gutenberg.org

Notes

  1. ^ "Normannenzug, Op.32 (Bruch, Max)". imslp.org. Petrucci Music Library. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  2. ^ Bruch, Max. Normannenzug, Gedicht aus "Ekkehard" von J. V. Scheffel für Bariton-Solo, einstimmigen Männerchor und Orchester. Op. 32. Breitkopf & Härtel. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  3. ^ Introduction to German Poetry: A Dual-Language Book, Gustave Mathieu, Guy Stern Courier Dover Publications, 31.05.2012, including as well a translation
  4. ^ History of Mathematics: A Supplement C. Smoryński, Springer Science & Business Media, 2008
  5. ^ "Literarische Gesellschaft/Scheffelbund Karlsruhe". Archived from the original on 2014-03-23. Retrieved 2014-10-04.

References

  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Scheffel, Joseph Viktor von". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. This article in turn cites:
    • A. Ruhemann: Joseph Victor von Scheffel (1887)
    • G. Zernin: Erinnerungen an Joseph Victor von Scheffel (1887)
    • J. Proelß: Scheffels Leben und Dichten (1887)
    • L. von Kobell: Scheffel und seine Frau (1901)
    • E. Boerschel: J. V. von Scheffel und Emma Heim (1906).

Further reading

External links

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